This is the first in a (somewhat) weekly recipe review series. Yes, it's been done before by others, but the more we review, the more the community benefits, and so here I am. Let's get to it.

Today's recipe is Chocomint Bacco by u/isuamadog and u/TeslaDelMar. Here's the link: https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/217671

Here's the recipe:

|VT Chocolate Mousse|1.5%| |:-|:-| |FLV Cream|0.5%| |FLV Creme de Menthe|1.75%| |VT Devon Cream|2%| |FLV Red Burley|1.5%| |FLV Sweet & Smokey Tobacco|0.5%| |FLV Tatanka Tobacco|1.1%| |FLV Turkish Tobacco|1.1%| |TPA Vanilla Swirl|1%|

Review Time:

The combination of chocolate and mint is a classic, and I really enjoy this one. I know u/isuamadog is a big lover of FLV Chocolate Deutsch, and I commend him for not using it here. I'd like to think that u/TeslaDelMar fought him valiantly and won. This combo of the VT chocolates is really nice and light, and the FLV Creme de Menthe is the obvious choice to me. It's perfect, and the addition of FLV Cream and TPA Van Swirl make it cohesive and smooth.

Onto the tobaccos, this recipe has some of my favorites. To me, the base here is the FLV Red Burley and Turkish. Turkish has the smooth and slightly sweet and Burley the nuttiness. FLV Sweet & Smokey is my new cool kid on the block. It's got the nice sweet smoke that I love, and it's also rich and smooth. I could probably vape it on its own, but why when you can add it to a mix like this and really get it going. Tatanka I know well, and I don't actually get much of it from this recipe, which I think highlights one aspect of the Sweet & Smokey you should be aware of: it can take over a bit, even at low percentages. I wouldn't say it took over here, but I can't find the Tatanka (not that that's the end of the world). It's a real nice tobacco overall, bold enough to stand up to the mint, but mild-mannered enough to let it play in the sandbox too.

I'm going to take a page from u/isuamadog and finish up with what can we learn from this recipe:

BALANCE. Much like the force, combining profiles requires a delicate hand and knowledge of the profiles and flavors involved. Sure, that might be easy for experienced mixers like these, but for new mixers, I think one of the hardest things to learn is restraint. People pour into the Discord looking to buy 250 different flavors and make all the recipes with all flavors from the get go. Resist that. Start with the basics. You don't get into architecture and build the Sistine Chapel. Start slow, learn the flavors and their strengths and weaknesses and how to counterbalance each one. I'm as guilty as anyone of not SFTing everything, but the ones I use frequently I know like the back of my hand and what to match them with. The better you know the parts, the better the end result will be.