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Starting Flavor Count: 2,869 (Down from 2,975 originally)

TASK OR TRASH - Each flavor gets assigned at least one task or it goes in the trash.

#Capella

Bavarian Cream

Update. This Bavarian Banana Nut Bread is an absolutely wonderful recipe and I expect to love down to the last drop. I tried it to see if I should hang on to CAP Bavarian Cream - an odd take on Bav Cream that is very sweet and creamy but weirdly hazelnutty to the point that it pretty much tastes like drinking hazelnut coffee creamer. But CAP Bavarian Cream that is going in the TRASH 1

If the recipe is so great, then why not keep it so as to be able to make more? Well, that’s because I don’t have any reason to believe it would be at all difficult to make a similar recipe that’s just as good, if not better, without it. Mostly because TFA Banana Nut Bread is such a solid framework to build around.

Look at that recipe. 7% TFA Banana Nut Bread, that’s a great start. A weaker flavor so you need quite a bit of it, but it’s not expensive. Almost good enough to vape standalone at 7-plus percent.

1% TFA Banana Cream. It’s a good idea to add a backup banana to enhance what Banana Nut Bread is already offering, and at 1% TFA Banana Cream does just fine. Not remotely Runty or otherwise weird. There are other, possibly better, options, but it works.

4% CAP Sugar Cookie. I don’t know about yours, but my banana bread is really closer to cake than bread, and adding CAP Sugar Cookie to TFA Banana Nut Bread brings it in line with that. It also brings back some of the bakery body in Banana Nut Bread that can get a little lost in the other ingredients. I don’t know that I even want to vape TFA Banana Nut Bread without at least a little CAP Sugar Cookie in there. It perfects it.

1% CAP Vanilla Custard. The Banana Nut Bread really needs something rich and buttery, and that is enough CAP Vanilla Custard to get the job done. I might like something a little more buttery, but this is a proven combo. Hard to go wrong with TFA Banana Nut Bread, CAP Sugar Cookie, and a little CAP Vanilla Custard, in fact that’s all you need to make a really good Banana Nut Bread. Not as good as the Bavarian Banana Nut Bread, but really good.

Finally, 1% CAP Bavarian Cream. I like this choice because it enhances the sweetness, creates (along with the Vanilla Custard and Banana Cream) a creamy layer, and enhances the nuttiness. All of those things are good ideas for TFA Banana Nut Bread. But there are so many other sweet and creamy nut flavors, not to mention the option of using separate nut and cream flavors. Imagine a Butter Pecan flavor added to Banana Nut Bread, wouldn’t that be good (for example)? Bottom line, while I definitely enjoy what CAP Bavarian Cream does to banana nut bread, it’s not the only way to do it.

Biscuit

Update. I mixed Picheimon Coconut Cobbler to see if it gave me a reason to hang on to CAP Biscuit, because it was the only recipe that caught my eye and acknowledged just how stinkin coconutty that flavor is. It was yummy, but very heavy on the crust when I really wanted more gooey fruit inside of the cobbler. But on the upside, it wasn’t harsh, which is a very real risk when messing with FLV Persimmon. Anyway, CAP Biscuit is going in the TRASH 2

#CBV Aromen

This is a German flavor company, I have four of their flavors, all sent to me by one of my German friends. I think CBV is just some dude’s initials, unfortunately not ChemicalBurnVictim (I would definitely buy ChemicalBurnVictim flavors if they existed).

C4 Blend Sweet Dark Honey

Also supposed to be a tobacco flavor, but isn’t, not really. It’s licorice honey. Described as “A very fine tobacco note which is dominated by a delicious honey aroma note.” Tastes similar to TFA Black Honey, but less dirty. It’s mostly honey, and it’s good honey, not like a lot of that cat piss crap or overly floral stuff that’s called honey. But the “Dark” part of “Sweet Dark Honey” is apparently black fucking licorice. It’s very sweet so it’s not even like an anise spice note, it’s very much black licorice candy, covered in honey. I guess there’s some tobacco behind all that, but it’s very light. TRASH 3 because if I want honey and licorice I’ll mix honey and licorice.

Kasekuchen

Sharp but not too sharp tang on a sweet and butter-rich cheesecake, but it tastes like they were going for a cookie or biscuit rather than graham crust and landed on something more like popcorn. Seriously, tastes like a very authentic cheesecake on a popcorn-based crust, and even has a lingering popcorny room note. Hint of vanilla lurking in the mid-range here. That popcorny crust note and accompanying aftertaste is a pretty odd standalone, but tastes like it could be covered up easily enough with the addition of another bakery. I think they’re getting some of that tang from butyric acid so people who are extra sensitive to that might want to steer clear, but it’s not coming across strong enough to be pukey to me, so I could definitely see building a cheesecake out of this, especially a vanilla cheesecake since it already has some in there. Add a better flavor for crust and some vanilla, good to go. Fruit or just about any other topping might work just as well. I don’t think it would be of much use outside of an explicitly cheesecake vape, really too accurate for that aside from the popcorn. TRASH 4 because I don’t need to go all the way to Germany to get a pretty decent but slightly weird cheesecake flavor, mom says we already have pretty decent but slightly weird cheesecake flavors at home.

Schokoladen

Good dark chocolate, very full and thick, almost a chocolate cake if it just had a touch more realistic bakery, reminds me of FLV Chocolate Deutsche but without the coconut. And instead of the richer cakey feel it’s a bit powdery, but seems like it would go perfectly in a chocolate cake recipe. It is a little dry by itself, and has a slight bitter edge to it, but nothing that should be much of a problem in a mix. I tried this at 4% after it had steeped for about 6 days. Can’t find a single recipe using this, not going to try to make one mostly because what if it’s awesome and I get hooked on it and have to order more from Germany. Or worse, I keep trying and never succeed but have to order more to keep trying. A flavor from a not-well-known flavor house that I have to pay international shipping to buy would have to be pretty spectacular to risk dealing with all that. I have other chocolates and it’s just easier to put it in the TRASH 5 and forget about it.

Waffelteig

Looks like I never got around to trying this one. Maybe it is pretty spectacular? I still haven’t found a waffle quite like the long-ago-discontinued INW Waffle. (Pour out a little for tha homie, Dutchie). I will mix samples at 2 and 4%. TASK 1

#Chef’s Choice

I believe these are Chef’s-rebranded Cupcake World flavors. I only have a few of them.

Clotted Cream Fudge

Haven’t tried this yet. I’ll mix a sample at 3.5%. TASK 2

Also, I’m pretty sure I ordered this in order to try a specific recipe that uses it, but memory fails me so I guess while I’ve got it out I’ll try any of them that look good to me.

Fudge No sense hoarding Holy Vanilla forever, might as well use it up. TASK 3

Blue Crane I don’t really need another blueberry cream in my life, but the Lime in this one sucks me in. TASK 4

Devonshire Custard Better be good after I wait almost a month for it to steep. TASK 5

Marvelous Maple Fudge What an interesting use of WF Cotton Candy Jelly Bean. TASK 6

Nice Creamy Fudge TASK 7

Coconut

I’ve only ever sampled this once, at 4%. It was very sweet. The coconut was aggressively artificial, maybe even a little on the suntan oil side at 4%. I also got slight notes of butter and vanilla. Was very thick and smooth and seemed like it might be useful in lower amounts.
This SNOWBALL suggests that 4% was too high for this flavor, and looks great. Also looks like white chocolate research for something else I might want to make. TASK 8

Devon Cream

Well, it’s in 3/5 of the recipes I want to mix that use Clotted Cream so I can’t be tossing it just yet.

Don’t think I’d be in a rush to that anyway. It’s like sour cream mixed with butter and bit of vanilla. Super thick and heavily buttery dairy cream with vanilla and a dark but not quite caramelly sweetness. Almost too rich. Not eggy like a custard. All volume all the time. The dairy is strong and little sour, like a sour cream sourness. Not overwhelmingly sweet but does have a darker sweetness to it. I might start using this with bakeries. I think the amount of butter here might get a little weird with fruits in classic fruit and cream mixes but not with bakeries. Butter flavor and butter smoothness. I’m failing to make it sound as good as it is. It’s great stuff.

I need it to make Esdeath, which is one of my favorite blueberry recipes ever. It tastes like a toaster strudel! I want more! TASK 9

I’ll also try some new things with it (in addition to the ones listed under Clotted Cream Fudge).

Caramel Cream Pastry TASK 10

Berried Custard TASK 11

Vanilla Creme Deluxe TASK 12

Cream Rules Everything Around Me TASK 13

Creamy Cheesecake TASK 14

Lemon Sherbet

Pretty nasty. It mostly tastes like lemon-flavored powdered sugar, which is not far off from what it should be, but it is not “fizzy” at all and it has a bit of that pledgy off-note that plagues lemons and a weird, yucky, greasy aftertaste that lingered so bad I had to change my coil, not just rewick, afterward. Like powdered lemon candy with some pledge and old fryer grease added to it. I didn’t find it enjoyable at all as a single flavor, but it does seem like it might have a some use in a fruity cereal recipe or something, where the furniture polish off note is actually fairly accurate if it could be tamed down a little and the fryer grease could maybe be covered up. I’m not sure though, CC Lemon Sherbet is just not a great flavor, really, best bet is probably to just avoid it. TRASH 6

Rhubarb

There’s an identifiable rhubarb flavor here, but it’s overly sweet and missing almost all of the tartness I’m looking for in a rhubarb. It has just a little of the vegetal and earthy elements, with a very slight astringent edge, but the majority of it tastes like bland flavorless hard candy with a bit of cotton candy. Finishes dry and just a little tart-ish. I could see it working in a recipe for a hint of rhubarb that uses some other thing for added tart or sour edge, but not so much by itself. Seems like a little bit of FLV Sour Apple could turn it into a pretty good rhubarb-flavored candy, which is apparently a real thing. But I won’t be the one to find out whether that works, because I just don’t really care all that much about vaping rhubarb candy. TRASH 7

Rhubarb & Custard

If Chef’s Choice Rhubarb is rhubarb flavored candy, this is Rhubarb & Custard flavored candy. Which is apparently a very real thing in the UK. For all I know, this is a perfectly authentic copy of that candy, but it seems like it will have limited use for anything except that. It’s pretty much a one-shot. It’s very sweet. The vegetal, earthy, and very slight astringent edge of the CC Rhubarb is toned down quite a bit and the tart finish actually comes in a little more, though it’s mingled with a custardy finish that tastes like the cream part of a Chupa Chups strawberry & cream sucker. It’s hard to explain how the custard tastes more like custard-flavored candy than actual custard, but it does. It might be the effect that CC Rhubarb would have on any custard. Anyway, it’s not bad, but again, I’m not over here wondering how I would survive without a rhubarb-and-custard-flavored candy vape. TRASH 8

Salted Caramel

Not actually salted, something about about it tastes a little strange, kind of chemical, like an attempt was made, but not actually salty. It did make me thirsty like something salted would, if that counts. Sticky sweet and tastes like a lighter caramel, but a little on the thin and dry side. No butteriness. I wouldn’t be adverse to using it to add a caramel top note to something that could use that, as that chemical edge that it leads with isn’t very strong.

Probably gonna toss it but I’ll try this Barista Brew first. TASK 15

Strawberry Jam

5% Jammy strawberry but also a little waxy. Full but somewhat dull flavor. Might be really ok for filling out the jammy base of a strawberry jam built with a stronger, ripe natural strawberry, but not very flavorful for a standalone strawberry. Tried it at 7% to see if it would become more flavorful but it just gets waxier without getting more strawberry oomph. In a world where One-on-One Strawberry Jam exists, I don’t really see myself finding much use for this. TRASH 9

Vanilla Fudge

Another one I’m pretty sure I purchased specifically to mix a recipe that looked good or was recommended to me or both. Hell if I know which recipe that was. Maybe the Marvelous Maple Fudge or Nice Creamy Fudge already listed above under Clotted Cream Fudge.

Anyway since I have not tried it, I’ll mix a sample at 4%. TASK 16

And while I’ve got it out, add Queen Anne to the TASK 17 list

And Vanilla Fudge Filled Snickerdoodle too. Why not? TASK 18

#Chefs Flavours

These are some one-shots I’ve picked up from Chefs or were sent to me by a friend who bought them from Chefs

Dream Cream

Mixed this up and was blown away. It’s supposed to be a creamy authentic apricot and that’s exactly what it is, I mean exactly. It tastes like the inside of granny’s apricot fried pie, with the fried pie crust tossed and replaced with a bit of cream that’s blended into the apricot fried pie filling. This is magnificent. TamVapes made it, kudos and thank you to her. I think the recipe for it might be on ATF under a different recipe name, Apricot Cream.

I’m going to mix a big ass bottle. But this time when I vape it, I’m going to think about how it might work as an ingredient. Maybe put Granny’s missing fried pie crust back on it, or do a dump cake-type situation. Or add more cream and make it a full-on apricot ice cream. That would probably be the easiest. But I’m leaning toward dump cake. TASK 19

Friday

I don’t recall whether I’ve even ever tried this, but they don’t sell it anymore and I don’t want to. TRASH 10

Ginger Rogers

I don’t think I’ve tried this one yet, but they do still sell it, so I will. TASK 20

Jam on Toast

It’s clearly strawberry jam on toast but the jam tastes like it was made at least in part out of underripe strawberries, kinda green. I didn’t get a distinct butter note from it, but there’s definitely an added richness. The sweetness was encompassing like both a strawberry with lots of ethyl maltol in it upfront and as well as some added sucralose sweetener. The toast was fairly prominent, and had some dry toast body to it. I just don’t really want to vape toast that badly. Why would you vape butter and jam on boring old toast when you could vape it on cake, cookies, pies? TRASH 11

Jam Roly Poly

That’s jammy, but also weird and maybe even a little gross. It tastes like grape and strawberry mixed together but musty and even a bit fermented. Like Jam made of bad fruit. Could be over flavoring as 15% is a lot, but they recommended 10 to 20%. Could also be because it needed to steep longer, there were two reviews on Chef’s at the time and one recommended steeping for 2 to 3 weeks and not the six days I gave it. So I might not have given this flavor a fair shake, but when when I tried it, it was just a bit yucky. I don’t care enough about this flavor to try again. TRASH 12

Jam Roly Poly & Custard

I have to admit, I don’t know what a jam roly poly is. I’m picturing something like a Swiss Roll filled with jam, with custard poured on it. That’s what it tasted like, kind of, but it was a bit muddled as well. I got something distinctly jammy, but I couldn’t even tell what kind of fruit jam it’s supposed to be. Strawberry, grape, both? There’s a definite yummy yellow cakelike flavor underneath it, and it feels wet like it’s soaked in something that could be custard. There’s some vanilla and it’s very rich and thick, and a little buttery, but that could be part of a cake as well if it were a little drier and had some more definition. Not really any separation between cake and what I assume is supposed to be like a pourable custard. This one has a serious sucralose issue at 20% and I wonder if the other flavors would still work if it were brought down lower. The ratio would be the same obviously so the flavors might be too soft, but at least it wouldn’t have that strong Splenda packet finish. I might always continue to wonder about that because again, I’m feeling pretty apathetic today and just don’t care enough to try it again. TRASH 13

Lemon Meringue Pie

This is from the Epic Shots line. Apparently they do not have this anymore, or at least I couldn’t find it. What a shame, because it’s almost perfect. I’d love for the lemon to be just a tiny hair more lemony tart, maybe add a teensy bit of FE Lemon to it, or VT Sour Lemon, but wow. I got all the things without anything off. Lovely meringue on top, a rich lemon curd, and a distinct but not too prominent, well done but not burnt, basic bakery crust, and again, other than maybe a little stronger lemon, just an excellent Lemon Meringue Pie. Full flavored and deep.

13% is what I mixed it at, as recommended. It’s bound for the trash or at least not being replaced when it runs out (how could I replace it? Does anyone have the recipe?) but at the moment an LMP vape sounds pretty nice so rather than waste it all, I’m going to mix it at 12% plus 1% FE/SC Lemon. TASK 21

Nice Custard Cream

Custard Cream isn’t a custard. It’s a cookie in the UK. Or they probably call it a biscuit. It’s a cookie sandwich, and I don’t know what the filling is but maybe it’s custard-flavored because that would explain the name. Why doesn’t Oreo make a custard-flavored creme filling? They make every other kind of flavored creme filling these days.

It mostly tastes like a dry-yet-buttery cookie, dipped in some kind of sweet vanilla cream. I don’t like the 20% recommendation that came with this. It tastes like there’s way too much INW Biscuit in there - too dry, too sharp, and having a bit of that coconutty off-note you get with too much INW Biscuit. I’m sure it’s fine used at a lower concentration, but 20% is too much. The vanilla cream has a bright, forward vanilla, but I’m not getting that custard eggyness flavor, just some creamy dairy base. I think I planned to try this again someday at 10 or 15%, but you caught me on a fuckit day so Nice Custard Cream is going to get chucked into the fuckit bucket, which looks pretty identical to the TRASH 14

Queen of Puddings

Chefs described it as “A traditional British Dessert consisting of a baked, breadcrumb-thickened mixture, spread with blackcurrant jam and topped with meringue.” As far as I can tell, there’s nothing actually wrong with it at all, it’s just a subjective thing I have with blackcurrant, or at least vaping blackcurrant. I like blackcurrant plenty, when mixed with other fruits and stuff, even creams, even black fucking licorice for christssakes. I just don’t care for it too much with bakery things, there’s something about the way it tastes with baked goods like this bready british pudding base that rubs me the wrong way. I don’t think I’d care much for the actual dessert, is what I’m saying. On the other hand, the one-shot actually gives all the things it promises and again, as best I can tell, has absolutely nothing wrong with it. There’s a wonderful meringue topping that it leads with that also comes back around again in the finish, a sharp but sweet and jammy blackcurrant, and a cakey-type pudding base. Chefs Flavours recommended 20 to 30% with Queen of Puddings. I mixed it at 20% and can’t imagine needing to go any higher, there’s plenty of flavor there. And even though I find the profile a bit off-putting, the more I vaped on it, the more it grew on me a little. So if the profile appeals to you, you might want to pick it up, assuming they still have it, I didn’t bother looking because it just ain’t my thang. TRASH 15

Raspberry Jam & Cream Scone

Not bad tasting. Very, very raspberry forward, with just a tiny bit of nondescript bakery and a light but buttery non-vanilla cream behind it. Unfortunately the raspberry is more candy-tasting than raspberry jam. It has some somewhat jammy sweetness, but not like a jam made with actual raspberries. It’s more like candy raspberry and with that stuff behind it, it’s a little odd.

I could work with Chef’s Raspberry Jam & Scone Cream, but it doesn't seem to be anything special. Possibly the bakery and cream comes out more if it has lasted longer to steep than the few days I gave it, and that maybe that makes the raspberry taste less candied. But I’m not sure. And I’m never going to be sure, as the TRASH 16 can keeps her secrets.

Spotted Dick & Custard

The first time I tried this, at the 20% recommended by Chefs, it was overwhelmingly musty raisin, plus a little vanilla custard. That prompted me to give it another try at 5%, specifically because I wanted to evaluate it for possible use as a raisin flavor to add to bakeries and stuff. But at 5% it’s mostly delicious, rich vanilla custard, with just the slightest “dark dried fruit” kind of note that makes it really interesting. Not at all what I expected. It was enjoyable down that low, but so much for my idea of it working as a raisin, there’s barely even any raisin there.. Makes me think there’s probably some concentration between 6 and 19% where this will taste to me exactly like it’s supposed to, a kind of bread pudding type of thing filled with raisins, with vanilla custard poured over it. It’s just a matter of finding it. Part of me wants to let that remain a mystery as well, but this isn’t like an unopened bottle of something they don’t even sell anymore. This is still available and I’m already a little invested in it, partially due to being so wrong when guessing what 5% of it was going to taste like. This time I’ll mix two bottles, one at 10% and one at 15%. TASK 22

Strawberry Vapetto

Someone sent this to me, I think. It doesn’t seem like something I’d go out and buy on my own. Haven’t gotten around to trying it yet, but I’ll give it a shot. Chefs recommends 20 to 30%. I think I’ll start at the very low end of that. TASK 23

Thursday

Described as “peach and raspberry soda.” Tastes like peach rings candy with a touch of indistinct red berry, a touch of cooling, and a bunch of sweetener. Not really getting anything to make it taste soda-y or anything very clearly raspberry. But not a bad lightly cooled peach ring candy though, if you like things very sweet. Not really a fan. TRASH 17

Just Jam Strawberry Toast

That’s a big Nope, though it might just be that the recommended 20% amount is too high. It’s a powerful jammy strawberry. Very much strawberry jam, with a bit of bread or toast under it and a richness without a distinct butter taste. But there’s some weird off note in there, like the bread was moldy before it was toasted. Similar to the fungal off notes I get from FLV Waffle, Tricks Cereal, and Crunch Cereal. Just a smidge, right under the brightest top notes of the jam. It’s faint enough to not be completely disgusting and maybe I could find a use for this as a strawberry jam ingredient at a much lower percentage and not have this be a waste of money, but I don’t know why I’d do that while OoO Strawberry Jam especially, as well as various other strawberries, exist. Also, there’s a whole boatload of sucralose sweetener in this Just Jam, almost to the point that it’s worse than the fungus. Waste of money? That’s what this is all about. That’s why I flair Getting Rid of Most of My Flavors with “FAIL.” This is TRASH 18

Vanilla Milkshake

I feel bad someone sent this to me as a gift and I never got around to trying it, but it’s dangerous to try it now, it’s apparently no longer for sale, what if I loved it but could never get more? Can’t take that risk. TRASH 19

Wednesday

Another one that I haven’t tried and feel like it’s too late to try now. TRASH 20

Welsh Custard

A proper vanilla custard. Extremely rich, very sweet, creamy, thick, full, eggy, buttery, deep. Maybe cloyingly rich and sweet to some people. Lots of vanilla, both some spicy vanilla bean and some dark French vanilla. However, that vanilla tastes little peppery to me, like it has TFA Vanilla Custard or Vanilla Bean Ice Cream in there, and I imagine it tastes very peppery to people who are super sensitive to that. Has some sticky sweet caramel to it and tastes very much like Flan apart from that pepperyness. Non-pepper tasters who love vanilla custard should definitely check this out. Unfortunately, that little bit of pepper taste ruins it for me. TRASH 21

Much better balance of tasks and trashes this time.

Stay tuned for part 10, I’ll start in on the Chefs Super Concentrates

New Flavor Count: 2,848