PREVIOUS > Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10

Starting Flavor Count: 2,825 (Down from 2,975 originally)

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

#Chefs Super Concentrates

Picking right back up where I left off because Part 10 was too long for reddit.

Puffed Rice

Unique and accurate. It tastes like Honey Smacks cereal without the honey. Lots of bland body with just that slight puffed rice top note and nothing else to speak off. Not like a rice crispy rice, very much like a honey smacks rice without the honey glaze stuff on those. I don’t know of another flavor that does quite that, and I guess it’s something at least someone wants, so that’s pretty cool. The thing is, that someone is not me. I could go looking for the right way to put the glaze on the Honey Smacks but that is just not a profile that interests me, and without a clue what else to do with it, I’m just gonna toss it. Lots of tossing perfectly good flavors just because they’re redundant or boring to me this round. TRASH 1

Raspberry Jam

It’s jammy. It tastes of raspberry. It’s a little floral, as raspberries tend to be, but not going over into perfumy at half a percent. There are better ones, I prefer SSA Raspberry Syrup, INW Shisha Raspberry, FM Raspberry, Tasty Puff Raspberry Cheesecake, probably others, mostly for being sweeter, more realistic, riper, less floral, etc., but it’s certainly not bad, definitely useable. Don’t need an average raspberry when I’ve got so many above average ones to choose from. TRASH 2

Red Fruits

Definitely tastes very red. Chefs says strawberries, raspberries, and cherries and that’s pretty much what I get, though the cherry is harder to pick out, more just like something else red that isn’t strawberry or raspberry and might be cherry. The raspberry runs a little floral but no more than is average for a raspberry flavor, and strawberry fills it in. A little tartness up front, more of a sweet fruity depth. It’s a little juicy, or at least not dry, which is nice. It isn’t anything special to me, but there’s nothing wrong with it either. I don’t have or want to come up with a use for it, so TRASH 3

Rhubarb

It’s possible 0.5% is too high for this one. It has a floral note. I’ve had other gross, worse off notes in Rhubarb flavors but I think this is the only one that tasted remotely floral. It’s tart, and that floral is tied to the tartness. It’s a floral tartness. It’s also sweet, but I don’t see that as a problem, it tastes kinda cooked down in sugar as Rhubarbs should be, minus that floral on top. I don’t see this getting much traction as long as there are WF Sweet & Sour Rhubarb, VSO Rhubarb, and especially VT Rhubarb Compote out there to make yummy rhubarb things, but it could be fun to play with. But the one having fun playing with it is not going to be me. TRASH 4

RY Castle

Coconut RY4. Unless you just absolutely cannot stand either tobacco or coconut, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. I think it tastes amazing. Could use a little more tobacco but it does have a toasted, nutty tobacco top note along with really sweet, sticky caramel and lots of creamy, not-suntanny coconut. Plenty of flavor at 0.5%, too. Love it. Very disturbed about this being perpetually out of stock, as it is my most favorite flavor out of the whole CSC line up. I hope they bring it back, but if I can’t get more, I’m still not going to throw it away until the bottle I have is empty.

Let’s see what we can do about emptying it then, shall we? Already planning on mixing Sherlock Oats, the only reason CSC Oat isn’t already in the can. What else?

Cookie Filth Castle GET IN MY FACEHOLE!!!! TASK 1

If You Still Like Boss Reserve. Never had boss reserve. Based on the looks of people’s clones/remixes, it probably has way too much acetyl pyrazine for my taste anyway. But this one looks at least good enough to give it a mix. TASK 2

Castle in the RY is a recipe I’d like to make, but I don’t have PUR Super Sweet. HELP Does anyone who has tried several different sweeteners including PUR Super Sweet know which one would be the closest sub? If I don’t get an answer I’ll probably just plug in FW Sweetener, because I have a giant bottle to use and because 0.5% CAP Super Sweet seems like a lot for this sort of recipe. But, I’d also like to get as close to the original recipe as possible. TASK 3

Plus Ultra RY4. That’s a lot of FLV RY4, I know the notes talk about how it is shake and vape-able because of the Sweet and Smokey Tobacco, but I’m just going to go ahead and give that FLV RY4 a couple weeks to develop. TASK 4

Strawberry

Perfectly serviceable fairly natural deeply ripe strawberry with some syrupy sweetness. Not exactly bursting with flavor or as gooey ripe as thawed out strawberries in syrup but it’s above average compared to a bunch of crappy strawberries. Another one that doesn’t have a thing wrong with it, but it just does not spark joy. I need my strawberry flavors to either spark joy or to be used in a recipe I can’t put down. TRASH 5

Tangerine

At 0.5% all I could taste was a bit of vaguely orange-y citrus. These super concentrates are all potent but a lot of them aren’t nearly as super concentrated as I was initially led to believe. I will try it again at 1.5%. TASK 5

Tarte Tartin

At 0.5% it tastes really good, but I don’t think it tastes like it’s supposed to at all. It’s supposed to be cooked, caramelized apples in a flaky pastry crust. There’s definitely a cooked, caramelized fruit element but it doesn’t really taste like apple. And whipped cream. It tastes like nonspecific cooked fruit and whipped cream. I did not find any bakery crust at all.

I’ll try it again at 1.5% TASK 6

I’ll also mix this really interesting Only the Best Damn Apple Cider TASK 7

And Lioness Treats, would you look at that? I’m never going to get rid of that stupid CSC Oat at this rate. TASK 8

Tobacco American Mild

This is weird. It tastes a lot more like tea than tobacco to me. I guess they’re similar since both are leaves and a little earthy, but this is not tobacco. It actually tastes like a pretty good black tea flavor with just a touch of nuttiness, kind of reminds me of Red Tea in that way. I think it’s perfectly pleasant, it’s just that it is not a tobacco, you could definitely make fruit tea recipes with this as the only “tea” flavor. In fact, I think it might be the best black tea flavor I’ve tried, since the others tend to run a little floral. Even though it doesn’t taste like it’s supposed to, I want to keep it just because of how good of a tea it is.

Don’t believe me? Fine, I’ll prove it.

Sweet Peach Tea V1 TASK 9

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- CSC | Peach Apricot | 0.75 FA | White Peach | 0.75 CSC | Tobacco American Mild | 1 TFA | Sweet Tea | 3 TFA | Honeysuckle | 0.5 CAP | Super Sweet | 0.25 BCF | WS-23 (30%) | 0.1

Edit: Thanks Sugarchoc for suggesting different concentrations, I was going to start with 1.25% CSC Peach Apricot and 1% White Peach but instead I'm going to start with both at 0.75%.

I’m using TFA Sweet Tea to try to reinforce that this is a sweet iced tea, since Tobacco American Mild leans a little more hot black tea. Normally TFA Sweet Tea requires a much higher concentration, like three times this much, and even then could still use some backup at times. Accurate but super weak flavor. But with Tobacco American Mild, I don’t think a high concentration will be necessary. I’m just using a touch of it to bend the American Mild a bit. The WS-23 is used very very low because I don’t want it to interfere much with the flavor, but do want it to be just a little more refreshing than it would be without any at all. We’ll see how this plays out.

Tobacco Blend

At 0.5% it’s loaded with those tea notes that seem to be present to some degree in half of their tobaccos. Not straight up tea, but like a mixture of black tea and tobacco. Maybe it comes together as a tobacco at a higher concentration and just tastes like tobacco with a light astringent tea-like bitterness. It does taste like there is room to try a higher concentration. Anway, it’s not gross or unpleasant to me, but I don’t know many people who are out looking for a tea-bacco flavor. TRASH 6

Tobacco Fire Cured

This is another tea-bacco, just a little darker and sweeter than the Tobacco Blend but not significantly different from it. TRASH 7

Tobacco Toasted/Gold/Toasted Gold

Edit: My bottle of this says Tobacco Gold on it, but I've seen it elsewhere called Tobacco Toasted and Tobacco Toasted Gold, not to be confused with Tobacco Toasted Pop.

It is very much toasty, with a little bit of really mild, light tobacco behind this toasty taste. Not great at all as a standalone tobacco, at least not at 0.5%, but it tastes perfect as an ingredient to lend that toasted note to a tobacco. Also has a very slight “tea” leaf type of accent to the tobacco. I don’t need it, my tobaccos are toasty enough, thank you. TRASH 8

Tobacco RY4

I don’t get a full, rich, goopy RY4 out of it at 0.5%. But that might be the concentration. I do get a dry, toasty, nutty, leafy tobacco sweetened with a lot of brown sugary bordering on caramelly sweetness. It might come together at a higher concentration or it might still need some help to be a proper RY4. I will try it again at 1%. TASK 10

Tobacco Toasted Pop

This is what their Toasted Tobacco would taste like mixed with a mild, nutty tobacco. Super toasty, but also lots of tobacco. It’s light at 0.5% but really, really promising for higher concentrations to be yummy, especially if mixed with a more robust tobacco. Already planning to do something with this (see French Vanilla above). Saw a recipe I don’t have all the flavors for Salty Butter Bacca Variations, which contains Tobacco Toasted Pop, but the way that recipe uses WF Salted Caramel and VT Butter Base caught my attention. I also saw Daniel’s Snap, Toast, and Bacco. I don’t know that I want to wait for those Inawera tobaccos to steep or to mix frickin Rice Crunchies with tobacco, but there are elements of that recipe that interest me, too. I’m going to squash parts of them together and add two of my favorite tobaccos. Of course I could be horribly, horribly wrong, and create a nauseating mess, but I really believe the result is going to be nothing short of epic.

Bacco Butta Caramel Custard V1 TASK 11

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- WF | Salted Caramel | 2 CSC | Tobacco Toasted Pop | 1.5 CSC | Toffee Butter | 0.75 VT | Butter Base | 0.5 FLV | Vanilla Custard | 2.5 WF | Vanilla Ruyan Custard | 3 FLV | Native Tobacco | 1 FLV | Red Burley | 0.75

Tobacco Traditional

A very mild, grassy (hay like) tobacco, very light in flavor at 0.5% but tastes just as average as average can be for a tobacco. Just the slightest tinge of that black tea taste. I don’t need it. TRASH 9

Toffee (Butter)

Really freaking good. Tastes like some very nice, buttery toffee. Enough flavor at 0.5% but probably fills out even more at 0.75% to 1% would be my guess. Sweet, sticky, really gets the darker notes of the toffee, almost but not quite overcooked. Perfectly dark caramelized sugar without tasting burnt. Base is a little thinner than I’d like it to be at 0.5% but does have a rich butter taste to it. So far, VT English Toffee seems just a little better, as it’s sweeter, stickier, and richer at 3% than this is at 0.5%. I knew when I tasted this that when I got a chance to play with concentrations of it, I might say this is the best toffee flavor I have ever tried. Well, I’ve got a chance now. I’m going to try this again at both 0.75% and 1.25% to really try to see what it can do. TASK 12

Vanilla (Tahitian)

Really bright, mildly fruity (cherry-ish) vanilla with a chalky candy-type of sweet body. Plenty of flavor at 0.5%, just pretty average for vanilla, similar to FA’s Tahitian Vanilla but even brighter, and less almond/amaretto type note, more just a light cherry tinge to it.

This could probably be used as a sub for FA Vanilla Tahity at half the concentration. It’s close enough. But whether it would be a slight improvement over the recipe or be slightly less good that way, probably would depend on the rest of the recipe. But, I’m happy with the FA and don’t need a sub for it so I’m just gonna TRASH 10 yet another perfectly good flavor. I’m feeling a little more ruthless than usual today.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Did not get a ton of flavor out of it at 0.75% but what I got tastes like a weirdly bright vanilla milk. Very similar to the Crème Anglaise except with even more of that crazy vanilla and more sweetness. Possibly it gets much better at a higher concentration, but there are so many good vanilla ice cream flavors out there, I feel pretty good about going ahead and chucking it TRASH 11

Waffle

Light flavor at 0.5%, tastes like it needs more. Does taste like a waffle but that griddle note is rough. Kinda earthy, like actual dirt. Almost a mushroomy note like FLV Waffle but not quite that bad. Reminds me of Solub Arome Waffle which has a similar dirt/earth edge to that waffle iron note but is otherwise a really good waffle cone. Not saying this tastes unusable, but it might be a little difficult to find the right combination of flavors to tame that dirty waffle iron. I’m not going to be the one to try to find that right combination of flavors TRASH 12

Yuzu

Really great citrus mix type of flavor. Better than FA Citrus Mix and WF Citrus Drink. But kind of an unfair comparison because this Yuzu is lemon-forward, Citrus Mix is grapefruit forward, and Citrus Drink is orange forward. CSC Yuzu tastes mostly lemony to me, but there is a slight grapefruity accent there, along with a touch of orange. Like a sweet Meyer lemon with the touch of orange that has, plus some grapefruit. It’s a really delightful citrus flavor, really bright, refreshing, and full of flavor, but only just a bit of grapefruit tart/bitterness lurking in it and playing real nice against that sweetness.

So you guys know I’m way behind on these tasks, right? It’s a lot easier to find the time to say you’re gonna mix and try things than to actually do it.

As it happens, Le Crossiant Mytrielle and Citron from way back in part 3 is the very next thing on my to-mix list, hopefully I'll get to it tonight. That’s coming up now because it uses CSC Yuzu. So I don’t know whether I’m going to want to have Yuzu around to make more of that yet. Didn’t see anything else I wasn’t either missing flavors for or felt pretty sure I wouldn’t like. Fine. I’ll do my own Yuzu recipe then.

Yuzu Custard V1 TASK 13

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- CSC| Yuzu| 0.75 CSC | Lemon Custard | 2 FA | Custard Premium | 1

In fact, why not make it two?

Yuzu Tropical V1 TASK 14

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- CSC| Yuzu| 0.75 TFA | Coconut Candy | 1.5 FLV | Mango | 1

Or three, for that matter.

Arnold Plumber V1 TASK 15

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- CSC | Yuzu | 0.75 CSC | Tobacco American Mild | 1.25 CSC | Plum | 0.5 CAP | Super Sweet| 0.25

That's it for now, hopefully Part 12 will start with some updates after I try some things I've mixed and steeped already, then move on to the small collection of Chemnovatic flavors I have and maybe Club der Dampfer flavors as well.

New Flavor Count: 2813