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Starting flavor count: 2,721 (down from 2,975 originally)

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

Just a quick one this week, Thanksgiving and major family drama kept me from making too much headway since part 16.

#Euro Flavor

Tobacco Vanilla Custard

Oops, left this one off last week. I’m not keeping it anyway. It is neither tobacco nor custard. Some of that dirty tobacco-ish thing like some RY4s have, but without the caramel. Some dark syrupy sweetness underneath, but not caramel.. Very sweet and forward vanilla with a light creamy undertone, but no custard notes. I got a bit of a bit of plasticky fruity chemical off-note trying this at 6%, that might have been overflavoring. But still basically just dirty vanilla. This is TRASH 1 compared to competition like WF Vanilla Ruyan Custard and INW Vanilla For Pipe.

#Flavor West

Anise

Tastes like a ton of anise, in a limeade. I don’t know why quite a few anise flavors have a bit of citrus in them but this is not just a little off note, there’s a clear backdrop of sweetened lime behind or beneath that anise spice. I prefer my limeades unspiced. TRASH 2

Ankara Tobacco

Jesus Christ, vaping through a couple ml of this was like knowing I was inside a nightmare and being unable to wake up. It doesn’t even taste like tobacco. It tastes like candy based on the flavor of rotting rose petals with slimy mold growing on them. It made me gag a little. If I were from Ankara, I’d be someone-drew-a-picture-of-Mohammad-level pissed to have this named after my city. TRASH 3 Obviously.

Apple J Cereal

Abominable. Not apple jacks. Maybe cardboard sprayed with a perfume loosely based on apple jacks. No real cereal taste, just brown cardboard and a weird perfumy apple with a dry powdery texture and a strong and slightly clovey cinnamon finish. TRASH 4

Apricot

Someone on ELR recommended this be used at 0.5% and while that seems awfully low for most Flavor West flavors, it tastes like a good idea. There’s a faint perfumy off note here that tastes like overflavoring, actually, at 0.5%. A little lower might be better. So I guess FW Apricot is like TFA Caramel Cappuccino, just ridiculously potent for no obvious reason.

It tastes quite a bit like apricot, but it’s also a little odd. There’s like a tart floralish quality upfront - that’s where it’s running just a tiny bit perfumy for me. The midsection tastes more like yellow peach to me than apricot, but there’s also a bit of green vegetable taste that seems more intentional than the perfumy floral top note. Really more under ripe peach there. But it’s a full spectrum of flavor and that base depth is much more apricotty, or like a mild but full sweeter, riper peach with maybe a touch of honey. I’m not saying it’s unusable, but there isn’t anything i want to make out of it, so... TRASH 5

Banana

Tastes like runts, sweetness level on par with runts, feels like runts - kinda powdery? A little thin - not very creamy - even a very slight acidity like in the candy. People complain about the Runty flavor of banana concentrates so it probably sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not. The banana ones are my second favorite Runt flavor (pink strawberry runts FTW). It might work as a sub for WF or FA candy banana flavors.

Maybe mango and coconut takes some of the candy-ness away? I’ll give this a shot: Moconana. TASK 1

Banana Nut Bread

I’m mostly just mad at it for having sugar syrup. This concentrate smells just like banana nut bread. Lick some of my mixed sample off the back of my hand, it tastes like banana nut bread, perfectly. Extremely realistic cooked banana, sweet bread, wonderful hints of spices - especially cinnamon - and nuts. Unfortunately, it contains sugar syrup, is black as satan’s asshole, and doesn’t vape right. The banana doesn’t come through very well, it mostly just tastes like spiced bread, and there’s an extremely dark sweetness to it like the spiced bread is soaked in molasses. And it only took a few mls to start crusting up my wicks. The flavor is not worth vaping sugar syrup, it’s not another FW Yellow Cake. I’ll find some kind of use for it in the kitchen instead of my vapes, maybe add it to frosting for a banana cupcake or something like that, IDK. Banana Nut Bread coffee, anyone? Yeah, I was just about to make some coffee, let’s see what Banana Nut Bread coffee tastes like. But it’s not going back in with my keeper flavors even if it does get to live on in my kitchen, so that counts as TRASH 6

Banana Split

Banana Split is such a complex profile and there are so many ways that could go wrong, that I didn’t have high hopes for this one. As such, I wasn’t really all that let down. In fact, the worst thing about this flavor is that it has sugar syrup in it, so it probably isn’t good for you and definitely isn’t good for your wicks and wires. It mostly tastes like sweet vanilla heavy whipped cream. Not really heavy and rich enough for ice cream, but fairly thick and very smooth. Maybe dollar store child’s birthday party ice cream, the overly airy cheap stuff in the little plastic cups. I get banana on top, chocolate or other dark sweetness, and something else fruity and a little tart but hard to decipher, in that order. The banana tastes artificial, candy-like, and taken all together, the whole thing tastes like a banana split-flavored gourmet lollipop. If I didn’t mind the sugar syrup, that’s what I’d do with this, grab a light touch of FW Hard Candy and lean into the banana split lollipop thing. I do mind the syrup and don’t plan on keeping it, however. TRASH 7

Bavarian Cream

Probably the most accurate Bavarian cream in terms of being both custardy and fluffed up with whipped cream. Or at least the most accurate to what I have in mind for what Bavarian Cream is supposed to taste like. A sweet whipped dairy cream flavor mixed with a brighter vanilla and some rich buttery custard notes. Medium thick. Very smooth. Definitely need to keep this one 4% or below, 5% to me starts to get a little chemically. Not offensively so, but it takes on a fairly blatant artificiality up that high that doesn’t work for it, at least as a single flavor. I’ve used it in a recipe but only because I needed to, in order to comply with contest parameters. It’s a good flavor, but I can’t think of a recipe I need it for. So, I’ll try a few and see.

Fruit-Tart Cookie Krunch. Can’t imagine that not tasting good. TASK 2

Boysenberry Cheesecake. That’s a lot of TFA Cheesecake Graham Crust to potentially give it a coconut off-note, but I wouldn’t mind that terribly, so I’ll give it a try. TASK 3

Buttah. Some concern about the amount of TFA Dulce De Leche in this one, but it looks worth a try, anyway. TASK 4

Beetle Juice

It’s mostly juicy candy raspberry, but also something else, some kind of citrus, and possibly pineapple? There’s a pineapple-ish note that peeks out along with the raspberry upfront, and there's a thicker indistinct fruit base. Some call out mango and strawberry but I’m not getting either of those clearly. It’s very sweet. Bit top heavy on the flavor intensity but plenty of mouthfeel in that base, kind of a sherbet texture.

Never had Tahitian Treat soda, but this recipe looks pretty neat. TASK 5

And this looks like a tasty tropical mess: Tropic Thunder. TASK 6

I also want to try something simple, this is supposed to be mix of red, white, and blue gummy bears.

Murica Bears V1 TASK 7

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- FW | Beetle Juice | 3.5 CAP | 27 Bears | 5 WF | Strawberry Gummy Candy | 2 FLV | Blue Raz | 2.5

I have no idea if that will work at all - only one way to find out!

I'll jump right back into Flavor West flavors that start with the letter "B" (there are a bunch of them!) this week.

New flavor count: 2,714