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Starting flavor count: 2,669 (down from 2,973)

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

#Flavor West

Desert Llama Tobacco

Oops, skipped over this one last time. I was seriously afraid this was going to taste like an actual llama. Turns out it’s not actually that bad, but it is pretty deeply weird. There’s a fairly prominent creamy-ish fruity vanilla, a bunch of dry earthy dirty something that is obviously supposed to be tobacco but really isn’t, and an accent of some strange light not quite mintiness to it, not cold though, something like a mix of watered down peppermint tea, bell pepper juice, and celery juice, but not exactly like any of those things. Something weird and green, anyway, accenting that dirty, dirty vanilla in the FW Desert Llama. TRASH 1

Happy Hour

It is supposed to be a combination of delicious strawberry margarita and pina colada. It is not. There’s no tequila or rum here. There’s something up front that’s kind of a strange citrusy fruit, but not clearly pineapple or lime, followed by a dull candy strawberry and an average coconut candy flavor. There’s nothing gross or terribly wrong about it, but it’s not what it’s supposed to be or anything to write home about. TRASH 2

Hard Candy

On one hand, if I’m not real, real careful, it tastes like hairspray. Sweet, sticky hairspray. On the other, if I am real, real careful with it, it does what it’s supposed to do. A little of it goes a long way and tastes a lot like a jolly rancher or lollipop in that sort of glossy hard candy way, but unflavored or vaguely hairspray-ish flavored. I have tried a recipe, Apri-Props, that managed to use 3% of it without getting gnarly, somehow, but I’m really nervous about using more than around 1.5% of it.

I only used 0.13% in my Blue Razz Ring Pop and that was enough. That recipe sounds good, I’ll make some more. TASK 1

But it has only one review, which is mostly suggestions to try to make it better. I’m open to suggestions. I’m going to try implementing those and comparing. The original recipe is just 6.5% WF Sour Blue Razz Candy, 1.25% LA Pina Colada, 0.75% VT Boysenberry, and 0.13% FW Hard Candy. Here’s the revision:

Blue Razz Ring Pop Revisited V1 TASK 2

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- LB | Blue Raspberry | 6.5 LA | Pina Colada | 1.25 VT | Boysenberry | 0.75 FLV | Blue Raspberry | 0.75 CAP | Super Sweet | 0.5 FW | Hard Candy| 0.25

Some more FW Hard Candy recipes that have successfully tempted me:

Blue Raspberry Dum Dum. TASK 3

Cherry Bomb TASK 4

Hawaiian Island Punch Type

About 75% nearly perfect (but not quite sweet or punchy enough) Hawaiian Punch, 25% new vinyl shower curtain liner. TRASH 3

Hawaiian Limeade

Just tastes like FW Hawaiian Island Punch Type with added lime, no less shower curtain liner. TRASH 4

Hazelnut

It would be hard to say goodbye to a couple of the butterscotches, but I think I might give up the entire rest of my Flavor West collection just to keep this one flavor.

In addition to a bunch off the recipes on my to-mix list, I need it for:

Vanilla Almond Milk, a soothing recipe that’s like vaping zen when I’m stressed out. TASK 5

And Hazelnut Swirl, which is excellent in the morning. TASK 6

And one of my own recipes, Retaliatory Tariffs, a bourbon-infused peanut butter. TASK 7

There are so many more recipes that use it that I want to try, here are just the ones that looked the absolute best to me:

Malted Vanilla Custard TASK 6

Key Lime Cookie. TASK 9

Sweet Tree, definitely down for a simple sugar cookie. TASK 10

1-2-3 Hazelnut Custard. TASK 11

Chocolate Almond Milk. I’ve been wrong about how good recipes will taste before trying them probably as often as I’ve been right, but this one looks magical. TASK 12

Honey

It’s not as terrible as it is weird. Sugary Flower Butter? Rich and kinda buttery with some vanilla down low, with a little floral on top. Very, very sweet, and sugary but doesn’t taste like honey. Thick and tastes like there’s some DAAP in there. It wasn’t until after I’d tasted it that someone said it tastes like bubblegum and now I can’t un-taste that, it really does remind me of gum balls. And yet you can tell it’s supposed to taste like honey because it leaves that unpleasant meth lab-ish odor in the air. TRASH 5

Honeydew

Mostly a bright and very sweet melon flavor. It starts out tasting like the sharper parts of apple or ripe pear before getting into the sweeter but kinda fluffy melon body. Concentrate has some nice depth to it but isn’t especially accurate due to that apple-pear like note and the fact that it’s not really very juicy, but has a marshmallow like fluffiness instead. But, combining pear and honeydew flavors is a classic combo so it seems like it might do well in that sort of setting, except that, at 3%, hints of perfume and something else nasty, is that nail polish? Especially in the middle and finish of the vape. Screw that. TRASH 6

Honeywood Tobacco

Prominent bright, sweet honey, lightly floral, with a gnarly new vinyl shower curtain plastic off note and a finish that tastes like smelling hay through a dirty sock. Doesn’t really taste like cat pee the way TFA honey does, but does have a strong cat pee room note. TRASH 7

Horchata

Part cinnamon, part red hots, with vanilla creme. The cinnamon stops short of full on candy but still tastes like something bright red versus a real bakery cinnamon. It sits on top of a bright vanilla cream in about 50/50 split, so the cinnamon is a bit much, but it has a sweet, smooth finish. There’s a little something grainy behind the cinnamon but it’s just barely present before getting overwhelmed by a Tahiti-type vanilla and doesn’t really taste like rice water or rice milk. Cinnamon comes back in the finish and tastes a little more like actual cinnamon than it does at first. I’m did not taste anything that should offend someone who doesn’t hate red hots or vanilla, but I don’t have the patience to try to figure out what to do with this or trust that anyone else has done so. TRASH 8

Huckleberry

It tastes like a red blueberry is the most succinctly I can sum it up. Like a combination of raspberry and blueberry, but all mixed together into one thing. I got light, red-berry tasting tartness at first, then sweeter blueberry sweetness later. Mostly artificial/candied blueberry, but there’s something a little funky in there that kind of makes it taste natural and maybe authentic, I don’t really know, can’t say I’ve eaten a huckleberry. Lingering blueberry sweetness. Full bodied, just a bit dry, and coming across more waxy than syrupy but not offensively waxy. I’ve read a review by Concrete River that called out very light hints of spearmint and anise in FW Huckleberry but I did not taste either of those and am usually pretty sensitive to anise. There is an odd coolness to it that could be kind of spearminty, but it’s more of just a fresh clean taste upfront, before it gets funky and more sticky sweet. He also calls it a little floral and harsh over 2% and while I did get a little harshness at 3%, it did not taste floral to me. Definitely tastes like it could add some interesting tarter accent to a blueberry mix or a darker, slightly funky body to a raspberry or other berry mix.

I’ll see how it tastes in Huckenade TASK 13 and Huck Your Melon. TASK 14

Iced Tea

Fairly weak at 4.5%, no cooling, sort of a less-than-half sweet tea, tastes more like hot tea than iced tea, a little dry and lacking that watery-ness of a beverage, I didn’t get any really weird off notes out of it. I have a couple of better tea flavors. TRASH 9

Jack Fruit

Contains sugar & tastes like rotten fruit. TRASH 10

Jagerbomb

It tastes drinking red bull through a black licorice straw. Or like you dropped a shot of FW Absinthe into a glass of Red Bull. So not really a jagerbomb, because it’s missing the booze and all the herbal complexity of Jägermeister, but the Red Bull part is on point. So licorice, sweet tarts, batteries, and taurine? I wouldn’t call it gross, but if I really wanted to vape a Jagerbomb for some crazy reason it would need a lot of work to taste like jager. TRASH 11

Jaw Breaking Candy

Also known as FW Jawbreaker. It tastes like a jawbreaker and a gumball made a baby, or maybe like a jawbreaker-flavored gumball. Its top note is undeniably a jawbreaker, but it has a thick powdery to chewy sweet body like a gumball.

If you’re looking for an additive to help turn a whatever random fruit flavor you’re playing with into a bubblegum version of that fruit, and been frustrated with how “pink” all the bubblegum flavors taste as opposed to being just a tabula rasa bubblegum base for you to stick whatever fruit on top of, this might be something you want to look into, provided that sort of passively tutti-fruity jawbreaker flavor doesn’t stick out just as bad as the classic pink bubblegum flavor does. It tastes like it might be easier to cover up.

I need to hang on to it for a bit anyway, because I want to try Dummies again. TASK 15

It’s a spot-on Smarties. Also, I remember thinking of something I wanted to try to make shortly after vaping Dummies for the first time, something only somewhat related to Dummies, but I’ve forgotten what it was. Vaping Smarties isn’t high up on my priority list, but I’m trying to get re-inspired. Something about almond and vanilla, I think. Almond and vanilla and a floral. Cherry Blossom? Honeysuckle? Hibiscus? I don’t know. I keep trying to remember and my brain keeps going: “WF Candy Stick Candy.” And I’m like, “No, Brain, we are trying to think of a floral. Candy Stick Candy is not a floral.” IDK. It’s lost. Hopefully Dummies helps bring it back.

But I also really need to try out my theory of FW Jawbreaker being a better gum base for fruit-flavored bubblegum than any bubblegum flavor. What should I try, though? Grape? Watermelon? No: Green Apple.

1-2-3 Green Ap B-Gum V1 TASK 16

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- FW | Jawbreaker | 3 WF | Green Jolly Candy | 2 FLV | Sour Apple | 1

Kettle Corn

You know when you’re cooking and you have to cream butter with sugar, meaning mix the hell out of softened butter and sugar until it’s one thing. Ever tasted that? It’s good, right? Now imagine eating that and puking it back up. FW Kettle Corn is that. Very sweet sugar-butter blend with a bit of stomach acid on top. It’s also a little waxy. It’s kind of like CAP Butter Cream, actually, like maybe if you drank CAP Butter Cream, puked it up, and tried to vape that at 3 or 4% it might recreate this. If you can somehow ignore the puke, it’s sweet and creamy. And puke is just a mild but horrible distraction from the sugar-butter, not one of the two main aspects of the flavor. Maybe the puke even steeps out if you give it longer than a week, I haven’t tried that. It’s a stinker, though, for sure. And I did not get anything resembling popcorn from it, regardless. Which is probably a good thing, I feel like it would somehow be even worse if I did. TRASH 12

Key Lime

It’s not unpleasant but it also isn’t very bright or fresh-tasting. Oddly warm lime flavor that’s lacking in tartness and zest. Bit too sweet and also tastes subdued. Like more of a background flavor that won’t stand out in a mix, but could be bumped up with other, brighter, limes. Also there seems to be some question as to whether it has a form of sugar in it. If it does, it’s definitely less than what’s in Yellow Cake. I have other limes, even other key limes, I’d rather use than this. TRASH 13

Kiwi

God of the Candy Kiwis? I think so. It’s not accurate to an actual kiwi but it’s very accurate to kiwi candy. Another way of saying that, is that it is clearly kiwi-flavored while at the same time being wholly artificial-tasting. It’s like kiwi snow cone syrup. Full-bodied candy flavor, with a syrupy feel to it, but not quite as sweet as syrup. It’s not a very bold flavor at 4%, was more flavorful at 6% without off notes, seems like it could get pushed even higher if needed. Pretty one-dimensional, just this flat sweet green thing, start to finish.

Been awhile since I had a nice kiwi recipe, and doesn’t that sound good?

Stuck on an Island. TASK 17

Jenn’s Twisted Kiwi Misty TASK 18

Kiwiloupe Lemonade. TASK 19

There are quite a few recipes that combine blueberry and kiwi, to the point that I feel like I must be missing out on something by not having tried that.

From the simplest:

Blueberry Kiwi TASK 20

To the most complex:

Cyan Summer. TASK 21

I also wanna get a little wild. So why not mix a recipe for a Milkshake IPA with Kiwi vape. TASK 22

Lemon Meringue Pie

Unfortunately, there’s sugar in this, so you probably should not vape it. It’s also not super duper great. The sweet lemon in FW Lemon Meringue Pie is prominent, has a nice tart kick to it, and a full mouthfeel, but tastes just a little more like a lemon candy than genuine lemon curd. It’s not custardy at all. If it weren’t for the sugar in it, it would make a great component for all kinds of lemon things, but it certainly isn’t a wonderful single-flavor Lemon Meringue Pie. I didn’t get any crust notes from it, except for a slight bakery aftertaste that I might have even imagined just because it’s supposed to be there. There’s some genuine toasty meringue up top but it’s thin, not a mouthful of fluffy meringue. TRASH 14

Lemonade

This is so much better than the other lemonade flavors, at least as a single flavor. I don’t know how this is even up for debate. It tastes like a Koolaid’s Lemonade flavor made with the right amount of powder, water, and sugar and then finished with a few slices of actual lemon not actually squeezed in there but at least floating in the pitcher. Harshness is there but normal to slightly above normal for a citrus, not excessive like it is with some others, after a short steep.

There are a bunch of things I want to try with this, starting with Summer Somewhere Else - Holy Crap that looks amazing. TASK 23

Two recipes by the same mixer: Mango Lemonade. TASK 24 & Sunset Lemonade TASK 25

Also:

Passionate Tea. TASK 26

Spring Lemonade TASK 27

Razzonade TASK 28

Macadamia Nut

Contains corn syrup which will fuck up your coils and maybe your life, and unlike Yellow Cake, isn’t maybe sometimes worth it anyway. It’s kind of boring, black as night, and doesn’t taste like macadamia nut at all. It’s kind of an earthy nutty flavor, with a creamy base, but a weird sort of burnt caramel chemical-ish off-note. TRASH 15

Malt

I don’t believe I’ve tried this one. I will mix a 2% sample. TASK 29

Mango

I don’t even know what that is, but it isn’t a mango. It kind of tastes like a weird lemon-peach candy with a buttery undertone. TRASH 16

Mango Guava

It’s strange that this is way better than either of the FW Mangoes and way better than than FW Guava, though it still kind of tastes a lot like both. The lemonyness of the FW Mango completes the citrusy bite that’s missing from FW Guava to make it actually taste like guava. The mango part in the middle is still a bit peachy candied and off, but it’s a little more funky thanks to that “ripe pear” body that FW Guava has. If I added some rum to this it would taste like a drink made with artificially flavored mango rum and real guava nectar. But, I would rather have unflavored rum and real mango and guava. TRASH 17

Maple Pecan

Very dry, yet sweet. Not quite maple syrup sticky sweet, and so dry you’d pretty much have to say dusted with maple powder rather than drizzled with maple syrup, but solid roasted pecan-ish nut flavor. Not as rich as the butter pecan and a little thin, but heavy enough for a nut. Some people put maple in their pecan pies, it might work for that. Although the maple isn’t too assertive, it’s still very present and would need to be accounted for. I think the nut part could get covered up pretty well in any kind of bakery, though, so it could work in something like a maple bar, in theory? But it’s still probably going to be pretty nutty and roasty, so I’m really not sure.

I need it for a recipe already on my to-mix list under FW Creamy Sponge Cake, and I need it for my Tedious Tobacco recipe. TASK 30

Maraschino Cherry

I can’t emphasize enough how very deeply waxy this is. It might as well be called Maraschino Cherry Candle flavor.

If it wasn’t for that the tiny bit of it in that Cherry Bomb reicpe above, I would be tossing this now. But since I’m not, I’ll try a couple more DaveNK2L recipes that use it.

Amore TASK 31

Pineapple Punk TASK 32

Margarita

Weak lime nuts? Dull, slightly tangy lime flavor, a hint of something light and vaguely nutty up front and with a lot of raw VG coming though by the end. I thought it was possibly underflavored at 4% and tried it again. Shake and vape 8%ish is pretty much the same thing, but that vague nut upfront also has a bit of a floral/perfume thing going on and I guess that’s supposed to be booze? It tastes more like nut flowers. The lime is a little more fleshed out but still dull and muted-tasting, I think this flavor is just crap. TRASH 18

Marshmallow

It’s not super strong as far off-notes go, but I do get a black licorice off note with this one, and I’d very much prefer my marshmallow have no black licorice at all. Aside from that it’s really sweet, thick, and has some flat sort of not too bright not to dark artificial vanilla on top of the licorice. FWIW, I’ve heard that it’s really authentic to old-timey marshmallows that were actually made from mallow root, which gave them a licorice-y taste, but now marshmallows are made of sugar or corn syrup or both, vanilla, gelatin, and sugar and this just makes me sad for past generations that had to endure licorice-y marshmallows. If you’re looking for something sweet to add thick fluffy volume to a licorice recipe this might be just the thing, or maybe it would fit in something like a root beer float, otherwise I can’t really think of a great use for it. Even though it’s not strong, there’s a depth to that licorice off note that makes it seem like it would be hard to cover up in some settings where you’d just want a plain marshmallow.

It’s in at least one of the Duchess Reserve-type recipes on my task list. It does not appear to be used in any other published recipes that I really want to mix, but I have an idea.

1-2-3-4 Root Beer Float V1 TASK 33

Co. | Flavor | % ---|---|---- FLV | Root Beer| 4 FW | Marshmallow | 3 SSA | Ice Cream Vanilla | 2 BCF | WS-23 (30%) | 1

Yeah, 1% is a lot of WS-23, but I want that shit ice cold.

Martini

There is no gin here. There’s no olive (thankfully, if you ask me). But can we talk about how crazy it is that Flavor West offers an extremely competent vermouth? It tastes just like vermouth with the herbs and soft non-perfumy florals and the kind of sour white wine base and light sweetness. If you pretend it’s called Vermouth rather than Martini, the only issue here is that it's pretty harsh as a shake n vape, but does smooth out after a couple of days.

I need it to remix Pickle Gibson, with a better gin, though to do that, I’ll also need a better pickle and a replacement for INW Lemon Mix. I haven’t found that pickle yet.

For now I’ll just give Concrete River’s The Pattern a mix TASK 34 and be disappointed in the lack of recipes combining those wonderful FlavourMonks gins or at least FLV Juniper Gin or VT Botanical Gin with FW Martini. It just seems so obvious.

Max Dew

See GRoMoMF, Part 19, under Citrus Soda. I suppose this means I have to reduce my starting flavor count from 2,975 to 2,974. TASK 35

Menthol

IIRC, it’s literally just menthol in PG. I don’t know how much menthol. Not a huge menthol fan, but a couple of recipes caught my attention.

Cool Bogie TASK 36

He Hate Me. I can’t even tell if this is a real recipe or some kind of joke but as the creator of Spicy Icy Chamoyada Mangonada, I feel obligated to try it. TASK 37

Milk

It’s so wrong. It mostly tastes like you put coconut milk on the stove and forgot about it until it burned and then drank it. It’s a slightly buttery milk flavor but that weird coconut note is out of place, and it starts sweet but it’s more of a coconut sweetness than a cream or milk, then finishes bitter like it’s been burned. NO BUENO. At 1%. Maybe someone else can find a concentration where this works, but I’m that’s on ya’ll. I’m out. TRASH 19

Milk Chocolate

That is a special type of awful. A disaster in a bottle. Perfumy, chemical like nail polish, bizarre, very sweet, nauseating. Very dark tasting but not remotely chocolate, probably more like sugar mixed with used motor oil. TRASH 20

Mojito

It just tastes like sugar with a hint of lime. Probably because it’s 15 to 25% sugar syrup. Concrete nailed it in an epic review posted in this subreddit years ago: It’s like eating white sugar raw, with a hint of lime, and that “dry grainy texture makes it taste a lot like eating a bowl of dry green fruity pebbles,” with a finish that’s “lingering sugar lips and a gnawing sense of regret.” No mint. It is a destroyer of wicks and coils. This will be going in the TRASH 21 as far as my flavors for mixing are concerned, but before I toss it into the trash trash, I have an idea. I’m going to order a plain iced tea and try adding it to that, I think the result will be great. Might also try a dozen or so drops in my Coke Zero.

Natural Butterscotch

Oops, where was a mistake, I’ve got Butterscotch (Natural) and Natural Butterscotch in two different places. Nothing to do here but change my original flavor count again, to 2,973. TASK 38

Natural Green Apple

It tastes dirty, like it has literal dirt in it. Does not taste like a natural green apple. It tastes like a jolly rancher coated in dirt. Tobacco is pretty good at covering up dirt taste so maybe if you’re looking for a candy green apple to mix with tobacco this might be useful? TRASH 22

Natural Mango

Some of the FW “Natural” flavors are identical to the ones that aren’t called Natural, but this one tastes a little different and a little better, but still weird. The difference might just be that my bottle of FW Mango is super old, but I doubt it. The one labeled Natural is top heavy with little body, and the top notes are a little lemony and a little floral. What body there is is a drier sweet cream similar to a marshmallow flavor, and taken together it is just very odd. TRASH 23

Natural Papaya

This is a really nice flavor, but I can’t tell whether it tastes more like a papaya candy or a fresh natural papaya that’s a bit underripe? There’s a high tart and floral note, that’s normal for some papaya, especially when it’s not super ripe. Not perfumy, just a floral tartness. There’s a ripe accent to it, but it’s missing that deep funky tropical ripeness that should be there for a very ripe papaya. And it’s not juicy, though it is sweet. Without that deeper funkier right ripeness the sweet base comes across a little flat and candied. Also a touch on the thin side. It seems like a fairly decent option for papaya but I have better ones. TRASH 24

Natural Tangerine

A zesty, top-heavy realistic natural tangerine. Base is sweet but thin, airy, and not fleshy or juicy. What body is there is more waxy than anything, but not overbearingly waxy, even seems a bit effervescent where it meets that zest. A bit harsh on the throat even for a citrus. I don’t know that I’d use this for anything but a tangerine zest accent, which is not something I feel like I have a need for. TRASH 25

Nutella

Dark as sin, has daap but not sugar, apparently. Actually tastes pretty good. Cocoa note is not violently artificial and it seems to be free of band-aids or rubber or all the various other things wrong with chocolates, but maybe needs to be brought forward a bit with additional chocolate.. Hazelnut flavor is good, as you’d expect from FW. Overall though, not nearly thick, creamy, or sweet enough for Nutella. Could be it just needs a higher concentration, could be it needs some added cream like maybe a Bavarian Cream. Could be a little TFA Dulce De Leche wouldn’t hurt it, if you already have that, but I wouldn’t buy it just to try to make a better Nutella vape. Don’t know how it would hold up in a mix but if it holds its own, could work well in bakeries like cupcakes with nutella frosting or waffles with nutella. Could be an ingredient that would tie together any kind of chocolate and nut recipe.

I’ll gladly give This Recipe a try. TASK 39

New flavor count: 2,644