Sonoma (Rosemary Vanilla Custard)

Rationale behind the marriage of rosemary, vanilla, and lemon: From time to time, my wife will simmer a pot of vanilla extract, slices of lemons, and sprigs of rosemary with water to scent the house. It is a delicious smelling aroma . . . and apparently, one of the scents that Williams-Sonoma uses to scent their stores (hence the name). I've always been enthralled by the scent and thought it might make for an interesting vape. Recently, she bought a cool mist aromatherapy diffuser and got amber vanilla, lemon, and rosemary scents to use in it. I found myself drawn to it. The amber vanilla added an almost bakery type aroma to the mixture, and I decided to get some rosemary concentrate to try my hand at this flavor. I got into DIY to scratch the itch for flavors that I could not readily buy . . . and this is something I've been wanting to try for quite some time.

I wanted vanilla to be dominant with lemon and rosemary falling in line behind it. This was not originally intended to be a custard, but I felt lacking the body of a custard really affected this and made it fall flat rather quickly. I knew I wanted it to have that same full-bodied flavor that I was getting from the aroma, so it needed that thick mouth-feel that only a custard can provide. This also helped add to the richness that I was getting from the aroma my wife concocts . . . when she boils water, lemons, rosemary, and vanilla, the scents come together to equal something much greater than the sum of their parts (I suspect it is due to the ingredients slowly cooking in the simmering pot).
The Vanilla: I originally went with DIYFS Holy Vanilla and INW Shisha Vanilla weighted evenly at 1.5%. I was in search of a creamy vanilla that could hold its own against the acidic bite of the lemon and the herb notes of the rosemary. After testing my first iteration of this over the course of a few weeks, I decided that I wanted the vanilla notes to be bumped to the front a bit more, so I increased the Holy Vanilla to 2%, leaving Shisha Vanilla at 1.5%. I really love these two vanillas working together!

The Lemon: Getting this where I wanted it to be was the most challenging aspect of tackling this recipe. FA Lemon Sicily and CAP Juicy Lemon were my first choices for the lemon (because they were the only lemon flavors I already had). I didn't want this to be too lemon forward, so I tried to keep it light and bright. I started out with each at 1%. It started off well, but I soon found that the lemon began to overpower the mix and become the dominant note in the liquid. It almost started tasting like a flat lemon soda the longer I vaped on it. I decided I needed to broaden my horizons, as far as lemon was concerned. Dazcole’s Lemon Tart remix was a revelation and so masterfully done that it propelled me towards purchasing FW Lemon Meringue Pie (as well as FA Custard Pi 3.14, which I’ll get to later). To try to tame the lemon I dropped the CAP Juicy Lemon completely. I added the Lemon Meringue Pie at 1% and dropped Lemon Sicily to 0.5%. This seemed to hit the right notes for me. It was adding just enough lemon to be noticed, but it didn’t take a front seat to the other flavors the way it had before.

The Rosemary: INW Shisha Rosemary was the only choice that I found for this recipe and, at the percentage it’s used, is not too strong in comparison to the other aromas. I did find it to begin laying lower in the flavor the longer it steeped in the original recipe, so I ramped it up over the course of a couple different iterations from 1% to 1.4% where it seemed to hit the sweet spot for me. I truly enjoy this flavoring . . . the challenge for me is going to be trying to fit this into other flavor combinations in a natural way..

The Custard: In the original recipe, FA Meringue and INW Custard were used to add a little bit of that bakery note I was getting from the amber vanilla scent my wife was using in the diffuser and for mouthfeel. I started out with INW Custard at 1% and Meringue at 0.5%. As this evolved into a more straight-forward custard (as opposed to simply trying to mimic the potpourri my wife makes), I opted to drop the Custard in favor of INW Crème Brulee at the same 1%. I felt this would give it that rich depth I was getting from the inspiring scent. It needed that deeper note of the caramelized sugar crust. I kept Meringue at 0.5% and added FA Custard Pi at 1.5%. This served two purposes in my mind. It helped propel this towards a custardy dessert, and it bolstered the lemon aspect without being too acidic. I felt like the vanillas I was using worked well on their own, and the lemon notes I get from Custard Pi helped out the Lemon Sicily and Lemon Meringue Pie in a very positive way (as dazcole’s brilliant recipe highlights).

TPA Sweetener was used just to round everything off with a last slight touch of sweetness. I started out at 0.5% and moved it around the recipe a couple of times before finally landing at 0.35%, which added a noticeable sweetness without being too cloying, in my opinion.

Flavors beyond the pale were my goal getting into DIY (spurred into fruition by ID10-T’s remarkable Longing recipe). This is exactly what I was looking for in this flavor. I mixed it up, shook the crap out of it, and gave it a try. For me, it is very approachable as a shake and vape. However, after a 7-day steep this really blossoms into a full-bodied custard. I’ve vaped several different iterations of this over the last 2 months and feel like it is finally finished. I’m taking ID10-T’s sage advice and dropping the lemon from the title to make this represent what it has become: a rosemary-spiced vanilla custard . . . the lemon acts solely as an additive to brighten up this mix. If you mix it, I hope you thoroughly enjoy it! This will not suit the tastes of everyone, but it was something I needed to get out of my system.