Distant Stars - Red Giant

I’ve been working on this recipe for a few months and finished it accurately for the Mixers Club March 2021 submission: “Sunshine”

It is started as simple mix of PUR Banana (because it is taaastyeeee) and FA Cucumber (well I just tried banana and cucumber together as a food. It wasn’t great but I liked the concept). So simple two flavors mix, but it was lacking pretty much any meaningful body and back notes. It was right there on top, not too sweet, ghostly bitter due to cucumber.

I decided to add FW sweetener. To get rid of bitterness as it had no place. I liked the resulted flavor but that exactly what it was - a flavor. Later on I thought about the way to bring sweetness without sweetener and cape up with a combo of FLV Alpine Strawberry and JF Sweet Strawberry. First for syrupy sweetness and second just because I like this tart note. It started to fill up with meaning. The base was already great. But I wanted something more in there.

I was making quite a few combinations, in case you wondering - yes, I tried Lychee flavors too. Some were ok, some - terrible. One day I saw my 2oz bottle of INW Pitaya and welp, I just tried it too. I can’t say that I taste this floral note of pitaya but it brought something light to the profile and I let it be there. Pure luck I should say though maybe a logical one, given that base has a strawberry.

I was already enjoying the recipe but it was not there yet. I wasn’t able to imagine how it should taste because it is abstract and experimental taste, not like you have a real deal stuff on your plate to aim at. I tried adding forest fruit, blueberries, pineapple, mango, but nothing really belonged. Until one day my wife tried it and said I should add sour apple there... that is how FLV Sour Apple appeared in there. And it was a success, it was so good I vaped it a lot.

But my perfectionism was taking it is toll. Tic toc mazaphuka. So what happened is after I posted it as a submission to MC I mixed three more variations. More jf strawberry, more dragonfruit, added inw rhubarb. They are all turned ok I should say, still tasty but all of them pushed the mix too far, back-notes started to fade, complexity of the profile was so overwhelming that my brain was screaming for help. So I decided to return to the previous version, where everything was in place for me.

It was quite a road for me, I liked and hated the process and I’ve bern close to wipe it clear and return to the banana/cucumber stage but it all turned out well.

Oh yes, it us called red giant because I wanted to call it like this. But if I will try to pull my poetic side I would say that because this recipe bright but not shiny, it is dark but not cold and it is just something usually unusual.

Enjoy!