Vanilla caramel “tobacco” with notes of toasted almond. I’ve been chasing the cafe racer lucky 13 / lucky bastard RY4 profile. I can’t remember the original actually tasting anything like tobacco. It was just a pretty rich and satisfying RY4 profile. Working from sense memory here as I’ve not had the original for a few years.

This is a stripped back version; the original is said to have contained “13 flavours”. I’m not convinced about that. Although the versions I made with 13 flavours were delicious, I wanted to hit all the main notes with as few flavours as possible here. Like the original, this pairs beautifully with an IPA. My personal favourite pairing is the Gunpowder IPA by Innis & Gunn. But anything with Cascade or Citra hops will work well with this stuff.

Steep: works surprisingly well off the shake, but I’d suggest leaving it 4-5 days before digging in, as FA Ry4 does develop some interesting notes over time.

TL;DR if you bought FA RY4 and don’t know what to do with it, this is a good way to use it up.

Photo from the Rustbelt series by Kalie Frisky

Just a real simple treat. Straight up banana cream pie milkshake. I’m trying to create solid a base here that can be adapted into something more intriguing.

The mouthfeels on this off the shake are on point. It’s thick & voluminous, just like you’d want your milkshake.

Adapted directly from this wonderful recipe by orangetree.
I love the original, but cannot stomach FW Butter Pecan, for some reason unbeknownst to me. So I made a few changes, and paired things back a little.

Profile: A delicious dessert from Austria. Vanilla bean ice cream dumpling with apricot filling, rolled in grated, roasted and slightly caramelised hazelnuts.

Inspired by Lilt. I came up with this last autumn, when I wanted summer back in my life, but it’s taken a fair few iterations to get it balanced.

The Aurora is here to add a little carbonated zing to the profile. You could alternatively sub in FW Pink Champagne around 1% for a similar effect, but I like the brightness that Aurora brings here.

Everything else should be self-explanatory. The pineapples offer the main base, playing off the tart grapefruit from Inawera.

It’s good off the shake, but I recommend giving it 4 days for everything to settle together.

Profile is fresh buttery pancakes with maple syrup, whipped cream & fresh strawberries.

Cake batter, Vanilla Cupcake & Waffle (Belgian) make up our pancake base here. Waffle brings our maple syrup and Vanilla cupcake adds some light fluffiness to the base.

Golden Butter butters things up and Whipped Cream emulsifies and adds some extra airiness to the vape, creating some nice breathing space for Sweet Strawberry to punch through.

I prefer this with a little extra sweetener, but do whatever works for you.

Dark tobacco with licorice

Little more needs to be said. I came up with this a few years ago, but have since modified it to fit more recent tastes.

This is amazing after a 30 day steep. It's good straight away, but really improves with time.

I used to smoke Gauloises tobacco rolled in licorice papers, and since I started vaping, I've been wanting to replicate this for the days I'm really craving my old habit. This is the closest I've come.

Image by Brian McSwain from The Florida Heartland