A tribute to Fear

Not only was this recipe "not originally created by this mixer," it wasn't really created by this mixer at all. It was created by @Fear. Only, it was created by Fear without his knowledge or consent, and after reading this he'll probably file some kind of restraining order or at the very least block me on every form of social media. I'm afraid this might cross the line between flattering and creepily stalkerish.

Fear has 22 public recipes on ATF to date. Of those, there are only 10 ingredients he's used three or more times. There are only two that he has used five times, FLV Red Burley and INW Shisha Vanilla. So those two were non-negotiable. He has used Red Burley at an average of ~ 1.75%. His average use % of Shisha Vanilla is around 1.25%, but that went beyond just a playful vanilla accent and created a slight waxiness that went away when I dropped it down to 1%.

There are four flavors he's used four times: FLV Kentucky Blend, FLV Cured Tobacco, INW Cactus, and CAP Cantaloupe. Burley and Cured are Tobacco Batman and Tobacco Robin, basically, and obviously Kentucky would work here, too. I used Fear's average %'s with just a little rounding of those two.

I've thought about making a Cactus + Tobacco recipe and calling it "Grasshopper Spit" but this was not the time or place for that. Cantaloupe + Tobacco was right out, at least for my tastes. That left the things he's used three times so far: TFA Sweetener, INW Shisha Strawberry, JF Honey Peach, and OoO Cream Milky. Honey Peach jumped way out in front of that pack in my mind. Yum. But in my experience it needs some help to be well-rounded flavor and not an upside-down, inside-out peach.

So we go to the ingredients he's used twice. There are a bunch of those, but INW Peach was the clear winner. I started with his average use of 1%, but the brightness of that peach seemed to be getting just a little too weird for me, clashing, I think, with the ashy part of Kentucky Blend. Subsequent versions with it toned down to 0.75% seemed to clean that up.

But why?

Because I thought about how @Shyndo is driving himself nuts trying to create a "tribute to @ConcreteRiver recipe" as the punishment for losing a head-to-head mix-off against him, and wondered how I'd approach such a task. I also mixed up version 1s of "tributes" like this to my friends NotCharlesManson, Philosaphucker, and Kopel. The Lemon-Lime Strawberry Ice Cream Cone needs major work. LA Banana Cream/TFA Kentucky Bourbon/TFA Toasted Marshmallow is a killer combo, until you add a bunch of Cactus to it and it becomes something that just ain't right. Finally, I have an unbalanced bouquet of flowers plus Pink Guava and FLV Cream that needs a lot of love before it will be ready to share. Of the four mixers I wanted to make tributes to, Fear's public body of work was simply the easiest to use this way. You're looking at version 4 with the only tweaks being slight reductions in the two INW ingredients.

A Popsicle made of Pickle Juice

Even with fall just around the corner, it can still get hot as Satan's balls down here in Texas and if you do any kind of outdoor activities, electrolytes will be lost. If you're desperate to put them back, nothing, not even Gatorate, works as well as one of Bob's Pickle Pops, the popsicle made of pickle juice.

All of this was built around OoO Pickle. Accurate as can be, but not a lot of fun to single-flavor test. Vaping pickle flavor is like drinking pickle juice. There's a world of difference in the experience of drinking warm (blech!), room temperature, or even refrigerated pickle juice versus the refreshment level of frozen pickle juice.

That's where WS-23 comes in, to make it freezing cold. Taste perception is subjective and response to cooling agents is possibly the most subjective thing in DIY, so feel free to increase if you like Malaysian juice or decrease if you're scared. Here's how I arrived at that odd-looking 1.55 %, though. Using too much coolant hurts, like getting a brain brain freeze from a Slurpee. But there's a thin blurry line between pleasure and pain -- consider the spiciest food you enjoy, or what orgasms sometimes sound like without words like "OHGOD! YES! YES, ID10-T, YES!" mingled in with the screams and moans to let you know she's dying the little death and not actually being murdered. I wanted to explore that, really ride that line. At 1.5%, WS-23 (in a 30% dilution, the way you can buy it from ECX or Chef's) wasn't close enough to being painful. 1.6% was over the line, just a little, just at first, until I got used to it. 1.55% makes me unsure whether I'm experiencing pleasure or pain. Like when you're done and she won't stop sucking. FWIW, I'm definitely more sensitive than most to Koolada, maybe that's also the case with me and WS-23 and you'll find this amount too tame for all this pleasure/pain nonsense. Regardless, it'll make your pickle into a pickle pop.

CAP Cucumber is there mostly to move it from a Best Maid or Vlasic pickle juice to something more Claussenesque, but it also gives it some welcome body, like freezing pickle juice gives you something to bite into. Similar to the pain/pleasure line, there's as much INW Cactus as I can put in here for extra juicy refreshment without it turning into a pickle-cactus recipe. No aloe in my pickle pop, please. Turns out OoO Pickle and a ton of WS-23 can take on quite a bit more than the 0.25% that would normally be my limit for this use of Cactus, but not quite a full double dose of it.

I owe a huge thank you to @ConcreteRiver for trying an earlier version of this via https://www.reddit.com/r/mixersclub/ and suggesting the addition of FA Bitter Wizard. It keeps the very light garlic note in the OoO Pickle from mingling with the relatively sweeter elements in Cucumber and Cactus (and VG, for that matter) and taking on a touch of a sweet onion vibe.

hashslingingslashur suggested adding "a fruit like strawberry, pineapple, or maybe some lime" to his delicious Jango recipe, which is worth a mix on its own but seems especially well-suited for use as exotic tropical base to build on. I've been playing around with some combinations of Jango and other fruits off and on and this is the first one worth sharing. Sweet, ripe mango with bright, juicy watermelon.

I love /u/Taclite 's All-TFA Bourbon Ice Cream, from the December 2016 Monthly Recipe Thread on /r/DIY_ejuice. It's 8% VBIC, 3% Kentucky Bourbon, 2% Toasted Marshmallow, 1% Brown Sugar. If you like TFA VBIC and are patient, I highly recommend trying it. However, that stuff requires a three-week steep to be good and a month to be amazing. And pepper tasters can't enjoy it. A straight sub for TFA VBIC using CAP or FW just isn't the same. So I tried making my own faster-steeping, pepper taster-friendly, version.

LB VIC + HS VIC is my favorite replacement for TFA VBIC if I want to make something for the pepper people. LB is a just a bit too light and fluffy by itself but a lil touch of HS makes it so rich and satisfying.

TFA KB + TM, if you haven't tried these two together, catch up, please. See Coop's Kiwi Bourbon recipe for details. The way that toasty thick sweetness melts into the bourbon is sexual.

JF Dulce De Leche - There's the brown sugar flavor that Bourbon basically begs for, without the long wait. The problem with vaping Taclite's recipe without the long steep is that TFA Brown Sugar at 1%. Taste it too soon, it's like the brown sugar is very angry and punishes you for your impatience. But if you just use less, it won't reach the eventual perfection of month-old Taclite BIC. This JF DDL, on the other hand, settles into the cream just as fast as the bourbons do. And if you overdrip a bit when mixing, no big deal. Can't say that for TFA Brown Sugar, an extra 0.15% of that could be catastrophic.

FLV Bourbon - Even at just 0.5%, this is the real star here. It's not as sweet corny sour mash flavored as TFA's (but also not as watered down), it doesn't have the alcoholic bite of FA Whiskey (which isn't a bourbon anyway), and it's not as well-rounded as RF SC's bourbon (but it doesn't need a steep to not be gross and then promptly fade out like that one either). What it does is absolutely nail that oak barrel aged thing like nobody's business. This flavor might not make you want to ditch other liquor flavors, but it'll certainly make you think twice about reaching for TFA Red Oak or FA Oakwood.

This recipe (and the one that inspired it) goes so well with a cup of coffee in the morning, it's ridiculous.

Even though @ConcreteRiver won our 1v1 and I have to vape OoO Cheese, I'm still proud of this stuff.

This whimsical one was initially inspired by, and borrows its name from, a delightfully macabre, silly poem.

Gumeye Ball by Shel Silverstein

There’s an eyeball in the gumball machine,

Right there between the red and the green,

Lookin’ at me as if to say,

“You don’t need any more gum today.”

This recipe is a big bite of one of those cartoon or superhero-styled ice cream bars from an ice cream truck, whichever one is vanilla- and lemon-flavored, probably Tweety Bird or some other yellow character. You know, the ones with the gumball eyes? This is the bite with the eyeball in it.

FLV Bubblegum - an authentic bubblegum flavor that's less chalky than some other manufacturers' offerings.. I get some harsh throat from it standalone, but Vanilla Pudding and Marshmallow smooth that over nicely.

FLV Vanilla Pudding - This soothing stuff makes a great base even without much of a steep. It tastes like a vanilla pudding cup, and those ice cream truck bars have much more in common with pudding than with actual ice cream. Kids don't know any better. They aren't looking for the perfect custard tones layered into crispy malty dairy notes in their all-natural preservative-free hand-churned ice cream made from the milk of Kentucky grass-fed holsteins and eggs from free-range chickens collected by Swedish virgins during a full moon and flavored with real Tahitian vanilla beans. Gods, that gets exhausting. Relax. Have some vanilla pudding. Enjoying this flavor lets you be a kid again.

FLV Lemonade - Sweet, sugary lemonade. Definitely not freeze-squeezed, more like the Country Time, like something you'd buy from a kid with a lemonade stand. Blends in easily with the vanilla pudding to make one of those lemon-flavored ice cream cartoon heads.

FLV Marshmallow - I want sleep on its pillowy deliciousness, just bury my face in there. It tastes more like an actual marshmallow than any of the other marshmallow flavors. In here, it eliminates any need for added sweetener, smooths over some of the rough stuff, and changes the mouthfeel and flavor of pudding into something more like soft-serve ice cream.

FLV Cream - Don't need a reason to use FLV Cream, only a reason not to. This recipes gives no reason not to. FLV Cream aka Frank's Red Hot does a great job of pulling all of this together and providing satisfying finish, without calling too much attention to itself.

It's often said that possession is nine-tenths of the law, but when it comes to... certain things, I still subscribe to the playground rule of ownership: "I licked it, it's mine." This abstract recipe, made of only ingredients found in All The Flavors' June 2017 Awesome Box, was inspired by that philosophy.

Cherry Blossom is an ingredient you generally want to use as an accent at lower than 4%, as it can even be the focal point of a recipe as low as 2%, but here the higher % is needed to make it the star and to make its cherry flavor stand out in the mix. The rich ice cream pulls its floral top notes way down but doesn't extinguish them entirely, which is good, they keep things interesting.. The pink part of LB's Pink Lemonade, which is a delightful powdered-mix pink lemonade flavor on its own, further enhances the red fruity flavor of Cherry Blossom. With a little help from FLV Cream, the lemonade combines with that cherry flavor for something oddly somewhat reminiscent of a Sonic Drive-In "Cherry Limeade CreamSlush," which is just their cherry limeade blended with ice and soft-serve ice cream.

Featuring the Holy Trinity of Strawberries. A unique strawberry syrup, a realistic freeze-dried strawberry, and a candy strawberry that puts CAP Sweet Strawberry to shame.

This was a first attempt at recreating a Strawberry Slurpee. Missed the mark, still hits the spot for a sweet, refreshing summer strawberry recipe. Sharing because even though it's what you might call a failed early version, it tasted so good I didn't want to put it down. When you mix up something like that, the profile goal suddenly seems so unimportant.

Don't actually mix Funfetti and Rhodonite with Coconut and Toasted Marshmallow!

Or do, it would probably be delicious. But I'm using these two tasty one-shots to stand in for two ingredients that aren't in ATF's database: Sugar Cookie Fluff by Ckemist and If You Like Piña Coladas by yours truly, which are now available at ECX's Mixer's Showcase: http://www.ecigexpress.com/shop/diy-e-liquid/one-shot-concentrates/diy-mixer-s-showcase.html

Here's the actual recipe:

ECX Showcase Sugar Cookie Fluff 9.5%
ECX Showcase If You Like Piña Coladas 3%
FA Coconut 1%
TFA Toasted Marshmallow 0.75%

What you get is delicious piña colada cookies! Soft, chewy coconut-scented sugar cookies topped with a thick, fluffy frosting that has a hint of pineapple. Om nom nom. Shameless self-promotion never tasted so good.

If You Like Piña Coladas is a classic island cocktail with fresh pineapple juice, Jamaican rum, and Coco Lopez coconut cream.

Sugar Cookie Fluff is described as "sugar cookies layered with sweet cream and a hint of marshmallow fluff." I found it delivered on that description and kinda reminded me of a vanilla Moon Pie.

FA Coconut is like coconut flakes here, ups the coconut flavor without making the cookie soggy or weird, and TFA Toasted Marshmallow lends a toasty aspect to the coconut flakes while giving the frosting some more sweet, smooth richness.

This is my clone of Titan by Blue Dot Vapors.

They describe Titan as "a sweet apricot, nectarine torte, finished with the tinyiest touch of candied ginger." That's as good a succinct description as can be given, I think. It's sweet and apricot-forward. The combination of juicy peach and sweet tangerine tastes as much like nectarine as anything else. "Torte" can be used to describe a wide variety of baked desserts, from a huge fluffy cake to a crunchy little tart. And there is just a touch of ginger that indeed tastes candied in combination with the sweet stone fruits and citrus.

Mind the Steep. This is not a recipe for impatient mixers. There's a reason Blue Dot advises you to steep their juice and gives you the option of paying a little extra for a pre-steeped bottle. This stuff needs it. The ginger comes on too strong and there are bitterness and astringency issues that steep out completely, just give it time.

This juice was a joy to recreate because the source material and, after a healthy steep, every version I mixed while trying to copy it, was delicious. If the profile interests you but clone accuracy doesn't really matter, I actually preferred an earlier version that had 3% Apricot, 1.5% Juicy Peach, and 0.75% Sweet Tangerine with the 4% Graham Cracker and 2% Gingerbread. Although the percentages can easily be played around with and make great vapes, I don't think any of the ingredients can be substituted. TFA Graham Cracker Clear might be a better graham cracker for most applications, but it's just too crunchy, not sweet enough, and missing the tiny hint of cinnamon that this needs.

Happy Mixing and Remixing!