A little test in creating something that isn't based on anything else, just working with a mess of bright and full flavoured concentrates. Furthermore, this is one of the best recipes I've created that has a real sense of customization to it. Change percentages, add other things, omit certain things, and you'll be left with something good because of how accepting and versatile FW Beetle Juice can be. I implore you to create your own versions of this and share it, I'd love to see what you can make.

FW Beetle Juice - I've used this one a lot before, but usually as an accent to give other fruits a boost. Here, I'm using it as one of the main profiles, because it's a rather complex standalone that ALMOST doesn't need help to be tasty for a new mixer. However, Beetle Juice is crazy with the top note, where you get a whole lot of punch to the tastebuds, but not a lot of lingering body. This is sweet as hell, with the main flavours noticed being some sweet pineapple, maybe a little bit of generalized citrus, and maybe a touch of grape. However, I've seen countless reviews that suggest cherry, orange, and lime. Hence this being the cheat code needed for CaptainCannibal's SHURB clone, an epic saga of a man losing grip with reality over the span of over a year (I believe). Anyway, this is the type of concentrate that no one can really explain correctly, as it has so much going on, that you as the user just need to try it and formulate your own opinion. However, it's damn good, and worth having if you like fruit vapes. For me, as I said, it works wonderfully as our base for this fruit disaster I've created.

TPA Dragonfruit - given that I pick up a lot of sweet pineapple in FW Beetle Juice, using TPA Dragonfruit at 3% just made sense. For dragonfruit shares a lot of the same flavour volatile components to other pineapple concentrates on the market, this allows that pineapple note to become almost more of a super sweet, candied pineapple. TPA Dragonfruit is also used here to act as an emulsifier for the other fruits seen. We already know how well this works to brighten up the strawberries in a mix, and here, it's brightening up everything, and helping Beetle Juice have more body to it.

CAP Juicy Orange / FA Lime Tahity Cold Press - with all of the sweetness going on, we need some counterpoint of citrus that will prevent this from becoming too cloying, however, using the correct citrus is key, as we don't want to make this a tart recipe, but just give some relief from all the sugary goodness. CAP Juicy Orange is perfect for this, as it's got a lot of brightness and the slightest underlying tartness that you get from a typical navel orange. I've used this concentrate whenever I want to create a true orange juice base, and it works perfect here to give that added bit of sweetness, but more importantly, a much needed punch of orange/citrus tang. Paired with just a touch of FA Lime Tahiti CP, we're getting just the slightest hint of lime on the back end, and it helps round out all of the sweetness you get hit with on the top. LTCP is quite versatile, as well. In low doses, you can achieve a nice lime zest/splash of lime juice note, while when you bring it to higher percentages, you get a bit more of a candied lime type of flavour. Play around with this one, see what you like.

CAP Sweet Strawberry - giving us some more juicy/candied accents here, CAP Sweet Strawberry fully rounds out this recipe that's better called a fucked up science experiment of fruits. We aren't getting too much strawberry flavour that is noticeable, instead we're getting just more body that allows this recipe to stand on it's own, even though it isn't trying to be anything in particular. Sweet Strawberry can be used at high percentages to get a true strawberry flavour, but when it's used lower, it adds candied fruit elements and an added touch of sugar. Paired with the pineapple notes, citrus notes, and general mess of candy going on here, CAP Sweet Strawberry just blends it all together, and adds just a kiss of mascerated strawberry flavour.

CAP Super Sweet - OPTIONAL AS FUCK MY DUDE. You already know how I feel about sweeteners, but if you don't, let me educate you. Sweeteners do not fix a recipe. They do not make a shit recipe suddenly taste good. If you don't already have a good recipe, then don't even touch sweetener. Any sweetener is only going to make a good recipe taste slightly better, and here, we get just that. I don't really know if I'm using exactly 0.25%, but I'm mainly adding 2 drops per 30 ml, and just that little bit gives the most pleasant "sugar-lips" accent at the tail end of the vape. You don't need it, however, I think it really does amplify the flavours of this mix.

So that's it. This recipe is great on a shake, and changes over time. I had one bottle sit for over a week, and to be honest, it doesn't taste as good after a week. So mix it in small batches, enjoy it immediately, and move on. After about a week, I was getting a lot of medicinal grape/cherry notes from the FW Beetle Juice that kind of negated a lot of the bright sweetness you get from the shake.

Like I said, mix up your own versions of this. It's very user-friendly, and I truly believe that unless you tried to make this some sort of tobacco or floral profile, you really can't fuck it up. But y'all motherfuckers love to make shit difficult, so maybe you can.

Preface: I'm using the word "dank" a lot in this write up. I do not mean the meme, 1v1 me bitch, 360 no-scope, doritos and mountain dew version of dank. I mean the way dank is used to explain the earthy, slightly bitter, and bright flavours found in an IPA. Okay, cool.

A crisp IPA, a light cigarette, the subtle undertone of sadness and ash. Sounds like a good night to me.

I've been chasing this profile for something close to 4 months now. It started off as an attempt to just make Yakima Hops work well as a base for an IPA style beer, with citrus fruit notes and crisp brightness. However, as I continued on this path, I decided to up the ante a bit and try to incorporate the taste of a cigarette in there, because really, what's better than a cigarette with your beer? There were many iterations of this recipe, some worked, some were disgusting, but each attempt brought me closer to this end result, and I genuinely don't think this one needs any more tinkering. Things can always be improved upon, yes, but this just works as it is, and I truly believe this might be the most intriguing, complex, and batshit crazy recipe I've ever attempted. Let's dive into the notes.

THE BEER

FLV Yakima Hops / FA Lime Tahity Cold Pressed - so to preface this, FLV Yakima Hops IS beer. Even on it's own, just smell it. It's dank, hoppy, and overall reminds me of a IPA, a pretty light and simple IPA, but a beer nonetheless. For this recipe, I've played around with countless percentages on this concentrate and was hard-pressed to find something that didn't work. Of course, if you just slam 10% of this shit into a recipe, it's not gonna work, but anywhere between the 1.25 - 2.5% range is going to give you some really tasty hop notes. Going higher and you get really earthy with it, which may work for your application, for here, it did not. So 1.5% gave us a suggestion of a beer to work with and play off of. To push this generalize IPA flavour into a full fledged, crisp, citrusy IPA, I had tried a few different things. First was INW Lime, far too potent. Even just a few drops obliterated all notes of hop and beer, and turned it into a weird earthy lime flavour. Next up was FLV Pink Guava, which I genuinely thought was going to be the choice, giving us some tropical vibes, some notes of grapefruit, and that super bright citrus hit. However, just like INW Lime, it was just too strong. As the recipe steeped, I kept losing some of the more subtle intricacies of the recipe as a whole. I hadn't used FA LTCP in a long time, and this recipe seemed like as good of time as any to try it again. It works so well. It doesn't turn this into a Lime IPA, it just turns the citrus and hop notes in Yakima Hops up to 11, giving us a super dank, somewhat New England style IPA, mouthfeel and all.

THE CIGARETTE

FLV Sweet Cigarette / FLV Kentucky Blend - once again, this recipe had a few different iterations for each element, and the cigarette is no exception. While we have no shortage of delicious tobacco flavours nowadays, we do still seem to have some trouble really bringing home that cigarette profile. Either it ends up being too much of a cigar, too much of a true tobacco, or too much like straight campfire in your mouth. While I'm not going to sit here saying I've cracked the code, I think this recipe does hit the notes of dry tobacco and smoke in a very gentle way, not assaulting your senses too heavily and crushing out the citrus and beer notes. FLV Sweet Cigarette gives us a nice base of light tobacco. As the name suggests, this definitely is on the sweeter side of tobacco options, and there is definitely some interesting things going on when it blends together with everything else. The sweetness here helps counter against some of the more earthy tones from Yakima Hops, while the tobacco still sits in the background, instead of forcing its way to the top. Kentucky Blend is here to add that smoke. This is a very potent concentrate with some great notes of ash and deep, woodsy tobacco. Keeping it under 1% just gives us the good things, without taking over everything else. As you can probably see, this recipe was ALL about balance, for almost all of these flavours are incredibly powerful on their own, and can easily overpower the others.

THE ACCENTS

FLV Pucker / FLV Lovage - so FLV Pucker is one of the newer options from FLV, and I had the benefit to receive some during its beta testing, and for the longest time, I had no fucking idea what to do with it. Single flavour testing this was a motherfucker, for I had no idea if it was supposed to be like a sour additive, a tobacco additive, or just some single flavour that really missed the mark. Turns out, it's honestly a strange amalgamation of all three. This has enough complexity to be impressive, but it's got such a strange light flavour that's almost indescribable. Kinda tart, kinda sweet, kinda earthy, kinda gross. Somehow, this works here as a bridge between the tobacco and the beer. It adds some generalized tart flavour that keeps the beer from just tasting like a beer with a lime slice thrown in, and gives some extra punch to it. The subtle earthiness plays nicely to make that IPA feel more dank and believable, while adding a bit more authenticity to the cigarette. Finally, FLV Lovage. My new favourite thing to add to all tobaccos. It's slightly vegetal, slightly dirty, and overall something special. This shit is THICK. Shake the ever living fuck out of it before you add it to a recipe, and for the love of science, keep it low in a recipe. I literally use two drops for a 30ml bottle. Low and slow, that's how to bend Lovage into something other than dirt and plants. In very small doses, this concentrate gives us even more authenticity to the profile. That's what these additives were used for in this recipe, just giving more suggestion of reality on two profiles that you really shouldn't be able to recreate in the form of an e-liquid. But the vegetal notes from Lovage add more depth and complexity to the cigarette, while the earthy dirtiness of it keeps the beer notes from feeling too artificial and fake.

STEEP TIME

Well, this shit shouldn't be a shake and vape, but it is. Granted, it's going to take about a week to fully blend together and allow some of the flavours to really come to light, but it works off the shake. My favourite thing about this recipe is that it evolves over time. After a day or two of steeping, the beer notes become more powerful, more interesting, and more flavourful. After a week, the cigarette morphs into something more ashy and delicious. And if you leave it for a month, it's somehow just a full punch in the mouth of everything good about this recipe cranked to the max.

So do you remember how proud of Drunken Pears I have been over the last few years? Yeah, this is the true successor to that recipe. This is the next monumental recipe for my resume. If you mix this one, I truly hope you enjoy. If you don't, that's cool too, just know you're wrong.

My name is Cokecan, king of trash;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Version 2 for Shitty Development with Coke. Not a success. Learning opportunity.

Version 1

First installment of a recipe development series I'm doing for reddit.

Fuck you.

I've never had Placid by Adirondack, however, I know what the flavour profile is supposed to be. Here's a really simple and quick take on that profile. A strawberry, pear, honeysuckle vape. Please keep in mind that INW Lime is very potent, I typically only use 1-2 drops per 30ml depending on how lime-y I want that particular bottle to be.

I might add flavour notes later on, but for now, this is really good as is, and everything really blends together after about 3 days. Hope you enjoy, and if you've had Placid before, let me know if I'm even remotely close to whatever that juice is supposed to taste like.

ID10-T pointed out just how many banana recipes I've put together over the years, so I guess it does make sense to have me on the Noted episode about bananas. Here's a quick, off the top recipe I threw together for the occasion. Nothing crazy to write home about, but if you dig bananas, you'll dig this.

Since I've been working on heavy recipes lately (Burley Boiz, Rose Cutter, etc), I needed something fruity and cold to cut through and set my palate back. This started off as a simple remix on Strap-On by ID10-T that I really didn't anticipate on releasing. However, after it sat for a few days and I came back to it, I realized it wasn't a remix or a clone of anything, rather, it ended up being it's own interesting little profile. What we have here is something that has a heavy watermelon candy type note, with some hints of the strawberry that give us a more rounded out recipe as a whole. Quick notes below, this doesn't need much explanation.

FA Red Summer / FLV Wild Melon - we already know how this combination works. The FA Watermelon is given more depth from the FLV Wild Melon. A lot of this recipe can be adjusted to taste, this combination being one aspect of it. FA is kind of set in it's way, as 2.5% is pretty much the highest it can successfully go. However, drop it down and boost FLV Wild Melon if you want less of a watermelon vape, and more of a general blend of different melons.

INW Shisha Strawberry - simply used this instead of the FA Red Touch because I was out of FA when I went to mix this. Shisha Strawberry brings a bit more of a syrupy sweetness to the mix. Instead of a more accurate strawberry note, we get something more candied and sticky. I like this being in here, for it allows us to get a candy sweet note without having to use an sweetener.

TPA Honeysuckle - I've been loving what this concentrate does to fruit mixes lately. The subtle floral notes don't overpower at all, but they add a sense of unique depth to any sweet fruit notes. A little touch of vanilla is noticeable, some additional sweetness, and just a hint of something more earthy and floral to give some depth to the strawberry in particular. It's hard to really pinpoint what Honeysuckle is doing in these recipes, but without it, there is a noticeable difference. So my mentality is, don't ask questions, and just enjoy.

WS-23 - you know me, I love my fruit recipes to be cold. Usually I'd say add the WS-23 to taste, but here, once it's pushed into the 1% territory, it actually starts to fuck with the flavour a bit. I don't know if it's just how the cold hits the throat or if we're actually getting some flavour change here, but it wasn't as pleasant. Sort of became a more bitter flavour on the back end that I wasn't happy with. Keep it at or below 0.75 and you'll be good.

Steep - good as a shake and vape, seems to just meld together nicely into this watermelon candy after about 3 days. Reminds me of the Sour Patch Watermelons, without the sour.

I haven't released a recipe in a while, here's an idea I'd been playing around with literally since the Beginner Blending competition. Inspired by my boy RiFF.

A tobacco vape with notes of vanilla bourbon throughout, and a nice little slap of banana on the inhale. Notes and all that shit below, as always.

FLV Banana / TPA Banana Cream - y'all know how much I like TPA BC, but I usually pair it with LA Banana Cream to create a more interesting and full flavoured banana note. However, after using FLV Banana, I found much more success. FLV's banana option carries a lot of the same flavour properties of LA's option, so if you're like me, expect some of that more candied, banana runts type note from it. However, I noticed more body to this option. There was some silky mouthfeel to it, a little less banana candy, and more of some sort of unholy creation that is a super sweet banana. I prefer this combination over the TPA/LA approach. We end up with something that is truly reminiscent of some sweetened banana cream, almost reminds me of banana milk or yogurt. This creates some nice sweetness to balance out the recipe, while also giving us some boost to the tobaccos in both flavour and mouthfeel.

TPA Kentucky Bourbon / FLV Bourbon - this is my go to bourbon/whiskey flavour combination. Usually I would keep TPA's option higher in the mix, but the more I've messed with FLV Bourbon, the more I realize this is the better front note for a bourbon. We're still missing some of the depth needed for a good bourbon flavour, but the TPA comes in to provide some of that bite and warmth, while FLV keeps those dark, sweet, oak notes prevalent.

FLV Red Burley - okay. So the more I've messed with FLV Red Burley, the more I realize it's almost not a good tobacco for me. I find it sickeningly sweet and thick, and while it carries a lot of wonderful flavour, I can't get away from that overt sweetness. However, this is why I thought it'd be a good match for this recipe. All of these flavour profiles have a tendency to carry some sweetness, just in different ways. The Red Burley hits us with some notes of sweetened peanut butter at times, while still giving that sense of a full bodied, yet sweet tobacco. The banana plays with these notes very well to bring some neutral fruit note as well as that earthy sweetness we get from bananas in general. And as always, the bourbon acts as a counterpoint to all of that sweetness. While it does carry some, it's still a more sharp and pronounced note that helps accent everything else.

FLV Eggnog / FLV Oak Barrel / FLV Virginia Tobacco - these act as our accents and support for the recipe. I am falling more and more in love with FLV Eggnog the more I use it. It is simply what is claims to be, a straight up eggnog with notes of fall/winter spices that accent the tobacco and bourbon quite nicely, while the thick mouthfeel boosts the bananas to a new level. The best thing I can compare it to is a cooked or fried banana/plantain flavour. The FLV Oak Barrel is here to add some more depth and complexity to the bourbon, for one thing I always find missing in our options for whiskey and bourbon is that wood note. Oak Barrel is perfect for that, and keeps the bourbons from feeling too sugary or sweet. Finally, FLV Virginia Tobacco, I know there are better options out there for a more dirty tobacco flavour, but I simply don't have them yet, so this was the option. Virginia Tobacco balances out that overt sweetness and syrupy note from Red Burley, while still pushing this recipe to be a tobacco forward profile. I love these three accents in this recipe, for all of them act as both supporting notes to certain concentrates, while being counterpoints to others. A perfect symbiotic relationship.

Steep time - While this is good on a shake, give it at least a week to let the flavours get to know each other. As it continues to age, the flavours start to pronounce themselves more noticeably, our banana notes take the inhale, the bourbon carries us through the vape, and the exhale gives us all of those complex tobacco notes.

This recipe has been a labour of love of the past few months, and I'm happy with the result. While the use of RiFF RAFF as inspiration is in name only, I woud like to think that the Neon Python himself would enjoy something like this while he's kickin it at the Kodeine Kastle with his pups.

Here's my recipe that was submitted for the 1v1 mixing competition. Judged by the crew over on Noted. Thanks y'all.

You know what it is, a "simple" attempt at a grilled pineapple. With a five flavour restriction, there wasn't a whole mess of room to get subtle nuances in here, but what we're left with is something that is reminiscent of some grilled pineapple. Notes and my fucked up reasoning after the cut.

TPA Pineapple / CAP Golden Pineapple - This is not my go to pairing for a pineapple base, but that heavy handed use of CAP Golden Pineapple gives us a nice and sweet pineapple note to play with. I know there is an aversion to TPA Pineapple within this community, but other options just didn't hold up to the other flavours. CAP provides the best pineapple note to suggest the fully cooked fruit, while the TPA is here to bolster that tart bite when mixed with these other concentrates.

TPA Toasted Marshmallow - one of the best concentrates when trying to achieve a baked or cooked fruit note. At 1.75%, we achieve that caramelized note needed in a profile such as this. Furthermore, this helps round out the offensive edges seen when using TPA Pineapple. To it's detriment, it does add a bit of creaminess to the mix, but that added mouthfeel is quite nice for this mix. This does cause the profile to stray away from the "authenticity," but I believe it is a success for the overall flavour.

TPA Kentucky Bourbon - simply here to add a touch of warmth to the recipe. The added woodsy, earthy, and oak notes just play into that grilled profile even more.

FLV Red Burley - a fucking tobacco in a grilled pineapple recipe? Yes. While Red Burley adds a little extra sweetness to the mix, it gives a touch of nuttiness that plays really well into the suggestion of this being cooked fruit. Finally, anything that adds some earthy snap to a recipe titled as a grilled pineapple is just pushing this closer and closer to being a true success. A weird idea that seemed to work out quite nicely. I count that as a win, if only for my personal notes.

Steep Time - DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF SCIENCE, VAPE THIS ON A SHAKE. It's trash. Mix it and let it sit for 5 days at least. After that, the sickly sweet notes from all the concentrates calms down and we're left with something actually vapeable. This is not, nor ever will be, an all day vape. But if you're lookin for something weird and strange, give it a shot. It's not a perfect grilled pineapple, but the idea is there.

Fuck you.

NOTE : INW NATURAL MINT IS USED AT 2 DROPS PER 15ml.

Cantaloupe, cucumber, mint. I've been working on this profile for a while now and I finally feel like it's finally at a point where I can release it. Something nice to close out the warm season, but with enough freshness and crisp bite to fit in with the cooler mornings and evenings. This recipe works as a nice palate cleanser, but also comes through with a nice amount of flavour.

FLV Cantaloupe / FLV Wild Melon - a match made in heaven. FLV Cantaloupe is a wonderful concentrate that is both accurate to the name, while avoiding any sort of off notes that come from cantaloupes in real life. With FLV Cantaloupe around 3%, we get a really bold, sweet cantaloupe note similar to biting right into the middle of a perfectly ripe slice. The addition of FLV Wild Melon adds some extra back end notes of general melon flavour. Nothing too distinct, but it just pushes the cantaloupe note into a more unique territory. Almost like if you got a cup of chopped cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew, but only ate the cantaloupe pieces. Delicious, and the higher percentages here allow it to stand up to the somewhat unusual power of the cucumbers.

FLV Cucumber / CAP Cucumber - These two work together to give us a fairly accurate cucumber note, but one that is sweet enough to avoid any sort of off-putting vegetable notes. FLV Cucumber brings the authenticity, likened to some fresh garden cucumbers, sliced up and immediately eaten. There are some slight notes of the cucumber rind/skin which add to the accuracy. Keep this one under 2% in your mixes, for around there, we start to get some strange bitterness and "dirty" accents. Not entirely pleasant at all. CAP Cucumber feels more like the flavour you get in a cucumber water type beverage. More on the sweet side, like eating just that part of the cucumber with the seeds. That fleshy interior that has a strange inherent sweetness to it, but not in the realm of candy or sugar sweetness, just only noticeable when you think about it. These two pair together to give us a great, slightly sweet cucumber that compliments and boosts the cantaloupe notes.

INW Natural Mint - This was actually the note I was struggling with the most for this recipe. Most of the time, it was far too overpowering. It was a matter of testing each new mix by drops until it got where I wanted it. There are obviously other mints that could be used here, but the subtle creaminess and vanilla notes found in INW Natural Mint made it the best choice in my opinion. As you probably know, this shit is incredibly potent, and will quickly destroy a mix in as little as one drop. I've found that two drops per 15ml is perfect for me, but play around with it to your liking. I wouldn't go over 4 drops per 15ml however, because that's where I found the mint to completely decimate any other flavours in this mix. The addition of the slight creaminess of INW Natural Mint brings a perfect mouthfeel to the cantaloupe, while the subtle notes of vanilla also pair nicely with the melons. That mint is here to add an extra layer of complexity and depth to the cucumber, while pushing this mix to be as refreshing and crisp as possible.

Steep time - This works as a shake and vape, for sure. After an overnight steep, whatever slight off notes from cucumber fade away, and after about 2 full days, everyone gets to know each other and we're left with a nicely balanced mix of cantaloupe, sweet cucumber, and vanilla mint.