After a couple of weeks (read: hours and hours) of playing around with the VZ flavors, here is my take on some of them:
Tobaccos
(All are light mixes: 50/50, 1.8% at 6mg)
VFC - Excellent. Very smooth and mild taste. This is the one I keep going back to; it just works.
HFC - Again, excellent. Very similar to VFC but slightly milder and maybe a touch sweeter.
Dunhill - Still trying to decide if I like this. I can't quite define the flavor, but it has a sharpness to it. There doesn't seem to be much depth to it, but the flavor isn't bad. I think adding something heavier to round out the bottom would improve it significantly.
555 - Tastes like a bowl of potpourri with a touch of something bitter tossed on top. One of the few VZ flavors that I just don't like.
Old Captain - Very good, but there is an overtone of something (cinnamon?) that is a bit over-powering and lingers long after the other flavor has diminished. I really, REALLY want to love this flavor, but I gotta do something with that cinnamon thing...
French Pipe - Also very good with quite a bit of complexity, but the flavors don't seem to blend as well as they should. Maybe this will improve with age.
Real Cig - I'm having a hard time buying into this 100%, as much as I want to. While the flavor is very "old Lucky Strike" like and actually pretty good, I can't get past the ashtray/harshness that hits after the initial flavor. I think it has possibilities, but I'm not sure what to do with it yet.
Black Cigar - This one is just...strange. At first I liked it, then I hated it, then I loved it, and now I mostly just find it interesting. It's heavy on the chocolate (and one or two other flavors I can't quite put my finger on), but still has a mild tobacco taste that comes through every now and then. I think this would be a good "blender" flavor, that could be used to add fullness and complexity to the more pure tobaccos.
FWIW, I find that 1 drop per 10ml of distilled white vinegar or apple cidar vinegar can really improve some of these tobaccos, especially the Dunhill. It knocks the sharpness down a little and rounds out the darker flavors.
Fruit SC flavors
Cherry - This is a bitter cherry; don't expect it to give you that cherry candy flavor. It is VERY strong, and a little goes a long way. I love cherry in general, but I've found limited use for this one. The black cherry from TPA seems to find it's way into a lot more of my mixing jars.
Double Apple - Not sure what the "double" refers to in the name, but it tastes like apples.
Dragon Fruit - Very unique flavor. You'll either love it or hate it.
Orange - Seems to be an accurate flavor, but not very strong. Needs to be mixed at higher percentages than the other SC flavors.
Raspberry - Nice, although not a "real" off-the-vine raspberry from what I remember in my youth.
Blackberry - Excellent, as others have mentioned. A drop or two can be added to almost anything to provide a nice fruity variation.
Misc SC Flavors
Almond - Typical strong almond flavor. Haven't found much use for it yet, but I will.
Banana - Not bad, but seems to have a mind of it's own. In some mixes it works perfectly; in others it is either over-powering or non-existent.
Butterscotch - Doesn't really taste like butterscotch to me, but it isn't bad. A drop or two of caramel fixes it up nicely. (Note: If you are trying to get a realistic "Buttery Nipple" flavor with this and some Irish cream, I hope you have more luck than I have. If you do manage it, I'd love to hear how you did it.)
Black Tea - Excellent, but needs to be mixed at higher percentages to get a true strong tea flavor.
Coffee - Not bad, but meh.... I was hoping for a "singe your nose" black coffee aroma, but this just doesn't do it for me. Oddly enough, both this coffee and the one from TPA reminds me of bacon for some reason.
Caramel - Nice. Useful in many recipes to add some body.
Chocolate - Not bad, but a bit tricky to get dialed in. Getting a truly usable stand-alone chocolate seems to require some careful mixing.
Cocoa Chocolate - Nice, delicate flavor, but a little tricky to get the right mix dialed in. Once you have it though, it's excellent.
Coconut - I'm still trying to find the coconut. Either my taste buds can no longer recognize coconut, or this flavor is extremely weak.
Cola - Haven't been able to make this work yet. Anyone have a recipe they'd like to share?
Cream - Not bad, but not as creamy as a general purpose cream should be. (See the Baverian Creme below)
Hazelnut - Typical hazelnut flavor. Very powerful, more similar to chocolate than an actual hazelnut.
Menthol - Typical menthol. Like most, a little goes a long way.
Vanilla - I really like vanilla, but this one baffles me. I sometimes find myself adding drop after drop to a mix with no change in flavor (warm baths and shaking between each), and then out of nowhere I have a bottle of vile, useless liquid. If there is a secret for getting this vanilla to blend consistently, I'd love to hear it.
Vanilla Ice Cream - This flavor is excellent, but I haven't been able to make it work on it's own. It is a delicate flavor that can't overcome the taste of pure VG/PG, and seems to need something to attach itself to. Mixed with a bit of cream or other flavor though, it is quite good.
Misc Concentrated Flavors
Baverian Crème - Excellent! This is much better than the SC Creme flavor by far; much smoother and more creamy tasting. This is one of my go-to flavors for many mixes, and is extremely useful for smoothing out sharpness, blending stubborn flavors, and adding body.
Banana Nut Bread - Typical BNB.
Cinnamon Spice - Ehhh... tastes like cinnamon spice.
Circus Cotton Candy - Tastes as expected, but I really have no use for this. Not sure why I even bought it.
Honey - Decent flavor, but rather weak. Can be useful for adding that nice, undefined "something" to tobacco blends.
Honeysuckle Nectar - This sounded really good during a wide-eyed flavor buying binge, but I have yet to find a use for it other than novelty.
Maple - Nice maple flavor. Like the honey flavor, useful for adding that extra "something" to tobaccos.
Peanut Butter - Nice flavor that is pretty true to the real thing. More useful as a blender than a standalone flavor though. When you need something to make a mix stick to the roof of your mouth, try a drop or two of this.
Pina Colada - Not bad, but nothing special. My first impression was an immediate flashback to 31 years ago, when I got my first car and bought a pina colada air freshener for it. Weird how that works.
Red Hot Cinnamon - Holy crap; this is HOT! Definitely tastes like concentrated red hot candy.
Waffle - Surprisingly realistic. A bit of this, along with a few drops of Maple, TPA pecan, and some sucralose ... and you have a nice stack of pecan pancakes!
French Vanilla Deluxe - An excellent flavor, but shares some of the traits of the SC vanilla and can be tempermental. Like the Vanilla Ice Cream, it is a delicate flavor and doesn't do as well on it's own. However, a few drops of this mixed with some Baverian Creme, or a drop or two added to the HFC or VFC tobaccos is top shelf.
