DIY Butterscotch recipe + notes

[ShowMeTwice]

DIY Butterscotch Recipe + Notes

It's fun looking back over my DIY notebooks and seeing how things have (and in some cases have not) developed over the years.

I would like to present a recipe of mine for those who may like butterscotch as well as some of my notes as they specifically pertain to it. I welcome any and all feedback…if you think its crap tell me, you won't hurt my feelings and I don't get ticked off very easily (about anything really). If there are holes to poke…and there probably are…poke them. But I will probably ask if you made and vaped some.

If this was your recipe what would you have done/used/tried? How would you try to perfect it? I am real interested to hear your thoughts, opinions and reasoning.

Recipe: Creamy Vanilla Butterscotch ---> honestly I don't have a name for it. I just label the dang bottles something that makes sense to me.

The first 4 flavors of this recipe were the initial get go. In testing I found it was just ok nothing special or to even write home about. A good start but lacking. To me it tasted like an ok butterscotch/caramel that needed some helping. It was bland (to me anyhow).

My initial recipe started something like this: (sorry I am not going to post every iteration)

2% Vanilla Classic/Madagascar (FA)
1% Vienna Cream (FA)
4% Butterscotch (FA)
2% Caramel (FA)

With the above recipe I was able to get to a nice caramel eventually by adding FW Caramel Candy + FW Salted Caramel + FLV Caramel and tinkering with the %'s. I also tinkered with the balance of vanilla and cream. Once I had updated my %'s used to where I thought I might be onto something I made a bunch of it to vape cause, well, I liked it. Maybe I will post more on that updated recipe as a separate thread but for now back to the butterscotch recipe.

There was obvious tinkering with the flavors, percentages and ratios (balance). In the end I settled on what follows because frankly I can tinker endlessly with recipes trying to get them where I feel that nirvana vape lies. At this point I felt the 4 flavors were playing off each other nicely and working well together.

I knew I was missing that butterscotch flavor I was after or at the very least something close that my taste buds could agree with as those wrapped butterscotch candies my gramps would give me when I was a kid in the 60's. Yeah, that went out the window.

So back to the drawing board and more flavor research, tweaking and testing the recipe. Also it wasn't as full of a mouthfeel that I was looking for…it was tilting to the middle to kinda thinner side…but I knew I could fix that with FLV Cream.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

So now it was down to finding butterscotch flavor that would lay and play with what I had already.

Now I am certain this will never be the candy flavor of old but I knew it could be a real nice vanilla creamy butterscotch and I would be very happy with that.

Here is what the recipe above has morphed into with the updated ingredients and percentages that I now use:

3% Vanilla Classic/Madagascar (FA) ---> really nice rich vanilla; most in the USA are familiar with this flavor
0.8% Vienna Cream (FA) ---> a lighter sweet cream; blends nicely with vanillas + other creams; accent; sweetener
3.7% Butterscotch Ripple (FW) ---> very nice; more tilted towards the creamy side; butterscotch good but weak; needs other butterscotches, toffee or caramels; best used to layer
2% Butterscotch (FA) ---> Euro Italian slant; sweet; thick; robust; needs help of other butterscotch flavors; but a good starting point

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Ok so I was happy with that but the butterscotch still wasn't to my liking and I felt I could get it better and make it pop.

I spent time testing each of the following flavors in my recipe (one-by-one so I knew exactly how each would work). Then I started pairing them together and tweaking the amounts. Once I had the FW Natural Butterscotch and the FLV Cream working with the recipe I was still unhappy with the end result, or the totality, of the butterscotch profile. The recipe with those 6 flavors was good and I made and vaped quite a bit. Then after some research I bought the FLV Butterscotch. At this point I was just looking for something to "pop" and bring all the butterscotch flavors together nicely. FLV Butterscotch did exactly that.

0.9% Natural Butterscotch (FW) (or 10 drops) ---> to my palate this is close but not exact to the old wrapped candy butterscotch; here I use it as part of my butterscotch layer; the FA Butterscotch is the main one and all the others combined bring a nice rich butterscotch flavor; you can take this to 12 drops but much over that and the whole butterscotch thing goes off in another direction

 

[ShowMeTwice]

0.45% - 05% Butterscotch (FLV) (or 5 to 6 drops) ---> again part of the butterscotch layer; reinforces the combined butterscotch; helps cut through; body; again if you go much over 5-6 drops the butterscotch goes another route

0.3% - 0.4% Cream (FLV) (or 4 to 5 drops) ---> my favorite cream of all; it does so many wonderful things; in this recipe you do not taste it as it's there to help bring my vanilla creamy base together and it also adds mouthfeel (benefit). Anything over 5 drops and it will start to take over and become pronounced in the recipe (and some might like that).

I still tinker with the FW Natural Butterscotch and FLV Butterscotch amounts; less of one more of the other; just to see and satisfy my own curiosity as to how they change the overall profile of the recipe.

So this is the recipe pulled together from above (just to make it easier):

3% Vanilla Classic/Madagascar (FA)
0.8% Vienna Cream (FA)
3.7% Butterscotch Ripple (FW)
2% Butterscotch (FA)
0.9% Natural Butterscotch (FW)
0.45% - 05% Butterscotch (FLV)
0.3% - 0.4% Cream (FLV)

Steep time: If desperate you can vape it after 1 week and it's good. I like to let this one sit a minimum of 3 weeks preferably 4.
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Further notes:

In my experience there simply is not one butterscotch out there to rule them all. If anyone knows of one please let me know. IMO it takes multiples combined to obtain a nice one. TPA/TFA Butterscotch, IMHO, equals donkey dung (no offense or disrespect meant).

The FA Vanilla Classic/Madagascar can be swapped out for FA Vanilla Bourbon (there is no alcohol) if you desire a more richer, darker and bolder vanilla. If you swap that out I would use the same 3% but I would also up the FA Vienna Cream to 1% for balance. This is also a very good vape as I make it with the Vanilla Bourbon too…it's just darker.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

Also if you are looking for a much darker slant (less sweet) to the recipe then drop the FA Vienna Cream a little to 0.5%. However I don't find my recipe to be real sweet…I believe I have achieved a nice mild sweetness. Conversely to make this sweeter just up the Vienna Cream to 1.25 - 1.5%. I've tried it both ways to see how dark can I make this and enjoy it, as well as, how sweet can I go and still enjoy it.

Alternatively if you want a darker butterscotch profile you could bump up the FA Butterscotch to 2.5 - 3 or even 3.5%. As always I would start low and proceed from there.

If you are looking to for more of a pronounced vanilla flavor then add 6-8 drops of INW Shisha Vanilla (there is no tobacco). I say 6-8 drops because I have done it with success, 6 if lighter is desired, 8 if you want to taste more vanilla. I will make the recipe this way just for something different. Play with it and see what works for you.

You could also add a tiny amount of Coconut to make the dairy pop some. I would start at 0.25 - 0.5% and work up to taste. One of the coconuts by either CAP, FA or FLV would work nicely. Just for giggles I tried it with CAP and it was good but I can't find my note on that, rats, oh well.

You could also add 1% FA Caramel to the mix. I think it is more Euro of a caramel than what most folks in the USA are used to. It will darken the butterscotch flavor profile slightly. Per HIC FA Butterscotch and FA Caramel work real nice together.

Speaking of caramel: I have used a variants of the above recipes slanting it more towards a carmel profile using variations of FA Caramel, FW Caramel Candy (strong), FW Salted Caramel and FLV Caramel. With FA Butterscotch just because they do work well with each other. I'll have to post that someday if there is any interest.

You could also add nuts in pretty small amounts so as not to disrupt the balance. If you use FA Walnut for example it will sweeten the recipe some and add buttery notes. If I were to add nuts to this I would use FA Nut Mix (almond, hazelnut, walnut) starting with a single drop to see how it works and go from there.

You could also take the recipe and give it a candy bar slant by adding FA Torrone (Italian nougat candy). Again I would start pretty low in order to find that happy place where it fits in and plays nicely with others.

Wow, can I fricking ramble or what??? Ooops, sorry. I am at the end and hesitating to create the thread...aw SMT shut up already and do it!!! Ok here goes...

 

[dennism]

You just increased my next buy list.

 

[B2L]

I’m into simple, just mixed a batch of FW butterscotch at 15% with .5% Capellas super sweet. I haven’t tried this before but the FW came highly recommended by a friend.

My favorite for the last several years has been NF butterscotch at 15%.

Maybe I just can’t taste nuances but the NF to me hit that Werthers original note.

You may just have inspired me to get a little more creative.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

You just increased my next buy list.

I'm not sure if I should say sorry for helping you spend more or cool to increase your stash!

 

[B2L]

I'm not sure if I should say sorry for helping you spend more or cool to increase your stash!

Yes

 

[ShowMeTwice]

I’m into simple, just mixed a batch of FW butterscotch at 15% with .5% Capellas super sweet. I haven’t tried this before but the FW came highly recommended by a friend.

My favorite for the last several years has been NF butterscotch at 15%.

Maybe I just can’t taste nuances but the NF to me hit that Werthers original note.

You may just have inspired me to get a little more creative.

Simple are sometimes the best though.

My next order will include NF Butterscotch (Werthers note, I'm in) and FW Butterscotch. Thanks for those.

I will be curious to test this with the FW Butterscotch and see how it lays.

FW does have some really nice flavors. Next I am going to try an iteration of my recipe with their Bavarian Cream instead of the FA Vienna Cream and/or perhaps a combo of both.

FW BC does have a wonderful dense mouthfeel and brings the cream notes without being overly sweet (those are Matt Topolski's of Charlie Noble notes on the FW BC but I can't really say it any better than he did).

 

[B2L]

Simple are sometimes the best though.

My next order will include NF Butterscotch (Werthers note, I'm in) and FW Butterscotch. Thanks for those.

I will be curious to test this with the FW Butterscotch and see how it lays.

FW does have some really nice flavors. Next I am going to try an iteration of my recipe with their Bavarian Cream instead of the FA Vienna Cream and/or perhaps a combo of both.

FW BC does have a wonderful dense mouthfeel and brings the cream notes without being overly sweet (those are Matt Topolski's of Charlie Noble notes on the FW BC but I can't really say it any better than he did).

Mouthfeel is big to me, going to have to pick up some FW BC and give it a shot

 

[ShowMeTwice]

I did forget to mention how I test my recipes. I always recipes how I normally vape. SFT I always test with an RDA cause it's just so dang easy to rewick.

So I tested this MTL anywhere from 10w - 22w and with an RDA 24w - 36w restricted + DL. I feel the recipe is consistent flavor wise across those ranges. I am primarily MTL 12w - 18w.

Having said that I do notice different flavor nuances at different wattages.