I've been playing with DIY a little while now, what feels like it anyways has become over 2 years! Anyways, enough about me, to the review:
All flavors in this review will be from "The Flavor Apprentice"
Ripe Strawberry vs. Regular Strawberry
I'm going to start with ripe strawberry as it's one of my personal favorites. I love it mixed up with some watermelon and pineapple. I typically do about 14-16% ripe strawberry, 9-12% watermelon and 1-2% pineapple(strong stuff, I previously did a review on). Tastes like one of those Edible Arrangements with everything in your mouth all at once sans chocolate. Tangy, sweet, fruity treat.
Ripe strawberry itself I found has a refreshing, mostly true to fruit taste. It reminded me of Capella's strawberry but a whole heck of a lot more affordable. I've come to prefer it over the regular strawberry flavor TFA also offers.
Regular strawberry has a slightly more artificial taste. Think of those red and green foil wrapped hard candies some of you might remember. It has a candy like strawberry flavor instead of a more fruity one. In that sense I do think strawberry performs well in "strawberries and cream" or "candy" goal of a flavor. If you're going for a true fruit, ripe strawberry is the better pick.
Yet, some folks may not be able to tell a difference between them.
Watermelon: It's an extrovert in my mixing world and plays well with others. In other words, I don't particularly care for watermelon alone. Its OK, you might enjoy it alone, but I find it really rounds out and gives depth to my fruit mixes. Watermelon leans towards artificial and tangy, but not in the way you think of a watermelon flavored jolly rancher as tangy. It has some tang without the extreme sour notes. While it does have some true mellow melon tones that you may find to come out better at lower percentages(3-6%), the flavor shouldn't be mistaken for having that delicate sweet of a freshly cut fruit. At least, not in my experience. I like my watermelon a little more sweet, giving a hint of candy flavor. I tend to push it to 10-12% in my mixes.
Pear and Honeydew sitting in a tree... V-A-P-I-N-G...
Pear is up there with ripe strawberry in that its a flavor I want in my arsenal at all times. First pear tastes nothing like an actual pear(at least, at 15% where I enjoy it most). TFA's pear is a pear that's growing on a magic tree in a moss filled forest where unicorns gallop and gnomes eat mushrooms. It's a fantasy flavor that's loosely based on pear. It hints at pear but gives this bright, sweet essence to it that is beyond the fruit itself. TLDR: I think it's really tasty. I almost always vape my pear mixed with honeydew which I will get to in a moment. While I don't vape pear stand alone, I do think it's a flavor that would do a fine job all by itself.
Honeydew is like watermelon's cousin. They're melons, and if there's an award out there that would suit it for an analogy I'd give them both best supporting actor. Like watermelon, I don't care for honeydew alone but it does give a lovely depth to a fruit mix. Honeydew by comparison is much more mellow and standard sweet as opposed to a sour sweet like granny smith apple. Honeydew comes off to me as this "inbetween" in terms of if it's a true to name flavor. It has both components going on. It gives this kinda sweet, syrupy but "natural"(using that word loosely) flavor. I find its important to my pear mixes, but I'm not entirely heartbroken without it. Pear just tastes a whole lot better with honeydew than without in my book. I mix my pear honeydew at 15-16% pear and 5-8% honeydew. Sometimes I add a splash of ripe strawberry in there too at 7-10%. I find if I add ripe strawberry, keeping the ripe strawberry at least 3-4 percents higher than honeydew gives the best flavor for me.
Well, sorry to blab and blab....on and on... If you've made it with me this far Bless Your Heart. If this helps you I'm grateful that I could have done something to make your DIY a little tastier. As always, flavor is subjective and YMMV!
Side note: I love flavor apprentice and they started me off on the right track when I got into mixing. The only real quip and concern is I find with much of their flavors the need to use a high percentage. They're good to get your feet wet, but don't stop exploring all the flavors out there!
All flavors in this review will be from "The Flavor Apprentice"
Ripe Strawberry vs. Regular Strawberry
I'm going to start with ripe strawberry as it's one of my personal favorites. I love it mixed up with some watermelon and pineapple. I typically do about 14-16% ripe strawberry, 9-12% watermelon and 1-2% pineapple(strong stuff, I previously did a review on). Tastes like one of those Edible Arrangements with everything in your mouth all at once sans chocolate. Tangy, sweet, fruity treat.
Ripe strawberry itself I found has a refreshing, mostly true to fruit taste. It reminded me of Capella's strawberry but a whole heck of a lot more affordable. I've come to prefer it over the regular strawberry flavor TFA also offers.
Regular strawberry has a slightly more artificial taste. Think of those red and green foil wrapped hard candies some of you might remember. It has a candy like strawberry flavor instead of a more fruity one. In that sense I do think strawberry performs well in "strawberries and cream" or "candy" goal of a flavor. If you're going for a true fruit, ripe strawberry is the better pick.
Yet, some folks may not be able to tell a difference between them.
Watermelon: It's an extrovert in my mixing world and plays well with others. In other words, I don't particularly care for watermelon alone. Its OK, you might enjoy it alone, but I find it really rounds out and gives depth to my fruit mixes. Watermelon leans towards artificial and tangy, but not in the way you think of a watermelon flavored jolly rancher as tangy. It has some tang without the extreme sour notes. While it does have some true mellow melon tones that you may find to come out better at lower percentages(3-6%), the flavor shouldn't be mistaken for having that delicate sweet of a freshly cut fruit. At least, not in my experience. I like my watermelon a little more sweet, giving a hint of candy flavor. I tend to push it to 10-12% in my mixes.
Pear and Honeydew sitting in a tree... V-A-P-I-N-G...
Pear is up there with ripe strawberry in that its a flavor I want in my arsenal at all times. First pear tastes nothing like an actual pear(at least, at 15% where I enjoy it most). TFA's pear is a pear that's growing on a magic tree in a moss filled forest where unicorns gallop and gnomes eat mushrooms. It's a fantasy flavor that's loosely based on pear. It hints at pear but gives this bright, sweet essence to it that is beyond the fruit itself. TLDR: I think it's really tasty. I almost always vape my pear mixed with honeydew which I will get to in a moment. While I don't vape pear stand alone, I do think it's a flavor that would do a fine job all by itself.
Honeydew is like watermelon's cousin. They're melons, and if there's an award out there that would suit it for an analogy I'd give them both best supporting actor. Like watermelon, I don't care for honeydew alone but it does give a lovely depth to a fruit mix. Honeydew by comparison is much more mellow and standard sweet as opposed to a sour sweet like granny smith apple. Honeydew comes off to me as this "inbetween" in terms of if it's a true to name flavor. It has both components going on. It gives this kinda sweet, syrupy but "natural"(using that word loosely) flavor. I find its important to my pear mixes, but I'm not entirely heartbroken without it. Pear just tastes a whole lot better with honeydew than without in my book. I mix my pear honeydew at 15-16% pear and 5-8% honeydew. Sometimes I add a splash of ripe strawberry in there too at 7-10%. I find if I add ripe strawberry, keeping the ripe strawberry at least 3-4 percents higher than honeydew gives the best flavor for me.
Well, sorry to blab and blab....on and on... If you've made it with me this far Bless Your Heart. If this helps you I'm grateful that I could have done something to make your DIY a little tastier. As always, flavor is subjective and YMMV!
Side note: I love flavor apprentice and they started me off on the right track when I got into mixing. The only real quip and concern is I find with much of their flavors the need to use a high percentage. They're good to get your feet wet, but don't stop exploring all the flavors out there!
