Wonder Flavours (WF) Concentrate Reviews

[Patrick]

WF Frozen Yogurt SC (aka Melted frozen yoghurt mixed with a barrel of unpasteurised heavy diary)

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .24 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: WF Frozen Yogurt SC @ 3%,. 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 18 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: It’s unlike any yoghurt I’ve had but it is generically yummy even as a SNV. It’s more like a vanilla ice-cream with a slightly different texture to the usual vanilla bean iterations.

Flavour Description: Lovely weight on the tongue, solid ice cream, milk diary on the flavour, a slight hint of butyric (but not as pronounced as White Fudge) but otherwise no Frozen, no real Yoghurt. 2-4% would be plenty.

Uses: Wherever you need to add an extra dimension to an ice cream of milkshake, this would prove useful. I wouldn’t go as far as using it as THE ice cream but as a supporting ice cream/milkshake flavour it would work well. Especially since it has great tongue-heft. So, in that sense it is a useful addition across a broad church of recipes that require heavy milk texture and flavour.

Overall: There’s a very stoned dude/dudette who must be heading up the marketing for WF. Some of these flavours bear no resemblance to the actual name. It should be called melted frozen yoghurt mixed with a barrel of unpasteurised heavy diary. Apart from that, it’s pretty good.

 

[Patrick]

WF Caramel Rice Crispy Treat

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .22 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: WF Caramel Rice Crispy Treat @ 5%. 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 22 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: All round muted pleasantries. Like watching a high school reunion through a window. The caramel is there and, thank goodness, they haven’t burnt it (I’m looking at you TFA). There’s also a bit of graininess that might be the rice crispies. I suspect that it might need some support in the crunch, but I’m interested to see how this steeps. Very promising on the nose as well.

Flavour Description: After a steep, the graininess goes and you’re left with something else. But it’s a tasty something else. @DanielSLP and @Rude Rudi both get flapjacks and/or sweetener. I’m not sure I get flapjacks but definitely something in that part of my memory bank. Maybe crepes… I think the caramel is still solid and heart-warming.

Uses: I think that this could have its uses. I generally have a problem with caramel, toffee and butterscotch (FW Butterscotch Ripple avoids it) because I pick up a burnt taste that is off-putting. I can only describe it as letting the caramel cook too far. I would head towards the Dulce de Leche kind of recipes with this for the caramel that it brings but also the cooked batter that it offers.

Overall: I’m now convinced that the WF head of marketing has moved on from dope to LSD.

 

[Patrick]

WF Tangerine

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .24 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: WF Tangerine @ 3, 5%, 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 19 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: Bang on aroma and finger-tip taste, but nothing much coming through as a SNV. A little bit of rind and a generic sweetness, but nothing that I would identify as tangerine. I suspect that it’s going to require higher percentages before it emerges.

Flavour Description: Very mild for a SC. Even at 5% there’s only a hint of a citrusy naartjie. But what’s there is true to the fruit. There’s also a pleasant cream to it that is interesting. I would imagine that 5-8% is the right place. I like CAP’s Sweet Tangerine but I think that this is closer to the real thing, especially in the top notes.

Uses: I like the combination of tangerine and cream and think that it work nicely to create a rum and naartjie ice cream, maybe using the CAP version as a support for the lower notes (probably 3:1 WF:CAP would work). Too often it’s buried amid other flavours to create a fruit salad of sorts. The WF offers the possibility of being the star of the pantomime.

Overall: I’ll certainly be playing with this. I think that tangerine is an under utilised flavour (by me) and deserves more love.

 

[Patrick]

WF Fresh Strawberries

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .24 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: WF Fresh Strawberries @ 6, 7%, 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 18 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: Fresh and bright strawberry. Almost as good as Strawberry Shisha on the nose and a mild strawberry as a SNV.

Flavour Description: Immediately recognisable as strawberry but I wouldn’t go as far as fresh. It’s a slightly sweet, ripe strawberry. Interesting though, it elides the countless other strawberries and brings a strawberry element that I haven’t tasted in the others, maybe a strawberry cordial flavour, with pips. The green strawberry pips on the outer part of the flesh emerge more at higher percentages. 6-8% will be good.

Uses: Most of us have, by now, settled on a strawberry configuration that suits our palate and for those of us, I wouldn’t see this as a game changer. That said, it might be worth adding/subbing it well known recipes and seeing if it makes a noticeable difference. Especially for the green seeds.

Overall: For the Strawberry freaks out there, I think this is well worth a go. The longer I vape this solo, the more green I can taste. This might be a low-key winner over time.

 

[Patrick]

WF Pistachio Cream SC (aka Acetyl Pryazine ice cream)

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .24 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: WF Pistachio Cream SC @ 2,5%, 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 23 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: Massive hit of AP on the nose. SNV, there’s a hint of nuttiness (over) compensated by a lot of cream. I love pistachios and eat them all the time. I dislike TFA’s version and FLV’s because they don’t (to me) taste like pistachios at all. I’m not going to get my hopes up here either.

Flavour Description: AP has died down a little but I’m still not getting pistachios. There’s loads of good cream and a generic nuttiness which is pleasant but it does not add up to create pistachio.

Uses: My immediate thought is that it would go well in a tobacco mix that has an inbred nuttiness (FA Glory comes to mind). The creaminess would also work in bakeries, especially if they call for a hint of nut. And, as I said, the cream is really good.

Overall: @Rude Rudi loves this, so you may want to check the flavour out and decide which side of the taste bud fence— @Strontium is on my side, here—you sit on with this (stay tuned for the Pistachio Cream controversy due out in 2018).

 

[Patrick]

WF Oats and Cream Cookie SC

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .2 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: WF Oats and Cream Cookie SC @ 4%, 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 22 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: Pretty much the same cream as the pistachio, so that’s fine. Not getting the oats yet but I guess I could fool myself in associating the ‘other’ flavour into being a mild crunchie.

Flavour Description: Ok, the oats are AWOL. Which is a real pity because I was hoping for a crunchie. There is a vague cereal underlying this but not enough for my taste. The cream is good and there’s a solid ‘marshmallow’ mouthfeel that goes with it.

Uses: WF does give very good head of cream. So, maybe with the assistance of Cereal 27 you could coax the oats out more to give you a muesli and then throw sundry berries at the lot for a healthy breakfast. The cream also means that it has diverse applications.

Overall: Because of the creamy versatility, the absent oats can be used widely to add additional mouthfeel to a recipe in the same way that marshmallow is used to bulk up the texture of the recipe.

 

[Patrick]

WF Cocoa SC

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .24 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: Cocoa SC @ 1, 2%, 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 21 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: After the sledgehammer that is FA’s version, this comes as a pleasant surprise. It’s cocoa rethought with a light touch. WF says between 1-2% but I wouldn’t be scared of taking it higher depending on the need.

Flavour Description: Solid cocoa. No sweetness and only a flicker of chalkiness at 2%. There’s none of that astringency that I pick up with FA Cocoa. Since the demise of INW Milk Chocolate, those in search of good chocolate vapes are having to construct bit by bit again. And no, HIC was wrong, FA Cocoa plus FA Chocolate was never going to cut it as an approximation. But the same theory applies: using WF Cocoa plus a chocolate of your choice is going to enhance different shades of chocolate. It seems to be a shading in flavour which is what I always hoped for in cocoa.

Uses: At 1-1,5% very useful. Either with chocolate, diary, bakery or chocolate leaning tobaccos. For me, it’s a bit of a chameleon that shades in existing profiles without dominating a mix.

Overall: There’s one deal breaker with cocoa (and chocolate for that matter)—the malicious, immediate destruction of coils. WF Cocoa is a godsend; neither dark, nor domineering, it does what it's supposed to do without forcing you to change coils with every drag.

 

[Patrick]

WF Buttercream Frosting SC

Setup: Pulse 24, N80 Fused Claptons @ .2 ohms. 60w power. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: Buttercream Frosting @ 3%, 70/30 VG/PG, Steeped 21 days.

Initial SNV thoughts: In my rush to grasp the details of the volatiles as they escaped the bottle, I squirted a fair chunk up my nose and now I have a confectionary store playing pinball with my sinuses. It tastes/smells/feels like icing freshly scraped from the mixing bowl.

Flavour Description: I could drink this stuff. It takes me back to childhood and fighting over the mixing bowl. There’s a dollop of Moirs vanilla essence and then thick icing. It does all that it needs to do at 3%.

Uses: Think of any place where you need a basic vanilla cake icing and then go there. The clever part about this is that (like the real stuff) it will allow for any number of additions to generate other flavours while keeping its authenticity. Add chocolate for a chocolate icing, raspberries etc.. FW Yellow Cake (2.5%), FW Cake batter dip (1.5%), CAP Butter Cream (1%) Buttercream frosting (3%) and you would have a cake base (and frosted top) that can be used for countless recipes.

Overall: Cakeheads rejoice and get out the mixing bowl.

 

[Strontium]

WF Milk

Mixed at 1.5%
As above
Steep 4 weeks

Firstly, the smell. It smells awful. Sour old milk. It’s enough to make you gag. It’s the reason I left it right till the end.

On inhale the first notes are light and creamy. Very smooth. There is a slight background sweetness.
The mouthfeel is fantastic, full, creamy, fluffy. There is no doubt, WF has done a fantastic job on this. It’s very flavour neutral so won’t impact profiles but will add that smooth light milky profile that cereals need.

Off notes

The smell is truly vile, nasty AF but once mixed that disappeared.

Pairings

All cereals or recipes that call for a light creamy note.

Overall

Really good, something I’ll be using regularly and as it’s so strong, very cost effective.
Well done WF

 

[Silver]

My gosh, you guys have done amazing work here. Well done to all who have reviewed these flavours.
Thanks you!

@Patrick, i went through your flurry of recent flavour notes now.
Excellent writeups! Enjoyed every one. You write these very well.
Classic chirp - you made me laugh too - "I have a confectionary store playing pinball with my sinuses."

Just a noob question, apologies, what does SC refer to? I see it appears often.

 

[RichJB]

Just a noob question, apologies, what does SC refer to?

Super Concentrated. Some flavour houses have lines that are less/more concentrated. Like Real Flavors standard line requires about 8-12% to get full flavour but their SC line requires only 2-3%.

 

[Strontium]

My gosh, you guys have done amazing work here. Well done to all who have reviewed these flavours.
Thanks you!

@Patrick, i went through your flurry of recent flavour notes now.
Excellent writeups! Enjoyed every one. You write these very well.
Classic chirp - you made me laugh too - "I have a confectionary store playing pinball with my sinuses."

Just a noob question, apologies, what does SC refer to? I see it appears often.

Depending on the reference it could be Super Concentrate or Sugar Cookie

 

[Silver]

Super Concentrated. Some flavour houses have lines that are less/more concentrated. Like Real Flavors standard line requires about 8-12% to get full flavour but their SC line requires only 2-3%.

Ah ok, thanks @RichJB

I recall your comments before on the forum about being careful to take the concentration into account when comparing the price of concentrates in general.

 

[RichJB]

Yeah, it's a tricky one to gauge. The conventional wisdom should be that the most potent concentrates are the best value. But then one runs into the flavour degeneration issue. Even at R75 a bottle, Flv Rich Cinnamon should be the best value in vaping as you literally use one drop per 30ml mix. So a single bottle will last for years. But will the flavour last, or will you end up tossing 7ml of the 10ml because it has degenerated?

Another problem is what to do with a potent flavour if it doesn't really hit the spot. FA Tiramisu is great value as it needs only 1% to be strong. But it's not a good flavour. So now I sit with a very strong concentrate that I can't use up. If it was a 5-6% type of flavour, you can find something that is vapeable with it, kill the bottle quite quickly and get it out of your life. When it's a 1% type of flavour, it hangs around forever in your stash.

Ultimately, I'd rather have a R60 flavour that needs 5% but is really tasty than a R40 flavour that isn't so good and only needs 0.5%. And then you get FA Meringue. It can be bought for as little as R24 per 10ml, you only use 0.5-1% in most recipes, and it's used in everything. That is a win on all counts.

 

[Strontium]

WF Oats and Cream Cookie

Mixed at 4.5%
Gear as above
Steeped 4 weeks


Thick sweet cream is the first flavour to announce itself. Fantastic mouth feel, very full bodied. It reminds me of a Bavarian Sugar Cream, it’s a rich velvety taste and quite smooth. The cookie comes through after that. The cookie is rich and buttery, but still crisp.
There is an earthy undertone that I presume is meant to be the oats. It’s very pleasant taste but not what I’d expect oats to taste like. It’s a heavy taste overall.
The best way to describe it would be to think of the gravy you get when making jungle oats, just the gravy not the oats. It’s sweet and creamy with an earthy taste.

Offnotes

None

Pairings

Will be a solid base for any cookie or biscuit recipe.
Any nuts but I think Almond would work best.
Tobacco

Overall

It’s a very tasty Vape that falls short on the oats but still will work brilliantly in many recipes as the cream cookie part in stunning.

 

[RichJB]

Before the reviews, the usual preamble and disclaimer first: many thanks to @DizZa and @Erica_TFM for supplying the WF concentrates for review.

Wonder Flavours is a new player in the DIY scene, having been launched in Canada during 2016. The company has already gained a reputation for rich, sweet flavours and they don't seem shy to add DAAP to their concentrates. Huzzah. The flavours for review arrived in the TFM branded HDPE dropper bottles which is a plus for me - no child-proof bottles, yay. The concentrates ranged from crystal clear to a mild amber colour, suggesting that these won't be coil cloggers. Although WF do seem to add sweetener with quite a heavy hand which may have a negative influence.

A big plus for WF is that they have introduced some complex and unique flavours into the market. I mean, who else offers African Horned Cucumber or Picarones? The potential downside is that the compound flavours reduce the utility somewhat.The WF flavours are a mid-range price offering, not as cheap as TFA/FW/FA but not as expensive as Flavorah. Instead, they are around the Inw price point which is risky territory. Competing with Inw head to head necessitates very potent and accurate concentrates, with flaky Polish weirdness an optional extra. WF have two lines, their regular and then a Super Concentrated line. For the latter, the recommended percentages of 1-4% sounds promising. But ultimately it's about the quality of the flavour, not its potency. So how do the WF challengers stack up?

WF Blackcherry Jelly Bean SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 2, 3 and 5%

Notes
My first exercise when testing a new flavour is to try and identify what the developer was aiming for with it, why it came to be in the first place. Why did WF do a black cherry jelly bean, not just a straight black cherry flavour? I suspect it's a generic problem with cherry flavours. Inw Cherries is widely touted to be the best single cherry flavour. But as ConcreteRiver notes, it's a very airy and body-less vape. He suggests adding a base like FA Apricot to give that wispy cherry some substance to cling to. I think WF came up against the same problem and found a solution in adding a jelly bean texture. It does add body but, in so doing, limits the utility of the flavour. So much for the mouth feel, what about the flavour?

First up, the good news - it's not medicinal and it's not plastic. For that alone, it's a win. But with that said, it's not a pukka cherry either. It straddles the divide between authentic and candy, which is possibly another reason why WF went with the jelly bean base rather than a plain cherry. My first impression, from both the sniff test and the vape, was that it's not a pure black cherry but is instead a mixed cherry with both black and red elements. The photo on the WF website reinforces that:

It vapes darker than that image suggests but it does convey that it's not a straight black cherry.

At 2% and 3%, the semi-candy cherry is present but not assertive, and is well balanced with the underlying jelly bean. At 5%, the jelly bean comes into its own, developing a dense, moist and chewy character that is spot on for the profile. Alas, the cherry develops an acrid chemical note at that high concentration so I'd keep it at 4% or less. If the cherry note from 3% could somehow be melded with the jelly bean note at 5%, you'd have a decent solo candy flavour. The jelly manifests immediately on the inhale, with the sweet cherry building on the exhale. The lingering sensation is of just having eaten a jelly bean, sugar lips and all. Which is well and good but...

Application
... what to do with it? You won't be able to disguise the jelly bean, it registers even at low %. And the cherry flavour is not assertive enough to feature prominently at accent percentages and to drag lesser cherries out of cough drop territory. That leaves you with... a cherry jelly bean. Adding another jelly candy like Cap along with perhaps another cherry or complementary flavour could fill out the profile. But do you want to vape cherry jelly beans? I can't see this working in a cherry bakery or beverage or any other profile that isn't a candy, that chewy jelly is front and centre.

Who wants it?
If candies are your thang then this is a useful flavour to have. I would rather have a plain black cherry but it's renowned as one of the trickiest profiles. WF have got around the cough drop/plastic/lack of body problem that plagues other cherries but it's left us with a flavour that has very limited utility. Still, it's a serviceable cherry which is a rarity in itself. So kudos to WF for that. I just wish it was more assertive and didn't come with the jelly bean baggage.

 

[RichJB]

WF Rum Baba SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 2, 3 and 4%

Notes
Obvious first question: just what the heck is rum baba? Wiki informs me that it's a small yeast cake made from a rich brioche-style batter and then saturated with rum syrup, which was developed in France during the mid-19th century. There was some derring-do involving an exiled Polish king, a dried-out cake and a traveling troupe of patissiers. You know, as kings were wont to have in them days. But the details are probably more suited to a Kenneth Branagh historical epic than a flavour review. Anyhow, being that Poland had a hand in the origins of the treat, you'd think Inawera would have had a crack at it. But you snooze you lose and they have been scooped by the sneaky Canucks at WF, eh. Babas usually take a tapered cylindrical shape thus:



My sniff test didn't suggest much cake, more like a sweet jammy rum that is more than baking essence but less than the real drink. Off the shake and at low percentages, the mix was dominated by the rum, which had a sharp alcoholic bite to it. After a couple of weeks steep and as the percentages dial up, the flavour changes completely. The cake becomes more apparent at 3% and comes into fine, full balance at 4%. The rum also settles down, losing that initial sharpness and mellowing into the smooth warming character that you would expect from a bakery rum. At full maturity, you are left with a curiously forward- and top-heavy flavour sensation. The rum registers instantly and hard on the inhale, giving way to the cake and lingering sweetness on the exhale. Overall, it's a moist and velvety smooth vape in which the rum takes centre stage, backed by a generic but pleasant cake. There isn't much texture but the emphasis here seems to have been on the rum syrup and it works. There is nothing off and the flavour delivers what the name promises. But, and again, ...

Application
... what to do with it? One thing you won't hear too often in DIY circles is "The only thing this juice lacks is a generous dollop of rum-drenched cake". As with the Blackcherry Jelly Bean, you are limited to what you get on the label: in this case, a cake with rum syrup. It's not an unpleasant standalone flavour but, for my largely teetotaling tastes, I'd want something to share the spotlight with that rum. As luck would have it, real life culinary use of rum baba gives us some handy pointers. Rum baba is often served with a cream filling or topping. So feel free to crack out the Bav or whatever frosting is in your wheelhouse. The exiled Polish king took a fancy to raisins with it, I'd be more inclined to try apricot or peach to complement the rum and counterpoint the velvety smoothness of the syrupy cake. Nuts are another option. Whatever you decide, the base flavour has enough going for it to deliver a gourmet bakery snack.

Who wants it?
Bakery fiends. Happily, that is right up my alley. This isn't a utility flavour and you will know immediately whether you want this or not. If you're not into bakeries, this won't change your mind. But if you are, WF Rum Baba is a pleasingly innovative and original offering. It is one of those flavours that cannot be subbed.

 

[RichJB]

WF Soursop SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 1.5, 2.5 and 3,5%

Notes
Soursop is of the custard apple family of trees, which includes cherimoya and guanabana. The name is a bit misleading as you would expect anything with the name custard apple to be sweet and creamy. WF Soursop is anything but creamy. Upon opening the bottle and doing my initial sniff test, what struck me was that this is the sharpest, cleanest, freshest, zingiest flavour I'd ever encountered. My sense was that this flavour could degrease an engine block without breaking a sweat. I was so intrigued by the aroma that I was willing to forego my usual lengthy steeping routine and sample it after just a day or so. What I got was a sour apple with accents of pineapple and citrus behind it. Ordinarily I'm not a fan of citrus, I find it too thin and astringent. But WF Soursop pulls it off with such mouthwatering freshness and cleanness that I couldn't stop vaping it. Some get lime from it, others grapefruit. But it doesn't matter, whatever notes you detect, it is guaranteed to put the zing into any fruit mix.

Even at 1.5%, the flavour was registering prominently. However, for the sake of science, I bumped it up to 2,5% and left it to steep while I sampled the other WF flavours. That was a mistake. When I came back to it three weeks later, it was to a crushing disappointment. If you think FA citrus fades hard, you ain't seen nothing. WF Soursop withers and dies before your very eyes. Again for the sake of science, I added another percentage point and left it for a further three weeks. At that point, I was getting VG with a very faint tartness. Soursop's get-up-and-go, regrettably, got up and left. That is a crying shame because, when it is fresh, it is a spankingly stonkingly good flavour - and this from a non-citrus guy. I could vape this straight as a palate cleanser, it is that good. It even has sinus clearing properties. If you're feeling a bit clogged up, just open the concentrate bottle and take a whiff. And then another. And another. It is an addictive flavour.

Application
Anywhere you need zingy cleanness, freshness and saliva-inducing bite. Citrus mixes are the obvious fit but this will also spike up heavier, over-sweet fruits and pull them into a refreshingly tart zone. I would steer clear of bakeries and creams, this is too wet and sharp to blend well with those profiles. Stick to fruits and this will work. With the obvious caveat that you have, quite literally, a ten-day lifespan on this. Mix small batches and vape them off the shake. Then Soursop will work its magic. Leave it for two weeks or longer and you needn't have bothered. There will be little or nothing left.

Who wants it?
Fruit fundis and especially citrus lovers. It's a great 'mystery ingredient' that will bend your fruit mixes in a new direction. Happily, it's good to go off the rip. Exploit it when it's at its best and you will love this flavour.

 

[RichJB]

WF African Horned Cucumber SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 1, 2 and 3%

Notes
I can say with confidence that WF is the only DIY company to offer an African Horned Cucumber. Which is not surprising. Not only is it a rare and not very popular fruit, it combines two of the hardest fruit profiles to reproduce accurately: passion fruit and banana. On a recent podcast, ID10-T noted that WF may have done better using the alternative name of African Horned Melon. Although that doesn't accurately describe the flavour either. It is one of those compound flavours, much like Soursop, that will have different notes for different people. Before we get into that, an image of the fruit may help you to visualise what it might taste like:



The best way I can describe it is that it is passion fruit pulp infused with lime juice and the bitter throat hit of Schweppes Dry Lemon. This mixture is then loaded into a syringe and injected into a banana. The banana is more of a textural element, the dominant notes are the passion fruit backed by that zesty lime with the Dry Lemon throat hit. I've never had an African Horned Cucumber so I can't say how accurate the flavour is. But that is relatively unimportant. The key is that it is a juicy, clean, refreshing vape that will make a perfect 'mystery addition' to add to fruit mixes.

But... fade. Not as bad as the Soursop but not good either. Within a month, the banana vanishes, the passion fruit fades to about 40% of its SnV presence and the lime/Dry Lemon to about 80%. Which, seeing as that Dry Lemon throat is the only potentially unpleasant aspect of the flavour, is unfortunate. It does seem to be a phenomenon in DIY that the flavour notes you want to keep are always the first to go, and the ones you want to fade are the ones that linger. Murphy strikes again.

Application
Tropical mixes in particular will benefit from this flavour as passion fruit and lime accent most tropical fruits well. It also makes a pleasant standalone vape, which you could accent and enhance any number of ways (more banana, melon, mango, papaya, lemonade, there are many options). For a top note, 2% is ample. 0.5-1% will add the mystery effect to fruit mixes. This will serve much the same function as Inw Cactus imo, it adds juiciness. So it should be a very versatile addition to any mixer's toolbox. If you just want that Dry Lemon throat hit, you could use it in a steeped juice because that is the note that doesn't fade badly. But if you want the passion fruit or banana elements, vape it fresh.

Who wants it?
Again, this is not really a bakery or dessert flavour, I'd be inclined to use it with all-fruit mixes or beverages. As with the Soursop, you will need to SnV it or, at most, consume within two weeks of mixing. But if you're a fruit nut who doesn't have the patience to steep your juices, this should be in your wheelhouse.

 

[RichJB]

WF Sesame Candy SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 1, 2 and 3%

Notes
Sesame seeds isn't the most popular vaping flavour which is a pity because it seems to be a profile that is quite easy to get right. Inawera have two authentic sesame flavours, a straight seed flavour and a candy, and WF's Sesame Candy hits the spot too in terms of accuracy. It's a compound flavour that blends the somewhat bitter and earthy note of toasted sesame seeds with the sweetness of a hard candy brittle. This is a very stable and predictable flavour which shows no profile changes as you dial up the percentages, instead merely increasing the flavour saturation. 2% is the full flavoured sweet spot but 1% registers clear as a bell and 3% is still well-behaved without any chemical notes creeping into the flavour.

The nutty earthiness of the sesame registers immediately on the inhale, with the toasted bitter/burnt note featuring at the start of the exhale before tapering off into a candy sweet finish. At 3% the candy is a bit sweet for my palate but those with a sweeter tooth may prefer it over the more subtle sweetening at lower percentages. The bitter/burnt note may sound like an off note but it fits the profile and isn't unpleasant at all. The candy base adds probably a bit more moisture than it would in the real candy, which moves the profile from a hard candy into more of a syrup. But it's close enough that I'll accept it as a brittle. The candy base also adds some body which is sorely needed. It's hard to imagine sesame seeds being anything other than a thin and airy vape. Happily, there is no fade at all on this. After six weeks the flavour is, if anything, a bit stronger than it was fresh.

Application
As with most compound flavours, this is where things get tricky. It's an umistakable sesame candy, either you want to vape that profile or you don't. Sesame may have application to add nuttiness to tobaccos but this isn't the right sesame for that. The sweetness will be a distraction and you would also want a drier sesame. Other than that, a touch of sesame can help to add earthiness and bind different nuts together. Again, the sweet candy aspect may be a distraction. Bakeries are another option although sesame tends to be used in savory or plain rather than sweet bakeries, and there isn't much call for a bread roll with sesame seeds juice. On its own it's a decent vape although I tire of the bitter/burnt note quite quickly. It's fine in small doses but it's not something I want in an all day vape.

Who wants it?
Sesame tends to be a very personal and acquired taste. I suspect the majority of vapers could live quite happily without it. But if you're a sesame fan and Inawera's two offering didn't sate your hunger for it, this is well worth picking up. A final caveat for the casual experimenter: sesame lingers regardless of brand. So if you plan to dabble with this, be prepared to rewick often.

 

[RichJB]

WF Butterscotch Cream Pie
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 3, 5 and 7%

Notes
Butterscotch is a crowded market. Although FA and Flv have popular butterscotches, it is FW with their expertise in candies who rule the roost. Combined, their Butterscotch Ripple, Butterscotch and Butterscotch Natural take around 80% of market share on ATF. Does the WF contender stand a chance in such a lopsided market? I would reckon it does, mainly because WF hasn't produced a straight butterscotch but gone again for a compound flavour. Except this one isn't limited in its application. The supporting cream and pie notes have been implemented subtly and well. So rather than limiting the flavour's utility, they enhance it.

This is a deep, rich, sweet butterscotch, neither too light nor too dark. The cream and pie base serve to increase density and mouth feel without adding distracting flavour notes. There is the faintest hint of coconut, presumably from a Graham cracker crust to the pie. But the butterscotch is left to take centre stage. Although WF recommend 6-9% (this is one of the regular concentrates, not SC), 7% was ample for my tastes and even 5% suffices as a butterscotch top note.

The exhale is a bit odd in that the butterscotch stands out at both the beginning and end of it, with generic creamy sweetness featuring in mid-exhale. But there are no off-notes and it delivers exactly as I would expect from a butterscotch.

Application
WF perhaps intended this as a one-shot but I would use it in the same application as other butterscotches. The cream and pie base are what many mixers would add anyway to thicken and enhance the butterscotch. So think of this flavour as a pre-improved plain butterscotch. 5-7% will work as a top note, 2-3% to fill out other butterscotches or caramels.

Who wants it?
If you use butterscotch sparingly and already have FW, there is probably no need to get this one. But it does offer something different, denser and fuller than the FW solo variants. So if you're heavily into desserts and candies and use butterscotch a lot, this is well worth picking up.

 

[RichJB]

WF Sugar Cone SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 2, 3 and 4%

Notes
There are regular references, in flavour/juice reviews, to "taking you back to your childhood". Well, this flavour did exactly that. As a kid, I loved me some ice cream cones so we always had a cardboard box of crunchy cones in the kitchen. Open one of those boxes and have a whiff, you will instantly get that distinct and totally unique dark, dusty, cardboardy aroma of the cones. It's not the box, the cones actually smell like cardboard. It might not sound appetising but it is absolutely true to the profile. And it is what I get, in spades, from WF Sugar Cone.

This is a potent flavour. Even at 2%, I get sweet, dark, crunchy cone. The feel is quite dry and abrasive which is exactly what you'd expect from a cone. Texture and sweetness both dial up at 3% to the point of full flavour. At 4%, I found the sugar to become overbearing and a bit chemical so I'd keep it south of that. This is an assertive flavour which scales well.

Application
It's an ice cream cone so creams, fruits and perhaps chocolate/nuts/syrups will be the natural accompaniment. The authenticity will limit its application to, for example, cereals and pies. It will add crunch but will do it in an unmistakably cone-y way. It might work in waffles, some of which have that sugar cone vibe going. But if you want a straight ice cream cone, this will do the job.

Who wants it?
Sugar cone is quite a specialised component and a lot of mixers get around it by using Cap Sugar Cookie, FA Cookie and other bakery elements to simulate a cone. While those will work for generic crunchy bakery-ness, this is the real deal. If you're looking for an authentic cone with the presence to stand up to whatever you pair it with, look no further.

 

[RichJB]

WF Vanilla Cream Extra SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 2,5 and 3,5%

Notes
You can never have too many creams. That is one of the founding rules of DIY. Well, not really, I just made it up. But it's no less true for it. Creams are used in so many applications that having a wide range of creams with different attributes is recommended. And there should be space in everyone's toolbox for WF Vanilla Cream Extra SC. WF describe it as an extra thick, unique vanilla cream which is close enough. For me, it's a lighter version of TFA VBIC. It has a very similar commercial vanilla on top of a rich, creamy base. The WF is lighter than VBIC, not as buttery/eggy, but is also some way richer and heavier than TFA Vanilla Bean Gelato. I'd put it about midway between the two TFA offerings.

On the exhale, I get distinctive commercial vanilla which gives way to sweetened, thick dairy cream. I'd be tempted to call it a sweet cream but that conjures up notes of tangy cheesiness from the other Sweet Creams on the market. There is nothing cheesy, butyric, tangy or sour about this. It's sweet and only lightly dairy. Probably the best descriptor for it is 'silky'. It's a very smooth and full-bodied standalone vape. It's a good steeper too, retaining its flavour perfectly over an eight-week steep.

Application
What can I say, it's a cream. Chuck it at something and it will probably stick. More specifically, I'd be inclined to use this in applications where I want a TFA VBIC feel but without so much richness. And minus the pepper, of course. It does a good job of conveying cream texturally without an overly dairy taste. The signature vanilla note might limit its application a bit. But anywhere you want a cream for thickening and vanilla to round out or enhance other flavours, this will do both jobs in one go. It's quite strong as well so 0.5-1.5% in a mix should suffice. 3% gives full standalone flavour.

Who wants it?
If you absolutely have every cream you would ever want for any application already, then you don't need this. But which mixer can say that? It's a silky cream, it has good weight and mouth feel, it's topped with a tasty vanilla note, it scales well, and there is nothing off about it. I'm sure you'll find a way to use it.

 

[RichJB]

WF Quince Jelly SC
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 0,5, 1,5 and 2,5%

Notes
It's surprising that quince isn't more popular in vaping because, on paper at least, it's an ideal mixing fruit. Quince is a hybrid of apple and pear, two of the most popular fruits used to add brightness or smoothing/sweetening to other fruits. Until now, TFA has owned the quince market, more by dint of other manufacturers not competing than by TFA superiority. Alas, TFA Quince seems to be no-fly so is difficult to source locally. Does WF deliver a viable rival?

On the nose, the WF Quince Jelly delivers exactly what you would expect: a fresh aroma in which both apple and pear are discernible. The vape. however, offers a different experience. The best way to describe it is a bright, tart candy apple with a pear blanket thrown over it. I last ate quince many years ago but this isn't an authentic quince. The apple is too candyish. It would be very bright, tart and forward as you would want from a candy apple. But the pear element knocks the sharp edges off, smooths it out, adds some grainy texture and drags it back into non-assertive territory. Which is exactly what quince is: apple calmed down by pear.

I am impressed once again by WF getting the moistness level just right in this flavour. It's not a jelly, there is no chewy texture and it is more moist than a jelly. But it's not cactus-wet. Instead, it is just right: oozing juice without overt wetness. If I had to find fault, it's that the flavour reads as two distinct and different flavours (apple and pear) rather than a single homogenized fruit. It also reads a bit weirdly because the pear is way more realistic than the apple. So you have a fruit that contains both candy and authentic elements. It's a little sweeter than natural quince too. WF do seem to enjoy sweet flavours.

Overall, though, WF pull it off quite well. It's a pleasant standalone vape at 2,5%. I wouldn't go higher than that as the apple is already starting to get a bit chemical. However, it probably won't be used as a top note. The pear mutes the apple too effectively for it to be used in that role. Instead, it will be an accent flavour around 0.5-1%.

Happily, it also hangs together really well over a steep. Mine steeped for around eight weeks and the apple holds its shape well, retaining its sharpness albeit restrained by the pear.

Application
This will be a useful addition to fruit mixes where you want either the crisp brightness of apple or the smooth sweetness of pear, but without either of those flavours being too distinct and dominant. It's dry enough that you could use it in bakeries, not so dry that it will detract from fruit juices or shakes. So it will shine as a versatile all-rounder.

Who wants it?
Primarily, those who mix a lot with apple but are frustrated by assertive flavours like FA Fuji restricting their usefulness. This is definitely an apple-forward quince but the pear controls it to the point where you could add it to many fruits without distracting too much from the top note. It will add a bit of tart brightness and a bit of sweetening, both at a good juicy-but-not-wet level. I suspect I'll be using this a lot in the 0.5-1% range. It's not dead-on authentic quince but it doesn't need to be. It does the job that a quince should do and that's good enough.

 

[RichJB]

WF Caramel Butter
Tested in the Hadaly clone, 0.5Ω simple spaced SS coil at 25W, full Cotton Bacon v2 wicks
Tested at 2, 4, 6 and 8%

Notes
"Warm gooey caramel infused with melted butter" is how WF describe this. That is well and good but it raises the question: why pair a soft caramel with butter? The cynic in me suspects that WF ran into the same grittiness problem that FA experience with their caramel, and butter seemed a shortcut to a moist solution. In this case, it's a fix that doesn't quite work.

The caramel base note has decent flavour. It's a medium-dark and only moderately sweet caramel but it is hard crack. Perhaps WF hoped that the butter would transform it into soft crack caramel. Instead, it gives the impression of a hard sucking candy caramel that has been dipped in melted butter. "Infused with melted butter" isn't how I'd describe it. "Coated" is more accurate because the two flavours separate in the vape. The start of the exhale is tasty caramel. Then the greasy butter note kicks in and builds throughout the exhale. Some concentrates leave you with sugar lips, this one leaves you with greasy lips. the butter note lingers after the caramel has gone. It is an odd sensation and not what I want from a caramel.

This is one of the regular WF flavours, not SC, and is not very potent. The caramel scales well and didn't get astringent at any percentage right up to 8%. That said, it also doesn't register very strongly. It appears to be struggling to break free of its buttery shackles, if butter could be described in shackle-ish terms. Overall, the experience doesn't quite hang together. It's not an unpleasant flavour, just not very alluring either.

Application
This is tough. It would probably work in a really dry bakery where you simultaneously wanted a caramel topping and strong buttery moistening. That's not the sort of challenge that most mixers will experience often. Other than that, I'm hard pressed to think of an application where this would be better than other caramels on the market. You are not going to skirt that butter note and lingering aftertaste.

Who wants it?
This is a niche flavour. If the grittiness of FA Caramel drives you crazy and you absolutely must have a more moist and smooth caramel, this is an option. But it's not the right sort of moistness and smoothness, and is a workaround that doesn't get us any closer to the ideal caramel.