I just made an order from Chef’s and picked up their new Hazelnuts And Cream, it’s a profile that I like so I thought it was worth a punt for £1.50. Thank you @SessionDrummer for doing the SFT on these new flavours, as always it’s much appreciated mate.
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Cake (Sponge Cake) (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21) – Classic sponge cake isn’t overly complicated, with eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla, and sugar, but I’ve found it harder to reproduce as a flavor. Chef’s did a pretty good job doing it however. All of the profiles here combined to a pretty realistic sponge cake. At times I almost got a hint of AP, but, it was subdued and in no way detracted from the delicious cake. About mid level sweet, and tasting fine at 1.5%, this one was a blank slate with which you could easily push it up with some strawberry, and/or whip cream, and really let it shine. As it stood, pretty convincing with no off-notes, and as exciting as a sponge cake it, they pretty much nailed it. If you’re needing a cake, that’s spongy, this one should be on your rack. Easily 9/10.
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You’re very welcome @JimmyLee.
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Cereals (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21) – A generic cereal base, would be what best sums this one up. Nothing fancy, nothing stand out, and fairly neutral cereal-ish base. Got a few of the same notes here from their Sponge Cake, but in far reduced amounts. Hints of AP, and no real grainy-ness to speak of. Didn’t feel heavy @ 1.5%, and nothing off-putting to be found here. Could easily be used as a “baser” and tweaked as needed. Minor take-offs for some missing grains, but overall, was an effective cereal base. Felt good at 6.5/10.
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That sponge cake sounds good, I’m thinking about a plain cake and custard recipe without any fruit. Maybe marry it up with another cake flavour for added density. 
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Coconut Macaroons (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21) – Many people don’t actually even know what’s IN a Coconut Macaroon, and they’re not complicated. Coconut, sweetened condensed milk, egg whites, vanilla, and salt. Did Chef’s nail this flavor ?? YES !!! —END of REVIEW----. Kidding. Wow, talk about an IMPACT from merely 1.5% of a flavor, this one has it, and it’s great. I think many times, peoples tastes regarding coconuts vary wildly, so keep that in mind any time you read a review of coconut flavors. For my tastes, this one had a perfect pairing of both a creamy-ish coconut, and almost a raw coconut. A tick above mid-level sweet, with a super delicious sweetened creamy back end. The coconut had no “greasy-ees”, or “oily-ees”, and at the very end it finished with a nice astringent, acidic note, which really carried the entire flavor home. Had the coconut been purely creamy, this wouldn’t have been there, and it WOULD have been missed. Tasting this flavor, really had a beginning, middle, and end. Quite interesting, and super delicious, and despite emptying two testers, I could find NO fault with this one. If you like coconut, this one might just end up on your short list. Unquestionably 9.8/10.
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Crazy Rainbow (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21) – As a general rule, I do not use any cooling agents, and despite trying them all, have never enjoyed them. This is a disclaimer, as this flavor HAS cooling in it, so please keep this in mind. It’s a shame, because the flavor(s) are actually quite good, BUT, if you are an anti-cooler like me, the cooling can just get in the way. I would wish that Chef’s would carry this exact flavor, but without the cooling as an option. As far AS the flavor/profiles, they’re actually quite good, but somewhat obscured from me due to the aforementioned. I checked Chef’s product page, and didn’t see any mention of the cooling but they billed it as a Lemon, Black Currant, Red Fruit medley, and that sounds about right. The lemon, and red fruits are the two main profiles, with possibly some currant in there. The cooling is fairly prevalent and persistent throughout, and your like/dislike will obviously come into play here. The red fruit/lemon pairing is actually really good, and felt perfect at 1.5%, and with below mid level sweetness, was interesting, non-fatiguing, and damned fine tasting. It would be nice if Chef’s stated the cooling on their page, and I’ll contact them about that. As it stood, from a flavoring perspective, the pairings, were quite unique, fresh, and damned good, so I’ll rate on that aspect of it. If you’re a “no cooler” like me, stay away, but if you’re not, and you’re in need of an interestingly unique pairing of Lemon, Red Fruits, and a smidge (maybe) of currant, you should try this one. 9.1/10.
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SNIFFER ALERT – 6-13-21 !!!
When loading up the 2nd batch of these new Chef’s Super Concentrates, the Waffle was the last one I mixed up. As is often the case, I smell them in the bottles, just to get an initial assessment, and something very SURPRISING happened. I thought the Waffle smelled familiar, and I ran to my Inawera rack, and WHAT do you know. Smell wise (haven’t tested it yet), but smell wise, this new Waffle smells an AWFUL lot like my Inawera Waffle-YC !!!
I even smelled it side by side with my remaining INW Waffle-YC, and wow, they were REALLY close. Since Inawera discontinued a few of their flavors, many of us, have been on the prowl looking, so I’ll keep you guys up to date on the WAFFLE TEST !!!
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Creme Brulee (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21) – A rich custard base, topped with a crisp, caramelized sugar, who wouldn’t like that ?? !!! The first thing that struck me with this one, was how well Chef’s did the caramelized sugar. Custards are plentiful, but a good caramelized sugar, almost burnt, but not bitter can be hard to get right, and they did. Underneath it, was a nice somewhat relaxed vanilla custard. Eggs and vanilla were present, but it wasn’t overly eggy. The sugar topping was ALMOST the star of the show here, but not entirely. The custard held it’s own, and worked flawlessly with the topping, and what a one-two punch it was. Above mid-level sweet, and it tasted nicely full at 1.5%. Nothing off-putting, just a great tasting experience. The overall creamy level was about a 6/10, so it was not a super dense creamy flavor, but honestly, after you start tasting it, that won’t matter. Further testing revealed that the vanilla did take front seat from any egg notes, which was nice as opposed to a heavier egg-centric custard. Again, perfect pair between the custard and topping. More than rich enough to get your attention, but not oppressively so. All in, this might JUST be the best Creme Brule I’ve tasted. I could find NO faults with this one. Handily a 9.9/10.
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loving these write ups even if my bank balance isn’t! My next concentrate shop will be some of these based on your write ups and flavours you haven’t tested but i like the sound of after all in general it seems Chefs have done a cracking job!
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Sign up for notifications mate, they regularly have site wide 20% discount and will email you when, then you will score these at £1.20 a pop!
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@Timwis thanks mate, I already have and got quite a few quid off of my last order. Are you in their Facebook group? They have a discount code for members.
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Thanks a lot @Timwis, that means a lot. I appreciate YOU tipping off that these were being released.
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Thanks again @timwis.
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Yes, isn’t that 12% if i’m correct, use that if in a rush but try to hold fire until they have a 20% off deal especially as i buy Flavorah so that 20% comes to quite a saving!
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Custard (CSC) 1.5% (6-14-21) – If anyone knows how to completely ignore DAAP concerns, and dive RIGHT into the Custard pool, head first, it’s me. Matter of fact, I still need to try @woftam’s Custard Slut now that I think about it !!! OK, what in the hell do we have here. Hero / Zero ?? I’m leaning towards HERO people !!! Now, we don’t have to re-hash all the “What type of custard do you like” conversations, as we ALL have different tastes. I’ve got hundreds of uses for Custards thus far, and I use a wide array of them. I prefer a LESS heavy eggy custard, most of the time. This one presented as a rich, semi dense, not overly eggy custard, paired with an almost delicious pudding, BUT, there was something else. What in the hell ?? It’s almost like a lighter donut/fried dough profile. I thought I smelled donut when smelling the bottle, but wasn’t sure. Yup, that’s what I’m getting, BUT, at a much lower ratio, as opposed to the Custard/Pudding. At first I wasn’t sure, but now, I think it just works. I stopped focusing soley on it, and the sum total of the profiles, and it just works. Simple, lighter, but still heavy enough to grab your attention. Nice and tasty at 1.5%, and at about mid level sweet, having a hard time finding issues with it. For you numbers people, it was like 40% Custard, 40% Van. Pudding, and 20% Donut, and that’s what you get. If you like those three profiles, and ratios, you’ll love this flavor. For MY palate/tastes, I can’t go lower than 9.75/10.
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In some recipes i use custard with either Vanilla Pudding or VTA Pudding base, could this be used as a two for the price of one concentrate and skip the pudding?
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I think it could @Timwis, but as always, your mileage will vary, depending on your tastes. Chef’s was not an overly heavy, super rich one like CAP’s, VC, it was more, intelligent if I can say that, hehe. It was more refined, focused, and purposely constructed I guess you could say.
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Much more a homemade custard rather than waxy commercial custard heavy on the vanilla and/or egg but added some pudding to give it some density so not lightweight?
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Definitely.
I believe so, and with the Donut/Fried Dough as well.
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