Purple Plum (SSA) 1% (11-7-21) – If you really knew how many different types of plums there were you’d probably go PlumCrazy !!! Yes, there’s a lot. I won’t delve into which particular one this is, but suffice it to say, this Purple Plum tasted pretty good, and accurate (hint, Purple). Fairly accurate, and mostly natural tasting, it did give a good sense of “purple”. Nicely present @ 1% and at about mid level sweet, Sobucky did a really good job of capturing this elusive fruit. I got mainly the fleshy body of the fruit, and no tart skin in it, and that would have really pushed this one into super delicious. Even missing the tart skin, this body only plum was convincing, accurate, and tasty. Nothing off-putting or out of place, no florals, etc. I couldn’t help but wonder if a smidge of TPA Sour might just even make it better. As it stood, a solid, plum delicious contender from Sobucky. Minor take offs for the missing tart skin notes, and it felt deliciously plated @ 9.2/10
Ripe Cherry (SSA) 0.6% (11-7-21) – With this, the third Cherry from Sobucky (I know I’m repeating), surely this one, would be the poison, soapy perfume, right ?? Ummm NOPE. THREE great cherries in a row from Sobucky, and many MFG’s can’t even get ONE right. The Compote Cherry was more of a jammed (compote) Cherry, the Juicy Cherries was a darker, almost Black Cherry for comparison. This one favored more of a Maraschino Cherry, but it had some DARKNESS in it, hehe, JUST to keep you on your toes. Above mid level sweet by a hair, a few tart notes, and a delicious mid body of a Mara, but with a slightly darker finish. Like most Cherries (please heed my low testing percentages on ALL three Sobucky Cherries), you could go TOO high, and blow your face off. Luckily I’ve already DONE THAT for you guys years ago, and learned my lessons. In the words of the famous Flavorah Goddess @SmokyBlue, “Start Low”. I think I saw another review of this one, wherein the tester got some “plastic shower curtain”, but it was tested FAR too high @ 2.0%. At 0.6% this one was perfect, non-fatiguing, and had NO off notes, florals, or soapy-ness. Because this one smelled SOO good in the bottle (as did Sobucky’s Cola), I mixed it up into a delicious Cherry Cola, so feel free to try it in action. All in, a third delicious cherry from Sobucky, that centered around the maraschino, with a darker finish, which worked to round it out, and give it some weight. Hands down, damn near perfect, and leaving it at 9.8/10.
Ripe Peach (SSA) 1% (11-9-21) – Getting closer to the end of this, Series III in the Sobucky line, but we’re NOT slowing down yet !!! Peach, my old friend, how are you ? Ok, first things first, WAS this Peach Juicy ? Kinda. When I think of a “juicy peach” I really like how TPA did it, and although it’s not a super peach, it is very juicy. This one had much less of the juicy, but what it DID have, MORE than made up for it. This, is a beautiful, yellow peach flavor that once you start, you will find hard to put down, even as a solo. @ 1% it felt almost perfect, below mid level sweet, and presented as very natural tasting. I almost hate to say that is has almost some “canned” peach elements in it, as that may conjure up images of sickly sweet, syrupy peaches, which this is not, but it has some elements of that, paired, with a nicely ripened yellow peach. While not overly “juicy” it was not dry, and there were no offputting notes to distract you from it’s yellowy deliciousness. If you love peaches, and don’t need a super juicy one, or a white one, this will most def. work for you. Just delicious. Is it “Ripe” ?? Sure it is !!! It was very hard to find any negatives with this one, so leaving it fairly high @ 9.75/10.
Many more in this run?
Just added the rest you rated over 9. This method hasn’t failed me previously when following your reviews.
I also know how it works as soon as I pull the trigger on that cart, one more will be needed.
I too did not like this one…your description is about the same. Although I would be a fraction harsher on the rating.
Yes, Sir!!
- Ripe Pear (SSA) 1%
- Shortbread Biscuit (SSA) 1%
- Sweet Cream (SSA) 1%
- Sweet Watermelon (SSA) 1%
- Toffee (SSA) 1%
Thank you very much, and I’m glad we share similar tastes.
Oooorah @marsh8.
Ripe Pear (SSA) 1% (11-10-21) – Moving in TO the Pear. This one smelled grrrreat in the bottle, but it tasted somewhat different when testing. My three initial thoughts were: Somewhat dry, slightly astringent, and VERY relaxed (light). Throughout the entire test, these three things stayed in the forefront. Sometimes, flavors DO smell great in the bottle, but either shift completely when tasting/testing, and/or loose a lot of perceived strength. It started out like a “green” non-descript fruit with hints of pear, which slightly increased in strength, and finished fairly sweet, but again, with a HINT of Pear, but more non-descript. NOW, we always talk about the evil “overflavoring” as the bane of flavorings, and it’s always POSSIBLE that increasing the flavor percentages, MIGHT increase the flavor. I may re-run and re-test this one @ 2%-2.25% but I don’t think it will increase is presence much. Not bad by any means, but for my tastes, I need a certain level of presence, to really be able to appreciate and/or use a flavor. It would need a lot of boosting to survive in a mix IMO. FA’s Pear however, would not, and could maybe use it’s strengths to boost this one. Not a bad flavor, but would need a lot of help, and boosting. For it’s accuracy, as a Ripe Pear I’d rate it fairly high, but with such a subdued overall impact, will have to drop it a bit. Felt accurate at 6.5/10.
Shortbread Biscuit (SSA) 1% (11-11-21) – Having tested Sobucky’s …
Shortbread Cookie
Shortbread Cookie (SSA) 2% (9-18-20) – Oh Nooo, another cookie ?? Think again. That’s what I thought going into this one, “Do we need another cookie” ?? Well, after trying this one, I think we DO. This review directly followed my review of SSA’s Raspberry Syrup, and I immediately wanted to mix the two of these. At 2%, this one was right on track, rich, full, buttery, and somehow, really captured the Shortbread aspect(s). Not sure how they did it, but it is clearly NOT a cookie, or biscuit, but lands smack, dab, in the middle of Shortbread city. One could say it is “similar” to Jungle Flavor’s biscuit, which presented almost as a pairing of INW Bicuit, and FA’s Cookie, but this one is much more than that. SSA apparently spent some time really nailing the shortbread aspect of this, and it shows. You almost get a grainy bakery in this one, coupled with some buttery goodness. Not topped out at 2%, and it felt great at this weight. Sweetness was almost mid level, with no real take-offs. Surely it could be push/pulled if needed, depending on your American vs. European bakery needs, but you might just find after testing it, that you wont. All in, this is an outstanding, and perhaps the best shortbread cookie (type) that I have tested. Didn’t really pick up any vanilla per se, and not 100% sure if I’m getting a smidge of almond or not, but possibly so. If you’re in the market for a great shortbread cookie, and/or love your bakeries, you’ll have to add this one to your list as well. Sorry guys, I’m trying to go critical on these flavors, but after 3 in, I’m having a hard time finding any faults thus far. I kept teetering on a rating, because you just can’t rate everything at the top, but I emptied an entire tester tank on this one as well, and was left with no negatives. A great bakery shortbread cookie here, with butter elements that just can’t be denied. 10/10 .
… over a year ago, I did want to see how this one fared. Granted, when you test as many flavors as I do, a YEAR, is a lifetime LOL. I would like to remind my American friends, that “biscuit” many times refers to a European biscuit, not a Bisquick (INW Biscuit) American style. This one WAS the European biscuit, which was actually really good. It presented as a nice below mid-level sweet, fairly neutral cookie, with some very good buttery notes. The first two things that jumped out were the butter, and the bakery/grain notes, as they were most prominent, and accurate. Most times I’ve eaten great European biscuits, they were very simple, Butter, Sugar, Flour, and this flavor perfectly captures that. Simple, not overly sweet, and buttery delicious. Waterbridge really helps to break down the Cookie vs. Biscuit differences. Before I knew it, the tester was gone, and that’s always a good sign. What’s most interesting about this one, was it’s simplicity, and how well it did it. Butter, flour, and sugar, maybe a smidge of almond, a hint of ever so slight vanilla maybe, but you get the picture. Nothing out of place, and at 1%, it WAS a keeper. Another one, that was hard to fault. Easy to build on, or simply use, as is. 9.85/10.
SERIES III: Just got another load of Sobucky Super Aromas. Will be mixing them up as soon as I can, short steeping, and some more testing !!! [20211023_064135] [20211023_064251] Same testing setup as always, SteamCrave RDTA v.1, with 7 wrap Kanthal 24ga. vertical coils. [20211029_072826] [20211029_072912] ) [20211029_073214] [20211029_073548] [20211029_073717] [20211029_074031] Apricot (SSA) 1% (10-29-21) – First one on deck in Series III of my Sobucky tests. This smelled re…
Sweet Cream (SSA) 1% (11-12-21) – As I always complain, testing creams/milks can be complicated, as often times, by themselves, they can be bland, lifeless, and hard to quantify. More often they’re EFFECT in mixes can be MUCH more apparent, like smoothing, rounding rough edges, softening, even helping to blend, untamable mixes. I get a lot of questions about creams, and many people don’t know that Sweet Cream isn’t really sweet, just an absence of sour. This one was somewhat sweetened, but it actually worked. No BA here, or off-putting notes, and it did impart a very nice mouthfeel. At times it seemed to straddle an almost condensed milk and a cream, but even that, was an approximation. Creamy without being milky, sweetened, without being overly sweet, and it was actually surprisingly good, on it’s own. Because it was fairly neutral, and wandered between exact identification, I could see many uses for this one. A really good showing from Sobucky in the cream department, and solidly placing it at a 9.2/10.
Sweet Watermelon (SSA) 1% (11-12-21) – Going into this one, I was thinking, “OK, here we go, another candied Watermelon”. Well, I was WRONG. There was a LOT more going on here, than a simple “Sweet WM”. The overall hue, body, and natural fullness of this one, immediately reminded me of one of my …
Top Tier Watermelons
Watermelon (MF) 1% (8-24-18) – My current go to for WM is LA colorless. This one might just change that. Firstly this is a very delicious, juicy watermelon, and at 1% tasted very full, just sweet enough, and really embodied the best parts of a watermelon. You could really taste just enough of the red and white parts, and maybe a hint of the rind to top it off. As expected (with all naturally extracted flavors) it was not heavy handed, and tasted, well, very natural. In comparison to the LA colorless version, this one just tasted more clean, natural, and no candyness whatsoever. This may influence your use of it depending if you are going for a candied mix as opposed to a accurate watermelon. Strength was very good @ 1%, clean, full, and just plain damned good. I can’t find faults with this one, and this seems to be a growing trend with my MF tests so far. For a very accurate, clean, natural, and full tasting watermelon you cannot go wrong with this one. Strength wise in comparison to the previous MF flavors @ 1%, this one was still stronger than the morello cherry, but behind the Fig and Honeydew Melon. Another winner with no complaints @ 10/10 .
Now it wasn’t nearly as deep, and full as MF’s but dammit, it was IN the ballpark. Some WM’s are one dimensional with mostly the white, or red parts, maybe some rind, but seldom do you get more than one in a single flavor. Maybe a smidge of the rind here, but a super helping of both the red and white meats were present here. Sweetness was just below mid-level, and it was full at 1%, with no off notes, and I couldn’t find anything artificial. I find that most really good, accurate WM’s have an almost musky note, and that may not even be the best descriptor, but it’s NOT off-putting, IS in real WM, and adds to the authenticity, and this one had it. No seeds, was about the only negative on this one, hehe. Now with all natural, super contenders like MF out there, deciding where to place this was challenging. In direct comparison to MF’s 10/10, this would easily be a 9.25/10.
Toffee (SSA) 1% (11-13-21) – Wow, this was a long 26 flavor run, and now, we end it with this one, Sobucky’s Toffee. End with a whimper, or a bang ?? When I first tried this one, I immediately thought seven out of ten. Not even sure why, it just stuck. Alright, it did have most of the Toffee elements, but felt somewhat lacking in the rich buttery-ness. NOW, you might say, if it’s Dik/DAAP free, a good trade off ? Maybe. The butter and caramelized sugar were there, and it did say Toffee, it just didn’t scream it. Maybe 2 dimensional, instead of 3 dimensional ? Now, that doesn’t mean it was bad, because it wasn’t, it just felt a little lacking in depth. Possibly increasing the rate could help, and it was tested at the low, low, low rate, of 1% to be fair. Nothing off putting, and the caramelized sugar aspect(s) carried the day, and did so, at about mid level sweet. All in, a respectable Toffee flavor. It felt good at (you guessed it), 7/10.
Wow, THAT was a big series. If you’ve made it ALL the way to the bottom here, then I salute you. Thanks for hanging in there, and hopefully some of these notes will help you make better buying/mixing decisions, but as always, never rely on anyone else’s tastes, but trust your own.
Don’t forget to stop over at Bull City Flavors, and pick up some for yourselves.
S.D.
That’s a BIG Thank you! for all your effort. You sure have a lot of stamina with all of the testing you do and we appreciate it.
Thanks again, for all of your dedication, and hard work, SD. Means alot to me, and I know for many other’s! Putting the time in, to not just introduce us to the flavor(s) you’ve tested, but to actually fully acquaint us with each one! That give’s all of us a ‘leg up’ in our decision making process…to which concentrate’s we should allow to lighten our wallet’s.
You sure have a lot of stamina with all of the testing you do
Thank you @Wayneo, not sure if it’s stamina, or stupida, but I got it.
Well thanks a lot @whthek.
to not just introduce us to the flavor(s) you’ve tested, but to actually fully acquaint us with each one!
That really means a lot.
Look, I completely underestimated my cotton burn rate, and gotta throw up an emergency GoFundMe !!!
Kidding.
Here’s the dick punch, I’m throwing them up here, ELR, BCF, and a few other sites, and I just want to get them DONE, so I can BBQ, then …
gotta throw up an emergency GoFundMe
Hehe…where’ve I heard THAT before.
when it rain’s, it pour’s, aye.
Well, you can count on one of two things happening, from here…‘3rd time’s the charm’, or, ‘3 strike’s, and yer out’. lol I’ll hope for the charm