Is TPA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream or TPA Vanilla Swirl known to mute flavors?

I’m trying to make a blueberry vanilla waffle recipe and I put in both bilberry and blueberry extra in with VBIC and all I can really taste is the 5% TPA Belgian waffle after about 10 day steep. I don’t know maybe I didn’t do something right.

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I’ve got experience with all of those except for bilberry, and I don’t remember any muting. Blueberries are typically weaker flavors IMO. Without knowing all the flavor %'s, hard to say for sure, but sounds like the waffle is stronger, with the VIBC smoothing that out, and running over the fruits. What percentages are you using ?

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Thank you for your advice its

TPA Belgian waffle - 6%
TPA VBIC - 5%
FA Meringue - 2%
TPA Bavarian cream - 3%
TPA blueberry extra - 5%
FA bilberry - 1%

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Lower the waffle to 4.5 or 4%
Lower the vbic to 2.5% and even lower if all you wanted was the vanilla nuance, in general I would work with different vanillas if that was the plan, if you wanted ice cream on top tho up it to 6-8%
Meringue and Bavarian cream together in this combination mute, lower the meringue to 1 or lower, bavarian cream down to 1.5-2% or use vanilla swirl at 2-3% instead of Meringue and Bavarian cream, would add more vanilla and makes the ice cream much fuller if thats the goal.
Blueberry extra is fine if you want a nuance of that fruit, but pair it with wild or any other blueberry, maybe some huckleberry , boysenberry or your bilberry, black currant etc. But if all you got is that then raise the blueberry extra to 5.5 and bilberry to 2 or 3.

Try it right after mixing (24hrs) and see if the blueberry is now potent enough if tho wait 3 days try again, if still good try after 7 days, still good? Well grants lol if you feel any muting or fading next time adjust the percentages again. Its trial and error really, be patient tho.

Edit: I’m at work so I can’t grab my flavor notes ATM, but I think TPA waffle took a long time steeping anyway? 3 weeks at least I think, might be wrong tho, maybe leave it as is and let it steep, make a new tester with adjusted percentage and at the end see which one got you closer? Just my thoughts

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Agreed with @eStorm lower the BW, and that’s a LOT of creamery-ish elements all working to pound your BB into nothing. I agree with him, on dropping the BW, BC, VBIC, and Meringue. You were smart to add some punch to the BB with the Bilberry, but it won’t boost the BB per se, just add some tart and sharpness to it. BB Extra isn’t all that strong, despite it’s “extra”. I use a lot of BB Wild and it’s not very strong either. If your complaint is not enough fruit, you may have to raise the BBE and/or suppliment it with another BB to fill it out. Having tried the Real Flavors SC Blueberry, I can tell you that it kicks major BB butt if it fits your profile.

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FWIW, I had real trouble tasting anything Blueberry until I got some FW Blueberry and mixed it with FA Bilberry in a recipe by @SthrnMixer :smiley:

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yes everyone has said everything i would, and @Lolly is soooo right about FW blueberry its greeaat, i will say over creaming a recipe will bury flavors it took me a long time to change that habit

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@fidalgo_vapes But can you ever really have too much cream >> ??? :slight_smile:

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You can apparently in OPs case, otherwise I agree there never can be enough cream anywhere, but I guess the question is more likely, when is it too much? :wink:

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i hear ya loud and clear , unfortunately the answer would be yes :frowning: lol

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thats the tricky part , at least for cream lovers

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thank you all for your suggestions i greatly appreciate it. As you can see im a cream/custard FREAK of nature lol i cant get enough of it, id make a cinnamon roll custard menthol if i had to LOL. I was thinking that the waffle was too much myself and was actually planning on changing it to 4% to begin with. im kinda looking for a nice waffle but not too prominent with a creamy vanilla blueberry is all. thank you @eStorm i appreciate you and everyone else with their input. so essentially its all the cream working against the fruit thats muting it and not the VBIC per say? ive heard that it can overpower flavors quite a bit thats why i made this post but wasnt sure if vanilla swirl did the same or if it would be a good alternative for the vanilla notes. Thanks again everyone!

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@VariousVapes Well it’s really up to your profile. VBIC could still run the mix in higher numbers. It has a creamy component, so if you only wanted to add vanilla there are plenty of vanilla flavors without the creamy elements.

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You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s the Belgian Waffle TPA, man when I first got it a few years ago I thought because it was TPA it would kind of fade nicely into a mix. Heck no it doesn’t. Try 1.5-3% instead in a mix, it is one of those TPA flavors that is just a little more potent.

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@Silhouette thank you so much I appreciate you, yea you know what, now that I think about it, it is really strong innit? Lol

@SessionDrummer yea I freaking LOVE VBIC in mixes just not by itself. Its so good I think with others.

Thank you both for your feedback and info I really appreciate it!

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