I’m getting a VERY Sweet Vanilla Milk, with the vanilla taking the over the show. Like 75/25 Vanilla to Milk going on. The juice tastes damn good. Off the knuckle, you’d think SS was added. That sweet for real.
These Vanilla’s from Apex are doing well in my book. This one could be used in any vanilla recipe I wanted to create.
3% feels just right. Full, smooth and leaves a pleasant taste on the exhale.
A lot going on here… I am enjoying this as a solo tbh.
It’s getting a 9.0 from me. Pick it up if you can.
Thanks to @D.Sims I’m looking forward to getting these mixed up. Very grateful to be able to test these. Just out of the box something vanilla smells delicious!
Lemon Lime 7
Whipped Cream
Vanilla custard (natural)
Vanilla custard (art)
Sugar cookie
Vanilla ice cream
French vanilla
Graham cracker
Bavarian cream
Vanilla milk
KLP
Bday cake
& vanilla cream cookie filling which is what I originally had that started this apex thing lol
Well, I’m not sure yet the culprit of the delicious smell I got opening the box…but whatever it is…I’m getting more. I’ve only ever tested one vanilla milk which was The Flavor Smiths…and it was disappointing…so I’m hoping this one rocks! I’ll have to check your percentages to test at…who even started this Sterling Cloud thing anyways?...uhhh I think it was me with the cookie filling
Pure Fiori di Sicilia Extract, Natural (Silver Cloud Flavors)
Distributed Apex Flavors, Inc.
Sku 074-811
“In English, the Italian “fiori di Sicilia” translates as flower of Sicily. While this flavor is often described as a combination of vanilla and orange, it is actually a delightful floral extract. In Italy it is used to flavor traditional panettone and other baked goods. It can be used in any application requiring a water soluble flavor. In your typical 3 cup baking mix, we recommend using one teaspoon, or 0.50% by weight of the dry ingredients”
Pure Fiori di Sicilia Extract contains ethyl alcohol, water and natural flavor. This extract is sugar and gluten-free.
Tested low at 1%, assuming this would mostly be used as an additive. Not as floral as I expected, pleasant orange / lemon / citrus notes, slightly floral.
Little to no vanilla at this percentage.
I’m sure this will be a useful additive for me as the floral is not as offensive as I expected.
Hard to rate this as I purchased this solely as an additive, but 5/10 for lack of vanilla
I’ve used it low in a couple fruit recipes, didn’t seem to add much. Supposedly it’s a bakers secret to cookies and such, I’ll have to play around with it in some bakery’s, I’m not a Cereal Vapist myself but can see it working there if you can hide the floral which is mild…
@SessionDrummer here is the original. I made a few recipes private after I caught that guy selling one shots without due credit. I thought I had remade them all public again.
Ok I mixed up a couple samples of this (1 regular and 1 with Horchata in place of cinnamon sugar) and both are really quite good. A little heavy handed with all the vanilla as the cinnamon sugar seems to get lost in the original. It’s a little more pronounced in the version with horchata.
This is the 5th flavor I have tested from Apex- and I have not been let down yet. This BC is VERY SMOOTH, w/ subtle vanilla notes. It reminds me of a scaled back version of the VC’s I tested from them.
The Cream is foremost to palette. Super smooth- and delicious. I’d give it 40% of the total value of this flavor, with vanilla coming in at 20%, with the rest rounding out the other 40%. Egg, Milk- and whatever goodies they have in there.
I’m enjoying the tester so much- I won’t swap juices until I run out. Solo@ 3% would work just fine.
Vanilla Ice Cream (Sterling Cloud) 3.5% (1-15-25) – The main take away with this flavor was clean, clean, CLEAN. As a warning, I WILL be double rating this one, so be advised. Why ?? It was such a clean VIC, and appeared to be completely devoid of the sometimes typical DAAP buttery creamy-ness, and bad (LOL) elements, your tastes, and mileage will vary. At this point, it has become very obvious that SC knows how to do Vanillas, and this one was no different. The V here presented as a Madagascar mixed with a Vanilla bean, and it was SUPER clean. It leaned very natural with only hints of artificial-ness. The Ice Cream portion was also very clean, and although lacking the “baddies”, and buttery rich-ness, it still portrayed a very accurate Ice Cream. There was SOME mouthfeel, but only some. Clean, accurate, and even with the Vanilla, was light enough that you could easily swing it with fruits, caramels, etc. It wasn’t completely neutral, but would be easy to push/pull.
At 3.5% it was a moderately strong flavor, and I’d rate it at aout a 6.5/10 on the strength scale. It tasted good at this weight, but was still somewhat lighter. Sweetness was actually a little below mid-level, which was a surprise. No off-notes, BA, or any other offensive-ness, including Black Pepper. All in, a very impressive, accurate, somewhat lighter VIC without being overly buttery or heavy. As promised, I’ll DUAL rate this one. For a buttery rich, heavy VIC I would rate it lower at a 6.0/10, but for a cleaner, non-butter, not quite as rich VIC, I would rate it very high at a 9.25/10. Your tastes and/or DAAP needs will dictate which way you go on this one. Even sans the buttery heavy-ness, this one was good.
Vanilla Milk (Sterling Cloud) 3.5% (1-18-25) – Getting down to the LAST two in this series, with the Vanilla Milk. This one presenter exactly as it was named with a great Vanilla Bean, riding on top of a convincing Milk carrier. No creams or creameries here, but actually a very good milk. I didn’t get any condensed, or powdered notes here, and the milk was JUST creamy enough to mimic a good whole milk. The Vanilla while presenting as much more of a clean Vanilla Bean, did have just a HINT of spicy-ness on the finish, that kept this one interesting.
At 3.5% it was somewhat full, and felt like a somewhat more relaxed flavor, and I’d rate it about a 5.5-6.0/10 on the strength scale. At times I did wish I had just a bit more saturation, but even as it stood, you could solo it. Sweetness was a few ticks below mid level, and I didn’t get any off-notes, or even any complaints, with the exception of just wanting a little more LOL. If used with the right flavors it could pull the main note, but with louder/stronger flavors it could be overrun. All in, a simple, yet tasty two noter from Sterling, that was exactly what it said it was. Marking down, only for some lack of saturation/presence. 9.1/10.
Whipped Cream (Sterling Cloud) 3.5% (1-27-25) – Rounding out these extras sent out by @D.Sims with this one. Whipped Creams can often be harder to test, as most of them are lighter, and less assuming. This one was right there in that ballpark, while not being overly strong at the 3.5% testing weight but still very good. Light, creamy, with some very light hints of vanilla. Overall it was fairly neutral, and did convincingly portray a whipped cream. Mouthfeel was so so on the inhale, but was more pronounced on the exhale. At 3.5% while light, still registered at about a 6.5-7.0/10 on the strength scale, and there were no off-notes, and sweetness tasted right at mid-level, which worked with this flavor. All in, a tasty whipped cream, with some mouthfeel, a light vanilla accent, but fairly nuetral overall, that was convincingly real, and tasty. I could see this working very good with cakes, pies, milkshakes, and much more. It felt very good at a high 9.0/10, and was a nice cream, and tasty way to close out this series. Thanks again out to @D.Sims for sending these extra flavors my way.
Just wanted to pass this along to you guys. I tested Sterling Cloud (APEX)'s Sweet Potato Pie during the first series of tests, and it was a wowzer, and I started using it more often. I was going to re-stock even MORE, and went to APEX’s site, and it has disappeared. I raced over to DIYVS, and while not quite as cheap, still has 120’s in stock. If you love the SPP, and/or have tried it and rated it as highly as I did, it might be going away (but you never know, until it’s too late).
Complete transparency, I haven’t single flavor tested these flavors, but I needed a lime recipe for TMA next week. I’ve been playing around with TPA klp lately, so I thought I’d play around with some of these SC flavors. Just mixed it, haven’t tried it, only on the back of my hand. JD whiskey is a great addition to custards and desserts.
thinking Cap Horchata may go really good in this.
