Does JD Whiskey taste like I think it does?! I’d mix your recipe minus the JD and have myself a blast by the looks of it!! 
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These were my notes from when Noted dx did whiskey. I just happened to need a spice, nut or booze and thought it might work well with the sugar cookie for a “crust”/bakery. I
JD Whiskey MB 3%
MB JD 3% very mellow with not much bite or boozy-ness. Not Jack Daniels, but has some dark sweetness that would make is seem like a Jack Daniels but without booze. This seems like it’d be good for desserts. No off notes, it’s useable 6/10
I also needed a strawberry so I thought sb cheesecake would fatten up the custard a bit without being completely intrusive with SB. The klp smells great, and on the back of my hand this tastes like it’ll come together nicely. I’ve been so used to sft’ing flavors before using so mixing this blind felt weird lol. If you do mix it, let me know how you like it. It’s not public yet, but after I see what tweaks it needs it will be.
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SD have you by chance ever done a comparison of Sterling Cloud Graham Cracker and the Real Flavors Graham Cracker? Yes I’m on a quest for a Smore’s. Trying out a few new flavor’s and some new combo’s.
To me they do seem almost 99.9% identical in both flavor and mouthfeel, though I know that to me the real flavors graham cracker has a ceiling of about 1.5-2% before it starts to become weird, and we both tested the Sterling @ 2.5, I found it to be a perfect fresh GC.
I also tried it @ 2.5 and then paired it with 0.5% FW Vanilla Butternut. It was simply sheer graham cracker perfection!!!
My latest attempt
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@McDuckie I’ve never done a direct A/B comparison of the two, but it would be interesting. When I tested the Sterling Clould GC I did rate it up very high, and did place it in the same rare-ified airspace that the RFSC GC held, because they are pretty similar. The RF might have been a touch darker, maybe a hint more of the slight boozy-ness, and maybe a little more malty than the SC. Very similar though. I might have to side by side them, just to see, once and for all.
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I was pretty pissed when they disappeared from Amazon.
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Going through these and posting single flavors missed, for indexing.
Bavarian Cream (Sterling Cloud) 3.5% (1-5-25) – FIRST ONE in this series ON DECK, thanks out to the generosity of @D.Sims. Wow, as far as this one, I love it when I try a new flavor, and no direct comparisons come to mind. That’s what happened with this one, AND, in a good way. To start, it was one of the “cleaner” BC’s I’ve tried, without most of the darker, sometimes burnt notes that I’ve gotten from some BC’s. I think my first two thoughts were, “Very clean, and creamy smooth”. Very fresh, and accurate vanilla, with some egg yolk, sweetener, and cream is what this one was. Now I said egg yolks, but it wasn’t overly “eggy”, which may sound like a contradiction, but sure enough, I got some yolks, but without the overly heavy handed eggy-ness. The creamy smooth-ness was very front and center, and it didn’t taste like a pure cream, but maybe more of a milk/cream combo, which again, is accurate for an authentic BC. Sweetness was just below mid-level, and there were no off-notes to complain about. Strength wise, it was very full at 3.5%, and being a slightly lighter flavor, felt like about an 8/10 on the strength scale.
As stated before, Sterling Cloud seems to REALLY know their Vanillas, and this was evident here with the Vanilla Bean like start, followed by the present but not overbearing egg yolks, and they rode on a super smooth milk/cream carrier. Very good, and even harder to put down. About my only want, would have been a little more saturation, but only a little, so marking down ever so slightly for that, and leaving this FIRST ONE in this series very high at a 9.8/10.
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Birthday Cake (Sterling Flavors) 3.5% (1-5-25) – This one was an interesting one to test. In the bottle it smelled very close to a Cake Batter, and some of that continued when testing. It wasn’t a white cake like I’d expected, but there were some cake elements in there. I also got some good almost brown sugar, and at times, almost a molasses note, which was light. VERY interesting cake for sure. The flavor was actually very good, but not sure if it was a Birthday Cake. It had a good mouthfeel, a very smooth (creamy assuming) aspect to it. Sweetness was about mid-level, and the off-notes on this one will be hard(er) to quantify. For my tastes, brown sugar, cake batter, and sometimes molasses are not what I typically would think of in a BDay Cake. All of the notes worked together surprisingly, and it was more of a darker (not chocolate) cake, with brown sugar and cake batter mixed in. At 3.5% it was plenty strong, and it actually did taste good, but just didn’t sell me on the BDay Cake. Marking it down soley for that, and leaving it at a 6.7/10. Still worth picking up, but as more of a cake/bakery base/mixer as opposed to the main driver.
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Eggnog (Sterling Cloud) 2.5/3.5% (12-15-24) – Picked this one up later, and technically it was Apex, but will leave it as Sterling Cloud for simplicity. Out of the gate, you could tell this one was an eggnog. A light cream element, some vanilla, and some spices, which seemed to be a light cinnamon and nutmeg. At my initial testing weight of 2.5% it felt a little thin and lacking the creamy mouthfeel so I bumped it to 3.5%, and it improved, but only slightly. It was almost as if you could taste the cream, more than feel it, i.e. mouthfeel. Still tasty, but still kind of thin overall. It was similar to LorAnn’s, and it had an almost cream cheese-ey-ness to it. At times, I could have sworn I was picking up a light butterscotch note, but it wasn’t always present.
There was an undertone mixed in with the vanilla, which implied some eggy-ness, but it wasn’t overt or in your face. I thnk this one would pair up nicely with another eggnog, and would benefit from a little more eggy-ness, and creamy mouthfeel. In the ballpark, and would just need a little help. At 3.5% it was tasty, but felt a little thin, and underpowered, and sweetness was 2-3 ticks below mid-level. No off-notes or complaints not already listed, and still rated it fairly high as it was fairly accurate at an 8.4/10.
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Lemon Lime Seven Type (Sterling Cloud) 3.5% (1-6-25) – With a name like this one’s, there was no confusing what Sterling billed it as. And they were right LOL. Yes, It was very close to a Sprite, 7up pairing. Simply put, that was it, just missing the fizz that is. The lemon lime aspects were nicely paired up, and tasted very natrual, with some almost citrus oil (tasting) that lingered after the vape. Mixed in with that was more of a soda like sweetened carrier that the LL rode on. For a seemingly simple flavor, it was fairly complex, in so much that it wandered around a bit, and at time I got more of one profile, then another after that. Sweetness was just about mid level, and it worked with this soda-ish-like flavor. At 3.5% it was very good, and no real off-notes, but at times, I did taste something close to a golden syrup on the finish, but I’m not going to count that as an off-note, because it worked.
What was interesting, and why I compared it to a Sprite/7up combo (beyond the naming LOL), was 7up has more of a bite to it, and Sprite has a smoother, sweeter note, and it really tasted like Sterling got both aspect/nuances in there. It you are in need for a fresh, zippy lemon lime soda-like flavor, this one will do it for you. Rating it very high at a 9.5/10.
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Sugar Cookie (Sterling Cloud) 3.5% (1-9-25) – I spent some EXTRA time with this one, as it had some mystery to it. When I first started testing it, and it was breaking in, it took on an almost Maple Cookie-like profile. Being a NOT huge fan of Maple, that was a point of contention for me, hehe, BUT, after it broke in fully (as some flavors do), it settled into more of a traditional Sugar Cookie, BUT, sometimes still with Maple accents. Below the somtimes there Maple, there was a nice sugar cookie with some nice vanilla accents (Sterling Cloud’s forte). I didn’t get a lot of grains from it, and overall it was very smooth. At 3.5% it was very full, and I didn’t get any off-notes with the exception of the “sometimes maple”. Sweetness was just below mid-level. All in, it was a good sugar cookie, sans any grains, and it would probably work better paired up with CAP’s Sugar Cookie, for a fuller SC experience. Not bad, but just needed some help. It felt good at 8.0/10.
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Sweet Potato Pie (Sterling Cloud) 2.5/3.5% (8-31-24) – RIGHT out of the gate, I’m going to WARN you, this one IS, BBA (Big Bottle Approved). Wowzer. To be honest, when mixing these up, THIS was the one that stood out. Guess what, it STILL stood out !!! I caught myself mixing up ANOTHER bottle, and I still have other flavors to review. Yes, this one WAS excellent. I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a SPP before, so this IS a first. This one was literally SPOT ON, for a Sweet Potatoe Pie. Started out at 2.5%, felt like it needed a little more, and 3.5% drove it home. Very accurate SP pie filling with some light spice, and a slightly creamy undertone. The crust on this one was stellar. It reminded me of FA’s Apple Pie flavor, where the crust stole the show. It didn’t entirely steal the show, as the SP filling was on point, but the crust was up near the TOP of the good crusts. No graham crust here, but more of a INW Biscuit crust, with a nice light buttery undertone.
The “spice” level was about perfect, with JUST enough presence, and not TOO much. I couldn’t fully decode it, whether cinnamon, nutmeg, or clove, and could have even been a combo of them, but needless to say, it perfectly suited the flavor, and worked to ACCENT the overall profile, without overshadowing it. The SP filling (as I’m calling it), was very accurate, and not pumkin-y, and was very natural tasting. Smelling it in the bottle you’d SWEAR, you had a slice sitting on a plate in front of you. Yes, it was THAT good. At 3.5% it was very rich, and full, but didn’t increase linearly from 2.5%, so perhaps 3.0% might be the SFT sweet spot. ZERO issues, complaints, or off-notes. My third tester is literally running DRY, forcing me to put it down, and write this review. Release the Kraken again folks, Big Bottle Approved, and landing it at a JTDG (Just Too Damned Good) 10/10.
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Tiramisu (Sterling Cloud) 2.5/3.5% (9-1-24) – This flavor had most of the telltale characteristics of a real Tiramisu. Dark Espresso, Hints of Cocoa, Vanilla Wafers, and a delicious creamy-ness. I started testing at 2.5%, but (like a few others), felt it needed a boost, and rode the rest of the test at 3.5%, where it tasted much fuller. While having more than a few profiles, I could fairly easily pick them out, as opposed to being a mashup, or blurry blend. SC did a good job balancing out the cream/creamy-ness and the espresso, so neither overran the other, and the creamy undertones did not obliterate the nice acidic edge to the espresso. I couldn’t tell if the vanilla notes were more from the cream or vanilla fingers, but it sat right in the middle of the mix.
No issues, or off-notes, and at the higher 3.5% it was full, but not overblown. No off-notes or squirrel-y-ness, and sweetness was two ticks below mid-level. About my only “want” would have been just a little MORE of it. Even at the higher rate, it felt like it could use JUST a bit more. Tasty, accurate, but just felt a little short. Finalized this one at a 8.9.10.
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Vanilla Cream Cookie Filling (Sterling Cloud) 2.5% (9-2-24) – I think this one might have been the one that brought Sterling Cloud flavors onto my radar. @STR8V8PING had mentioned it recently, and I saw @Lynda_Marie tested it as well. This one put the Yum, in the Yummy. Very tasty, and it did have a lot of elements of an Oreo, or Hydrox cookie filling. It tasted like that was paired with an almost Vanilla Frosting. Now together, these two profiles simply worked. The creamy elements were very well done, and were not dairy creams, but exactly like the artificial cream cookie filling. At 2.5% it was spot on delicious, and sweetness was a few ticks above mid-level, which was accurate, and surprisingly non-fatiguing. No off-notes, complaints, or wants with this one. Simply put, it was an oreo cooking filling paired with a delicious vanilla frosting. It wasn’t billed as a frosting, and the overall profile was soo good, it didn’t feel right to mark down much for that. I finally decided on a 9.5/10.
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Vanilla Custard (Sterling Cloud) 2.5% (9-2-24) – LAST one on deck in this series. Right out of the gate, I could tell this one was VERY similar to the just tested Vanilla Cream Cookie Filling. This was more of a light pudding custard, as opposed to a heavier, denser, eggy custard, so that may decide if this is right for your needs already. My personal tastes have started to lean more towards some egg in my custards, but not overly eggy, so keep that in mind regarding my ratings. Continuing what @STR8V8PING commented, it does appear as if Vanillas are indeed one of Sterling Cloud’s strong suits. The vanilla was rich and front and center, and leaned towards a Madagascar. Along with that were some delicious pudding notes, but not a full on pudding. Mouthfeel was above average, but not what I would call heavy, or dense.
At 2.5% it was damned good, and full, with no need to increase the strength. There was a very interesting almost vanilla icing note on the finish. Even without any heavy egg notes, I could see this one getting a LOT of use. No off-notes, complaints, or issues after 3 testers, and it was hard to put down. Sweetness was about a tick above mid-level, which tasted good for this flavor. In summary, it was a very good Vanilla Custard, sans any eggy-ness, paired with a great Vanilla Pudding, that finished with a light and wispy Vanilla Icing. Yeah, it was good, and that about summed it up. Scoring proved to be tricky, as I really have grown fond of having SOME egg/eggy-ness in my custards, and this one had none, yet, it was damned delicious, and hard to put down. I’ll leave it at this, if you crave eggy custards, it would be a 6.5/10, but if you preferred less eggy, and more pudding like custards, it would be much higher at a 9.7/10. Pick YOUR preference, and reference that score. Even being sans eggy-ness, I’m going to be using this one a lot.
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