We all know the horror stories. Someone is looking to add a nice, floral-like sweetness to one of their recipes, maybe its a tea, or a bakery. So they reach for a common cooking flavoring, from a common brand. They reach for TFA Honey. They mix it in around 3-5%, add the rest of the ingredients, and give a good shake. Maybe they steep it a few days, and then finally its time to vape. They take a huge rip, and all of a sudden, a look of horror and disgust washes over their face. Yeah, TFA Honey is that bad. And it’s unfortunate because a great honey flavoring is something we all could benefit from. Well, now a days, honey isn’t so difficult or worrying. This article discusses some of the best honey flavorings, and how to utilize them in your recipes.
VT Honeycomb
To me, this is the best straightforward honey available. It packs the same type of thin sweetness you’d expect, but also doesn’t skip on those deeper nuttier notes. I suggest mixing this anywhere from 1 – 3%, and maybe even higher depending on how heavy your encompassing recipe is. The biggest issue with it, is that it’s a bit too thin. It needs help maintaining its flavor throughout a vape. So I usually like to pair it with some FA Caramel, or Butterscotch, to give it a touch more volume. If I’m throwing it into a deeper recipe, I’ll even pair it up with TFA Caramel Original to really widen its foundation. Also, this seems to be the right type of honey to use when you want to infuse it into Tobaccos. But if you just want a straightforward honey, that isn’t too distracting or rich, like for teas, or for creams, this works excellently.
FLV Honey Bee
FLV’s Honey Bee is a very interesting honey…if you can call it that. It’s a much more natural and floral version of honey, almost as if it was taken right out of a bee’s hive that was harboring dandelions. It’s not a thick, syrupy, or sticky honey, with any deepness or richness. It’s bright, it’s light, and its mainly a top note. It’s also extremely difficult to mix with. I generally stay around 0.25 – 0.5%, and even then sometimes it pops out a bit too much. My favorite use for this honey is in other florals, teas, and fruits. It adds such a fun and interesting naturality to the mix, that other honeys don’t provide.
FLV Milk and Honey
This is another one of Flavorah’s honeys, and this time, they try to make it a bit more traditional. To me, this tastes very much like a honey infused Bavarian cream. It’s much darker, much deeper, and works extremely well in creams and bakeries. You won’t get that sweet honey note, but more that deeper, nutty, honey finish. I tend to use this anywhere from 0.5 – 3%, depending on how much of that honey flavor I want from it. This works as such a great bridge for bakeries, as well as adding some depth to creams. If you need a bright honey to sweeten things up, this isn’t it. Just remember this is all about that base.
TFA Honey Circles
This is not like any of the other honey’s here. This is more of a honey accent, embedded in a bakery. Obviously, TFA went to tacky the Honey Nut Cheerio flavor, and I think they did a good job. It’s much deeper and richer in flavor than the cereal, but it does capture that sweetness you’d expect. Much like you’d use FLV Milk and Honey as a bridge for bakeries, this can be used in the same manner, except to even a higher degree. For instance, you’re making a Baklava, Honey Circles fits in perfectly adding both a nice bright honey flavor, packed with some nuttiness, all while bridging over any bakery or pastry you choose. I tend to use this flavoring around 4 – 6% in those situations. I also tend to use this in tobaccos and RY4’s, more so over the others, because I like that extra nuttiness.
So those are all the honeys I recommend. There are quite a bit more honeys available, though I don’t really find them any good, nor as useful as these. So stick to this list and you’ll be adding that sweet
