Do you have any other recommendations
@SessionDrummer
@Glitchy I can tell you the ones I stocked up on when I felt the end was near for Chefs .....
**Biscuit (Speculoos) (CSC) 1.5% (6-12-21)** – Living in the US, we have a much different meaning for “biscuit”, than across the pond where it is more of a cookie. A
Speculoos Biscuit is actually a spiced biscuit (cookie), and man was it good. Regardless on which side of the pond you reside, my tastebuds nailed this as an almost pumpkin spiced cookie, WITHOUT the pumpkin. The ingredients appear to vary from country to country, but seeing repeated mentions of *cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, ginger and clove,* yup, yup, yup. With this little gem floating in between an almost pumpkin spiced, to an almost gingerbread spiced cookie (biscuit), it was a TREAT. At 1.5% it was perfect, and was fairly complex with all of the spice elements floating around, with none taking center stage. You could EASILY push/pull this DIRECTLY into a full on pumpkin spiced, or a gingerbread by adding one or the other, but as it stood, a VERY good flavor. During the testing, I had to FIGHT the urge to run to the rack, and grab some FLV Frosting, or LA Cream Cheese Icing. Wow, if you like, want, or need a spiced cookie (biscuit), this one WILL get it done. Nothing off putting, and the fact that the spices continued to shift, and morph around, it stayed interesting throughout. I went into this flavor expecting a Bisquik type biscuit, but found a deliciously complex spiced cookie instead. Complex-edly set at a
**9.8/10**.
**Coconut Macaroons (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21)** – Many people don’t actually even know what’s IN a Coconut Macaroon, and they’re not complicated. Coconut, sweetened condensed milk, egg whites, vanilla, and salt. Did Chef’s nail this flavor ?? YES !!! —END of REVIEW----. Kidding. Wow, talk about an IMPACT from merely 1.5% of a flavor, this one has it, and it’s great. I think many times, peoples tastes regarding coconuts vary wildly, so keep that in mind any time you read a review of coconut flavors. For my tastes, this one had a perfect pairing of both a creamy-ish coconut, and almost a raw coconut. A tick above mid-level sweet, with a super delicious sweetened creamy back end. The coconut had no “greasy-ees”, or “oily-ees”, and at the very end it finished with a nice astringent, acidic note, which really carried the entire flavor home. Had the coconut been purely creamy, this wouldn’t have been there, and it WOULD have been missed. Tasting this flavor, really had a beginning, middle, and end. Quite interesting, and super delicious, and despite emptying two testers, I could find NO fault with this one. If you like coconut, this one might just end up on your short list. Unquestionably
**9.8/10**.
**Creme Brulee (CSC) 1.5% (6-13-21)** – A rich custard base, topped with a crisp, caramelized sugar, who wouldn’t like that ?? !!! The first thing that struck me with this one, was how well Chef’s did the caramelized sugar. Custards are plentiful, but a good caramelized sugar, almost burnt, but not bitter can be hard to get right, and they did. Underneath it, was a nice somewhat relaxed vanilla custard. Eggs and vanilla were present, but it wasn’t overly eggy. The sugar topping was ALMOST the star of the show here, but not entirely. The custard held it’s own, and worked flawlessly with the topping, and what a one-two punch it was. Above mid-level sweet, and it tasted nicely full at 1.5%. Nothing off-putting, just a great tasting experience. The overall creamy level was about a 6/10, so it was not a super dense creamy flavor, but honestly, after you start tasting it, that won’t matter. Further testing revealed that the vanilla did take front seat from any egg notes, which was nice as opposed to a heavier egg-centric custard. Again, perfect pair between the custard and topping. More than rich enough to get your attention, but not oppressively so. All in, this might JUST be the best Creme Brule I’ve tasted. I could find NO faults with this one. Handily a
**9.9/10**.
**Custard (CSC) 1.5% (6-14-21)** – If anyone knows how to completely ignore DAAP concerns, and dive RIGHT into the Custard pool, head first, it’s me. Matter of fact, I still need to try @woftam’s Custard Slut now that I think about it !!! OK, what in the hell do we have here. Hero / Zero ?? I’m leaning towards HERO people !!! Now, we don’t have to re-hash all the “What type of custard do you like” conversations, as we ALL have different tastes. I’ve got hundreds of uses for Custards thus far, and I use a wide array of them. I prefer a LESS heavy eggy custard, most of the time. This one presented as a rich, semi dense, not overly eggy custard, paired with an almost delicious pudding, BUT, there was something else. What in the hell ?? It’s almost like a lighter donut/fried dough profile. I thought I smelled donut when smelling the bottle, but wasn’t sure. Yup, that’s what I’m getting, BUT, at a much lower ratio, as opposed to the Custard/Pudding. At first I wasn’t sure, but now, I think it just works. I stopped focusing soley on it, and the sum total of the profiles, and it just works. Simple, lighter, but still heavy enough to grab your attention. Nice and tasty at 1.5%, and at about mid level sweet, having a hard time finding issues with it. For you numbers people, it was like 40% Custard, 40% Van. Pudding, and 20% Donut, and that’s what you get. If you like those three profiles, and ratios, you’ll love this flavor. For MY palate/tastes, I can’t go lower than
**9.75/10**.
**Oats (CSC) 1.5% (6-20-21)** – I think it’s safe to say I was COMPLETELY unprepared for this flavor. Not a lot of oats out there, because it’s HARD to get right. I assumed this would be some general bakery with grains, passed off as a “kinda close” flavor. Boy was I wrong. FULL on, OATS !!! No puffed wheat, not corn, not AP, OATS !!! It made me immediately think of Quaker Oats, no questions, no hesitations. Below mid level sweet, and the best part, it wasn’t FLAVORED. Blank slate, spot on oats. That’s it, that’s all. Was delicious at 1.5%, and man, the opportunities to use this one will be endless, and you could tweak to your hearts content. This, ladies and gentlemen is an impressive flavor, and I’m glad I added this one to the list. If you want some spot on oats, nicely sweetened, this is the one you should get. Full stop.
**10/10**.
**Vanilla Ice Cream (CSC) 1.5% (6-24-21)** – 2nd to last on deck in this huge series of Chef’s new SC’s. My initial reaction to this was, “This might be the BEST Vanilla Ice Cream” I have ever tried. 10ml later, that hasn’t changed, and that’s kind of a big deal. At 1.5% this one was a real show stopper, which had all the notes needed to convince you of it’s namesake. Missing were some of the commonly found dairy notes in some flavors, that were dairy, but not really Ice Cream. Chefs did a really bang up job on this one. Incredible mouthfeel for an ice cream, and while not “buttery” like another well known VIC, it didn’t need it, you didn’t miss it, and actually you didn’t even WANT it. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this one, but needless to say, all the players were here, creamy, rich, present, but not overbearing vanilla, and loads of mouthfeel. A few ticks above mid sweet, and no pepper, no off notes, no nonsense present. For a great, clean vanilla ice cream that truly captured all aspects of a VIC, this one should be on your rack. For anyone else, it should be on YOUR rack too !!! I would rate it at 10.1/10, but I promised I’d never do that again. Easily,
**10/10**.
**Biscuit (Shortbread) (CSC) 1.5% (7-23-22)** – After reading @NeonKoala’s thoughts on this one, I was indeed anxious to see what was what with it. Now every time I review a “shortbread”, “cookie”, or a “biscuit” I have to keep in mind my audience(s), and many are in the US, and some are in the UK, and depending on where you are located, the three aforementioned can take on VERY different profiles. Because this is from Chefs UK, I assume that the “biscuit” part of this is more of what we’d call a “cookie” in the US, as I did get a super delicious, somewhat sweetened cookie element in this one, AND, it was perfectly paired WITH, you guessed it, a shortbread. Now wait just a minute, why not call it a “Shortbread Cookie” ?? Well, hehe, it’s actually just a bit more than that. There was a very nice, authentic bakery, almost grainy element in this which almost reminded me of a pecan sandy-ish type cookie, and then there was a much more of a shortbread wash that finished it out. There was some butter, but I wouldn’t call it overtly “buttery”, but it was in there. About mid-level sweet, and tasted perfect at 1.5%, and continued testing, kept me thinking that it could really just be solo’d and it really didn’t leave you wanting. Despite getting no obvious “pecan” tones from this, I kept going back to the pecan sandy-ish cookie as a great comparison. Wow. This one was great, and I didn’t feel like anything was missing, and more importantly, I didn’t feel the need to ADD anything to it to fix it. Always a great sign. Not a true vanilla cookie, but there may have been some Van elements floating around in the mix. All in, this one was about as perfect as it could get, for a Biscuit/shortbread. I could see numerous uses for it, and it almost SCREAMED to be jammed up with some delicious jam to take it off in another direction. If you would like to pick up a pretty damned unique biscuit/cookie/shortbread, I don’t think you can go wrong with this one.
**9.9/10**.
**Dulce De Leche (CSC) 1.5% (7-24-22)** – I remember the FIRST time I used a DDL, it was for the “Grant’s Custard” recipe. I use it from time to time, but NEVER solo’d it, so HERE goes !! Think that DDL is just Milk and Sugar ??
Think again. Some have vanilla, and others cinnamon. This one presented as a very accurate DDL, with an almost light cinnamon sugar kiss. Very complex, very good, and very authentic to my tastes. Just below mid level sweet, and surprisingly rich, and full at 1.5%. Some milky undertones, caramel-ish notes, but the cinnamon sugar kiss off on the end really made it unique. Nothing off-putting, and I had a hard time putting this one down, and I think you will too. I could see numerous uses including baccos, deserts, bakeries, etc. Right up my alley, and just too damned good to not
**10/10** this one.
**Meringue (CSC) 1.5% (7-31-22)** – Wow, this one WAS a wow-zer right out of the gate, but let’s see why. Could this be the ONE, that could UN-perch FA Meringue from it’s Ivory Tower ?? Maybe, just maybe. There are plenty of Meringues out there, and much, much fewer GOOD ones. This one did present as almost THE most spot on Meringue out there, BUT, for one thing. There was a distinct almost cereal note thoughout, and during the finish. Very diminished, but it was always there. I typically don’t read other reviews before testing, but I did this time, to see if anyone else got this note, and only ONE person did. The cereal note was a faint, almost looper-ish note. Overall it was fairly low, did not distract, and added some weight, and almost grainy texture to the Meringue. Light, fluffy, accurate, and with some mid-bodied heft (the cereal note), it was VERY hard to mark this one down. After extended testing, I think the cereal note DID work in it’s favor, and that kept this one, in a very rare air space, with maybe only ONE other, possible two. With lower than mid level sweetness, no off notes, and a almost grainy aspect, this one was literally JUST almost perfect. Leaving it at
**9.9/10**.
**Red Fruits (CSC) 1.5% (8-5-22)** – If you read my review of Chef’s Forest Fruits, you know that Chef’s is getting REALLY good at fruit medleys. This one DID continue that trend. They billed this one as a mix of Raspberries, Strawberries, and Cherries. Dammit, that’s EXACTLY what it is. Now what was interesting here, was that there was NO real start of the show, and that kept it REALLY interesting. It was like all 3 were equally sized up, and mixed. Throughout numerous testers, at times you would get slightly more of one or another, and later it would be another one. VERY smartly mixed if I do say so. It did have an overal “red” hue if that makes sense, and all of the flavor profiles were very natural, with not a single off note, floral, or medicinal note to be found, which IS saying something, especially with Raspberries, and Cheffies. Because they were so evenly combined, nailing down EXACTLY the type of each was almost impossible, but summed together, they worked perfectly, and a sea of Red Fruit. Sweetness was just below mid level, and it was great @ 1.5%. I’m matching this score to the aforementioned Forest Fruits @
**9.8/10**.
**RY Castle (CSC) 1.5% (8-6-22)** – OK, maybe I SHOULDN’T admit this, but I will. I loaded it into my trusted SteamCrave RDTA v.1, and JUST started to taste test, and take my notes, and WHAMMO, I put my rig down, and IMMEDIATELY mixed up a 60ml. Now, why in the hell would I do that ?? Well, in a word, WOW. This one WAS a showstopper. Typically I’m not a bacco vaper, and some can argue whether or not RY’s are, or are not baccos, but this one really wowed me. It presented (as billed) as a slightly roasted bacco, with much, MUCH more. Chef’s billed it as having a milky coconut and caramel, and that seemed accurate, but I kept almost getting a delicious grahamy/bakery rush with every taste. Yes, I could pick out the coco, and cara, but as a whole it really took on an entirely profile. The bacco did have an almost roasted, slightly darkened note, and at times I almost got a slight nutty undertone. After two full testers, it became obvious this one one of, if not THE, top flavor in this run. Absolutely in One-Shot /Standalone territory here. Just below mid level sweet, perfectly full at 1.5%, and I could find NOTHING I didn’t like with this one, not even a teeny nit pick. The reaction I had to this reminded me of when I tested Sobucky’s Caramel Biscuit. All in, it was a creamy, roasted bacco with light nutty undertones, swirling in a gravy of coconut, and caramel, with some great graham/bakery undertones.
**10/10**, no other choice.
