I've been working on this recipe for close to year and a half now, and I think it's finally perfect.

This is a straight up coffee with cream that has no burnt or skunky notes, but it absolutely REQUIRES a month-long steep and one very expensive ingredient: Medicine Flower's Coffee.

If you're as serious in your search for the perfect coffee vape as I am, look no further. This is the one. But it requires a lot of patience. You absolutely *cannot* heat-steep this, breathe-steep this, or mix it with a milk frother. You can't rush it. Just shake all your concentrates well as you drip them, add them to your preferred base at your preferred nic level, shake the hell out of it, and put it away somewhere cool and dark for a month or longer.

This should deepen in color considerably during the steep and reward you with a rich, full, well-rounded coffee experience under any vaping conditions. I've tried it DTL in both a tank and a dripper, MTL in a tank at various wattages, as well as a carto in a Vision Spinner II (the way my dad vapes) and it's all been delicious.

I hope you all love it as much as I do, and thanks to the entire DIY community at large for making this labor of love the exciting and rewarding adventure it was.
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FLAVOR NOTES: (this part won't be as long as it probably should be)

The Cream:
(TPA) Bavarian Cream -
I wanted something heavy and rich that wasn't an eggy custard for those sharp, tricky coffee notes to cling to. Bavarian Cream does exactly that, wrapping that fussy coffee in a warm, cuddly blanket of yum and telling it; “Shh... shh... you're okay baby, you're okay. Calm down. You're gonna' be delicious.” You can use any Bavarian Cream at 2% your little heart desires here, be it FW's, JF's, or CAP's. They're all pretty great and do just what we need them to do., I just prefer TFA's.
(CAP) Sweet Cream & (CAP) Vanilla Whipped Cream -
These lift the Bavarian Cream out of pudding territory and caress it into a sumptuous, idealized dairy base fit to lull that coffee into javalicious dreamland. You can sub with FA Cream Fresh or FLV Cream at 1%, and TPA/TFA Whipped Cream at 2% too.
(CAP) Marshmallow -
For sweetness and mouth-feel and luxurious, pillowy clouds. My last mix with this was still using the OG version of CAP's Marshmallow, and now that I have the "new" version in hand, I can understand where people might have issues with this. You absolutely CAN sub this for TFA/TPA Marshmallow at 1.5%.

The Coffee:
(MF) Coffee -
This is the king of coffee flavors right here. I also enjoy INW Mocca, but it has some vanilla/chocolate notes to it, and I've heard FA Up is fantastic, but, I haven't tried that one. Medicine Flower's Coffee is dearly expensive and NEEDS a long steep time, but it is, so far, the best result I've ever had with a coffee flavor. No substitutions. Sorry.
(FA) Tiramisu -
As delicious as MF Coffee is, it's not without its problems. FA Tiramisu addresses those problems, and, at this tiny percentage, smooths them out perfectly. I've tried this recipe without it, a whole bunch of times, and, it just doesn't work. INW Mocca at 1% will sub here, too.
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BACKGROUND: (you don't have to read this part, I just wanted you to know what a labor of love this recipe was for me)

I had my first cup of coffee in 1979. I was six years old and it was 1AM. I know, I know... but different times.

I woke up in the crappy black vinyl backseat of my dad's green Dodge Demon, the design still stamped into my sweaty, sleepy face, which I immediately pressed against the window. I was in the neon-streaked parking lot of the Mariettta Diner, which was such a glorious riot of color that for a second I thought I was still dreaming.

I have no idea how long my parents had been driving, only that we took off from Boston on our way to Disney World stopping, I think, only once at some crazy roadside motel to sleep, and every other brief pause in between was just for gas, food or coffee.

The most memorable stops for me were easily South of the Border in Dillon SC (I swear, I remember finding it more exciting than Disney), and this.

I don't remember what I ordered, which is weird, but I do remember asking for a cup of coffee and for the first time in my life getting it. This was a very big deal. I grew up in a household that had fresh-brewed coffee on tap 24/7. Coffee & cigarettes all goddamn day long. The two were married in my mind since birth.

I'll never forget that delicious cup of coffee; too much cream and sugar (a decision my mom made for me), so it was probably more like hot melted coffee ice cream than a real cup of joe, but I took to it instantly, sparking a life-long obsession with the demon bean that haunts me to this day. I'm sure I've idealized it in my mind. It was probably very standard 24-hour diner coffee, but, that's not how I remember it. I remember it as untouchable perfection; sweet and creamy, roasty and oily-rich.

And now, here I am, 37 years later, and all I want is a goddamn coffee vape that doesn't taste like a skunk on fire. Is that too much to ask?! Apparently it is.

I remember in 2013 giving cig-a-likes a try (fuck you, V2!), and, of course, the first flavor I bought, in bulk, was coffee, in 12mg pre-filled cartridges. The first 3 hits were always magic, but everything after that was a distant whiff of a dying coffee fart. Naturally, I went back to smoking with a quickness.

When I took up vaping again in 2015, I scoured the ECR subreddit and every juice review I could find trying a number of coffee juices, all of which were depressing letdowns save for Virgin Vapor's dearly expensive Kona Velvet Milkshake which they abruptly discontinued. Kona Coffee Milkshake ran a distant second, but, still, a premium price tag and a gruelling steep time left me searching for an alternative.

When I started DIY toward the end of 2015, I thought I was so slick ferreting out the source of VV's delicious nectar: Medicine Flower's Coffee flavor, which seems expensive at first blush, but, trust me, it isn't. But, ho-lee-shit is it ever a bitch to work with.

Every mix I made took a month to steep and tasted the way singed pubes smell. I even went back to them from time to time, hoping to find them softened, kinder, but, there's no getting around a bad mix. No matter what I did, I just couldn't figure out how to make it work. The last coffee recipe I made was as painstakingly constructed as all the others, but, I had long since lost hope. I figured this would just be another one to add to the fail pile.

However, when I happened to look into my steeping cabinet today, May 20th, I saw that my latest attempt had been sitting for a month to the day, and took it as a sign from the coffee gods to try it right now.

What can I say? Would it be hyperbole to insist that the first taste was as sweet and satisfying and life-affirming as that first cup of coffee, so many years ago? I honestly don't think so. I think it also bears mentioning that I had an absolutely terrible day today, and I'm in an awful mood. Everything that could go wrong today did, so, what's one more disappointment, right? I soaked my coil and half-filled my clean tank, not willing to commit fully to another disaster. I took a couple of primer puffs, then, deep breath, hit it.

Jesus Christ, my heart, MY HEART! This is it! This is finally it! I finally found it; the perfect coffee vape! Sweet & creamy, roasty and oily-rich. This is it! This is The One!
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