I've been hearing a lot about Sterling Cloud's Vanilla Cream Cookie Filling, and Pound Cake. Little to NO good intel on them, so a PERFECT time to get INTO them !!!!! Mixing now, stay tuned ....
With little to no good info out there, finalized the testing weight at 2.5%, and we'll see how that plays out. Testing at 65 watts, on the SteamCrave RDTA v.1, running dual Kanthal 24 ga. vertical coils, with fresh KGD cotton and dry burned coils before every test. All steep 1 week +, and run in a 70v/30p/3mg base.
Sterling Cloud Flavors
www.diyvaporsupply.com
Coconut (Sterling Cloud) 2.5/3.5% (8-17-24) -- FIRST ONE ON DECK !!!!! After much research, there seemed to be about ZERO information about these flavors, so I'm going to be better hone in on percentages, as we go through them. For the FIRST flavor from Sterling, this one was impressive. Missing were some of the very common overly dry, almost acrid notes found in many other coconuts. This one tasted roughly 90% natural, with just a 10% smidge of artificial, and with JUST enough creamy-ness to keep it smooth. It was NOT a dry flake coconut, but more of a semi moist coconut. No suntan lotion here, and actually no real off-notes to even complain about. There were HINTS of coconut milk, but just hints, which again, kept it from being a dry flake coconut. Sweetness was a FEW ticks below mid-level, which was interesting, as many coco's are overly sweetened. This one was a "full package" coconut with some flake, some milk, and a little cream, so it covered all the bases well. I started this one at 2.5%, and pushed it up to 3.5% to see what would happen, and it increased only marginally, with no bending, so 2.0-2.5% seemed like a solid SFT weight. With no complaints, and this one covering a broad range of coconut nuances, decided to leave this one pretty high, at a 9.4/10.
French Vanilla (Sterling Cloud) 2.5/3.5% (8-17-23) -- With French Vanillas it's ALL about the egg. Egg YOLKS that is, and YES, they WERE in this flavor. As always, I have to temper my expectations, as FV's are not Custards LOL. I started this one off at 2.5%, and moved it up to 3.5%, which I preferred, as it was fuller, and richer. This one was MAYBE, one of the BEST FV's I have tried to date. At the higher rate, it was very full, and tasty. Tasted to my tastes like a SPOT ON FV. No thin or weak and water vanilla here, but a very realistic French Vanilla. In keeping with real FV's it wasn't spicy, but had some good mid, and dark(er) vanilla notes, WHICH, had a very authentic egg yolk-ed-ness to it. Not a custard, not buttery, and not creamy, but the taste/nuance was there.
When I increased from 2.5% to 3.5% it didn't increase linearly but it DID improve all around, so the uber sweet spot might be 3.0%. I did have the distinct urge to toss it into some Ice Cream, just to see if it would pull it over to the FV side, but pairings are outside the scope of this review. Spot on delicious, natural, and authentic at 3.5%, and sweetness was mid-level. No off-notes, wants, or "could haves" for this one, and it was a hard one to put down. Clean, accurate, natural, were the take-aways. Yet another high score-er here folks. Leaving this one very high at a 9.8/10.
Graham Cracker (Sterling Cloud) 2.5% (8-17-24) -- For starters, you guys KNOW, I have a S'mores problem. Chasing the dragon NEVER ends, and that INCLUDES, a realistic Graham Cracker. I know basically EVERY GC out there, and with the exception of Real Flavors SC (my current Go To), they all fall short for a myriad of reasons. I can tell you this, smelling this one in the bottle, they might has well just mashed up graham crackers and put it in the bottle !!!! Wowza. Immediately I knew this one was right up in the "Top Shelf" stratosphere that I put RF's in. This one was THAT good. I can't tell you guys if it knocks the RF off it's pedestal without doing a direct A/B comparison (maybe later), but for now, let's just call it a spot on natural GC.
No "kinda", "sorta", or "somewhat close" 's here, just full on GC. No hints of coconut, cinnamon that would detract/distract from the authentic GC that is was, and/or limit it's uses. Now I'm not saying that even WITH the aforementioned coconut, or cinnamon are/were bad, this one was just DEVOID of them. Blank slate. Traditional Graham Crackers are made with Graham Flour, but [you can fake it with all purpose flour, and whole wheat flour](https://www.thekitchn.com/homemade-graham-crackers-recipe-23201040). Crisp, accurate, were really the only two things you needed to know from this one. At 2.5% it was perfect, and no off-notes, or errant profiles. Sweetness was a little below mid-level. There were aspects/nuances of light honey and maybe some brown sugar, but you couldn't really overtly taste them. I got some grainy-ness from this, but not a lot. There was even an almost malt, light boozy-ness on the finish. I think anyone trying this one, would be hard pressed to disagree. Although I know the very slight boozy finish would easily be buried in a mix, I will take off for it JUST a pinch. This one was too good, authentic, and accurate for any other take-offs. Big Bottle Approved. 9.9/10. JUST almost perfect.
Key Lime (Sterling Cloud) 2.5% (8-18-24) -- Coming directly off of the Sterling Cloud Graham Cracker, I wondered how this one would pair with it. I'm thinking, pretty damned good. Look, this is the FOURTH one from SC, and was ALSO great, so either I picked really good, or they just know how to flavor flavors. This one, had all the right notes for a Key Lime. Somewhat less acidic than a Persian Lime, but also somewhat sweeter. It was multi-dimensional, and changed/shifted throughout the vape, with just a hint of zest on the finish. Yes, this one was SOO good, I actually STOPPED, mid review, to mix up a Sterling Cloud Key Lime Pie.
At 2.5% it was very full, but felt like it might need a hint more, so the SFT percentage might be closer to 2.8%. Natural, natural, and MORE natural was the big take-away with this one, without any hints of candied, or artificial. It really DID scream to be put into a KLP. No off-notes, and not even any "wants", with maybe the exception for just a bit more. Sweetness tasted just below mid level, and it worked. I gave up trying to find faults with this one, and if you have been let down by your current KL's, you should pick this one up. Yet another Big Bottle Approved. Like the Graham Cracker, very close to perfect. 9.9/10.
Marshmallow (Sterling Cloud) 2.5% (8-18-24) -- This one took a little to "settle" for testing, and at first, I wasn't sure about it, but once it "settled" I did. This one shifted slightly from tank to tank, so writing this will be interesting. The majority of what I got was indeed a partially fluffy marshmallow with some hints of the dry powder outside on the finish. At times I almost got light chocolate notes from it, but only very slightly. It reminded me loosely of FLV's Marshmallow. Somewhat creamy, a good semi-thick mallow, and some good mouthfeel. With my S'mores obsession never abating, I will be loading this up with the Sterling Cloud Graham Cracker, just to see how it pairs.
Tasted very good at 2.5% and sweetness was about mid-level, and no off-notes, with the aforementioned slight, light chocolate note. Not a marshmallow fluff, or tiny marshmallow, but a good full sized marshmallow. It felt like it was about 80-85% of the way there, so I settled on a scoring of 8.5/10 for this one.
Meyer Lemon (Sterling Cloud) 2.5/3.5% (8-21-24) -- I tested this one at both 2.5, and 3.5%, and it never really took off for me at either percentage. It was fairly hard to completely nail down. It had some interesting aspects of a natural, artificial, and almost candied/fizzy-ed Lemon. Yes, all in one package. I did spend some EXTRA time trying to isolate it but I couldn't. It stayed fairly confusing to my palate throughout the tests, and not because it was terrible, but because it was rather a blurry Lemon. At both weights it was still somewhat light, and at the 3.5% it may have STARTED to fold (overflavored), but only slightly. Because it seemed to really be all three of the Lemon types listed above, I couldn't see it as a primary Lemon driver in a mix, but def. as a mixer. With all of the types it straddled, it was indeed natural, artificial and candied-ish all at the same time. I think my favorite aspect to this flavor, was the fizzy, almost fermented finish that it had. Not terrible, but a rather blurry, cofusing one at that. No off-notes, but just really lacked focus. Dropping it down fairly low due to that. It felt pretty fairly placed at a 3.5/10. Probably best, as a mixer in Lemonade styled mixes.