On a quest to find some new and unusual vape flavorings and recently discovered Chinese flavoring company DuoMei via Alibaba. I managed to get some free samples (paid $40 USD shipping) to try and they arrived today so I thought I’d provide some reviews. I can’t speak for the safety or overall quality of these flavorings, but their facility is a rather large industrial operation in Nanchang City. Hoping this will spur some interest and possibly distribution (paging u/gremlinjuice u/BCV_Jeff)?

Here's a link to an album of photos so you can check out the labels and packaging: http://imgur.com/a/1qqRK

All flavors were mixed in 5mL test batches 70/30 VG/PG @ 3mg nicotine. Sigelei 150W 1.5ohm builld on a Mutation X V2 with minimum airflow at around 25-30W.

DZY-01 MACHA TEA (a.k.a. Matcha)

By smelling the bottle I can tell this flavor is extremely concentrated. The aroma is pretty rank and smells of sour milk and grass. Mixed a 5mL at 1% flavor. It’s somewhere between a matcha and a sweet arizona ice tea. It’s much closer to a candy matcha that you might find in a boba tea, mochi, or ice cream than it is to a piping hot cup of matcha. It’s slightly grassy but not overwhelmingly so. There is definitely a distinct floral and vegetal note almost celery or honeysuckle but I have a feeling this flavor would combine very well with sweet ice cream type flavors to yield a very accurate matcha based dessert. I would probably not recommend this flavor as a stand alone. But did a quick test mix with CAP Sugar Cookie and it really came to life. Final % recommendation 0.5.

DZY-44 MA SHU (a.k.a. Bee Mochi)

Aroma off the bottle: there’s a hint of citrus, pear, honey, grain and something earthy I can’t quite identify. Mixed a 5mL at 2% flavor. Flavor is very nice. Not quite screaming classic "mochi" but has a light fruitiness and a floral honey characteristic to it. I’m thinking that this flavor is actually what the Chinese call “bee mochi”. I’m about 90% sure the earthy nutty flavor I couldn’t quite put my finger on is actually sesame. It’s not a strong sesame flavor but it’s there in the background. Overall I think this is a very decent and unique flavor. Wouldn’t exactly call it a mochi but didn’t have high hopes since mochi is much more of a texture than a flavor to me. In case you are wondering why they call it “Bee Mochi” here’s a video of a street vendor preparing this treat: https://youtu.be/H0IPv74oEQE

EDIT: after a quick steep this mochi flavor is poppin!!! Harsher notes have mellowed out and I'm getting a very convincing mochi taste from it. I'm thinking that if this was combined with the red bean flavor you'd have almost the exact flavor of red bean mochi

DZY-27 RED BEAN (a.k.a. Adzuki Bean)

Aroma is great off the bottle. It is 100% authentic adzuki bean goodness. Smells sweet and robust. Mixed @ 1% Flavor. Tastes amazing. Not sure what else can be said about this flavor. It’s earthy sweet and beany but not overwhelmingly beany. It’s a spot on adzuki bean. Great as single flavor and could easily be an ADV with a little tweaking. Serious fucking potential here.

DZY-43 PANDAN

Pandan is sort of a holy grail flavor I’ve been lusting after for some time. After consulting with both u/abdada and Head in Clouds (u/HIC-from-VU) and taking some of their insights and suggestions into consideration I still haven’t been able to create a totally convincing pandan flavor. Pandan is a leaf used in Southeast Asian cuisine. It has a nutty, grassy, and mysterious flavor that is pretty hard to pin down. Most westerners interpret the flavor as "popcorn" because they don’t have the frame of reference required to really detect it. But if you know the flavor of aromatic rices such as basmati, jasmine, or thai rice you know the flavor of pandan. They both contain 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn-ish) and hexanal (grassy/fruity) which along with other molecules give it it’s characteristic flavor.

Off the bottle the aroma reminds me of some store bought Pandan extracts that usually smell pretty strong and gross. It does not remind me of Pandan leaf or Basmati Rice but the more artificial pandan that just barely makes a suitable replacement. Mixed at 1% flavor. Ultimately this pandan flavor isn’t terrible and I think it’s the closest I’ve gotten to a pandan flavor yet, but it’s still not a spot on pandan. It’s got the nuttiness and slight vegetal note but still missing that mysterious pandan component. Wouldn’t recommend it as a single flavor but could show a lot of promise as a background note in a Thai Sticky Rice or Indian Rice Pudding flavor.

DZY-30 AVOCADO

Off the bottle this flavor smells somewhere between an apple and a pear definitely not what I was expecting from an avocado but then again not sure what the fuck I was expecting from an avocado. Mixed at 1%. Surprisingly this flavor is indeed vaguely reminiscent of an avocado. It doesn’t scream avocado but it’s almost there behind the candy apple-like overtones. The flavor really is closer to a sweet bready buttery nutty pear however so I'm not sure I’d give this the avocado pass. Avocados have a fair amount of pentanal and hexanal so I see where they were trying to go with this but it falls a little flat for me as an accurate avocado. Not a bad flavor however by any means.

YDM-95632 UBE YAM (a.k.a. Purple Yam)

Off the bottle the aroma reminds me of TFA Taro. It’s slightly less pungent but still has that garlic mashed potatoes smell to it if perhaps a bit sweeter. Mixed at 1% this flavor is fantastic. It’s almost as if you took the harshness and angular “savory” notes from TFA Taro and toned them down by 1000%. Tastes more like fresh buttery mashed potatoes than the weird off flavor of Taro. It’s round, creamy and balanced. If I had to guess I’d say they were particularly liberal with the diacetyl in this one. For me they knocked this flavor out of the park and I’d be more than happy to vape a single flavor mix of this.

DZY-42 SWEET RICE

Off the bottle the aroma smells sweet, buttery/creamy, nutty, malty and fruity - no harsh notes or overwhelming grain notes detected. Smells like a balanced barley malt type flavor. Mixed at 2%. Unfortunately there isn’t a ton going on with this flavor. It’s very sweet slightly nutty but that’s about it. Could not recommend as a single flavor but could prove useful in taming or adding complexity to bland flavors.

Ok that’s pretty much it for now. I received several other DuoMei flavors such as: Pear, Mango, Double Apple, and ~~Mango~~ Red Bull but as of yet haven’t tested them since these more exotic flavors were really the ones that interested me.