Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.18 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: CAP Jelly Candy@ 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 25 days for the solo, At least 3 days for the mixes.
Flavor Description: Solo, this has a light soapy taste. Not super dense but really fluffy mouthfeel. Little bit of residual stickiness. But this isn't a flavor, per se. It's primarily a textural additive so I've tried it with the leftovers of some testers I had. I figured it was enough to get a feel for how this works since the flavor tests are pretty recent in my mind.
2% CAP Sweet Mango, Jelly Candy @ 2%: Really nice. Takes off the rancid edge on the mango. Thins and fluffs out the juice, while Peel notes are quite a bit cleaner. You can taste just a bit of the soapyness but it does do a job of giving you a jelly candy. Not a taffy, hi-chew, or starbust kind of chewy, more like the real pectin-based fruit jellies. As the wicks dry I get more a raw white sugar taste.
2% CAP Sweet Guava, Jelly Candy @ 2%: Really pushes the perfume notes forward. Takes that deep sweetness and makes it a little thinner and taste raw. Thins out the mouthfeel considerably while getting some lingering stickyness and pretty clear soapy taste. Avoid perfumey fruits.
3% CAP Cranberry, Jelly Candy @ 1%: Pops those top notes quite a bit. Fluffs the fruit up and makes the entire thing seem a bit more robust. 1% as an additive seems to work really well with dark fruits. Takes this quite a bit closer to a real cranberry. Soapy notes work well the cranberry to give a more realistic flavor. Mouthfeel difference is positive here. Really nice almost gummy taste. Really seems to up vapor production as well.
3% CAP Cantaloupe, Jelly Candy @1%: Makes the top notes here taste a lot more realistic. Doesn't really make this juicy, per se. Just makes the perfumey top notes taste a whole lot more realistic and brings a relatively dry fluffiness with a bit of an unctuous mouthfeel. This is a winner. Perfume notes linger a bit longer than without the JC.
3% CAP Cool Mint, Jelly Candy @ 1%: Really bumps the vanilla here. This is actually pretty cool. The mint portion of this also hits the palate a lot cleaner. Really enhances this. The soap notes disappear under the aspartame taste on the back end. This is strangely awesome.
3.5% CAP Vanilla Whipped Cream, Jelly Candy @ .5%: I was really ready to call this gross. It's not. Annihilates the dairy note here. Tastes quite a bit like a strangely realistic marshmallow. One of the fancy botique marshmallows that get cut into squares. Again, pops that vanilla right to the forefront. Cuts the buttery mouthfeel. Soap notes show through on the end. I don't think is good, but it sure is interesting.
Off-flavors: Yeah, that vaguely soapy thing. Not really full on soap, but like a glass of water after a dishwasher did a poor job of actually rinsing your dishes.
Throat Hit: 3/10. Really odd though, it cuts the harshness from the harsher flavors and adds it own to the smooth flavors. Seems to just replace whatever mouthfeel from the concentrate you're using it with.
Uses: To give a fluffy jelly candy vibe to fruit. Maybe to push vanilla in non-cream fruit mixes. Someone more creative than I am will have to figure this out.
Pairings: Dark, jammy fruits. These seem to work the best. It cuts the thickness and accentuates the top notes. This actually works really well with vanilla, again pushing those brighter top notes. Stay away from perfumey or sharp fruits. This just destroys dairy notes, so avoid creams.
Notes: Weird, but pretty cool. I'd suggest using this starting at .5% up to 2% depending on how dark your fruit is. With some really sketchy back of the envelope math, I mixed about 1% Jelly Candy, 3% Cranberry, and 1% Vanilla Whipped Cream. It's kind of awesome. The top notes on the cranberry and vanilla are great, and the fluffy mouthfeel is spot on. No cream on the VWC here to speak of. This has some real potential to "bend" flavors, as the cool kids seem to be saying.
Second Opinions:
ELR Flavor notes. Not sure where it came from, but multiple say this: "add to fresh fruit flavors to give them more weight, vibrancy, and that candied fruit taste. Allows the fruits to really stand out when also using creams and custards. Use at 1%, maybe 1.5%, otherwise if you use too much it will taste chalky & astringent. Gets plasticy and chalky really quick 1-2% in mix MAX good candy note." Seems dead on.
Nice review! Your timing is great. I just made a rhubarb-berry jelly candy and CAP Jelly Candy surprised me by how well it let the fruits and veggies do their thing while texturizing them.
I just mixed that up. Right in my wheelhouse. I could straight drink FA Raspberry and INW Rhubarb together. Such a good combo. Really enjoying it just on an initial S&V. My strawberry sense is broken to non-existent, I'm guessing I'm at least getting the right level of sweetness from it though. Neat stuff.
That was quick! I am glad you are enjoying it. I originally just mixed it up to play with Jelly Candy for the first time and see what it was about, but once I saw your review I figured I should publish it quick and link it here for you.
Thanks for this awesome review! I love what you did there, adding the additional flavor tests. Dipping into contrasting flavor "genres" is insanely helpful for enhancers like this one. You've made me excited to try mixing with this one again tomorrow. (my attempt at a rose/raspberry jelly was a disaster last month) Also, that rhubarb/berry jelly thing sounds guuuud.
Yeah, i'm inclined to call it guuuud. I just figured me saying that something "tastes like soap, lol." wasn't going to help my notes or anything else. It's my plan if I run into anything that's pretty clearly just an enhancer or additive. So, my official educated guess would be if you were using rose in conjunction with this, those top notes would be pretty hellacious. Happy hunting tomorrow, this is a lot of fun to play around with.
Thanks for yet another great review. I haven't tried it yet, but I bought this recently (along with FW Gummy Bear and RF Gummy Candy) because a very specific type of mango gummy is my white whale and I'm ready to give it another go now that I've officially given up on TFA Gummy Candy's ability to make it happen.
I wonder if I can mix small amounts of different gummy things together and get the best they have to offer with the least bullshit like soap and plastic.
This is a really well written, in depth review! I do have this flavor but only have played with it a little bit. I also tried it with Sweet Mango and the jelly candy seemed to take away those off notes I was getting from it.
I couldn't really identify the off note I was getting but, you're right. Soapy would be a good way to describe it.
Thanks for sharing!