Setup: Velocity clone; dual twisted 24awg Ni/28awg kanthal @ .27Ω; cotton wicks; 45 W
Testing: Flavour Art Oakwood @ 3%; Aged: 3 weeks
Flavor description: Faintly woody with an inherent sweetness reminiscent of cheap caramel. Ever so slightly smokey through the first week, but that dies off after 2-3 weeks of steeping and you are left with a sweet woody tone. There isn't really much depth here.
Off-flavors: The inherent sweetness is a bit off to me, kind of like they should have called it "Sweet Wood" or something. There's also something there that mildly numbs my tongue at 3%.
Throat hit: 7/10 decent burn, but that sweetness helps bring it closer to the middle
Uses: Sweet, slightly woody accent to certain flavors @ 0.5-1%. Use at 3% is probably a bit high for this flavor.
Pairings: Tobaccos, nuts, booze, "toasted" flavorings, and maybe some herb/spice type flavors, or possibly even dark fruits.
Notes: I see this used prominently with tobacco and booze flavors, but depending on your mix, this might add a nice layer of depth with a cream/dark fruit combo. To me, it is more sweet than woody at 3%, and have not had much luck with getting "oakiness" out of it even at lower percentages. I don't recommend this as a standalone at all unless you are sampling and want to see for yourself.
Have you tried TFA Red Oak? Curious to hear how it compares.
I haven't actually. I don't even own a bottle at the moment, but I could only hope it has a little more character than this.
When sampling things from Flavour Art, I end up underwhelmed every once in a while. This was one of those instances. Sometimes this flavor has a hard time showing itself in a mix too.
Everytime I see one of these flavors reviews I ALWAYS think of this Steve Carell interview. This time it actually makes sense.
https://youtu.be/hlwxET69wrE
Skip to around 1:40. Don't remember how to timestamp from mobile.