Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.15 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FLV Granny Smith @ 1% and 1 drop per 10ml, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 9 days.
Flavor Description: This tastes a lot like FLV Green Apple but a little less on the candy side, sweeter, a bit crisper, and a good bit harsher. First part of the exhale is a pretty legitimate granny smith apple, but the inhale is a bit of a mess and the tail end of the exhale borders on straight unpleasant. I'd relegate this accent duty, using it under .5% to add some realism and crispness to juicier, full apple or pear base.
Inhale is sharp and acidic with a sweeter but slightly dry green apple candy base. Moderately dense, with some top end bitterness and grassiness. Beginning of the exhale is promising, with some crisper green apple peel notes and a even a bit of a denser, sweet fleshy texture. Back half of the exhale is pretty rough. Those top notes get bitter, astringent, and sharp and dominate the sweeter, dense candy apple base. Bitterness really sticks on the top of your palate, and I'm getting a pretty prominent throat hit. Lingering bitterness and sticky, sugary mouthfeel.
Off-flavors: This has a lot of that grassy, green apple acetone kind of taste. It dominates the back end of the exhale and you get a lingering bitterness.
Throat Hit: I get a pretty healthy throat hit from this. It's definitely on the harsh side.
Uses & Pairings: This is rough enough that I think it's pretty well relegated to a supporting player at low percentages. I wouldn't want to try to turn this into a full apple flavor, I'd rather use this to accent a juicier apple concentrate. Would work to sell a bartlett pear as well. This definitely needs a fuller, juicier base to work from.
Notes: .25% is bright, tart bordering on sour, and a bit crisp. Not a lot of body to the concentrate down here, but a crisper texture and taste. .5% adds some sweetness to the back end, although it doesn't really taste like a full apple flavor. Acetone notes are definitely present, but not completely overwhelming. 1% is sweeter and has a clearer apple taste and texture. It's a good deal more bitter and harsh in the top notes. 1.5% is about as much sweetness as I want out of this. Body is getting a bit dry for a fruit. Those off-flavors are still definitely in charge here. 2% is drier, even sweeter, and fairly astringent. I don't think this is a good fit for a primary note. I'd recommend using .25-.5% pretty strictly as an additive to crisp up a fuller, flat, apple or pear based juice.
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Thanx for the review excellent as always. The search goes on for that perfect green apple then :/ although I like mf green apple the high percentage needed ain't good value for money imo.
So weird that on FLV's site they recommend 3-5%. Who is testing these percents for them?!?!?!
I have no idea, but I know they've been updating them as reviews come in. I know my taste runs a little light, but some of the flavorah stuff changes pretty drastically based on percentage. Their is a bit more leeway in the fruits, and it looks like tobaccos, but their bakery percentages are just plain wrong. I just started dripping some their waffle... they recommend .5-4% and it tastes more like an earthy tobacco flavor as low as 1%. Weird stuff.
Interesting. Guess I'll be buying waffle sometime soon. I mix all their tobaccos at 3-5% except Classic Cigarette which imo should never be mixed about 1%. There's also Cavendish which I won't mix at all because I hate it. I've tried mixing Red Burley at 2% in a recipe and couldn't taste it, very strange. They're not the easiest to work with I'd say but never the less, some of their stuff is unmatched.