Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.15 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: RF SC Rice Pudding @ 2% and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 19 days.
Flavor Description: Rice pudding with a good hit of vanilla, bakery cinnamon, and creamier base. I'm not getting too much rice out of this, but it does seem to have a neutral kind of starch taste in there. It's a bit dry, thin, and harsh overall, and the vanilla is a bit overwhelming. Overall effect kind of tastes like a weird vanilla frosting. I think this definitely use some wetter cream to it, like FA Cream or apparently OOO creamy undertones and maybe some of that fancy FE Sweet Rice that everyone is going on about. I'd use this around 2%-3%, seems pretty harsh above that.
Inhale has a lot of airy vanilla up top. Not overly sweet, but it has a bit of a vanilla frosting note. Distractingly airy, with no real base to it, just a harshness underneath. Exhale is a bit more complex. Still getting a lot of vanilla out of this, but there is a bit of bakery cinnamon in the top notes. Not really prominent cinnamon, but it's a nice accent to the vanilla. Back half of the exhale has just a flash of a rice flavor. More of a slightly grainy texture, but without a lot of the nuttiness I'd expect from a rice. Tail end of the exhale has a kind of sticky, waxy frosting note standing in for the creams. Tastes like a weaker version of CAP Butter Cream. Dry and thin overall. I feel like this desperately needs some fullness from some additional cream. I'm also getting a good deal of harshness here. Both the tradition stinging throat hit, and that weird heartburn-ish throat hit I'm starting to associate with Real Flavors bakeries. Finish seems to have a bit of lingering bitterness.
Off-flavors: Tastes a lot like vanilla frosting. I'm getting a lot of vanilla out of this, and the cream note is kind of waxy like frosting. The dryness here also kind of pushes the entire thing off profile.
Throat Hit: This is pretty harsh. Good ol' fashioned classic throat hit along with a weird heartburn-ish lingering harshness.
Uses & Pairings: I'm still struggling a bit on the construction of these Real Flavors bakeries. I find this kind of dry and thin solo, but there is some potential here for a rice pudding. I feel like, in order to get a satisfying rice pudding, you'll need additional wetter cream and some additional definition to that rice note. You could then add some fruit in there, apples jump out at me immediately.
Outside of that, I don't feel like the cinnamon here is really prominent enough to recommend using this as a generic bakery cinnamon, and while there is a lot of vanilla here, there are better, less harsh, options for adding vanilla into bakeries.
Notes: Concentration testing, 1% isn't cutting it. I get some weird, harsh, sticky vanilla. 2% has that cinnamon show up a bit, and the rice note starts to come through. Still fairly harsh, and I'm not getting much in the way of cream. 3% is pushing pretty harsh and dry. Rice note is starting to read recognizably as rice, but I feel like the vanilla is too prominent and it's getting a bit waxy overall. 4% is just too harsh for me.
Second Opinions: Not a lot I can find.
H/T to /u/ID10-T/ for the suggestion.
Great review, it's too bad rice pudding is my very favorite dessert and I would love to clone it!
Do you have FE sweet rice? It would be a great start for rice pudding, maybe with a little bit of this. I like to do 5%FE sweet rice, 1% cap custard v1, .8% FA meringue, .8% TFA vanilla swirl. After about it week it's a nice creamy rice pudding (minus any spices or additional toppings)
You should definitely check out this recipe: Rice Pudding Dessert by Jennifer Jarvis. She's a good mixer with really interesting and complex recipes.
If you want a real rice flavor for rice pudding get hiliq not ecx. Ecx taste buttery and it's almost like it should be a cereal rice more than a rice pudding. Hiliq rice is the one you really want to get.
Yes, that is pretty much my take on it as well. I was very disappointed. I'm getting much closer to rice pudding just with the FE Sweet Rice and TFA Horchata smooth. I am working some variations with different creams, butter, vanilla and cinnamon/spice notes. But just the basic sweet rice and horchata was more satisfying to me that the RF rice pudding. Waited a long time for it too. Time to try the OOO I guess, if I can't perfect it without. We shall see. Thanks for the review!