/u/Ustan88888888 asked me for some notes on guava flavors. I don't know if anyone will ever ask me for notes on guava flavors again, but just in case they do, it seemed like it wouldn't hurt to have a post to link to.

#GUAVA

Edit: /u/Sugarchoc reminded me that I left off two guavas.

SSA Guava - Mustard. It’s the darnest thing, but I swear I taste mustard in this. Like a fresh, natural tart and sweet guava that someone sprinkled with dry mustard powder for whatever reason. But at least it mostly tastes like guava and doesn’t have that overwhelming cat pee/meth lab off note that some guava flavors have.

WF Malaysian Guava - Kinda tastes like some kind of sweet and tart funky tropical lemonade? Pretty tasty flavor that’s nice and juicy, that I could see working well in all kinds of tropical fruit mixes and possibly in small amounts of other applications. But it’s not going to replace FLV Pink Guava or CAP Sweet Guava for me. It doesn’t have that really tart-bitter-juicy-funky pink grapefruity action that FLV has and it doesn’t have that thick syrupy sweet guava nectar thing that CAP Sweet Guava has, although it is pretty sweet in that funky base, with a tart tropical citrus thing upfront. That slight funky flavor could be described as musky, but it’s not that same musky note that causes me to call their Saskatoon Berry “butthole berry.” But it does linger a bit in a way that lets you know you just vaped something tropical and ripe. In terms of authenticity I’m not sure I could ID it as a guava flavor, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad flavor, it’s perfectly pleasant. The flavor it most reminds me of is actually FLV Passion Fruit, but it’s sweeter and not as dry as that, and it’s not really all that different from WF’s Passion Fruit. Nice flavor, not a must-have flavor.

FA Guava - Bitter musk cologne. More like a manly cologne than a floral perfume. It doesn’t taste like any kind of fruit. The closest it comes any part of a fruit that I can imagine is lime pith. Not lime peel, just the bitter spongy white part lining the rind.

RFSC Guava - Tropical ketchup. There’s some sweet, ripe tropical fruit in there that might be a guava but it tastes like it was drenched in ketchup. Bit more depth to it than I’m used with most Real Flavors and that’s where it gets fruitier, but that top note is strong and it just tastes like ketchup to me.

VT Guava - Sweet, warm, green musk cologne. It’s thick and has a sweet ripe pear-like base, but that cologne on top is strange. Rather than an appropriate tropical funkiness, it has that cologne-like musk that’s tangled up with a very green, citrusy floral, similar to bergamot. It feels warm, like a liquor flavor, the way TFA Kentucky Bourbon gives a mix a certain warmth, but not boozy. Of note, all of my other guava flavors are completely clear, but this one is darker and it made a greenish yellow juice like my pee after drinking a couple of energy drinks.

TFA Guava - Guava that a cat peed on. Insanely potent. 1% tastes strongly of cat piss and is not vapeable, at least not by me. I had a mild kind of PTSD reaction to it because of the time the family cat peed in my toy box when I was a kid. 0.25% is little thin but more than enough flavor for a musky guava accent. Room note still smells like remarkably like cat piss, but it’s not really present in the vape, which is interesting. It’s funky and bittersweet and a little green-peel tasting, but identifiable as a guava. Someone could do something good with a tiny bit this as a fresh guava accent or to make another guava taste fresher, maybe?

VT Apollo Feijoa - Green apple + green banana. I included this one because it’s also known as a “pineapple guava.” I’ve never had the actually fruit, only some feijoa candy when I went to NZ years ago. That candy did not taste anything like this. It did actually kinda taste like candy versions of pineapple and guava combined, as best I can remember. VT Apollo Fejoa, on the other hand, mostly tastes like a green apple, peel and all, like that hint of grassiness you get with a green apple peel, with a lot of other weird stuff going on. The apple part is sweet and with a little tartness, but on top of that it’s bitter like underripe fruit, like a hard green banana that you would probably spit out. It seems juicy at first but vaping it for a while it starts to get drier pretty quick, and even a little harsh.

FW Guava - Strawberry pear. People trying to describe the taste of guava to someone who has never tried a guava have described it as tasting like a strawberry mixed with a pear. This tastes like Flavor West heard that and ran with it. It’s got light some candy strawberry-type top notes and a more natural sweet, ripe pear body. Maybe a little funk to it but that just tastes like a very ripe pear rather than coming across as tropical. It doesn’t have any of the citrusy, acidic bite that I’m expecting with guava. It doesn’t really taste like guava at all. But it does taste like it would make a good base for a fruit punch/juice box recipe.

FE Guava - Tropical red flavor. Tastes like the tropical version of the color red made into a flavor. Thick, heavy, very sticky sweet syrupy flavor. Maybe a guava candy or strawberry-watermelon-guava candy, but probably not a realistic type of guava. It’s a little tart and there’s a light funkiness to it, enough to lend it a tropical vibe, but still tastes pretty candied. Could be a sweet base for a tropical punch or an enhancer for strawberry, watermelon, or other red fruit hard candy. No throat hit but it does get a little dry at the end after vaping it for a bit. Enough to make me thirsty; tastes like it should be mixed with something juicier, like some INW Cactus or FA Pear.

FLV Pink Guava – Grapefruit or Guava? One of my favorite flavors of all time, but it tastes more like a grapefruit than a guava… or does it? Some people have said it tastes just like a guava to them. I’ve never had fresh guava, is this what fresh guava tastes like? I’ve had lots and lots of guava nectar (add some to a margarita, trust me) and some guava jelly and even guava candy, but no fresh guava. It tastes specifically like a Rio Star ruby red grapefruit from South Texas to me, but not at all like a white or even an ordinary pink grapefruit. Maybe those red grapefruits taste more like guava than other grapefruits? Or there are different kinds of guava and FLV Pink Guava tastes like one of them but not others? There’s a good bit of tartness and just a little bitterness in the top, just enough bitterness to make it mouthwatering and give it a juicy feel. It does have a real deep and kinda funky tropical fruit syrupy sweetness to it, but when they’re fully ripe, so do those ruby red grapefruits. Thick for such a citrusy flavor. Some citrus-type throat hit, but easily smoothed out with other flavors. Use anywhere from 0.25 to 3%.

CAP Sweet Guava - Jumex/Goya Guava Nectar. Another one of my favorite flavors of all time, and this only one mostly tastes the way I think guava is supposed to taste, as best I can tell. It primarily tastes just like that yummy sweet guava nectar that comes in a can. It has some off-notes as a standalone flavor – I get hints of grass and bubblegum – but those are easily covered up in a mix. The rest is this dense, sticky sweet but still juicy guava nectar. It works well down low as sweet tropical thing and also works well to enhance all kinds of other fruits, berries, melons, mango, cherry, just about anything that will cover up rather than amplify that grassy bit, so not fruits have their own grassy peel-like note (basically I probably wouldn't mix it with green apple).

You should definitely not just assume that my experiences with these guavas would be the same as yours. Get a second and even a third opinion from any number of sources, including but not limited to these:

You've Guava Be Kiddin Me: This weeks' FOTW is ... GUAVA!!!

If you guavatate toward tropical fruit flavors, Check Out this Flavor of the Week: GUAVA!!!

Capella Sweet Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

Vape Train Australia Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

Decadent Vapours Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

Flavour Art Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

Flavor Express Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

Flavorah Pink Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

Solub Arome Guava - ConcreteRiver Review

The Flavor Apprentice Passion Orange Guava- ConcreteRiver Review