Capella Jelly Candy
ConcreteRiver
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.