Capella Rainbow Candy SL
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: CAP SilverLine Rainbow Candy, 2 and 5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 7 days.
Flavor Description: Skittles, but missing a lot of the fruit flavor you'd expect. More of a sweet and tart skittles base, if that's a thing.
This doesn't exactly taste like Skittles, although it feels like it could maybe be the base for a skittles recipe. There's a dry, slightly chalky texture in here, along with a whole lot of tartness. It feels brighter and tarter than just a citrus skittles flavor. The inhale and exhale are both fairly well dominated by that tartness, and I'm getting a decent amount of throat hit from it. The texture beneath that tartness is on the dryer side overall. More like a sweet-tart than a chewier skittles type mouthfeel, although adding a syrupy fruit would probably turn it into something substantially chewier. Seems to already have some kind of candy sweetness built in, but it isn't really attached to the body here.
It tastes like there is some kind of fruit flavor in here, but it's relatively light compared to that overwhelming tart base. I pick up mostly lime and a bit of artificial kool-aid type grape flavor. The tartness here really pushes that lime note right toward the front. I maybe get a sweeter orange, and then grape comes in on the back. Those fruit flavors aren't particularly saturated, and lead to a pretty unsatisfying solo vape.
The only other strictly skittles concentrate I have to compare this with is an ancient bottle of FW Skittles Type. The FW Version is quite a bit heavier on fruit. Granted, it's still really lime and lemon forward, but the actual fruit flavor is quite a bit stronger and more vibrant. Texture is a little lacking though. FWIW, mixing some of the FW Skittles and CSL Rainbow Candy actually produced something that a had a decent base and a brighter artificial skittles flavor. It sounds like this would be a closer match to FW Sweet and Tart.
Off-flavors: More of a candy base than full skittles flavor. Nothing tastes chemical or off here at usable percentages.
Throat Hit: Moderate to harsh solo. Gets a bit dry overall, and that tartness has a kick to it.
Percentage testing: At 2% I get a decent candy tartness without too much else going on. Extremely light fruit flavor, and maybe a little bit of that sweet, chalky body.
The tartness here is actually a little overwhelming at 5%. Seems fairly close to a "sour" type flavor up this high, but nothing here tastes chemical or off. I'm also getting that dryer, sweet body. Fruit flavor is still really light. Sort of like vaping the leftover sugar from a bag of sour skittles.
I gave this a shot up higher at 8% and it was a little too tart and harsh for me, and it didn't seem to solve the fruit issue.
Just based on these tests, I think this one is fairly versatile in terms of percentage. My usage would probably be dictated on exactly how tart I wanted, but I could see this working as a lighter tart accent at 2% and up to 6% as a more aggressive additive.
Uses & Pairings: Not a solo skittles vape, although mixing it with FW Skittles got me fairly close.
I'd use this more as a candy tart additive. Should help to give some sugary body and some bright tartness to juicier fruit flavors. I don't think the little amount of fruit here is going to clash with any other kind of fruit, but it's going to be a bit distracting in non-fruit profiles.
Should work well either the 27 bears or 27 fish to give a tarter, sour edge to gummy candies.
Use case will probably be fairly close to FW Sweet and Tart.
Second Opinions: Still fairly new.
Shoutout to ceedee99uk for linking reviews from PeegoreVapes in another thread.
Here's the product page from Capella. Their description: "This hard-shelled chewy treat is a bold new Silverline flavor. Straight out of the bag, Rainbow Candy is a flavor fantasy sensation with hues of Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grape, and Strawberry."