Decadent Vapours Kola
ConcreteRiver
Disclaimer: I didn't pay for this, shoutout to Decadent Vapours for sending this to me.
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 12 wrap 24g 3.5mm SS316 @.33 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Decadent Vapours Kola, 5% and 10%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 36 days.
Flavor Description: Tart, herbal take on a cola.
Feels like more of a cola base than a completely finished cola. Tart bordering on sour base. Seems to aiming more at the acidic part of a cola, doing a fairly good job on conveying a pretty heavy bite. Pretty intense solo, without much in the way of vanilla or caramel to balance out that aggressive sharpness. I think I’m picking up some lemony citrus here as well, which is definitely contributing to that bite.
Relatively heavy herbal cola notes. A bit medicinal and slightly bitter, this seems like a pretty accurate cola top note. The acidity and the bitterness here does a fairly good job simulating whatever passes for carbonation in vaping, feels at least lightly fizzy.
Texturally, this has a thinner, sort of wet texture like you’d expect from a beverage-type vape. No built-in cooling or anything like that, but does a pretty good impression of a soft drink mouthfeel.
Trying to put this in some kind of broader cola context, this doesn’t have all that much in common with something like FA Cola which comes preloaded with a pretty intense hit of vanilla and caramel. This is more acidic and beverage-esque than the Hangsen Colas. I haven’t gone too far down the TPA Cola rabbit hole, but this feels like it has some of that same bitter, herbal, and acidic qualities of TPA Cola Fizz does as an additive. I haven’t done full testing on it yet, but just by some preliminary mixing, Vape Train Cola seems like it’s on a similar wavelength to this one.
Off-Flavors: Tart acidic take overall, without the fuller vanilla or caramel you’d expect. Pretty heavy lemon. Slightly bitter solo.
Throat Hit: Moderate to Harsh. Not really a chemical throat hit, but it has a pretty intense acidic bit to it. It’s pretty brutal solo.
Percentage testing: At 5%, this mostly feels tart. I’m getting some of the cola herbals but no real vanilla or caramel. Light lemon bite. Plenty of acid, not too much flavor.
At 10%, this is tarter and probably a bit too harsh solo. Cola herbals are getting a bit bitter. Still no real vanilla or caramel to speak of.
Decadent Vapours has a usual 20% suggestion, and just nope. I did a S&V at 20% with this and felt caustic enough to strip paint. Just based on these tests, I’d probably be around 8% with this in a cola recipe, assuming you’re going to bring in some vanilla or caramel to try to knock the more aggressive edges off this.
Uses & Pairings: To fill this out as a cola, I’d throw in some vanilla and some caramel. I’d probably use a spicier vanilla like FA Vanilla Bourbon or FLV Vanilla Bean. No real reason why you couldn’t use a brighter, frosting type vanilla like FA Vanilla Classic if that was your thing. For the caramel, I’d be partial to FW Salted Caramel, but whatever.
Would work well on top of a sweeter, flatter cola like LB Cola Freeze or TPA Cola Syrup.
Alternatively, could be used for something like a cola gummy which has that cola flavor but not the accompanying vanilla and caramel.
Second Opinions: Looks like another bulk or wholesale flavor and I can’t find much out there.
I will say, I have no clue how this relates to their “Classic Cola” flavor, but hey, it can’t be that different, right?