Decadent Vapours Lime Zinger
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.13 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Decandent Vapours Lime Zinger @ 4,8,12% 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: Less than a week after this exhaustive discussion and me threatening to knife fight people over INW Lime vs. FLV Lime as the preferred green slush flavor, this is basically a green slush in a bottle... with issues. Brighter, sharp candy lime flavor with some heavy, syrupy sweetness and a fine carbonated/gritty texture. Sweeter and fuller than FLV Lime solo, but with the same kind of green skittles bordering on cleaning product taste. As about as close to carbonated as you're going to get out of an e-liquid, with a fine, gritty texture that emulates ice crystals without any of the attendent cooling. As for the issues, it's weak, expensive, fades out, and is a bit hard to source. I'd recommend using this for green slush or beverage applications damn near close to a single flavor. You're probably looking for at least 8% flavor up to 12% and you're going to want to get to it within a couple weeks.
Inhale has sharper lime up front. Very much a "green" flavor. No real zest to it, but it's still pretty sharp. Some deeper sweetness, still lime, but more of that lime sno-cone syrup artifical lime flavor. Moderately dense mouthfeel without any real harshness. Exhale has that bright green lime flavor up front, with kind of carbonated texture. Not really the same thing as real carbonation, but almost a fine gritty texture that could concievably remind you of carbonation if you're feeling generous. Good amount of sweetness, maybe just a touch light on the side. Doesn't go full syrupy, but it manages to stick to your mouth a bit. Again, moderately dense but not really harsh. A bit sharp, but not a lot of throat hit, especially for a citrus. Lingering artificial "green" lime flavor.
Worth noting that I've got a noticable decline in flavor between the fresh stuff I'm mixing for concentration testing and the steeped samples. Some of the artificial "green" starts to fade out a bit. It's still got a decent amount of flavor, but it seems a lot more vibrant fresh. I'd mix small batches and aim to use a mix with this as a primary note within a couple weeks.
Off-flavors: Not really, they describe this as "light and citrusy with pleasing notes of fizzy sherbet." It maybe skews closer to artificial "green" lime, but it's not cloyingly artificial.
Throat Hit: This is sharp flavor, but I wouldn't call it harsh. It's a lime that doesn't have much in the way of throat hit despite being a fairly bright flavor.
Uses & Pairings: The Decadent Vapours stuff I've tried is really tasty, but a bit hard to mix with. They tend to be relatively full concentrates that require higher percentages. I feel like this fits that pattern. I think, by itself, this does a pretty good job of being a sort of kool-aid version of a limeade flavor. If you can find a cherry that doesn't make you want to slam your head into a wall, I think it would be a great base for a cherry limeade. You could also sub out the cherry with raspberries or something like FA Forest Fruit for something similar that would be a lot easier to balance.
With a little bit of cooling, this would make an excellent green slush flavor. I still want just a bit more sweetness in here, either from a sweetener or even better INW Lime, but I feel like it's 90% of the way there.
Notes: Concentration testing, this is going to take a pretty heavy hand to get things really popping. At 4% this is pretty weak. Doesn't feel especially thin or harsh, but just weak. Even as an accent I feel like this needs more to fill out. 8% still feels just a bit thin. Like I'm getting more of a flat slush base than that nice bright "green" flavor. Probably more workable down here with other concentrates but it's lacking a bit of charm. 12% is just on the verge of being too much. Bright, interesting lime, but it's just barely pushing into cleaning products and tasting a bit antiseptic. I think the sweet spot for this concentrate is going to be around 10% mixed fresh, so maybe 12% with a short steep.
Second Opinions:
H/T to /u/ID10-T/ for the suggestion.