Decadent Vapours Parma Violet
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 @.30 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Decadent Vapours Parma Violet, 5% and 10%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 50 days.
Flavor Description: A chalky violet candy.
Candy take on a violet. It’s still definitely floral, but at lower percentages avoids coming off too much like laundry soap. The violet itself seems pretty well balanced between a light, almost citrus tartness and the more floral perfumey parts. Nothing really green or vegetal like eating the whole flower. Light anise kind of note reinforcing the floral violet, but it doesn’t feel out of place and may be somewhere in the candy base. That baseline anise twinge feels kind of Necco wafer-ish.
That floral is tempered quite a bit by a candy base. Feels like a ‘murican smarties type compressed sugar and starch. Dry, chalky, and fairly sweet. The base here adds a thicker mouthfeel and fleshes out those floral notes so they don’t feel thin or too perfumey. Dense, dry mouthfeel overall. Accurate, dryer sweetness to that type of candy.
Overall this seems really similar to TPA Cherry Blossom in terms of how the actual flavor works. Whereas Cherry Blossom is a very “pink” kind of floral candy, this definitely feels “purple.” So, this is a purple version of TPA Cherry Blossom. That’s some quality describin’, right? Comparing this to FA Violet, the extra body here really helps it from seeming as soapy and aggressively floral as FA can get.
Off-Flavors: A violet candy, as opposed to just a straight violet. Nothing that feels like it shouldn’t be here though.
Throat Hit: Light. Fairly smooth, although this can get a bit dry and harsh for me with extended vaping.
Percentage testing: At 5%, I’m getting a clear violet flavor. The florals here are actually pretty well balanced with that chalky candy base, although it does feel just a bit more like a candy with violet than a violet candy.
At 10%, those florals are starting to get a bit soapy and aggressive for me. Base is mostly keeping up and feels a bit thicker but has started to get a bit too dry overall.
Decadent Vapours has their usual stratospheric 20% recommendation, but that seems like overkill. Just based on these tests, I’d be around 7% as a primary or solo flavor and I’d bail before it got too soapy. Should work well as an accent around 2-3%.
Uses & Pairings: It’s been a fairly long time since I’ve had them, but solo this seems pretty much like a dead ringer for parma violet candies.
/u/hocuskrokus is a crazy person. His purple mango recipe, Violet Beauregard, is probably one of the tastier examples of this. So violet and fruit can definitely be mixed. He got some interesting mileage out of pairing violet with FLV Guanabana and FLV Mango. Using some of the body here, I’d guess you could cut out a bit of the creamy backend and make something even more candy-like. He kept mumbling something about Mango and Violet sharing volatiles, but you could probably do some really fun things smashing this together with other tropical fruits like pineapple and coconut.
I could see this pairing well with citrus in general. Should mesh really well with the sweeter lemon concentrates like FA/CAP Lemon Sicily or JF Juicy Lemon or a tangerine/mandarin flavor. A tarter, more realistic lemon like INW Lemon Mix would probably up the laundry soap thing quite a bit though, so maybe don’t use that. In general, I’d stay away from really harsh, zest heavy citruses like grapefruit or some of the limes.
Other fruit pairings are going to be a bit tricky and probably hit-or-miss. I’d stay away from anything too floral in general. You should have better luck with slightly syrupy fruits like TPA Pomegranate Deluxe or FLV Boysenberry.
If you really had a mind to mix a violet with cream, this would probably work a lot better than FA Violet without any extensive tinkering.
A bit dry to try turn into a crème de violette, but it could probably work out at a lower percentage.
Second Opinions: British juice review youtube is the best youtube.