Flavour Art Bergamot
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FA Bergamot @ .5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 7 days.
Flavor Description: It's (mostly) what makes earl grey tea stand out from normal black tea. Definitely not a fruit flavor. More of a spicy musk. Warm, peppery, and lightly sweet, this has just a tiny bit of a creamy orange buried somewhere underneath all that.
Inhale is relatively neutral, fairly dense, and smooth with some sour citrus in there. Almost a vanilla note. The exhale kind of blows up into black pepper. Pronounced warmth there, a lot like clove flavors. Still, denser and fluffier than you'd expect given the black pepper thing. Nice baseline sweetness, even at .5%. Overall, it's a musky (without really crossing into earthy) spice note on top of a smooth (very lightly) orange-tinged base. A lot like FA Hypnotic Mist with a less complex base and much stronger spice note.
Off-flavors: Admittedly odd vaped solo, but nothing that seems completely out of place?
Throat Hit: Moderate when vaped solo. Not as harsh as it could be, all things considered.
Uses & Pairings: Earl grey tea is the obvious play here. Find a concentration that works for your favorite black tea flavor, add .1%-.3% of this and enjoy. Maybe 1 drop of this, and .5% of hypnotic mist if you want the tea a bit softer and creamier.
The warming note here is going to be useful for an authentic kind of spice punch to more savory recipes. Would pair well Cardamom or Clove to round that spice flavor out a bit. I'd also suggest vanilla, if you want a spicier note a lot like you'd get from fairly raw specks of vanilla bean as opposed to a finished vanilla extract or flavoring.
Works well as tobacco additive. Added a couple drops into a bottle of FLV Native Tobacco and it definitely warms up the mix a bit and gives the flavor a bit of "hit" without adding noticeably to the overall throat hit.
This also shows up in low percentages in cereal vapes, but I'm not 100% sure it works in the way that I thought it did. Instead of adding zest bitterness, it seems to add a dimension to that AP graininess you get from cereal concentrates. As far I can tell there is nothing that actually reads as citrus zest here. It really is just that peppery musky volume. If someone has more experience with using this in a cereal vape, please tell me I'm wrong.
Notes:
Straight black pepper, so use sparingly. This is another start at 1 drop per 30 ml and work up. You'll notice the effect on other flavors and the warmth before you get a clear pepper taste. There are very few applications that you'd want to go above .5%. Maybe a very spicy earl grey, or you really want to nail that bear mace profile, brah. Just for laughs, I tried at 1, 2, and 3% and it's not a great idea.
More of a flavor enhancer for spice notes, as opposed to anything you'd really want to taste. Interesting stuff.
Second Opinions:
Seriously, just read this by /u/ilikeycoffee. It's awesome. Actually just read everything relating to flavor they wrote. It's okay, the links to shitty ELR notes will still be here when you finish.
Anyone want to read 20 copies of HIC's note on bergamot? ELR never disappoints.