Flavour Art Cocoon

Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: FA Cocoon, 1 and 2.5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.

Flavor Description: FlavourArt calls this "Our interpretation of the moment when the warm embrace of the caramel melds with the sweetness of the apple, another amazing fairground flavour." So I'm guessing cocoons are supposed to taste like a caramel apple. I get the both the caramel and the apple. The caramel seems at least a little softer than straight FA Caramel. Still has some of that darker, dry caramelized sugar but there is a creamier flavor in here that is dragging it a bit towards a creamier caramel sauce. The second opinions have the apple here as a dead ringer for Fuji and I could see that. I get some of the same dry peel note I get from fuji and the body is similar. Top notes feel a bit different though, I'm getting a clear grassy note from this. Feels a bit more like a green apple here, but I'm having some issues finding a solid apple flesh texture. Also feels like their is a really light pastry note on the tail end of this. Not overwhelming, but I keep on picking it up. Not an awful solo flavor if you don't get too much dry peel weirdness, but could also have some use as a base to build a richer and brighter caramel apple juice. I'd use this around 2%.

Inhale has fairly dry apple up front. Feels like more of the peel, but it fills in a bit and gets at least a little bit juicier as the inhale goes on. There's a dry caramelized sugar that comes in as the apple fills out. Sweet, but flavourart sweet, nothing cloying or obnoxious. There's a dryness here that feels a bit spicy, like the peel not in FA Fuji. Exhale has a softer caramel up front. Still some of those drier, dark notes, but there's actually a good bit of creamier, softer, caramel sauce. The apple shows up after that first burst of caramel. It's a bit dry and grassy up top, but there is some juiciness in there as well. Seems to be pretty similar to FA Fuji, but this tastes a little more green and grassy to me and a hair less full. There's a dry spiciness to the the apple that exacerbates some of the drier, darker caramel on the beginning of the exhale. It feels like there is a bit of a pie crust or dryer bakery note on the tail end of this, but it's subtle. That spicy, dry apple note seems to linger a bit.

Off-flavors: Dry, at least for me. I have the same problem with FA Fuji, but it doesn't seem to be a common thing so take it with the usual pile of salt. I also get some pretty heavy grassy peel notes in here that don't quite gel with the apple base underneath.

Throat Hit: Moderate. The entire thing is a bit dry, but that apple seems a little on the harsh side.

Uses & Pairings: Well, there's the caramel apple thing.

As a solo flavor this feels a bit dry and grassy to me, but the components of a caramel apple are here and they feel pretty well in balance. The pastry note I'm getting doesn't really detract from the profile either.

If you wanted to use this as a base for a caramel apple, I feel like this would benefit from a juicier apple like INW Two Apples, or even FA Pear. Caramel is a bit trickier to punch up. If you can stand some coil gore, a softer caramel like FW Caramel Candy or Salted Caramel could help sweeten and thicken it up.

Outside of straight caramel apple, seems like a decent base for an apple pie with caramel notes, but it would still probably take an additional apple like FLV Apple Filling to really sell the pie filling.

Notes: Concentration testing, this might be more dependent on how much you like that FA Fuji-esque apple. At .5% and 1% this seems pretty far apple forward. Still fairly light, but I'm getting a lot more apple than caramel, with a softer, juicier flavor. At 1.5% The caramel picks up a bit, with a lighter dry caramel over that apple. Apple peel note seems a bit heavier here as well. At 2% I'm getting more of that soft caramel, pretty well in balance with drier, darker caramel. I'm getting quite a bit of peel off the apple flavor here, but that softer caramel is helping to balance it a bit. I'm picking up some pastry on the backend but it's not overwhelming. At 2.5%, this seems a bit dry. Not too drastic, but that apple peel note seems to be stepping on the caramel a a bit. At 3% seems just a touch drier and that apple is getting grassy. At 4% this is actually picking up a bit of bitterness from that grassy apple.

Second Opinions:

Here's the ELR Page. Mostly positive notes, although user "essey" writes: " In the readymix from FA this is not great! Tastes like a mess of sugary stuff. No apple flavor noticed. Never buy again!" "Amy*** is more positive: "Caramel heavy with apple, spices along w/ some powdered sugar more caramel rich notes than the rest but apple is sure present. very nice, need more trials w/ this one." "Alex74" brings up the pastry note, so maybe I'm not completely wrong.

Review from user "kempos" on the ukvapers forum. They seem to dig it: "The flavours nice, its a sweet apple flavour, reminds me of the flavour from the middle of an apple pie or apple crumble. Quite a nice vape as standalone and I happily vaped the tank I had. Could possibly do with a touch more toffee flavouring to make it an authentic toffee apple for my tastes.As a mixer concentrate I can see this being really good, I've already tried adding 4% of this to a pre-steeped custard and it's mixes really well and I can see this flavour being perfect for an apple pie or similar bakery juice needing an apple flavour."

On ECX, user "skylined" is incensed: "From a manufactuer of flavors, charging a premium price for this flavor - I would expect a lot more. To me, this tastes like fuji apple, and a hint of something that might be caramel but it's faint, and boring at best. Could be used as an alternative to apple in mixes... but other than that it's an overpriced fa fuji apple." User "paul" defends FA's honor: "Not bad, pretty good caramel apple. I saw it had a 1 star rating and thought that was negligent and would turn people away from this flavor. The price at this moment is only 50 cents more than Fuji Apple so I think that complaint is petty and baseless. I'm no big Apple fan but if I was, this is a good caramel apple, like you would get at a fair or a farmer's market." DRAMA!

/u/TheAlmightyD/ gives a quick take: "FA Fuji seems to be the dominant flavour here, eh it's alright."

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

Bonus, incredibly rambling, video first test of Morning Sun, Cocoon, and Summer Clouds. I ended up being a bit more positive here on this flavor than in the initial test.

Shoutout to /u/ID10-T for suggesting this for review.