Flavour Art Lavender
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 Lavender @ %1.5, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 38 days.
Flavor Description: Lavender, pretty much. Just lavender. No weird off notes, just floral enough to read as lavender without being too overbearing. Good stuff. It's like vaping Dr. Bronners Lavender Castille soap in the best possible way.
Inhale is obviously floral, Moderately dense, without any really thin astringency and a pleasant bitterness. Exhale opens up with a fairly strong, slightly musky lavender. A bit warmer and thicker than you'd expect from straight lavender. Pretty true lavender top notes, without a lot of "green" vegetal flavor. Some really appropriate base sweetness, definitely not a "sweet" flavor but not distractingly thin or harsh. Top notes linger a bit, but fairly clean. FWIW, smells pretty great. Avoids the floral rose/geranium thing where the room ends up smelling like cheap air freshener.
Off-flavors: Not really. I'd say its a tiny bit warmer and more musky than a floral usually is, but it really helps to round out the concentrate.
Throat Hit: Light, but nothing major. Definitely not a creamy flavor or soft flavor, but pretty good for a floral.
Uses & Pairings: More versatile than you'd think. The lack of green astringency really does open this more than other florals for mixing with creams and bakeries. Seems a little bit musky and floral for a heavy custard base, but perfectly workable with anything whipped cream or lighter. I'd keep it to lighter bakeries, seems like it's going to kind of sit on top of a heavier bakery.
Otherwise, I'm really just going to copy what /u/HocusKrokus/ said about the concentrate (quoted in the second opinions.) Floral vanillas, green tea, and citrus. I think he's onto something with the sweeter citrus example of LA Lemonade. I'd also include FA Lemon Sicily, JF Juicy Lemon, or even DV Sherbet Lemon. A harsher lemon zest note is going to make the lavender a bit too sharp.
In terms of other fruit pairings, I really like lavender with blueberries. I also love it with a honey sweetness, but good luck finding a decent honey. I like FLV Honey Bee, but it's definitely a bit on the funky side. I also like it with a tiny bit of FA Violet in the background, just to kind of round out the floral note.
Notes:
Concentration testing, I think 1.5% is probably pushing it a bit. It's a tad aggressive and musky for me. I put down a sample at .5% and I definitely prefer it on the lower side. At .5% is a little thinner, but it's less musky. Still a good lavender flavor though, and probably a lot easier to mix with at a lower level. I'd suggest starting at .25% and working up to .75% for an lighter accent flavor. This starts to get musky at about 1%. Maybe start there for a primary note.
Second Opinions:
So /u/HocusKrokus/ published a really good quick guide to florals. Read it.
"FA Lavender: One of my favorites. It can be a little unforgiving, and quickly goes the way of laundry soap if you use too much. Fairly sweet, and very aromatic. Pairs really well with Vanilla (not heavy cream types, but more like Vanilla classic, Vanillin, or the king of all: DIYFS Holy Vanilla) Citrus (LA Lemonade is my favorite) and Green teas. I like it best around 1.5% in a mix or 2% standalone."
"The aromatic, sweet, slightly camphor flavor of lavender plants. If you enjoy lavender tea, candies, or lemonade, this flavoring will make you happy."