Flavour Art Vanilla Classic / Madagascar
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.16 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FA Vanilla Classic / Madagascar @ %2, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 13 days.
Flavor Description: A slightly darker Vanilla extract flavor, with a thinner, almost watery body. Hints of darker vanilla bean in there. Includes a bit of the sourness you'd get from a cheaper vanilla extract. Sweet, but not crazy sweet. I still wouldn't call this super floral, but it has less of a bright frosting note to it. This is about halfway between FA Vanilla Tahity and FA Vanilla Bourbon. Seems like the most versatile of the FA vanillas, although the least pleasant solo.
Inhale is has some light body, with a sharper building vanilla. Light sweetness and a slightly floral top note. Exhale starts with a darker vanilla bean kind of flavor up front, with just a bit of spicy vanilla top notes. Thin, slightly sour base starts to show up on the back half of the exhale. Not particulary sweet, but still kind of sticks to your lips a bit. Tail end of the exhale is pretty dead on to vanilla extract. Lingering vanilla extract light sourness.
Off-flavors: A bit of that flat, slightly sour note you get vanilla extract on the tail end of the exhale.
Throat Hit: Nah, not really.
Uses & Pairings: I'll give HIC credit here, this really does come across like vanilla extract, and should probably be used as such. Good for adding some vanilla in when you don't want to screw with the texture of a mix. Denser bakeries, heavier creams / ice creams and custards, all that noise.
Doesn't seem to like to blend all that well with brighter, tarter flavors. Sort of exacerbates the thinness and slight souness here. I'd probably stay away from fruit forward mixes with this one.
Notes: S&V concentration testing, this is fairly potent. Testing it solo was a bit of a drag, so I've thrown in it in with 1% Zeppola. %'s are going to be a bit squisher than usual, but this really isn't a solo vanilla. At .25%, this is pretty sneaky. I'm getting just a hint of vanilla in the top notes. At .5%, I'm still just getting this in the top notes. Noticeable vanilla bean accent, but it isn't messing with underlying zeppola texture. At 1% I'm starting to a hint of the exhale sourness. Actually tasting just a smidge unbalanced. At 1.5%, I'm getting too much of that extract texture, and at 2% I'm really not enjoying this. This seems pretty strong, so I'd start low. Maybe .25-5% for bakeries, and .5-1% for creams / ice creams / custards.
Second Opinions:
HIC wrote some Flavour Art notes, were you aware?
"Vanilla Classic is closest of the three to vanilla extract flavor sold in the U.S., comparable in flavor to Mexican vanilla extract. This is the vanilla flavor Americans know from vanilla ice cream, cake, and popular cookies. Although it's excellent vanilla, many people get only this one -- and miss out by never trying the other two."
You got good reviews on BCF.You also got good reviews on ECX
And here's a post of Vaping Underground on Madagascar Vanilla.