Flavour Art Vanilla Tahity
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 Tahity @ %2, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 12 days.
Flavor Description: Vanilla almond milk mixed with lucky charms marshmallows. Very "commercial" vanilla profile with a nutty undertone, fluffy body, and aggressive sweetness. After a steep, I don't get too much in the way of floral vanilla here.
Inhale is definitely sweet, with a pretty heavy fluffy body. Some pretty mellow drier vanilla. Not quite chalky but not too far off either. Exhale has bright vanilla up front. Non-floral and very sweet. Doesn't taste rich so as much as really dense. Not too much in the way of top notes, maybe just a hint of a higher, more natural vanilla. Back half of the exhale has almond coming through fairly strong. With the almond and the sweetness, almost crosses into marzipan. Still very fluffy and a little sweet. Tail end of the exhale has a cereal-marshmallow kind of malt to it. Not too overbearing, but hard to "untaste" when you pick it out.
Off-flavors: Almonds and malty mini marshmallows. Not unpleasant but not really covered by "Vanilla." Also really sweet.
Throat Hit: Light, the fluffyness here can get a bit dry.
Uses & Pairings: Right off the bat, this may end up being my choice for a single flavor vanilla. All due respect to the Holy V (and it's myriad devotees), but I like how the nuttyness gives some extra body here and the malt doesn't quite push into some of the sour dairy I get from holy vanilla.
Beyond that, this is fairly close to INW Vanilla Shisha or INW Vanilla Bourbon, substituting some of the creaminess there for a more overt nuttiness. I'd say it could be used in pretty much the same way. Useful for pairing with brighter fruits, and the lack of a strong floral component opens it up to mixing with stone fruit especially.
The sweetness here is pretty intense and marshmallow-y, so might not be the ideal tool for a bakery where you want to keep a savory edge and denser texture.
I'd go for this in sweeter tobacco mixes, with the nuttyness complementing some of the dryer tobaccos well.
Interesting choice for a cream or custard. I think that almond will show up... which isn't a bad thing, but not as creamy as some of your other options.
And hey, it's awesome in coffee.
Notes: S&V concentration testing, noticeable but light down at .25%. A thinner, floral kind of vanilla. .5% has more body but still tastes a bit thin and muted. Perfectly workable this low as a vanilla accent. 1% really starts to get some body and fluffyness. That almond shows up clear at 1.5% and by 2% it's getting to be fairly prominent. Kind of like a marzipan marshmallow. At 3%, this is getting really sweet and the fluffyness is getting pretty dry. 4% seems like the florals are picking up and getting fairly sharp. I'd recommend starting with this at .5% as an accent for fruits, 1% for some added vanilla body to a cream or bakery, or 2% if you really want to use the texture here and don't mind the almond/marzipan note. Worth noting in other reviews that the actual vanilla part of this has a tendency to lay back in mixes and can be easily overwhelmed. I think you'll still get the sweeteness and texture pretty loud and clear, but watch for that or add a spicier, floral vanilla like FA Vanilla Bourbon back in to pick some of that vanilla back up.
Second Opinions:
HIC wrote some Flavour Art notes, were you aware?
"Vanilla Tahiti is the flavor of Tahitian vanilla extract. It's a bright vanilla flavor with light fruitiness, just like real Tahitian vanilla extract. Some people may detect a note of almond/cherry. This is the sweetest of FA's vanillas. It's usually the best one to choose with fresh fruit flavors, especially mild fruits. Bold or 'dark' flavors can overwhelm it, so it's best used either with light fruit flavors or in recipes that include vanilla as a main ingredient. It's just as strongly-flavored as the others when vaped standalone, but it's more easily lost if used as an accent."
Quite a few positive reviews on ECX. User "Anthony" has my favorite review, maybe of all time:
"This has a floral note that's a bit strong. It's the almondy-flowery-tropical thing. I prefer a straight vanilla. Now, in all fairness, it mellows out after a day or two. The first whiff is Cyanide at a Luau with plastic flowers. Then the floral evaporates or reacts or whatever these things do, and you're left with more almond-vanilla. I'm sure I'll figure out where to blend it in, none of FA's flavors are "like,doh"."
I can see where this "Anthony" is coming from when this is unsteeped, but I don't get much in the way of the florals after a steep. Still comic gold though.
Here's a FOTW on vanilla. Interesting part with regards to FA Vanilla Tahity is /u/BooksofMagic comment that "Vanilla Tahity is fantastic when added to fruit mixes. You can't really taste it, but it does add a certain something that you notice when it's missing." /u/tranceinate comes back with "It's the the almond note that makes fruits pop."