Flavour Art Zeppola
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.18 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FA Zeppola @ %2, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 7 days.
This concentrate was provided by bullcityflavors.com, for the sole and express purpose of publishing an honest review for r/DIY_eJuice.
Flavor Description: A dry, fluffy cake donut with a good deal of powdered sugar on top. I could see this passing as a grocery-store bakery take on a beignet.
Inhale is mostly powdered sugar. The drier, dense mouthfeel kind of feels like you're actually inhaling powdered sugar, which is a bit disconcerting. Exhale starts with another good helping of powdered sugar on top with a drier cake donut coming through underneath. Overall effect is really sweet, and moderately dense. Back half of the exhale is primarily that cake donut right in the middle of your palate. Not a lot of low-end oily rich flavor here you'd get from an actual donut, although you do get sort of an oily mouthfeel. Lingering powdered sugar on the exhale. This manages to give you sugar lips while feeling like it's greasing your mouth up a bit. Really interesting.
Off-flavors: So, a zeppole is usually fried, and I'm not getting that. It's much more of a cake donut taste with a strange oily mouthfeel. Also, that powdered sugar thing is pretty intense, but probably workable for the profile.
Throat Hit: Light solo, mostly from the dryness here.
Uses & Pairings: If you want a yeast-risen donut, a little FA Joy will do you. That has the yeast, bready body, and slight touch of oil this seems to be missing for a typical yeast-risen american style donut. /u/ID10-T recommends using TFA Bavarian Cream for some added creaminess and richness, which should also work to round out that noticeable powdered sugar notes.
From there, knock yourself out. I'm sure you can figure out something rich and obscene to do with your donuts.
Also, this is profoundly sweet, and should work as a fairly non-descript sweetener for bakeries as long as it's kept low.
Notes: S&V concentration testing, .5% this is a more like the scent from donuts without much mouthfeel. Same kind of taste, just really faint without much body. Still very sweet, though. 1% really just seems to boost the powdered sugar here, making it a bit dryer and sweeter overall. 1.5%, that cake donut taste is starting come back through, adding some nuance and giving you some of an actual donut as opposed to more of just a whiff of a bakery. Same thing with 2%, the powdered sugar seems to top out at 1% but that donut base is getting a bit stronger. Seems to get a breadier as the wicks dry out. At 2.5, the powdered sugar is a little more under control and that donut is taking center stage. Donut is getting some anise/maple kind of top notes. At 3%, I'm getting some bread out of this but the powdered sugar seems to be muting some of the more "donut" taste. At 3.5% and above, the flavor seems to mute a bit more and gets a bit astringent overall. I'd use this at 1% for a sweetener for bakeries, and probably 2.5% for a donut without added sweet components. I'd bump up to 3% for a donut where you're adding a bit of joy or intend on having a sweet glaze or fruit filling or whatever.
Overall this is good, although a bit dry and definitely heavy on the powdered sugar. Doesn't give me a zeppole per se, but seems like a really good donut base.
Second Opinions:
User Boogenshizzle has great notes on ELR. Seriously, go read them. Percentage testing and everything. I disagree mainly in that I get a lot of sweetness here, but super useful.
EDIT: /u/ID10-T saved me from recommending a vanilla yeast infection from a combination of FA VC1 and FA Joy.