Flavorah Apple
ConcreteRiver
This is a pre-release of a re-release flavor, which was provided to me solely for the purposes of review. It's been out of production for a minute now.
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FLV Apple, .25, 1, and 3%, others noted, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: A pretty straight-foward sweeter apple juice type flavor.
The apple here is pretty middle-of-the-road, in a good way. There's some sweeter red apple type body, with some tarter, slightly grassy green apple notes in there. Apple juice sweet without tasting overtly candied. The body here is pretty mellow overall, but that green apple top end can get a bit harsh and grassy. Not in the same league as the more intense, realistic green apple flavors, but it creeps in. Very little green apple jolly rancher candy vibe to it.
This is probably Flavorah's most fuji-esque apple. It doesn't have the crispness, snap, or peel note that FA or JF have. It's probably closer to Capella's fuji, but it isn't as juicy. The texture here is just a bit dry and kind of has an ethyl-maltol/cotton candyish body. Not aggressively dry, and it doesn't have that spicy peel note of FA Fuji. Kind of reminds me of a less vivid and juicy INW Two Apples.
A lot of greener apple flavors have a weird tinge of funk (technical term.) I wouldn't call it full on butryic, but it has just a bit of sort of barnyard off-flavor living around with grassier flavors. It's not incredibly prominent here, and it usually steeps off okay, but it's a bit odd. I'm not used to tasting with a sweeter, more mellow apple body, but it seems like there is just a touch of it in here, especially mixed fresh. 6 days out i'm barely picking it up, but it was a bit stronger fresh.
Off-flavors: The tarter part of this gets a bit grassy, especially without steeping. Mouthfeel is a bit dry for the apple juice-ish flavor. Light barnyard funk mixed fresh.
Throat Hit: Moderate fresh, calms down to a lighter throat hit on a moderate steep.
Percentage testing: At .25%, there's actually a decent amount of flavor here, although it's definitely on the thin and dry side. Seems more heavily balanced toward the green side of the apple equation.
At 1%, this still feels a bit strong on the green apple side. I'm actually getting a touch of jolly rancher here, as that deeper base hasn't really filled out and I think I'm mostly just getting the sweetness and not the nuance from it. Still on the dryer side, but nothing spicy or peel-ish.
At 3%, I'm getting more of that apple juice type body and that green apple is back to an accent. Sweetness isn't that much higher than 1%, but it's fuller here. Body actually feels a bit less dry here. Seems to be working better as a single flavor up here.
Just based on these tests, I'd probably mix with this as a tarter apple layer around .75-1%, A full green apple around 1.5%, and a apple juice type flavor at 3-4%.
Uses & Pairings: I'd primarily use this as a layering apple to bring in some relatively realistic but not overbearing green apple tartness to softer apples like CAP Fuji Apple.
If you add some moisture back in here with FA Pear you could do a solid apple juice flavor.
Good apple flavor to fill out HS Apple Mix or FLV Apple Cider without making them feel too watery.
There are a whole lot of apples, and while this is a relatively solid solo apple flavor I'm not sure it really stands out in an extremely crowded field. A lot of what this does at a higher percentage could be down either through layering of cheaper apple flavors or a lower percentage of INW Two Apples.