Flavorah Carrot
ConcreteRiver
This a a pre-release flavor, which was provided to me solely for the purposes of review.
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.16 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FLV Carrot, .25, 1, and 3% 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 3 days.
Flavor Description: Raw carrots. Moderately sweet carrot body with a stronger peel note.
Pretty solid carrot body. Not overly juicy, but not completely dry. Moderately dense mouthfeel. Body definitely fits in with the raw carrot, as opposed to carrot juice.
Sweetness level overall is actually pretty realistic. Solid but not overwhelming sweetness. More like a juice carrot than a baby carrot. The bitterness of the peel is reining in some of the sweeter body.
That peel is mostly in the top notes and is pretty realistic, but still kind of a bummer if you were looking for a straight bakery carrot. Peel is a bit bitter and astringent but not particularly earthy. It's like eating a thoroughly washed, but still slightly bigger and unpeeled carrot.
Off-flavors: It's a raw carrot. That peel note is a bit aggressive for a sweeter cooked, or bakery carrot. Nothing in the profile that doesn't belong there and nothing chemical, but it's definitely raw and unpeeled.
Throat Hit: Moderate to fairly harsh, especially on the tail end of the exhale where that peel comes in. Maybe a step off of FLV Persimmon or FA Passionfruit, but there's a pretty solid throat hit here.
Percentage testing: At .25%, I'm actually get a fairly distinct carrot flavor, it's just a bit thin. Peel note isn't overwhelming, there's definitely some sweetness here, but there isn't much body.
At 1%, the peel here is definitely kicking up. I still don't think it's too overwhelming, but it's pushing the body of the carrot to the back a little. The body I do get is relatively full, sweet, and tastes like a carrot. May be more useful for a carrot juice type of flavor around this level.
At 3%, this is almost spooky realistic, especially on a fresh drip. Intense carrot flavor, but it's unpeeled and that peel is pretty aggressive.
This actually gives a pretty clear carrot peel flavor down low. I'd use this between .25-5% for a carrot accent if you want to chase glory and be the one to figure out a carrot cake. For juicier fruity applications, I'd mix between 1-2% with the idea that you're going to be adding in some selective muting for that throat hit. If you want a dead on carrot vape, then mix at 3% and go nuts.
Uses & Pairings: Seems like more of a carrot for fruit blends because of that fairly aggressive peel. Should mix pretty well citrus in general and oranges in specific. I'd also look at red or fuji apples or pear. Carrot and pineapple works pretty well together as well, although it gets weird with other tropicals.
Ginger is also a pretty awesome flavor with carrot, and the spiciness of the ginger should help to clean up some of the heavy peel note here.
If you've got an iron throat or use some pretty heavy EM or other muting agent, FLV Persimmon is one of the first things that popped into my mind.
Since that peel note is higher up in the flavor, and carries pretty well at lower percentages. It should be a decent choice for something like a carrot cake, given a low accent mixing percentage. I still wouldn't call this a bakery carrot per se, but given the fairly limited options, this may be a decent way forward.
The only other carrot flavor i've tried is RF SC Carrot and I like this one quite a bit more. I feel like it has some of the issues in terms of the actual flavor, but for whatever reason the way this vapes is substantially less weird. Also, it doesn't have a ton of cloudy orange sediment like the RF SC version. I would recommend this over the RF SC Carrot without any kind of reservations.