Flavorah Cherimoya
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FLV Cherimoya @ 1% and 1 drop per 10ml (about .25%), 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 8 days.
Flavor Description: Pineapple forward, with some softer vaguely tropical tasting sweet, soft fruit base after that. I can pick out some apple, mango and coconut. Realistic sweetness and tart acidity.
Inhale is sharp and sweet. Lots of pineapple here with a softer mango candy type of flavor. Moderately dense. Not a lot of throat hit, but the sharpness definitely leaves your mouth a bit raw. On the exhale, you definitely notice that pineapple kind of note first, especially at higher percentages. Higher tart notes with some acidity. The rest of the fruit starts to come in after the pineapple fades a a bit. Golden delicious apple base with some really soft mango and coconut sweetness. Tastes a bit indistinct after that pineapple up front. Sweet, but a pretty natural sweetness. Lingering tart pineapple and raw mouthfeel and a bit of an apple peel kind of taste.
Off-flavors: Not really. Lots going on, but nothing I haven't tasted in other custard apple / cherimoya type of concentrates.
Throat Hit: This has a bit of acidic brightness, so it can get just a bit harsh. Nothing too extreme, but it's there.
Uses & Pairings: This suffers from some of the drawbacks of other custard apple flavors, namely that it's a fairly complex flavor on it's own and it'll be difficult to find a way to use this where it isn't the star of the show or a pretty far in the background. Works well with a cream base. Can also be used as an accent flavor for some tropical-ity for lack of a better descriptor.
Notes: Concentration testing, this varies a lot based on percentage. At .25%, seems a bit too light. Good bright pineapple pop at the beginning, but the back end of feels softer and muted. .5% tastes a lot fuller, still good acidity up front and I'm getting a bit more on the backend, but it feels like it'll be too light to really stand up in a mix. 1% tastes fairly similar to .5%, maybe a bit more body on the back. Still feels like it struggling to get some body. 1.5% is getting a little sharp, with that pineapple coming in pretty clearly up front and pushing the back end a lot. Fuller overall, I could see being able to pick this out in a mix. Backup fruit comes back with a vengance at 2%. Still on the sharp side, but you're getting some body back. At 3%, this is feeling a bit overblown. Kind of an acidic pineapple with a juicy-fruit kind sweetness on the back end. Honestly, this one is a bit odd based on concentration. I'd recommend working low on this an accent, starting at .5%. If you want a fuller cherimoya flavor in a mix with competing flavors, maybe start at 1.75% and work up.
Putting this in the greater custard apple context, this tastes the most similar to INW Cherimoya, but simultaneously fuller and less sharp. INW Cherimoya gets a bit weird and sharp when you're trying to push it into the forefront of a recipe, but this doesn't seem to do that. Out of the trifecta of Flavorah custard apples, this seems to be the most mellow and stripped down. It doesn't seem to have either the intense fruitiness of FLV Guanabana or the tartness of FLV Soursop. Picking out the nuances on these flavors is a bit of a bear, but this seems to be lacking both the heavier banana of guanabana or the sourish apple of Soursop. This feels the most like a creamy, cohesive slightly muted apple, mango, banana, and coconut mix with more pineapple sharpness, although I'm not sure if it's a heavier pineapple flavor or there is just less going on in the background. Feels more like a muted tropical background noise after the pineapple, at least compared to FLV Guanabana and Soursop.
Second Opinions:
u/CheebaSteeba/ 's take from the FOTW on custard apples:
"I almost feel like they made this concentrate for me lol. Although I've yet to work it in to a recipe or really play with it much outside of SFT, I will say this one definitely takes the cake over INW (depending on what you're going for of course). The flavor is very much more pronounced, a little bit more tart -- which puts it closer in authenticity to the actual fruit -- with the pineapple note shining through more, and to me it was slightly harsh on the throat at 3% (prob too high). I would definitely recommend pairing this one with creams to bring out more of that smooth custardy note and to tame some of the harsher notes coming from it."