Flavorah Cherry Blossom
ConcreteRiver
This is 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 @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FLV Cherry Blossom, .25, 1, and 3%, others noted, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 8 days.
Flavor Description: A more floral take on a cherry blossom flavor. Light, floral cherry and some leafy green notes.
The cherry here is relatively subtle. It's light and floral, but on the flip side of that it doesn't have too many overwhelming off notes. It's a lighter, non-juicy type of cherry flavor but it doesn't cross fully into dry and chalky. The relative strength of that cherry note seems to vary pretty heavily based on percentage. It definitely needs a higher percentage to really take center stage, but it's working pretty well as an accent.
I'd say this is more green than strictly floral. It's not like FA Jasmine or FLV Hibiscus green, but there's some actual vegetation in here. It's relatively leafy and bright, and I'm not getting anything too warm or swampy. This does pick up more of a traditional perfumey floral edge at higher percentages, but it's not too aggressive.
This feels just a bit top heavy, but that's probably par for the course with something that leans green and floral. Not too thin, but no real heavy base here to latch on to. Sweetness level is moderate. Sweet for floral, but not candy sweet.
Comparing this to TPA Cherry Blossom, the FLV version seems a bit more focused on the blossom part. TPA Cherry Blossom is more a slightly chalky cherryish candy flavor, while this has a more pronounced floral edge and some actual greener notes. I'd say the cherry is a bit more pronounced in the TPA Version but it can also come off medicinal.
Off-flavors: I imagine this tastes a lot like actually eating a cherry blossom. Not unpleasantly green, but it's there. It's a different take on the profile if you're used to TPA Cherry Blossom. Nothing too chemical or strange at 3% or under.
**Throat Hit:**Light to moderate. Gets a bit perfumey at higher percentages, and that green note is just a bit harsh.
Percentage testing: At .25%, I'm not getting much in the way of cherry. Pretty prominent green flavor here. More leafy than vegetal. Just a hint of a floral cherry at the back end.
At 1% there's a bit better balance here. Still not a real aggressive cherry, but it's in there as an accent to that green flavor. Getting sweeter but not cloying.
At 3% I'm getting a clearer cherry. Cherry forward. The blossom part of this feels less leafy, and a bit more like a sweet green accent to the cherry. Sweet, with just little bit of perfumey bitterness at the the tail end of the exhale. Fairly mellow for a floral up this high.
Just based on these tests, this feels fairly flexible in terms of use percentage. I'd probably start around 1% if you want the herbal blossom thing up front, and up to 3% if you want the cherry to be more prominent..
Uses & Pairings: I think both this and FLV Sugar Orchid definitely have a cherry blossom vibe and they seem to complement each other pretty well. Mixing about 2% FLV Cherry Blossom and .25% FLV Sugar Orchid, I'm getting something that feels like a slightly softer version of TPA Cherry Blossom with a floral vanilla accent. It's working strangely well together. So if you're into cherry blossom, that might be worth a shot.
Outside of that, I think this is going to be useful if you want a more realistic cherry blossom flavor with some green to it. With the greener note here I think this might end up being a bit better with teas if you want a more subtle cherry accent than you'd get from FLV Sugar Orchid. And I'll just throw out the gin thing again.
Pairing this with fruits, I think this will bring more of a floral edge into things than both TPA Cherry Blossom and FLV Sugar Orchid. I don't necessarily thing the pairings are really different, but the end result is going to end up a bit more floral. You could either roll with it and work with something like berries that will handle that floral a bit better, or fight back harder with more syrupy and saturated bright fruits. I do think this will go really well with citruses.
The green note here probably means other cherry blossomish flavors are a better choice for creams or bakeries.