Flavorah Green Tea
ConcreteRiver
Disclaimer: I didn't pay for this, shoutout to Flavorah for sending this to me.
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 12 wrap 24g 3.5mm SS316 @.31 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Flavorah Green Tea, .25%, 1% and 3%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 12 days.
Flavor Description: Steeped green tea, with a bit of mint.
Fairly mellow green tea flavor. Light green tea earthiness here, but nothing really bitter or overdone. Slightly tannic astringency, but seems to accurate to profile instead of something more aggressive like black tea or oversteeped. Lightly floral and kind of delicate. Doesn’t have a stronger jasmine note like FE Green Tea. The actual tea part of this works pretty well overall, but I’m getting something greener and fresher that doesn’t really belong in addition to that steeped green tea.
At lower percentages, this feels a bit minty to me. There’s a more raw than steeped vegetation kind of note that seems to have a little bit of cooling to it. As you start increasing the percentage it gets a bit more prominent and filled out while picking up something grassy. As far as grassy notes go, it’s freshly cut and not overtly funky or aggressive, but it pulls me out of green tea profile a bit.
For the most part, has a reasonably accurate tea mouthfeel. Slightly thin mouthfeel with a tea warmth. Those fresher green notes do seem to be a bit more solid and have some cooling in there. Overall effect is both kind of warm and cool, kind of like a mint tea. This is least sweet of the new FLV Teas by itself. This could conceivably be an unsweetened green tea.
Of the new Flavorah green teas, this one seems to be the more traditional steeped green tea while FLV Eisai is more matcha-esque.
Off-Flavors: Fresher, minty and grassy vegetation in addition to the steeped green tea. Not offensive or overwhelming, but doesn’t quite fit the profile.
Throat Hit: Light, not as throaty for me as FLV Black or Red Tea.
Percentage testing: At .25%, I’m mostly getting green tea leaves. Most of the astringency in the flavor seems to be present right off the jump. Feels dry and a bit thin.
At 1%, this feels more like a full on tea. That tea leave astringency is backed up by a slightly sweeter, warm body. Moderately full for a tea flavor. The fresh green flavor is starting to come in, and I pick up just a bit of cooling on the back end.
At 3%, this doesn’t actually feel more astringent and bitter than lower percentages. The tea note doesn’t seem all that different from 1%. That fresher green flavor is pushing more toward lawn clippings up this high though.
Just based on these tests, I’d probably be using this as a green tea base around 1-1.5%. I’m not sure this is the green tea base I’d use for a clear green tea accent, but you could give it a shot at .25%
Uses & Pairings: This should work better with fresher fruit flavors than anything too creamy or heavy. That fresh green edge is going to stick out against any real dairy notes.
Seems like it would be a bit steamrolled by any really heavy, candied types of fruits. I’d stick with lighter touches of more realistic fruits.
Should also work well with lighter florals or citrus.
Second Opinions: There’s an ELR page up, with some familiar names and some very positive day 1 pre-release type reviews.