Flavorah Kinako Soy
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 Kinako Soy, .25%, 1% and 3%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 14 days.
Flavor Description: Roasted, nutty, and sweet.
In my ongoing struggle with complete cultural ignorance, I’ve never actually had straight Kinako. I’m pretty sure I’ve had it on top of mochi before, but that’s about the extent of my personal experience with it. It’s a roasted soybean flour basically, and the slightly incomparable Leilani said it had a lot in common with powdered peanut butter. That pretty much checks out for me.
Pretty heavily nutty, somewhere between sesame seeds and roasted peanuts. Seems fairly generic, in that there doesn’t seem to be anything really distinctive about the nuttiness. Nutty without having a harder, crispy Acetyl Pyrazine type of texture to it. Has a pretty deep toasted warmth to it.
Fairly sweet overall. Reminds me of lot INW Sesame Sweets, with a sort of honey or caramel twinge to the sweetness. I think the primary difference is going to be the fullness of the vape. While INW Sesame Sweets kind of blows out the top notes and base of flavors you mix it with, this seems maybe a bit less full in the base. Should actually make it a bit easier to work with though.
Off-Flavors: I can’t really comment on profile accuracy, but nothing unpleasant here.
Throat Hit: Nah, not really. Seems really fairly smooth.
Percentage testing: At %.25 i’m getting a moderate nuttiness and a little bit of warmth. Mild sweetness, but feels maybe a bit thin. Seems fairly top heavy at this percentage.
At 1%, this is sweeter but doesn’t feel much nuttier. A little thicker in general. No real off notes. Feels a bit more toasted, but not burnt.
At 3%, Still not tasting burnt. Not much thicker than 1%. Sweeter, kind of tastes like honey roasted peanuts without the crunchiness. No real off flavors.
I think this is definitely from the Sesame or Maple school of flavors, where they work as flavors relatively high, but they tend to dominate mixes. So even mixed up at 3% I wasn’t really getting anything “off” or unpleasant, but it will push a mix around quite a bit up there. Your usage percentage is going to depend more on how much the other flavors around this can take. Works well lower, so maybe start at .25% and work up until your mix gets too nutty.
Uses & Pairings: Seems like a good way to add a nutty, warm top note to mixes without bringing in a heavier AP texture. Should pair well with creams in general, still getting that nuttieness across without really messing with the texture of the mix.
While not a mochi flavor by itself, might be useful putting some nuttier notes on top of something like FE Sweet Rice to get a bit closer.
Useful for punching up peanut butters or other nuts without making them too crunchy.
I could see this working to make something like FLV Granola seem a bit sweeter and nuttier.
Or hell, throw it in a desert tobacco.
Second Opinions: There’s an ELR Page up with some flavor notes.