Flavorah Red 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 Red Tea, .25%, 1% and 3%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 10 days.
Flavor Description: This one was based on Rooibos tea, and it seems reasonably accurate.
In general, Rooibos is a bit sweeter than a black tea without the astringency and with a nutty, almost malted kind of taste.
This is an interesting flavor. It tastes like a tea made of honey roasted peanuts. Sweet and nutty up front, with a more traditional herbal or black tea backend. Part of the selling point for Rooibos is that it doesn’t really have the astringency of black tea, but I’m still getting a bit of astringency. The herbal parts on the back half of the exhale also seem to have a slightly earthy bitterness to them. Kind of reminds me of the bitterness from FLV Yakima Hops but less intense overall. Seems a bit bitter for Rooibos but I’m not a tea expert.
Rooibos tea can get a bit of a hibiscus thing, and this concentrate does seem to have something fruity here. I’m going to say hibiscus because I’m thinking about hibiscus, but it’s pretty generically fruity. The fruitiness gets a bit lost behind all that nuttiness, but the overall effect is interesting.
Sweet but not cloying overall. Rooibos is a bit sweet on it’s own, but this feels sweeter than that. Sweetness has a bit of a honey thing going on but it isn’t really heavy or sticky. Again, this vapes a whole lot like a tea. Very warm and thin without tasting too astringent. Pretty spooky accurate tea exhale.
Off-Flavors: Some generic tea astringency. Bitter edge.
Throat Hit: Moderate. This one seems a bit throaty to me, at least solo.
Percentage testing: At .25%, I get some of that nuttiness and some herbal bitterness but flavor overall seems a bit thin and dry. Missing a lot of nuance, tastes like a light nutty black tea.
At 1%, this gets less dry and noticeably sweeter. Still pretty heavily nutty but that fruitiness is coming in. Mouthfeel seems pretty tea accurate here, kind of warm and slightly wet. Bitterness is working mostly as an accent to the Rooibos flavors.
At 3%, this is getting pretty bitter. That bitterness is kind of blowing out the nuttier pleasant notes from the tea and I’m losing most of the fruitiness. Seems to be coming back around to dry again.
Just based on these tests, I’d probably be using this from 1-2% as a primary flavor. If you can figure out what the hell to pair a red tea accent with, should work well at .5% and below.
Uses & Pairings: I’m honestly not at all sure what to do with this. Makes a decent solo rooibos flavor. I’d think about maybe adding some NF Malt to play up the sweetness here. Would also work well with a non-offensive honey like FA. Or hey, the nutty notes would work well with the cocoa notes from a dulce de leche flavor like FLV Milk and Honey.
I was curious about how this would work with FLV Black Tea and just cross-dripping it, it tastes a whole like hibiscus tea. So that could be fun.
I’ve stolen this idea from multiple people, but they’ve been talking about pairing this with a tobacco due to the whole nutty and bitter thing. Sounds like it should work. I’d go for something pretty straight ahead like FLV Kentucky Blend or something. I think you could experiment though. This with Red Burley would be Nutty AF. And this would be damned interesting with an aromatic pipe tobacco.
Second Opinions: And there’s an ELR page up. Here are some notes.
User “Silhouette” writes: “A subtle earthy tea flavor that has unmistakable Sassafras notes. Also, some lightly fruity flavor qualities. A Roobios, or Red Tea is a slightly earthy, sweet, woodsy type tea similar in taste to a Black Tea. The first note I get from this is Sassafras, I don't know why, but it is there, sweet, pleasant and full of flavor. I would love to use this as a refresher flavor, with light fruits, FLV Ice, or creams to create a unique mix. On the tongue, there is almost a Bubblegum type sweetness, but that doesn't really come out when vaped. It's hard to describe. Still testing this between 0.5-1.5% Will edit notes on Single/Mix percentages.
Note: I keep getting this estery, sweet note, almost like a Tutti-Frutti type flavor, like Isobutyl Acetate. It's quite unique. I like it a lot. “
User “Jazzy_girl” writes: “The color in the bottle is reddish orange and smells robust with many aromas such as slightly nutty, sweet rich honey smoked. I tried this at 2% in a Siren 2, 24 ga single coil. The flavor is tastes very complex with slightly nutty, honey smoked, woodsy grassy vanilla and hints of caramel. No off note at all. Very robust yet delicate flavors.”
User “Laura” writes: “Very dry and light flavor. There is a touch of cinnamon. It is not very sweet, no bitterness. It smells and tastes like a regular cup of tea with no additives (sugar, milk, ect) Wouldn’t recommend as a standalone, it needs a stronger backbone. “