Flavorah Smoked Butterscotch
ConcreteRiver
This a 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 @.16 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FLV Smoked Butterscotch, .25, 1, and 3% 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: Pretty much what it sounds like. Flavorah Butterscotch with a sweeter, non-ashy smoke flavor. The smoke works as an accent to the fuller butterscotch, adding some warmth, throat hit, and making things more interesting.
Butterscotch here is really similar to the normal FLV Butterscotch, which is a good thing. Tasting them side by side, maybe the original tastes a bit softer and a bit tangier, but they are very similar flavors. Here's the review for FLV Butterscotch, all that still that applies here, only not quite as vivid. Buttery, softer sauce type butterscotch with a solid hit of butterscotch candy in there with some darker, drier caramel notes.
The smoked part of this has a sweeter wood smoke type flavor. Reminds me a whole lot of FA Black Fire. It blends pretty well with the butterscotch here, but seems to strip down a bit of the richness and buttery notes. Smoke is definitely noticeable but it doesn't really overwhelm the butterscotch base. Nothing ashy or dirty, and the warmth plays well with the butterscotch underneath.
Off-flavors: This, like straight FLV Butterscotch can get a bit cardboardy. It's thick, and while I do get a good amount of richness there is a bit of bland volume in the base. In his notes on FLV Butterscotch, CheebaSteeba suggests more cream, and that would probably work here too.
Throat Hit: Moderate. That smoked note has a bit of a hit, but it's not terrible and kind of fitting to the profile. Some of the drier caramel notes from the butterscotch can also lean a little harsh.
Percentage testing: At .25% I'm getting a pretty solid butterscotch candy top note. I'm not tasting much smoke here. That thicker butterscotch sauce and the richness hasn't really shown up.
At 1%, this is tasting pretty full. That softer base is a lot more present. Richer, buttery notes along with drier butterscotch candy. The smoke here is present but not aggressive. It kind of blends in between the harder, drier candy and the softer, buttery sauce. A bit more throat hit, but adds another layer of warm flavor.
At 3%, the butterscotch here feels a bit too soft and sticky and I'm getting some of that cardboard taste. The smoke note is a lot more present and tastes like too much Black Fire added to a butterscotch, as opposed to a cohesive flavor. Between the sweeter smoke and the richness of the butterscotch it feels a bit cloying and odd.
I'd say the percentage usage here would be largely similar to straight FLV Butterscotch. Probably needs at least .75% as an accent, and I'd stop around 2% unless you're adding a bunch of cream or something else smooth.
Uses & Pairings: I'd use this as a more interesting version of butterscotch. The smoke note here isn't really going to clash with the cream, bakery, or tobacco applications where you'd usually be using butterscotch.
Starbucks makes smoked butterscotch nonsense coffee and that's really not a bad idea with this. Should blend well with coffee and cream flavors. Looks like ChrisDvr already has a smoked butterscotch cream recipe up, I'd bet you could kick it up with some of this. I'd also dig some smoked butterscotch ice cream.
Should work well with drier bakeries that could use some warmth, like donuts. I could also see this as an accent in something autumnal like an apple pie.
This should swap into most tobacco recipes that involve butterscotch but don't already have a sweeter wood smoke component. It's a bit sweet, so you're probably more into desert tobaccos, but this would work well as the base for a RY4 and other tobaccos that someone who actually knows something about tobacco would be able to list.