Flavour Monks Gin & Tonic
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FM Gin and Tonic @ %3, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 20 days.
Flavor Description: Slightly more tonic than gin. Good complex quinine biterness but the sweetness here tastes a little artificial. A lot like a gin and tonic, just a bit too heavy on store-brand diet tonic water.
Inhale has a little harsh and thin, mostly juniper. Exhale is mostly quinine, honestly. Bitter lime zest and juniper top notes, but a full accurate tonic water quinine. Light to moderate density. Tonic note is a bit one-dimensional, but most tonic water tends to be. Seems a tiny bit oversweet to me, with a definite aspartame note.
Off-flavors: Little bit of that aspartame in that sweetness, but otherwise note really.
Throat Hit: Light, but it's a gin and tonic flavored concentrate. So not nearly as bad as it could be.
Uses & Pairings: This is 90% of the way to a gin and tonic, so I'm not sure you're going to want to do much to it. I find the warmth of the vape a bit weird with these flavors, so .25% Koolada will help to get a more cocktail-like cooler vape. If you were going to mix with this as a gin and tonic, I personally want just a tiny bit more of a gin punch and some brighter citrus so I'd reccomend mixing this with FM Gin Orange, although this should mix just as well with any of the other FM Gins.
As distinctive as this is, this still would work as a low percentage additive with fruit mixes.
Notes:
S&V concentration testing, this is working a lot like the other FM Gins. 1% and 2% is pretty solidly quinine, with the tonic note taking on a bit more complexity from that bitter lime zest at 2%. 3% is giving you more of the juniper, and balancing that tonic water a bit. 4% is giving you more juniper, and upping the boozy character here. 5% is definitely juniper-forward, but that tonic is getting too sweet. I'd mix with this at 1.5% if you just want the quinine here, 3% if you want to add a lower percentage of another gin for a fuller gin and tonic, and 4% if you want to use this for a gin and tonic without additional gin backup.
Second Opinions:
User ThePzy on ELR has something kind of looks like a note:
"Very good & very true to a Gin Tonic cocktail. 100% spot on smell/taste !!! Throat hit is very present, reducing nicotine helps to reduce it. If u like the cocktail, u'll love this flavor for sure !"
Positive reviews on Flavormonks website.
u/ITeevision/ aka sejouced calls it "almost perfect as it is."
META: And this has been the week of gins... we laughed, we cried, I tasted a whole lot of juniper. This line is by and large, pretty damn impressive and totally worth it if you're into cocktail vapes.