Flavour Monks Gin in Paris
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 in Paris @ %3, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 16 days.
Flavor Description: Gin, with candy banana and orange zest. More of a fruit smoothie if you squint a bit, the herbal notes from the gin pass as some wheatgrass or spirulina.
Gin on the inhale, higher juniper top notes with a building soft, creamy banana base. Gin is clearer on the inhale here than most of the other FM Gin mixes. Exhale has banana up front, mostly soft and creamy with just a hint of that bright yellow candy banana flavor. Orange zest and juniper top notes. Tail end of the exhale gets a nice complex gin finish, with that orange zest really complementing the herbal gin notes. Fairly dense, but with a really appropriate level of sweetness.
Off-flavors: Nah, it's unique but nothing that really clashes or doesn't fit.
Throat Hit: Not really. Orange zest makes your mouth tingle a bit, but seems okay on the throat.
Uses & Pairings: Solo? This is an odd flavor to think about mixing. You got some distinct gin, creamy candy banana, and that nice orange zest accent. It's fairly full and engaging by itself.
You could use this as a base and try to sort of distract away from the gin notes with a brighter fruit flavor. I'd mix this with strawberry, a bright raspberry, or maybe a cherry to fill out the fruit profile and push those gin notes to a supporting player while taking advantage of the solid banana and orange zest.
Or, you could get weird with it. You could take advantage of the herbal notes and get some green into the mix to pull off a fairly authentic smoothie flavor. Adding in something intensely green like FLV Basil, InW Rhubarb, or FA Jasmine is going to take the herbal notes and push towards something like wheatgrass. Some additional juice like FLV Mango or INW Pineapple, or even CAP Cucumber if you want a more savory take, will get you even closer to a straight health food kind of smoothie.
Notes:
S&V concentration testing, at 1% I get a lot the density from the banana, if not the actual flavor and some nice orange zest top notes. At 2%, that orange zest is pretty prominent, with juniper notes backing it up. Overall effect tastes a lot like the peel on the orange, rind and all. 3% seems pretty balanced, with juniper getting a bit more distinct and those herbal notes coming out on tail end. Banana flavor also takes on some of that candy note. 4% i get a fuller orange flavor, and the gin notes are becoming fairly aggressive. The banana is starting to get a bit of a clove flavor in there as well. At 5% banana is reading full runts with cloves, and the gin is up-front, with the orange peel just another component in the gin mix. I'd mix with this at 1% if you want some extra banana volume and light zest notes in a fruit mix, 2% if you want that rindy orange note, and 3% if you to go the smoothie route. 4% seems like the play if you're more after the gin note, but you've got to deal with that banana hanging around in the background. Solo, I'd go 4% just because that clove note is really interesting.
So this is really solidly constructed and interesting, I'm just not sold on how the hell I'm going to use it. It's a good concentrate, with some really niche applications. I've never had the chance to go to paris, but I'm curious if they actually put bananas in their gin.
Second Opinions:
One review on the flavormonks website, google translated from Dutch:
"Special! Usually one uses this word in case one does not find something tasty. this is not the case in the case of Gin in Paris. At the first sips vapor you inhale you notice immediately that you're dealing with a special flavor. It is spicy and fresh without dominating. Just nice, although you might first have to empty tank of fumes before you can appreciate it fully. For me it's a hit, though he will not and should not be vape all day for me. Before that he is special, and you run the risk that you might be tired of him. That would be a waste!"
This special gin man sounds lovely.