Flavor West Birthday Cake
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: FW Birthday Cake, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: White cake with vanilla frosting and a pretty aggressive artificial note. White cake note is fairly mellow. Decent texture but the cake taste seems a bit light. No real rich or eggy notes to it. Frosting has a little wax to it, but seems a bit underdone for a birthday cake, not quite that obnoxious sweetness I want. Pretty heavy artificial taste to it. Just a theory, but I think they are trying to emulate that weird bitter note from using way too much food coloring or sprinkles... but my palate could just be broken. I'm not 100% sure what constitutes "a birthday cake" specifically, but I associate the flavor with FW Cake Batter Dip and this doesn't really have that obnoxious frosting note. I'm not 100% sure on usage for this, it doesn't really scratch my itch for obnoxious birthday cake flavor and I think you could get there using other concentrates. If you are going to use this, about 6% seems to be the sweet spot.
Inhale is sweet. Some frosting here with a lighter vanilla and a pretty artificial edge. Some waxiness to the frosting note. A little light for a cake flavor but not too airy. Exhale has dry white cake up front. Decent amount of texture without a whole lot of richness. Good separation between frosting and cake notes. That same aggressive artificial top note, getting a little bitter and chemical tasting. Fairly dry mouthfeel from the cake with and a bit of bitterness from the frosting.
Off-flavors: The "birthday" part of this tastes artificial and slightly bitter.
Throat Hit: Light. Fairly smooth except for that artificial edge.
Uses & Pairings: I'm not sure that I'll be using this. FW White Cake seems like a better white cake flavor, and the frosting note is pretty weird and doesn't really scratch the birthday cake kind of itch.
Notes: Concentration testing, 2% seems too light. Kind of bitter and chemical without much body. 4% is a bit more full, but still doesn't really have a full sweet frosting note. Cake is present and textured without being dry. 6% is fairly dry overall. Frosting note is sweet but that artificial edge is kind of killing it for me. 8% is maybe a bit too dry and it's getting a bit bitter. 10% is too dry overall.
Second Opinions:
It's a new flavor, so not really.