Flavor West Butterbeer
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FW Butterbeer, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 15 days.
Flavor Description: Undercooked sweet bakery dough and cream soda. Kind of hard to describe, but almost like a much less intense version of FA Joy or a butter rum mix minus the actual rum. Warm, soft dough taste with a slightly liquid texture. Tastes like there is a bit of yeast-risen vibe to it. Sweetness is pretty non-descript, not really a bakery or frosting sweetness, more like a heavy sweet top note on that bakery-ish base. I'd primarily use this to punch up sweeter bakeries, especially cinnamon rolls or other breakfast-type pastries at around 4%.
Inhale has some warmer bakery taste to it, but not really the grainy texture I'd expect. Almost like a warm sweet dinner roll, or the middle of an undercooked cinnamon roll minus the cinnamon. Kind of a generic moderate dense body instead of a fluffy bakery. Building flat sweetness. Exhale has a stronger bakery taste. Feels like there is some actual buttery richness in here, with a lighter, warm yeasty note. Sweetness is a little more defined than on the inhale, and tastes a bit like cream soda. Not really dense enough for a frosting note. Texture overall doesn't fit the taste. That might be where the "beer" part of the butterbeer comes in. It isn't quite solid enough to really taste doughy, more like a sweet bakery dough soda. Finish is pretty clean overall.
Off-flavors: No idea what butterbeer is supposed to taste like. A bit odd overall, but nothing offensive. Mostly a pretty heavy mismatch between the thinner texture of this and the richer bakery notes.
Throat Hit: Nah, not really.
Uses & Pairings: I'd use to thicken and sweeten other bakery concentrates. Seems like it should be pretty spot on with cinnamon rolls. It has a certain breakfast pastry vibe to it that would also work cereals. This feels like it has a lot of promise as an additive in general, so I could see this being pretty widely useful working with bakeries.
If you wanted stick with the idea that this should be some kind of liquid, seems like a good starting point for a hot buttered rum or similar.
Notes: This doesn't really seem to work at 2%. Light sweet bakery dough accent, but it's a bit dry and underflavored. 4% works substantially better. Bakery note is a bit more solid. Still not bakery textured, but there is some more warmth, buttery nuance, and richness to it. 6% is still pretty solid. Heavier bakery but a lighter texture. Seems to be getting a bit dry again. 8% seems pretty dry and is starting to taste a bit chemical. I'd use this around 4% as a backup note for other bakeries, or maybe 6% if you want to accent around this as a primary note.
Second Opinions:
Nah, still new.
Here's the Flavorwest product page. SDS sheets are up for their newer flavors, it looks like they just list propylene glycol and benzyl alcohol. On their flavors with sugar syrup or fructose, it's generally listed in those sheets. So these don't have anything weird in them? SDS sheets for FW are here.
Bonus video first taste of FW Wild Berry Cobbler, S'mores, Butterbeer and Malt.