Flavor West Malt
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 480F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FW Malt, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 16 days.
Flavor Description: Fairly funky, aggressive malt flavor. Solo, I'd say it's closer to the malt from malt liquor rather than the malt from a malted milk but missing the roasted note I'd want from either. On the green, vegetal side like it's the whole sprouted grain instead of a cleaner tasting powdered malt. The combination of that greeness, and that malt liquor sweetness is a bit odd. Very distinct flavor, but the actual vape seems a bit airy. In terms of usage percentage, this flavor works better at higher percentages around 6%, but I don't want all that much of it, so I'd probably be using this an accent lower at around 1.5-2%.
Inhale is actually about as clean as this flavor end ups tasting. Warm malt up front with a pretty heavy building sweetness. This is less green on the inhale, but you still get some of that vegetal astringency especially as the flavor builds with a long inhale. Exhale is more green than the inhale. Sweet malt base in there, but it doesn't really have the toasted note that would make this more pleasant. Top notes are all that greener flavor. This is an aggressive, clear flavor, but it seems to be a bit dead and airy in the middle. Some light throat hit to it. Lingering vegetal, astringent note.
Off-flavors: This has a real green edge to this. Almost like a celery/rhubarb astringency with some earthiness and almost a boozy sharpness. There is some or the more mellow malt I'd want, but it's definitely funky and green. Green note is less prevalent with some extra heat, but it's still there.
Throat Hit: Light. Nothing major but a bit sharp.
Uses & Pairings: I think this would probably work better on the adult beverage side of mixes rather than trying to blend into in a sweeter bakery profile. A small percentage of this could add some body and interest to whiskey heavy mixes. FLV Bourbon in particular does a great oak note, this could help sweeten and fill that out a bit. I think the boozy notes from liquor concentrates will help take some of the green edge of this in a mix. For the elusive beer vape, I feel like HS Beer is probably a better malt flavor that'll fit better with the profile.
For sweeter mixes, you may be sneak a little bit of this into a cream to get a bit of a malted milk effect. I'd start low to try to stay away from overwhelming the cream with that greener note, but it could be fun especially if you end up vaping warmer. Should work a little bit better with chocolate, letting you go in an ovaltine kind of direction but again, with a very light touch from this flavor.
Notes: Concentration testing, 1% is just too light, I don't want a ton of this flavor to come out, but it's kind of bitter without that sweeter malt. 2% has some actual malt to it. Still a bit thin, but it's a bit more green than better. 4% is getting sweet, but that green note is pretty prominent. Flavor still feels like it's filling in. At 6%, this flavor actually works really well. It feels nice and full and the green note seems balanced. But it's not necessarily something you want to taste a whole lot of. 8% is feeling pretty bitter and sharp. So I'm kind of torn, if you want sweet sprouted grains, crank this up to 6% and it works beautifully. If you want just a light malt accent, stay low with this an work up. Flavor doesn't work as well, but you probably don't want it to.
Second Opinions:
Nah, still new.
Here's the Flavorwest product page.
Bonus video first taste of FW Wild Berry Cobbler, S'mores, Butterbeer and Malt.