Flavor West Natural Ruby Red Grapefruit

Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.15 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: FW Natural Ruby Red Grapefruit @ 2%, 4% and 6%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 5 days.

Flavor Description: Solo, a zest forward, but accurate take on ruby red grapefruit. Pretty intense zest up front, with a sweeter grapefruit base. Manages to capture the "ruby red" part of the grapefruit pretty well. This is quite a bit heavier on zest than FW Blood Orange, but it works in a similar way to give a bit of earthiness and sweetness with that citrus flavor. Nice balance between sweetness and citrus tartness. It's a bit harsh to use solo as a grapefruit flavor, but it pairs really well with sweeter grapefruit concentrates and syrupy, dark fruits to add some citrus freshness and tartness that isn't lime or lemon. I'd use this as a supporting flavor around 2%, and up to 4% as a primary flavor if you have something to kind of round the harsh edges off this.

Inhale has sharp, tart grapefruit zest up front. Sweet grapefruit base underneath with a bit of juicyness if you can get past the harshness here. The grapefruit has a bit of an earthy, sweet ruby red tinge to it seperating it from a straight white grapefruit. Moderately dense, with a pronounced warmth and just a bit of waxiness. Exhale again starts out with a pretty intense zest. Accurate grapefruit zest all up in the top notes. Sweeter but nicely tart grapefruit base underneath. That "ruby red" earthiness and sweetness comes out clearer in the exhale. Less like a white grapefruit with something extra than a full ruby red flavor. A little bit of sticky, syrupy sweetness and some actual juice there. Still moderately dense, but on the harsh side from that zest note. Lingering zest and sugar lips.

The name, on BCF at least, has either changed from Ruby Red to Natural Ruby Red... or I'm just dense and noticed it recently. Even if it did change and I'm not dense, I'm fairly sure they are the same concentrate, or at least comparable. Testing an older bottle I have around alongside a freshly ordered bottle it seems to be identical if maybe a bit flatter out of my old bottle. It's a 1/4 full 120 that I've had for at least 6 months, so it's probably just the top notes evaporating off a bit. FW's website only lists the Natural version, but I'm not sure if that is a recent development.

Off-flavors: This is pretty zest heavy. I think it's a pretty accurate grapefruit zest, but it's definitely a a bit distracting from the ruby red grapefruit underneath.

Throat Hit: Moderate to Harsh. I love this stuff, but solo it's a bit harsh. You know it's a citrus, basically.

Uses & Pairings: I think this is a accurate ruby red grapefruit, but it definitely needs something to calm down all that zest. It benefits a lot from either some straight ethyl maltol at around .25% or another flavor with a good deal of maltol.

In terms of pairings, it's pretty much standard citrus. The earthyness from this tends to do weird thing to cucumber flavors, but it goes well with strawberries, cranberries, and raspberries. Also works pretty well with medium body creams. It's a bit of bully for something like FA Fresh Cream, and the buttery notes in custards don't really work.

This pairs really well with FLV Pink Guava for a realistic grapefruit. Shameless plug time. If you pair with something like CAP Grapefruit it gets closer to something like grapefruit juice.

Notes: Concentration testing, this is mostly zest at 1%. Not much body to it, just harsh zest. Body fills in a bit more at 2% but it's still zest heavy. 3% is fuller overall. Not much harsher than 2%, but has an earthier, sweeter note. It definitely feels more ruby red at 3%. 4% is getting a bit sticky in the sweetness. Not unpleasant, but it's starting to feel a bit disjointed between the zest up top and the sweeter base. 5% pushes that disjointed thing a bit further. It's a bit too earthy here.

Second Opinions:

Here is the ELR Page for the natural version. User "LostMarbles" says: "Very close to the real thing. Not overly tart but can overwhelm other flavors if percentage is too high. Recommend start at 3%." User "Chewy" weighs in with: "Now this IS a great red grapefruit taste. Has a very good sweet/ tartness balance that is very nice, and this from someone who doesn't like grapefruits. But it is my guilty vaping pleasure! Works great in a mix at 3% but works as a stand alone up to 10%."

Couple of solid reviews on BCF. User "Rita" says: "This is a true Ruby Red Grapefruit flavor with sugar on top. Just the way I like to eat grapefruit."

Here's the product page from Flavorwest. One review by user "ReviewStuffz" states: "Man, this stuff is delicious! Start off light, it does separate a bit in VG so, shake well. Has a well balanced flavor on both the inhale and the exhale. Blends well with both green engine and blood orange that I've tried it with so far."

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

Shoutouts to /u/MintyMods and /u/ID10-T for suggesting this for review.