Flavor West Salt Water Taffy
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.19 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FW Salt Water Taffy @ 3% Solo / others noted, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 23 days.
Flavor Description (Solo): Solo, this kind of tastes like a slightly greasy, denser marshamllow. Actually pretty spot on to a taffy base. Inhale is mostly just sweet with some warmer non-floral vanilla, although it has a building sharpness to it that doesn't really have a flavor attached. Exhale is pretty mellow flavorwise. I get maybe a hint of a vanilla up front more in the top notes, and a deeper hint of a waxy margarine fattyness in the base that comes through on the back end. Mouthfeel is pretty solid though. Like a denser TFA Marshmallow on the bottom end without really spreading through to the top notes.
Off-flavors (Solo): It's probably not the most descriptive, but this tastes a bit muddy to me on the back half of the exhale. Like the flavors here kind of bang into each other a bit and get a light anise tinge which clears itself up by the very tail end of the exhale. I get the same thing from a lot of Capella flavors in general, which is interesting. It's not an off flavor I usually associate with Flavor West. I don't think it's a dealbreaker by any means, as salt water taffy usually tastes a bit chemical and off anyway. The anise-y part of this shows up in mixes, for sure but that muddyness doesn't seem to carry through.
Throat Hit (Solo): Moderate at the beginning. Flavor "settles in" fairly quickly though. Light after after the first couple draws.
Additive Tests:
2% DIYFS Holy Vanilla, 1% FW Salt Water Taffy: At 1% the Salt Water Taffy is definitely adding a bit of volume, although it seems fairly indistinguishable from adding some marshamllow. Maybe more "jellied" like corn syrup than just straight marshmallow fluff. Seems to prop up the vanilla here while rounding off some of the more delicate floral notes and replacing them with a pretty clear anise. I'm using Holy Vanilla as a stand in for creams and flroals here, and based on these results I'd have to say it largely works, although even 1% seems to be pushing a lot of anise into the equation. Maybe keep vanilla or creams relatively low as an accent flavor if you're using Salt Water Taffy.
3% FW Root Berr, 2% FW Salt Water Taffy: I get a clear, spicy root beer flavor with a moderate body. I think something here might be pushing those spice notes from the root beer up a bit in the mix. The anise-y muddiness here is giving me just a hint of fresh tires. Also sweetening up the root beer a bit. I don't really pick out any of the flavor from the taffy base, but I"m definitely picking up some good texture and it seems to be softening the base flavor of the root beer as well. S&V, seems like it's handling 4% Salt Water Taffy pretty well. For sharper, sweeter flavors I'd use Salt Water Taffy up at something like 4%. It's a solid volume, and the composition of the flavor definitely feels like taffy.
4% OSDIY Blue Raspberry Slush, 3% FW Salt Water Taffy: Pretty intense. Sweet, Sweet Blue Raspberry. Anise isn't as prevalent under that syrupy candy flavor. A pretty passable version of a blue raspberry taffy, although I find myself wanting just a bit more vanilla and butter here to really pull it off. Getting a hint of watery thiness down low that mucks with the texture a bit. Adding in about .5% TFA Marshmallow really helps sell the taffy effect.
Notes:
Based on those additive tests, this isn't bad. I think the limiting factor is going to be that weird spicy anise note. For brighter flavors, starting at 3% and adding a low percentage of marshmallow seems like a pretty solid starting point. As low as 1%, this starts bringing in some solid texture that isn't nearly as fluffy as something like Marshmallow or as gritty as Meringue. Maybe start low when using this as a texturizer, and see how far you can push it without picking up the anise spice here.
Second Opinions:
Surprisingly sparse. A couple mentions as a good option for a taffy base, but no real detail.
"Salt water taffy: to me this was a bust. 20% by itself was ok but I couldn't find anything that mixed well with it. Kind of plastic and artifical imo."