Flavor West Salty Butter Balls

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 Salty Butter Balls, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 8 days.

Flavor Description: Flavorwest calls this a " Salted Chocolate Brownie with Swirled Butterscotch Flavor." I get mostly a sort of metallic, but impressively salty thinner butterscotch flavor bordering on maple. Seems like it isn't full butterscotch, so much as just difference between caramel and butterscotch, if that makes any sense. Some lighter dry chocolate brownie in there, especially at higher percentages and on the tail end, but that salty butterscotch is pretty dominant. I'd use this at around 6% as a primary flavor with a brownie accent, 2% with a soft caramel for a salted butterscotch, or maybe around 1% if you just want the salty note for a caramel or whatever.

Inhale is sharp and and kind of acidic. It's not like a sour, citric acidic, but has a definite bite to it that kind of leaves your mouth a bit raw. I'm pretty sure that's the salt here. It sort of mimics that bite you get from overseasoned food. Theres some butterscotch notes behind that, but with that salt bite you don't get much body from it. At higher percentages kind of builds to a commercial maple flavor. Pretty solid sweetness and overall vape is moderately dense but that sting from the salt makes the butterscotch seem a bit thin and metallic. Exhale has that butterscotch almost maple right up front. I'm getting more salt on the inhale than the exhale, but that salt sting carries through and makes the entire thing lightly metallic. At high percentages I get a little bit of a softer caramel or butterscotch sauce body but it seems relatively light compared to that salty sting. Salt tails off pretty quickly on the back half of the exhale. There's some lightly chocolate bakery here, texture doesn't really come in until higher percentages. Sort of a lingering rawness from that salt.

Off-flavors: I get a pretty clear metallic taste from anything going after salty, a lot like what I get from nutty concentrates. This tastes pretty metallic. I could be wrong, but this feels like it's doing the same thing that FLV Beer Nuts does to pull off "salty."

Throat Hit: Moderate. This feels a fairly harsh, and that salty note almost feels a bit acidic. It's especially noticeable on the inhale.

Uses & Pairings: If you're chasing the original profile of this concentrate and using this as a primary flavor, CAP Chocolate Fudge Brownie seems like a bit of a no-brainer to support the brownie notes in there. I'd also use a softer caramel flavor, like CAP Caramel or FW Caramel Candy / Salted Caramel (RIP your coils.)

Using this an accent at a lower percentage, I could see using this to go after a salted caramel or butterscotch flavor. Chocolate level here, at least at 4% and under, seems about like that chocolate note from dulce de leche concentrates so it should be possible to work around.

I think this could also do some interesting things to ry4 style desert tobaccos.

Notes: Concentration testing, the salty butterscotch note actually seems pretty consistent through the percentage testing. The brownie on the back end seems to be main thing that changes over 2%. At 1% i get some of that salty tang and a good bit of sweetness with maybe a light buttery note, but there is very little definition to the flavor. 2% has a bit more definition. Butterscotch is coming through more clearly around that salt. Still not much chocolate taste or brownie texture. 4% tastes like that butterscotch is about as fleshed out as it's going to get. Salt is still pretty prominent, but doesn't seem all that much more intense than 2%. Chocolate is still pretty light. 6% has a consistent salt note, butterscotch feels about the same. Some light texture on the back end, filling out that brownie a bit. 8% feels a little more acidic and salty, starting to get fairly metallic. Chocolate brownie is coming through moderately well if you're looking for it. Doesn't really jump out. 10% is unpleasantly metallic, at least for me. Not a whole lot more brownie. I'd use this at about 1% to salt up your caramels, 2% as a butterscotch booster, and around 6% as a primary flavor.

Second Opinions:

Here's the ELR Page. Not much. User "JoJo" says: "5% SnV ok but weak. I think it’s chocolate, PB, and caramel; 1 week good but a little weak. ~3 weeks, same but has potential. Preferred single flavor mix: 77.0%." I'm thinking that was supposed to 7%... 77% seems high even for ELR.

Hell has frozen over, I disagree that a FW flavor is potent. Quick mentions on reddit here and here about this being potent. I agree that a flavor shows up at sub 1% percentages, but it feels thin and harsh and needs a bit more to flavoring to really get going. Or maybe my palate is just feeling extra dumb today.

u/0ptimusRhyme calls it "a great accent for the buttery notes in any butter toffee/pecan recipe" in the Pecan FOTW. Seems like a good way to use it, so do that.

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

Thanks to /u/ID10-T for suggesting this. I realize everyone wants me to make a joke about inhaling his balls, but I'm far too classy for that.