Flavor West Tangerine

Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.16 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: FW Tangerine, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 8 days.

Flavor Description: A top heavy tangerine flavor. Solid tangerine zest top notes, which is probably a decent citrus zest because it's less sharp and intense than orange while being substantially sweeter. Not a ton of juicier base to this, but what is there is a sweeter base and it has almost a effervescent, sparkling quality. Sweetness level seems maybe a bit high for a tangerine but it's somewhere in the ballpark of a sweeter tangerine. Almost has a candy orange taste to overall, but that's sort of what a tangerine tastes like anyway. Light, waxy warmth to this but substantially less than something like FW Blood Orange. Moderately to fairly harsh, it's definitely a citrus. Actually reminds me quite a bit of FW Ruby Red Grapefruit in the way the flavor is constructed. Seems like a solid choice for a lighter but still realistic choice for the citrus notes in a fruit mix, a sweeter base flavor for a citrus mix, or something to punch up citrus-based beverage mixes. Useful for zest top notes as low as 1% but fills out and gets sweeter up to about 5%, although the harshness does increase.

Inhale is mostly Mandarin zest. Sweeter than a straight orange and a bit less intense, but still pretty realistic. Fairly heavy building sweetness with a light touch of wax to it. Just a bit on the airy side, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a citrus. Exhale is sweet tangerine up front, with that pretty heavy zest in the top notes. Not really juicy or fleshy, but the base of the flavor has a realistic to maybe just a touch oversweet tangerine base. Base feels pretty bright and lively, and has a bit of carbonation or effervescence effect to it. Decent throat hit on the tail end of this, and those zest notes linger for a while.

FWIW, as far as I can tell Flavorwest just makes the one tangerine flavor, and anything sold as "Tangerine" and "Tangerine (Natural)" should be the same. They only seem to officially append the natural thing on their flavors when they have both versions, but this is technically one of the natural ones. The flavor separates quite a bit, so a more vigorous shake than you're already totally doing with all your flavors (right?) is probably a good idea. Also, they have this dispiriting note on the product page: "Natural citrus flavorings will vary from batch to batch because of the natural aspect of the flavoring, the season of the crop and the raw material that is sourced at the time of manufacture. Also natural citrus flavors can separate when mixed with glycerin and other base materials." I haven't ordered multiple batches of this, so I can't confirm, but maybe something to watch for. Their Ruby Red Grapefruit is another natural citrus and doesn't have the same warning, so that's odd.

Off-flavors: Nah, not really. I suppose it's pretty zest heavy, but it's an accurate tangerine zest. Maybe a touch too sweet for an accurate tangerine, but I feel like it's close.

Throat Hit: A bit on the harsh side. Not terrible for a citrus, but it definitely has a hit to to it.

Uses & Pairings: Seems like a pretty good choice for a sweet tangerine note when you don't want the body of FA Blood Orange or FA Mandarin, or the heavy flat sweetness of CAP Tangerine.

Actually seems like a pretty good concentrate for just bringing a light, sweet citrus edge to busier fruit mixes. I could see this working well to add a fairly discrete citrus component in mixes with other heavier fruit flavors.

If you're a fan of citrus flavors, this actually feels like a fairly good base for a more complicated citrus mix with some tarter citrus like lime or grapefruit. You're going to need some maltol or ethyl maltol somewhere in the mix to tamp down that throat hit, but it's a pretty solid sweet citrus base that should play well with others.

This does seem to have a bit of effervescence to it, useful to try to attempt something carbonation-esque with beverage vapes that can stand the orange note. Could probably be some of the sparkling note for like an orange soda or maybe even a fancy gin drink with citrus.

I also love mandarins with cranberries, but YMMV.

Notes: Concentration testing, this is mostly just a light tangerine zest flavor at 1%. 2% has a heavier zest, but there still isn't too much going on in the base. 3% is starting to fill out a bit, I'm getting more sweetness, and a clearer tangerine fruit taste if not the fleshy or juicy texture. 4% is a bit fuller, but still top heavy. Zest is pretty strong this high. At 5% the harshness is really starting to catch up to me, and it maybe feels a bit cloyingly sweet. At 6% this seems too harsh. I'd use this as a tangerine zest accent at 1-2% and more of a primary note around 4%.

Second Opinions:

Not a lot of help out there.

ELR Page is incredibly thin. One note by "BandWheels": "Mixer 2 to 3%, single flavor 4 to 5%. Great flavor here to me... Preferred single flavor mix: 5.0%

ECX is also woefully thin. User "BigJim" five stars it with: "It's not the best stand alone orange flavor, but it really brings out other orange flavors. Every juice I mix with orange in it this is part of the mix and it seems to make other fruit flavors pop even if you don't taste the orange in the mix." "Kurt" is not convinced: " it has a caramel like taste. its not a bad flavor but it's not tangerine.

BCF has someone complaining about the color, I guess? But it also has an unknown user saying it tastes like a lifesaver. I'm assuming their talking about the orange one.

Here's the Grapefruit FOTW. But "MedicatedDeveloper" put up a recipe involving FW Tangerine and FW Ruby Red Grapefruit. When asked about how natural FW Tangerine tastes, they responded: "More like a tangerine candy or tangerine concentrate (like the frozen juice barrels you get). It's very sweet and very potent. I started out around 1% and slowly moved up with it to give a sweeter grapefruit more like a 50/50 soda or Squirt soda than actual pink grapefruit. I found it hard to vape much of without the sweetness of the tangerine."

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

Shoutout to ID10-T for suggesting this for review.