Flavor West Wild Berry Cobbler
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FW Wild Berry Cobbler, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 13 days.
Flavor Description: Accurate to profile, a berry cobbler. I get warm, dark, and jammy berries up front. Berries taste closer to darker blackberries rather than something brighter like a raspberry, but they have a definite cooked, syrupy edge to them. The cobbler in here is a little lighter and comes through mostly on the back of the exhale. Softer bakery note, tastes a little toasted but still pretty soft and soaked in that dark berry. Really solid flavor overall, and I think it pushes pretty close to a single flavor, especially at higher percentages. Could maybe take a bit more of a soft bakery note to boost the cobbler part of this, and I wouldn't argue with some light bakery spice. Could also go well with some whipped or ice cream. I'd mix with this around 6% as a primary note.
Inhale is pretty heavy on the berries. Dark, jammy berries with a moderate but profile appropriate sweetness. It's odd, I don't really taste florals here, but I get some of that sharpness on the inhale I associate with floral notes. Berries carry through on the exhale. Sweet, jammy black(ish)berries with a cooked warmth to them. Some more of that odd phantom floral sharpness in the top notes, but I still don't actually taste anything perfumey here. Cobbler comes through a bit clearer on the back half of the exhale. It's relatively subtle and soft, but there is some warm grain to this with maybe a hint of butter. Almost like the muffin around the blueberries in a blueberry muffin or a legit cobbler. Beyond that sharpness, I'm not getting much in the way of throat hit, and while this is sweet it's pretty retrained. Some lingering pectin-y stickiness and and some of that cobbler bakery in the top notes.
Off-flavors: I don't taste florals here, but I feel them. There is a sharpness to the way the flavor hits that doesn't really work with those warm, softer, sweet flavors.
Throat Hit: Light. That sharpness isn't really a throat hit, but it keeps this from being 100% smooth.
Uses & Pairings: This is really close to a single flavor. It's pretty well balanced as is. I'm not the "sweetener guy" but this seems like it would be good to go with a little bit of your sweetener of your choice to soften that sharpness a bit and really saturate your palate.
If you did want to bolster this a bit, the cobbler is maybe just a bit on the light side. A softer bakery like CAP Sugar Cookie may work to build up that cobbler a bit without any additional sharpness from a more AP forward bakery. I also think this could stand a light touch of some cinnamon to it.
In terms of additions, this seems like a good candidate for some a la mode, with some ice cream or whipped cream. You could also add a whole bunch more creams and go for something like a blackberry cobbler milkshake.
Notes: This seems like the cobbler part takes a bit of a steep to come out. 2% seems a bit light. Nothing weird about it, just feels like the flavor is a bit turned down. 4% is starting to feel fairly full. Cobbler bakery is coming through a bit clearer and feels just a bit richer. 6% fresh is tasting a bit sharp, but judging from the steep at 4% should settle in pretty nicely. Berry is a bit fuller and the bakery that I am getting seems pretty solid. I'm starting to taste, as opposed to just feel, the florals at 8% and the bakery cobbler doesn't seem much better than 6%. I'd probably stop at around 6% with this, although a longer steep and more creams would probably let you push it a bit higher.
Second Opinions:
Nah, still new.
Here's the Flavorwest product page. No SDS yet.
Bonus video first taste of FW Wild Berry Cobbler, S'mores, Butterbeer and Malt.