Hangsen Red Energy
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: HS Red Energy @ 3%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 32 days.
Flavor Description: Red bull, or it's non-union equivalent. Something like sweet-tarts and the floral part of TFA Raspberry Sweet. No weird Monster style phenolic notes or overbearing sucralose edge.
Inhale is admittedly pretty intense. Floral, bitter raspberry notes in there along with a strong sweetness. No citrus taste really, but the inhale works a lot like a citrus with that bitter rind just building. Relatively dense and little syrupy. Exhale opens up into a non-descript sweet-tart type of light fruity note. Just a bit of chalkyness. Like the top notes from a mixed berry flavor on top of a powdered lemonade mix. Overall effect is like sweet-tarts or 'murican style smarties. Sweetness is pronounced, but strangely natural tasting. I don't get a lot of aspartame bitterness. Actually tastes a fair bit like red bull syrup, both because of that concentrated sweetness and some overall flatness.
Off-flavors: Tastes like the chemical slurry it's supposed to.
Throat Hit: Light. Not really a throat hit but that inhale is just a bit too sharp to be comfortable.
Uses & Pairings: So, for something more in line with an actual red bull you'd be fighting against the flatness and the syrupy quality here. I'd add some cactus or cap cucumber to water this down a bit. Reports of using FA Fuji with similar concentrates, and I think it would have largely the same effect. Citrus carbonation seems like the play here. Maybe something like TFA Key Lime or CAP Grapefruit.
In terms of mixing, this is pretty much limited to fruits. I'd stay away from anything floral like peach or pear. Your best bet is going to be something bright and not too syrupy. A non-jammy strawberry or FA Kiwi would be a good fit. I could also see this with a sweeter citrus like CAP Sweet Tangerine.
Notes:
S&V concentration tasting, light and perfumey at .5%. Light, bitter candy raspberry at 1%. Sweetness shows up at 1.5% and by 2% is pretty solid. With the sweetness comes the sweet-tarts. Starts to get unpleasantly floral and syrupy at 3%. I'd mix with other fruits at 1.5% and use 2.5% for a strong red bull base.
The most important part of this, for me at least, is that it doesn't have that gross play-doh phenol note that original rockstar and monster tend to have. This tastes a little more true to actual red bull then FA Mad Fruit, and a lot richer and less gnarly than FW Red Bowl. So yeah, if this your profile this concentrate seems like a pretty solid start.
Second Opinions:
Not a whole lot. Bunch of lo-fi youtube reviews of the actual e-liquid that hangsen cranks out but nothing worth watching.
One substantive mention on this sub that I can find. /u/billingsarmy/ commented in an energy drink post that: "Hangsen red energy + ethyl maltol. Spot on for red bull." So there's that.