Inawera Pear
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: INW Pear @ %1, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 17 days.
Flavor Description: So it's worth checking the second opinions right off the bat here, because my take seems to differ a bit from consensus.
I get a realistic crisp asian pear flavor. A little bit of juicy body, a pretty prominent floral peel or skin note, and as close to a snap as I've got from a vape. I get a fairly harsh vape from this, and I have a bit of trouble finding a percentage that has a strong enough flavor to read as a pear while keeping some of the earthiness and floral edge in check. Overall, for me at least, it tastes more like a pear essence flavor you'd get in a vitamin water kind of beverage than an actual fruit, almost like a pear perfume.
Inhale is pretty airy, with some light pear sweetness. Exhale has a crispy, slightly gritty asian pear right up front which seems to fade out pretty quick. Some earthier peel top notes and a kind of hollow tasting back end. Not a lot of sweetness here, tasting undersweetened for something like a bartlett or anjou pear, but close to a underripe asian pear. It's also a fairly light exhale for me, without much body past that initial burst of flavor.
Off-flavors: At lower percentages, I get some of the same muddy earthiness toward the back end of the vape that I get from INW Peach. If I start to push anywhere near 2% I also start getting a pretty pronounced floral edge.
Throat Hit: Moderate. While the pear flavor in the concentrate has a bit of juice to it, I also get an odd, dry, throat hit. Increasing the percentage to try to find more juiciness here also increases that throat hit.
Uses & Pairings: Personally, I'm sort of limited to using this at a lower percentage for more realistic top notes on a flatter, juicier flavor like FA Fuji or FA Pear.
Based on the publicly available ATF recipes, this looks like it's being used either in conjunction with other pear flavors or in fairly busy recipes to push a bit of pear up to the front of a mix.
Notes: S&V Concentration testing, this is a bit weird. At .25% I get just a hint of that pear perfume kind of note without much body. At .5%, it's largely similar, but a rounder and less floral. At 1% I get a really good asian pear top notes, with a light sweet body. At 1.5% I get a solid hit of earthiness of the peel notes here. At 2% that earthiness is getting kind of floral and sharp. At 3%, this is reading way too floral for me.
Personally, I'm a bit bummed by this flavor. I think it has a good bit of utility in mixing, but it's going to need help as a full pear flavor. Again, probably worth checking out the more positive takes here.
Second Opinions:
The lastest FOTW Pear post, wherein /u/HocusKrokus drops science like Galileo dropped the orange:
"The king pear rears it’s fierce head. This pear is juicier than FA, and sweeter than both combined. It’s profile finds itself somewhere between a bright fresh pear and the syrup from a chilled can of pears. A very faint bit of the earthy backnotes I’ve found in TFA Pear, but much smoother. Mild throat hit if not mixed with another “juicy” flavor or cream. I find it a bit more potent than FA Pear, so I start at .25% as a supporting note, up to 2% in a mix, or 3% standalone. "
/u/Philosaphucker shares further in the comments:
"For a fleshed-out, saliva-inducing, juicy pear, I prefer to combine INW Pear with FA Pear in ratios that vary depending on the mix and my intentions (7:8, 1:1, 1:2, ect).
If I do not want pear to be at the forefront of my recipe, then I do NOT open INW Pear because it does not serve as a background flavor at all. One could even say that its floral nature can make it difficult to work with, but I have been pretty successful in pairing it with other heavy-hitting flavors (see Cactus @2%)."
/u/skiddlzninja/: "I emplore everyone to try INW pear. It has the aroma and flavor of a fresh yellow pear, the truest pear flavor I've tried."
A couple more measured takes, deleted user: "holy fuck its wicked strong anywhere over 2%. So crisp it makes my teeth squeaky. I use it at .5% and its fresh and delicious but can't seem to get rid of that little bite/harshness that it has" and /u/redhotmonkeyluv: "Freshly mixed @ 3%, this is a slightly sweet pear with skin. It's lacking any base note. The heart note is light but pleasant and the top note is very nice - reminiscent of FA's Fuji. I can see this being easily overpowered in a mix. It works nicely with TFA's Pear at a 1:2 ratio with TFA filling out the bottom end that INW is lacking."