Inawera Pineapple Raw
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.16 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: INW Pineapple Raw, 1 and 2.5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 5 days.
Flavor Description: Raw pineapple and black licorice. Inawera describes the flavor as: "Fresh pineapple taste. Juicy, tempting and complex, with subtle hints of mint, anis and white almonds in the background." Maybe the "subtle" part of that is lost in translation, because the mint, anise, and almond part of this just tastes like black licorice to me. The actual pineapple here is a really nice take on fresh pineapple. Bright, sweet, and without any kind of canned taste. It also seems noticeably stronger than pineapple in straight INW Pineapple. It's heartbreaking really, because they go and add a ton of licorice and cooling on here. Overall effect is like eating raw pineapple and black jujyfruits together. Doesn't seem to be an overflavoring thing, licorice is relatively more pronounced at 1% than 2.5%. Pretty strong cooling here as well. While it's not a poorly done flavor, I kind of struggle on what to actually do with it. I'm pretty sure that licorice is going to be fairly difficult to work around if you want just the raw pineapple part of this. Pineapple and Anise are actually a pretty decent flavor combination in deserts, but then you run straight into the cooling part of this. It's a pretty decent solo flavor around 3%.
Inhale has sharp fresh pineapple up top. Fresh cut, tart, really promising. The licorice starts to come in underneath that and builds quite a bit. Lighter mouthfeel, but a lot of that is from the cooling or mentholation. Exhale again has some pretty substantial cooling. Starts out as a fresh pineapple and mint, but the anise top notes and the cooling end up going black licorice pretty quickly. Sweetness level is pretty accurate to a mostly ripe pineapple, and the cooling takes the edge off any harshness here. I pink up some actual mint as opposed to just cooling on the tail end, and that licorice and mint linger.
Off-flavors: The licorice is a bummer. It's in the description, so maybe it's not an off-flavor, but it's nothing that feels like it belongs in a raw pineapple flavor.
Throat Hit: Light. More just aggressive than harsh and the cooling helps substantially.
Uses & Pairings: This is already pretty busy, and while nothing in here really clashes with anything else, I'm not sure what else is going to really fit in without getting weird.
Anise and Pineapple are actually solid together in bakeries and deserts, but the cooling here is going to throw off the warmer, roasted flavors that are going to work better in those kind of applications. This also comes across a lot more like black licorice than a straight anise.
I don't think you'll be able to entirely get rid of the licorice vibe here, but I could see this being used an accent flavor in a tropical fruit mix to add a bit of contrast and interest. I could also see adding some lime or grapefruit in here and just running with the weirdness.
Also, it's really not bad as a solo flavor, but only if you dig the idea of black licorice and pineapple together.
Notes: Concentration testing, at .25 and .5% I mostly get a light black licorice accent flavor. At 1% there is some bright pineapple here but it still feels a bit weak and the anise/licorice thing is pretty dominant. At 1.5 and 2% the pineapple is getting a bit brighter and tarter, but yeah, still black licorice. At 2.5% The pineapple is actually tasting legitimately like raw pineapple, with that intense tartness, but the licorice thing is still hitting pretty hard and the cooling is getting more pronounced. 3% is fairly similar to 2.5%. 4% is tasting like sour, fruity black licorice. I'd probably use this around 3% as a solo flavor, or 1.5% as an accent.
Second Opinions: Nah, not really.