Inawera Pink Lady
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 Pink Lady, 1 and 2.5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 7 days.
Flavor Description: Inawera describes this as "The flavour on a taste and smell of cloves with a hint of apple. That seems pretty backwards, I get way more apple than clove out of this. Apple note seems like a warmer fuji type apple (or hey, why not just call it a pink lady) but I think there's some caramel in there as well. It definitely doesn't taste raw or crispy, but it's something short of a broken-down really cooked apple. There's something like a softer caramel to it as well with some buttery notes that might be a light pastry kind of flavor. The apple and caramel thing actually reminds me a lot of FA Cocoon but with a sweeter, non-green apple, softer caramel, and lighter pastry-ish note. The clove sounds scary, but it's really subtle and very well blended with the apple. I pick it up mostly on the tail of the inhale and exhale, and it does a really good job of adding some subtle spice notes to clean up the stickier part of the apple here. It's a pretty busy concentrate already, and most of the subtlety doesn't translate well at accent level percentages. I'd use this a primary note at around 3%.
Inhale has sweet, softer fuji-esque apple flavor up front. Warmer, but doesn't taste quite taste cooked like an apple filling. More just warmed. Building soft caramel sweetness with a twinge of clove in the top notes. Clove is nice and clean, not too savory and very well balanced as an accent flavor. Moderately dense mouthfeel, and the sweetness level fits with that caramel-ish note. Exhale has a more cohesive caramel apple flavor. Apple flavor is a bit stronger and more defined, taking on a sweeter red apple kind of character. Caramel note is still really soft, without any harder or grainier burnt sugar edges. More of a soft, slightly chewy mouthfeel. Light clove accent in the top notes, but not overwhelming. Cleaner apple flavor in the back half of the exhale and the clove picks up a bit toward the end. Lingering sweetness and light clove.
Off-flavors: Nothing like the cloves with apple thing that Inawera is describing, but nothing that feels out of place or weird. I think that softer, caramel-ish note can get maybe just a bit cardboard-y, but I get that with most softer caramels.
Throat Hit: Very light, little bit of bite on that apple but nothing too bad.
Uses & Pairings: There's a lot going on in here and I'm not quite sure what to add to it. I think it's probably not "baked" tasting enough to pull off something like a pie filling but either some Liquid Amber or even another filling flavor like FLV Apple Filling might help that out if you wanted to take this in a pie filling kind of direction.
Might make a decent caramel apple flavor for a caramel apple type of milkshake or ice cream flavor. The grassier notes in green apple tend to get weird with creams, and that shouldn't happen here.
For a caramel apple with a light spice note, this could probably use a small bit of a dryer caramel like FA or FLV to help sell the caramel here a bit better.
When all else fails, mix it with a tobacco?
Notes: Concentration testing, this feels soft and indistinct at 1% and under. Apple is coming through pretty clearly, but it's a softer double apple kind of red apple flavor and the clove isn't really isn't coming through. No real distinct caramel, just adding some warm sweetness to the apple. At 2% the apple has a bit more definition and the caramel is separating a little bit. Picking up some of that caramel mouthfeel as well. Clove is still an accent but the clove has a heavier spice note to it. At 3% this is feeling pretty full. Soft caramel mouthfeel, apple is fuller and has a kind of warm juiciness to it. Clove still isn't overpowering. At 4% the caramel is feeling a bit cardboardy and too soft. Still not a darker caramel flavor, and it's missing some of the flavor to pull off that softer, chewy texture. Apple note kind of tastes like hot apple juice. I'd use this around 3% as a primary note.
Second Opinions: Either my googling is terrible, or I can't find anything out there about this flavor.