Inawera Sesame Sweets
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.18 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: INW Sesame Sweets, 1 and 2.5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: Warm, buttery caramel and roasted sesame seeds. My experience with sesame candy is pretty limited to these guys but it's pretty spot on. Sweet caramel note here, dark enough to read as caramel, but not all dry and grainy like FA Caramel. Sort of like a an actual brittle taste, without any of the weird textural problems that would imply. Caramel note also has some buttery richness to it, which plays really well with the sweetness. Seems to be something like a sweeter honey edge to it, which contrasts nicely with the roasted sesame seed flavor. Sesame has a spot on roasted flavor, nothing green or raw. It's kind of nutty, but more like a honey roasted peanut butter kind of nutty. Manages to avoid being too savoury or having any kind of weirder tahini or like sesame stick note. Fairly distinct flavor at low percentages, if not exactly overwhelming. Pretty clear down at .5% for an accent, but good up to about 3% as a primary flavor. Seems like a good base for any kind of nut brittle flavor, although I can also see using it in bakeries for some added warmth and roasted notes. I don't want to jump head-long into the peanut butter debate, but I dare say this could add some sweetness and roastiness to a drier peanut butter flavor for something closer to a commercial peanut butter flavor. I'm sure there are more uses for this that escaping me right now, but yeah, it's solid.
Inhale has warm caramel up front. Manages to split the difference between softer, caramel and drier crispier caramel really well. Some richer almost buttery notes in there without actually going full butterscotch. Sesame nuttiness builds on the inhale. Moderately dense, full mouthfeel with a sweetness level that pretty dead on to the few sesame candies that I've had. Exhale is nuttier than the inhale. Roasted sesame up front. Nice, warm, sweet roasted note. Something approaching a honey sweetness is coming out on top the more neutral caramel base. Those sesame notes stick around the whole exhale and linger for quite a while. No real harshness that I'm getting, and the mouthfeel is full without being muddy and thick.
FWIW, I've heard reports that this tends to stick around in atomizers. It'll definitely stay in your wicks if you try to drip over it but it seems to rinse out just fine. I've never understood the aversion to cleaning and rewicking atomizers between changing flavors. I will say that sesame flavor tends to stick on my hands for quite a while. It's not unpleasant, but you'll catch a whiff of sesame a couple hours later if you're sloppy with juicing up your atomizer.
Off-flavors: Nah. Everything that seems like it should be there, and nothing is wrong with what is there.
Throat Hit: I'm not really getting any throat hit.
Uses & Pairings: Big dumb 'murican palate here, but I know that sesame is used in a lot of desert profiles around the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and into Asia. This seems like a really good fit for anything that requires a distinct but well balanced sweet sesame note. It has a warmth and toastiness that should work really well with bakery flavors in general, and as an accent at a low percentage it may actually punch up bready desert flavors without being instantly recognizable. Also seems like a good booster for something like a granola flavor.
This would also be a good base for a nut brittle flavor. The caramel note here seems dead on to tie together some more aggressive nut flavors and the sesame should blend in really well.
I also think this would be an interesting accent for a tobacco as well.
With fruit pairings, I accidentally dripped this over some tangerine and it was pretty great. So maybe citrus?
Notes: Concentration testing, this is a really distinct flavor. I wouldn't call it overpowering, but it's pretty easy to to pick out at a lower percentage, at least solo. It does seem to be fairly linear though. At .25%, it's still definitely a sesame flavor but it's pretty mellow. Caramel hasn't really come together, more of just a honeyed sweetness. .5% is a bit more aggressive. Sesame is a bit heavier, caramel is coming through a bit more. At 1% it's a bit stronger, but still linear. Sesame is a bit of a darker roasted flavor Caramel is really filling in. At 2% I still wouldn't call this overwhelming, but it's getting pretty distinct. Strong roasted sesame flavor, caramel is a bit crisper and feeling pretty full. 3% is fairly intense, but the balance is still good. Heavy roasted sesame, darker sweet caramel. At 4% I'm starting to get some weirdness off the sesame, and the caramel is a bit dark. Tastes a little over-roasted. I'd go low with this an accent with other stronger flavors, maybe .25-.5% but you may need to go even lower. As a primary flavor or solo, still works well up at 3% but may stomp over some more subtle flavors.
Second Opinions:
Shoutout to ID10-T for suggesting this for review.