Jungle Flavors Cherry
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.15 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Jungle Flavors Cherry @ 1% and 2.5%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: Artificial "red" cherry, with most of the usual weird plastic/medicinal type notes that are common with cherries. Kind of like cherry cough drops with the plastic still on. Some decent candy sweetness and brighter cherry flavor here, but it's pretty buried under the medicinal / gasoline / plastic notes. Not quite as gnarly as some other artificial cherries, but it definitely isn't the artificial cherry magic bullet. Seems a bit weak side compared to the more commonly used Jungle Flavors, cherry flavor itself works fine up to about 4%, but those off notes come right along with it.
Inhale has that red candy cherry with a bitter medicinal edge. Some good candy cherry sweetness that builds through the inhale but that medicinal note builds right along side. Just a bit on the airy side, lacking of a lot of density or juiciness. Exhale has more of that fairly credible artificial cherry up front for a fraction of a second but then you run right into all those off flavors. Crosses from medicinal into full plastic-y on the exhale. Again, nobody has really nailed a candy cherry without off-flavors so it's not unexpected, but it's always a bummer. Entire vape is on the dry side and fairly airy. Not as dry and airy as INW Cherries, but way more off-flavors than that one. Sweetness level isn't overwhelming or cloying, actually seems like it's maybe a hair undersweet for that "red" cherry kind of taste. Lingering bitter plastic-y notes.
Off-flavors: It's a cherry flavor, so a whole bunch. Alternatively medicinal or plasticy depending on where you are in the inhale and exhale. Plastic notes are a little intense than a fuller more "realistic" cherry flavor, but still pretty gnarly and the drier, airier texture makes them pretty off-putting.
Throat Hit: Not too bad actually. The off-flavors are pretty rough, but they don't seem to be adding too much to actual throat hit. They just don't taste great.
Uses & Pairings: More than anything else, this seems like the halfway ground between the thin, dry INW Cherries that doesn't really have any off-notes but still isn't a solo cherry to a deeper cherry like FA Cherry that is fuller but pretty aggressive in it's off flavors.
If these kind of off-notes don't bother you, then go nuts. It's an artificial cherry flavor that would probably work in beverages so there's something to counter some of the dryness here.
Personally, It's being relegated to a shelf until I can get up the willpower to toss the flavors I'm probably never going to use again. Full cherry concentrates just largely aren't that good. Shoutout to Medicine Flower, because otherwise you're pretty much SOL unless you want to cobble your own together.
Notes: Concentration testing, this seems really linear including the off-flavors. 1% feels too light for me. I get a hint of cherry and a hint of plastic and not too much else. 2% is a bit more solid, but still on the light side overall. 3% is starting to taste pretty full. Decent, if thin artificial cherry taste but pretty solidly medicinal. 4% is getting pretty plastic-y but the cherry flavor underneath is actually fairly full. 5% is just straight plastic to me, with a bit of a floral edge to keep things interesting.
So, I'm pretty sure this is one of the concentrates orphaned when Ecigexpress either bought or started working more closely with Jungle Flavors. I got this from Chef's in the UK, and it doesn't appear to be available in the US. That's a pretty good sign this concentrate isn't long for this world. ID10-T wanted me to take another run at tilting at the "solo cherry flavor that isn't kind of garbage" windmill, and this isn't it. I'm not thinking anyone is going to shed any tears when this disappears.
Second Opinions:
I'm working under the assumption that this was, at one point, branded "Jungle Flavorz." The replacement of the "z" was probably a good choice.
User "Sdh" on ECF reports: "A more real tasting Cherry but light at 2%. To me it tastes like the Cherry in a Diet Rite Cherry cola. It does present with a slight sweetness. At this percent I do not detect a acidic taste. I find it a clean Cherry. I have tried a few brands but the others taste like cough medicine. It carries itself well with no dryness." Not really my experience with it, but hey. I'm not sure how the cherry taste in Diet Rite Cherry Cola would count as real though.
A resigned shrug to /u/ID10-T for the suggestion.