Liquid Barn Blue Raspberry
ConcreteRiver
Disclaimer: I didn't pay for these , they were sent to me by Liquid Barn. Shoutout to Liquid Barn
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Liquid Barn Blue Raspberry, 4 and 8%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 19 days.
Flavor Description: I came not to reopen the great blue raspberry wars, but to say this is a pretty solid candy blue raspberry.
There is quite a bit of heavy candy raspberry in here, but it's fairly well done. I get some initial almost lemony tartness which fades out pretty quickly to a heavily sweet duller raspberry body. It's a very warm and dense kind of candy raspberry.
It also tastes vaguely blue, which is interesting. It has a bit of tarter blueberryish sweetness on top of that heavier raspberry and almost a bit of a yellow peach in the top notes. There's also a sort of artificial edge on the top end of the flavor that really does taste like that lightly bitter, chemical heavily dyed thing going on with blue raspberry.
The sweetness and mouthfeel here bolsters the hard candy effect. This is a fairly vibrant, but still syrupy and a bit watery all at the same time. It sort of apes that mouthwatering thing that hard candy does. The sweetness level and the character of the sweetness is definitely hard candy.
There's an entire rabbit hole of people chasing the perfect blue raspberry, but I don't have the widest basis of comparison. I can unequivocally say this blows FW Blue Raspberry clean out of the water. This is sweeter and more candied while still having a more nuanced raspberry and a more identifiable "blue" to it. I'd say it punches up there with OSDIY Blue Raspberry Slush. It's not quite as "blue" and i get more raspberry out of the liquid barn, but it doesn't have any of that enigmatic "slush" quality of the OSDIY and so it may end up being a bit more versatile... and you can buy it from bull city without having to make a special order.
Off-flavors: The LB fruit flavors I've tried so far taste a bit waxy and warm, and this is no exception. It sort of works for it though. That jolly rancher/blow-pop sweetness and texture works with it.
Throat Hit: Light. That candy sweetness is a little warm and harsh, but nothing untoward.
Percentage testing: At 4% this feels a bit too thin for that candy profile. While I get some decent flavor saturation on the beginning of the exhale, it thins out substantially and doesn't quite have that heavy hard candy body and sweetness.
At 8% this is quite a bit fuller and warmer. The actual blue raspberry here is a bit more vibrant than at 4%, but the body is much heavier and sweeter and does the hard candy thing pretty well.
Just based on these tests, I'd probably be mixing this as a primary flavor right around that Liquid Barn suggested 8%. I think you could comfortably bump it to 10% if you really want to hammer the blue raspberry in as a solo. I'm not really sure a light blue raspberry accent is a thing.
Also worth noting this is one of Liquid Barn's "VG dominant" flavors, at 67% VG. My percentages here are using the standard specific gravity of 1 g/ml thing because only savages mix by volume and I didn't try to do the math to adjust my mixing by weight. But they do give a specific gravity of 1.23 g/ml if you're into that sort of thing.
Uses & Pairings: There's always going to be some room for improvement, but it's a pretty solid solo flavor at high percentages. You could probably just add some sucralose and get close to a blue raspberry jolly rancher without having to mess around with something else to get that candy texture.
If you wanted to get crazy, you could probably bolster this with some TPA Sweet Raspberry or FLV Raspberry to punch up the berry here a bit. Basically use any of the tricks that apexified used with OSDIY Blue Raspberry slush in either his "Blue Frost" or "Blue Frost Revisited" recipes.
Second Opinions:
Here's the ELR Page. User "jojo" writes: "5% (SnV - little weak, but definitely a blue raspberry vibe. 10 days - still weak. 2 weeks - still a little week, but definitely blue raspberry. 5 weeks - pretty good. Definitely up the % but I like it.)" User "kohl" writes "Not bad, decent sweet flavor at 5%, could be a good sweet addition to something that needs a fruity twist. Tastes like a berry, but it's pretty unrecognizable from a blind taste test."
BCF actually has some reviews up on the product page. We've got one "Richard White" who writes: "Best blue raspbery I've tasted on the market. Highly recommend." "Daniel Ordway" apparently digs it as well: " this flavor is amazing ! i mix mine at 16% and up i add 1% tfa sweetener and everyone loves it ! , it's an ADV!" User "Matt" ain't so sure: "Not a bad flavor, but not what I think of as a true Blue Raspberry. BCV carries Flavor West BR, I would suggest going with that. This, Liquid Barn BR loosely resembles a Blue Ras cotton candy, but only somewhat."