Liquid Barn Chocolate Roll
ConcreteRiver
Disclaimer: I didn't pay for these, they were sent to me by Liquid Barn. Shout out 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 Chocolate Roll, 5 and 9% @ 1g/ml, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 42 days.
Flavor Description: Tootsie rolls with a vodka chaser.
Yeah, definitely tootsie rolls. It's the familiar sort of dry bordering on chemical kind of chocolate note from tootsie rolls. I maybe get something just a bit darker than actual tootsie rolls, but it feels like the same kind of chocolate. It's more semi-sweet cocoa powder in sugar, rather than an actual chocolate with any kind of rich base underneath it.
There's some volume here, but it's waxy instead of really creamy. It's sort of a fluffy, whipped cream mouthfeel without any of dairy notes and with the chocolate is sort of just sitting on top. Liquid barn calls it "taffy-like" and it's pretty much a fit for the whole tootsie roll thing.
Overall this is a whole lot like TPA Double Chocolate Clear, but a bit waxier and darker. It also has a weird boozy finish to it. Not really a chocolate liqueur, so much as chocolate than liquor. There's something sharp and lightly chemical on the back end of this with quite a bit of bite. There's a decent sweetness at the front of the flavor, but that weirder backend kicks in and the entire thing seems a bit dry on the finish.
This is a darker concentrate, and as a chocolate, it's doing pretty much what you'd expect to the coils and cotton. It's not FA Cocoa bad, but it's definitely leading to a bit of coil gunking and my wicks are fairly crispy and the flavor muted after around 5ml dripped.
Off-flavors: After 42 days, I'm still getting something boozy and sharp in the background of this. Also, definitely a tootsie roll chocolate, which is a fit for the profile but maybe not what most people just seeing the "chocolate" here would be looking for.
Throat Hit: Light to moderate. This actually feels a bit harsh to me, especially at the back end of the flavor.
Percentage testing: At 5% this tastes like a slightly boozy and waxy TPA Double Chocolate Clear. Off flavors are present, but not completely overwhelming. Definitely gets the tootsie roll thing across though.
At 9% this is pretty overwhelming. Denser mouthfeel, slightly richer chocolate with some darker cocoa depth, but that booziness is pretty prominent for me.
Liquid Barn suggests 9%. I'm not really digging it that high. Just based on these tests, I'd probably be around 3-4% trying to avoid that weird booziness and forgoing the majority of that "roll"-ish body.
Uses & Pairings: Use should be pretty comparable to TPA or CAP Double Chocolate. You'll have to add creams and AP to get anywhere close to a chocolate bar. The booziness here doesn't seem like it will really go well with the more chocolate syrup applications you can use TPA and CAP for.
Second Opinions:
Here's the ELR Page. User "jojo" writes: "5% (SnV - Kind of a chalky taste. Sweet. Semi alcoholic tasting. 1 week - wow this mellowed a lot. Not sure what a “chocolate roll” is supposed to be, but this kinda tastes like little debby chocolate cakey. 2 weeks - almost nonexistent. 3 weeks - I’m wondering if this is supposed to be a tobacco flavor. It almost has a chocolate swisher/black and mild kinda taste to it. Still also getting chocolate cake. 4 weeks - not really getting anything out of this now.)"