Liquid Barn Orange Banana
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 @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Liquid Barn Orange Banana, 5 and 9% @ 1g/ml, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 36 days.
Flavor Description: A smoothie blend of banana and orange, with a fairly harsh and sharp edge.
The banana here tastes a bit more vibrant than straight LB Banana, but it's definitely similar. Feels like there is some more realistic underripe-ish banana in here along with a artificial banana taffy or runts note. The balance here is actually pretty good, and while I do get a bit of artificial banana, it's not just straight runts. Not as realistic or green as something like FA Banana, but it's a bit more realistic than some other options.
The orange flavor here is actually pretty well done. It's definitely on the sharp side but it's a decently realistic navel orange kind of flavor, and not heavily artificial. I do pick up some fairly harsh zest out this but it actually has a bit of orange juice in there as well. The orange is helping tone down the artificial banana and the banana is helping to give that orange a bit of body.
Liquid barn says this is a similar to a smoothie, and it does have a fairly thick body. But this is definitely on the harsh and sharp side. There's quite a bit of bite here right up front from an acidic sharpness and some pretty intense throat hit. The sharpness detracts from that smoothie-esque profile.
Liquid Barn says this has the "cooling sensation of a creamsicle" but I'm not really picking anything like that up. I don't get any real discrete cooling, and if there is some cooling in here it's probably a very small percentage of Koolada because I don't taste any menthol. Tasting it on the back of the hand, I get it a bit more clearly, but it's got to be down around the equivalent of .1% Koolada or something minor like that.
So shoutout to liquid barn for giving info on the base for each of their flavors. This is 40% VG, and 60% other with no mention of PG. They list ethyl alcohol as one of the components, so this is probably north of 50% ethyl alcohol. So that would explain some of the sharpness and also pretty much ensure you're looking at a sizable steep to let this calm down.
Off-flavors: So even with a steep this still feels way too sharp for the profile. Some artificial banana, but not bad in the profile.
Throat Hit: This is fairly harsh for me.
Percentage testing: This actually feels a bit more harsh for me at 5% than at 9%. I'm getting much orange than banana, and it's thin and zest heavy. I'm maybe getting some of that cooling, but it's really hard to tell through the throat hit.
At 9% this feels a bit better balanced. There's quite a bit more banana here and the orange feels fuller. Banana is pushing a little artificial but the actual texture is quite a bit thicker. There's still some significant throat hit, but there's more flavor to soak it up.
Liquid Barn suggests mixing this at 9%. It's pretty harsh up that high, but the balance does seem to be quite a bit better than 5%. I'd probably be mixing between 7-8%, with the caveat that you're going to managing throat hit at that kind of level. There's not really enough banana here at an accent percentage, and you have better accent options for a straight orange.
Uses & Pairings: This does definitely feel like the beginning of a smoothie. You could go the philosaphucker route that he used with Detox and try to mellow this out with some cactus while adding a bit of a green juice kind of vibe. If you didn't want to mess with cactus, some TPA Whipped Cream would add some triacetin to smooth this out and take it closer to an orange julius.
Adding cream or marshmallow would start you toward more a tropical creamsicle while cutting down on the throat hit a bit.
Second Opinions:
Here's the ELR Page. User "jojo" writes: "8% (SnV - not bad, kinda weak. 1 week - still not getting a lot from this. A bit of an orange banana but it separates so much it’s hard to tell. 2 weeks - getting some orange, maybe some banana. Don’t think I’m gonna be using this one a lot though. 3 weeks - same. A bit of orange and banana but kinda sharp and not great. 4 weeks - same. Mostly orange.)" User "johnny2419" writes: "I use as a way to get a thick mouth feel in things like shakes,smoothies etc. that have a orange or banana back note."