Liquid Barn Vanilla Mint
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 Vanilla Mint, 8 and 15% @ 1g/ml, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 30 days.
Flavor Description: Heavy spearmint with a vanilla accent.
This is definitely spearmint heavy. It's a candy spearmint, instead of a really leafy green natural spearmint, but it's not that straight gum spearmint. It doesn't have that really chalky, powdery kind of wrigleys spearmint vibe and the mentholation is closer to something like an altoid. It's definitely one the better, more aggressive spearmints I've had.
The vanilla here is that brighter frosting type vanilla without any of the creamy or waxy type of body that usually comes with those flavors. It's not really a dominant component in the concentrate, it's more of an accent helping to sweeten and soften the harder edges of the spearmint. It's doing a lot of what the vanilla in a white tic-tac does. it complements that more intense spearmint pretty well.
This has a pretty heavy mentholation to it. It's pretty heavily cold. At relatively moderate percentages it's pretty smooth but it can get a bit of that heavy, spicy menthol edge at Liquid Barn's suggested 15%.
This feels like a spearmint vape, and the texture and sweetness bear that out. This isn't really candy sweet, but there's enough sweetness to take a bit of the more aggressive edge off the spearmint. There also isn't much in the way of body. This concentrates feels closest to something like CAP Cool Mint, but with less of that white tic-tac body and a much stronger mentholation.
**Off-flavors:**Nah. You've got mint. You've got vanilla. Nothing odd.
Throat Hit: Moderate, but that's kind of the point with this level of mentholation.
Percentage testing: 8% is spearmint forward. The vanilla kind of lives around the edges here, but it's a nice accent. Mentholation is solid but not overwhelming. Nice and cool overall. Still feels a bit undersaturated, like the flavor isn't quite full.
At 15%, this is actually a little too mentholated for me. It's starting to get an almost spicy edge to it. The flavor underneath works fairly well, but the spearmint is overbearing.
Just based on these tests, the percentage on this is going to pretty subjective. Liquid Barn suggests 15%, I'd probably be closer to 10%. Seems like a good balance of chill and actual flavor here.
Uses & Pairings: Good solo flavor if you want something cool but not really astringent. It's got quite a bit of cooling edge but the vanilla helps to smooth it out and add some interesting contrast.
Outside of a single flavor, you probably want to stick with additions that actually work well with menthol like berries. Generally avoid anything with overripe notes and anything creamy. This would also pair well with straight non-aromatic tobaccos but I'd watch the sweetness.
Second Opinions:
Here's the ELR Page. User "jojo" writes: "SnV - Definitely minty. Slight vanilla. Little bit of a chemical note... 1 week - Vanilla mint, slightly creamy. Kinda tastes like toothpaste, though. If I don’t think about the toothpaste aspect, it’s more of a soft mint. 2 weeks - Same. Soft vanilla mint that could taste like toothpaste if I think about it too much. 3 weeks - Same but less toothpaste. 6 weeks - Nice soft vanilla mint. Good flavor for its purpose. Not sure how often I’ll actually use it."
This made the youtube rounds. Video reviews from Josh Vapes and DIY Vapor.