Purilum Pomelo
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.16 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Purilium Pomelo, 3 and 8%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 6 days.
Flavor Description: Pretty much a pomelo. If you've never had a pomelo, flavorwise they seem to be what a tangerine is to an orange for grapefruit. Same basic flavor, but a lot sweeter and milder, without much in the way of bitterness and less tartness. This fits that profile pretty well. Sweet, full, and relatively mellow for a citrus, and the light bitterness almost takes on a bit of a marmalade candied zest vibe but with limes instead of oranges. There's some muskiness in those top notes as well, but it isn't too intense as long as this isn't cranked up too much. Seems like a version of grapefruit that'll be a lot easier to mix with than most actual grapefruits. I'd keep this around 5% as a primary note, and maybe around 2-3% as a light sweet accent.
Inhale is sweet pomelo. There's a denser, ruby red grapefruit kind of taste with something like a light candied lime zest top note and just a tiny hit of a fairly realistic grapefruit bitterness. A bit too sweet to feel super realistic for a citrus, but it's definitely close to a sweeter pomelo. Mouthfeel is fairly full but it doesn't have that wax thing you get with something like sweeter orange flavors. Exhale is pretty much a pomelo, sweet up front, fairly heavily saturated flavor. Citrus musk in the top notes. Strength really depends on concentration. At 5% it's more of an interesting accent. Pushing toward 9% it gets a bit soapy and weird. Zest note feels a little bit like a mixture of bergamot and maybe something cedar or sandalwood-ish. Light bit of slightly bitter lime zest comes in on the back end of exhale, but it's pretty subtle compared to the bitterness in a realistic grapefruit concentrate. Some lingering higher citrus notes.
Off-flavors: There's a definite musk to this. It actually seems fairly realistic for a pomelo, with a bit of dry, spicy, bergamot note and an almost woody ripeness. Not really off then, but it can get weird if you overdo it.
Throat Hit: Light. Definitely on the low side for a citrus.
Uses & Pairings: It's almost like the straight ruby red part of a ruby red grapefruit. Mild and sweet, but still with that distinct grapefruit character. I could see using this to fill in citrus flavors without adding to much extra zest or baggage beyond that light musk. Adding sweetness to grapefruit would be the obvious, but it could help give you more flavor behind tarter, zestier citrus without dumping more throat hit onto the profile.
Citrus in general works well with melons and cucumber and all that, but this being a bit sweeter it would probably blend better with darker, syrupy fruits instead of just acting as a tart counterpoint.
Seems like a good fit for mixing with creams if you keep it low enough to miss most of that musk. Tarter grapefruits get really weird with dairy notes, and this being just the sweet part of the grapefruit would probably open it up a bit.
All of the cocktail / citrus soda vapes, basically.
Notes: Concentration testing, 3% doesn't seem to have much of that musk or soapy note to it, but the pomelo flavor seems a bit weak. It's juicier down here, but a thinner flavor. At 5% that musk is a bit more prominent, but it's kind of an interesting off-flavor that seems to add a bit of realism to the concentrate. The musk is almost working like a light bergamot peppery note and kind of sells some of the peel and pith, in case you weren't super careful with your supremes. Base pomelo flavor is nice and sweet, with maybe just a tiny hit of a bitter accent. At 7% the pomelo is a bit sweeter and bolder, but that musk is a bit heavier and feeling almost a bit soapy. It's a bit distracting. At 9% it's probably a bit too musky for me. I'd probably start around 5% mixing with this, maybe 7% if I was planning on a 2 week steep where it had some time to die down a bit.
Also fairly difficult to say 5 times fast.
Second Opinions: