Real Flavors Cherry Limeade SC

Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.15 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: RF SC Cherry Limeade @ 2% and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 9 days.

Flavor Description: Taste is Sonic-style cherry limeade, Like straight out of the fat-kid-special Route 44 jug of HFCS. Brighter, sweet maraschino cherry type of cherry in here with some tarter limeade notes. I get just a slight bit of a medicinal taste nestled in there, but it's not too obtrusive and really only shows up when my wicks are absolutely soaked at 4%. Nothing like an actual beverage made with cherries or limes, but I think it hits the profile fairly well. Texture needs some work, as it's a bit dry and harsh instead of wet and syrupy. i'd use this as a primary note, and just do some smart accents on mouthfeel or maybe throw in some more realistic lime and berries. My recommend use percentage would be between 3-4%.

Inhale is has a bit of sharper lime up top, not really lime zest oil, but on the harsh and dry side, with some zest bitterness. Maraschino cherry base. Sweet, but a bit dry. Closer to like powdered bright red cherry koolaid rather than a maraschino cherry syrup. Exhale is really cohesive, it's hard really pulling the cherry and lime apart here, but they are both there. Very bright, commercial, cohesive cherry limeade flavor. Tastes like it has never seen an actual piece of fruit, but still satisfying in that trashy artificial way. Just a bit of a medicinal, bitter top note but it's not at all bad for something involving cherry. Tarter lime notes in there, but no real lime juiciness or intense lime zest flavor. Sweet, but dry. Lacking some of the juiciness that would bring it into more of the straight soda syrup taste of Sonic cherry limeade. Fairly clean finish. For something this sweet I'm not getting much in the way of sugar lips.

Off-flavors: Just a bit of medicinal cherry cough drop, mostly in the top notes of the exhale. Having tried some other cherry flavors, it really isn't all that bad.

Throat Hit: Moderate. I think the cherry and lime by itself is a bit harsh, and it's dryer overall which doesn't help.

Uses & Pairings: Taste-wise, this is already pretty close to a cherry limeade. I don't think it needs too much supporting to hit the profile. It's a bit dry though, so I think it needs some kind of moisture or juicyness. I'd look at a small percentage of INW Cactus, or maybe 1-2% CAP Cucumber. It's also pretty sweet already, but those Sonic Cherry Limeades really are a complete sugar bomb, so maybe some sweetener is in order. I feel sucralose by itself isn't going to help much with that throat hit, so maybe a small percentage of EM or even TPA Sweetener.

Using this as a base for a more realistic cherry limeade, I think this could do with a bit more lime here, not so much to make it taste like lime zest but to give it some juicier body. I'd personally go with FA Aurora at about 1%, but I could see using FA Lime Distilled, or even FA Key Lime. If you wanted to amp up the berries a bit, I'd go with FA Blackcurrant or maybe FA Apricot if you wanted to really push the cherry thing and add some realism back. Alternatively, you could bring in one of the TPA Strawberries for some maltol, which should help smooth out the Cherry Limeade here.

This is dry enough it might also work as a base for cherry candies, as long as they handle the lime accent.

Notes: Concentration testing, 1% is just too light to do much. I get some flat cherry, some bitter lime but neither is all that fun. 2% is better, lime is a bit fuller, but I'm missing some of the crazy bright candy cherry. Still pretty dry and harsh. 3% isn't quite bright "red" but the cherry is noticeable and the concentrate is filling out a bit and getting some more body. 4% is pretty full on "red" and the cherry and the lime are getting hard to distinguish from each other. Sweet but not too cloying, sells the profile really well. 5% is getting a bit medicinal for me, with that cherry picking up more medicinal bitter notes up top and fairly harsh overall. 6% is robotussin with a lime twist. I'd use this at 3% if you want to build around it for a limeade, and 4% if you just want to deal with some of the mouthfeel issues.

Second Opinions:

Here's the ELR page for the VG version. Not much but user "nfy" reports: "At 8% it has a good cherry and a decent lime, tastes like it should. I do wish it had a little more sour or lime to it but it is decent as is." They have a point, this would really well with some FA Sour Wizard.

User "jombo" on ECF gives the ringing endorsement of "pretty good" on an ECF post on what I'm guessing is the VG version.

Here's the product page from Real Flavors. Their take: "Do you want to switch things up? No problem. Sit back, relax and take in a refreshingly bright blend of cherry and lime with our Cherry Limeade flavor. A popular mix in frozen slushies served at the drive-in, this is one wave you’ll want to keep on riding."

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

H/T to /u/ID10-T for the suggestion.