Real Flavors Condensed Milk 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 Condensed Milk @ .25%, 2%, and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 11 days.

Flavor Description: Pretty straight ahead condensed milk taste up front, but some textural issues on the back end that kind of keeps this from clicking as a really thick, rich condensed milk. Good level of sweetness, with a ligher caramelized milk sugar character. Not a whole lot of aggressive dairy, but that's pretty accurate for condensed milk. Starts out promising and medium-dense, but seems to thin out on the tail end of the exhale. I'd use maybe a wetter cream to fill this out for a good pastry cream or lighter custard, or keep it dry and use it for something like a pie filling. Concentration-wise, this is tricky. I get a good amount of actual flavor from this down as low as .25%, but it's all in the top notes. It tastes like condensed milk, but it really doesn't feel like condensed milk, if that makes any sense. At 2% I'm getting a good amount of mouthfeel, but i feel like it dries out substantially toward the back end. I'd recommend mixing with this at between .5-1.5% depending on how much mouthfeel you want to bring to the party.

Inhale is sweet and a bit dry. Some shaper brown-sugar / caramel notes up top but not a whole of flavor in the base. Pretty heavily sweet though, pretty natural tasting. Exhale opens up with the carmalized milk sugar note here, and it's really nice. Not too dark, with some buttery creamy base to it. Back half of the exhale thins out substantially though. At lower percentages it tastes watery, and at higher percentages it tastes dry. Sweetness level is dead on for condensed milk, and the mouthfeel up front is fairly thick and rich. Finish is just a bit too clean, you'd expect this to a flavor that sticks to your palate, and this doesn't.

Worth noting that this is super dark, but it's not sticky or inky. I noticed no issues with coil gore.

Off-flavors: Not really, flavor is pretty spot on. No weird maple note to this like bavarian creams. Touch of caramel to this, but it's accurate to condensed milk. Flavor does seem to have a thin finish to it.

Throat Hit: A bit, at 1% or under. The tail end of the exhale is really dry. Gets noticeably harsher at 2%.

Uses & Pairings: I'm primarily thinking this is going to be be better blended into cream bases than solo. I find that thinner mouthfeel on the tail end pretty distracting. I can see adding this to wetter creams like FA Fresh Cream, or FA Vienna Cream to add some buttery, sweet, richness up front and relying on the base cream to carry the finish.

The relative dryness here on the tail end means you can probably use this solo in bakeries to add some richness. Real condensed milk makes it's way into stuff like pumpkin pie fillings and key lime pies, and that seems like a good use of this concentrate. You'll get richness without making your pastry notes soggy. Almost reminds me of FLV Custard in that way, but this is substantially richer, at least up front.

Notes: The concentration on this is tricky. This is definitely noticeable as a full flavor at .25%, but it seems really front-loaded at that percentage and it's pushing towards a watery after you get past the first burst of flavor. .5% is a bit thicker and less top note heavy, but I'm still missing some of that mouthfeel. 1% is drying out a bit, the condensed milk gets a bit more buttery, but i don't find the condensed milk is getting any kind of rancid or cheesy. 1.5% is rich up front and dry on the back end, but the flavor is really solid. 2% is getting a bit dry for me. Good buttery, rich dairy and that caramel is picking up, but the dryness on the backend is creeping into the front of the concentrate and getting a bit harsh. 4% still doesn't taste bad, but it's dry and a bit harsh. I'd use this as an accent for other creams around .5%, and as rich base for pastry fillings at about 1.5%.

Second Opinions:

Here's /u/mysticrosell's review on the VG version. I'm pretty much on the same page about this being thick and rich, at least at first, I tend to get some dryness at the end of this, but I tend to get a lot of dryness in general, and specifically from what I've tasted from the RF SC I've tried. Also, a note that some of the caramelized milk flavor may fade out with a longer steep, which is kind of a bummer.

Good reviews for the VG Version on ELR

And even more positve reviews for the SC version on ELR. Suggested use percentage here is low, consensus between .25-5%. I think there is plenty of flavor there, I'm just not wild about the watery mouthfeel underneath those top notes.

Here's the product page from Real Flavors. Their take: "Condensed milk is sugar-sweetened cow’s milk where about 60% of the water has been removed. The thick, rich result has a sweet, creamy taste all its own that we can’t get enough of. One of our most popular flavors, it’s used in many baked goods, specialty coffees and fudge."

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

H/T to /u/dominicaldaze for the suggestion.