Real Flavors Paczki SC
ConcreteRiver
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 Paczki @ 2% and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 13 days.
Flavor Description: A raspberry jelly donut. Modelled on a heavier Polish take, but this concentrate is quite a bit lighter. Opens with a bright, slightly floral raspberry filling with just a touch of jam to it. Finishes with a relatively lighter, fluffy fried pastry. Really accurate flavor, but I want just a bit more weight here and it's a little harsh. Totally usable as a single flavor at around 3% with some sweetener, or maybe 2% if you want to thicken it up and accent it.
Inhale is a bit airy, with lighter, slightly floral darker berries up front. I get mostly raspberry. It's jammy, but a bit thin overall. No real pastry on the inhale, but a nice building blackberry sweetness. Exhale has berries up front, less tart than the inhale. Somewhere between a brighter raspberry and a darker blackberry, with the same kind of jammy but strangely thin mouthfeel to it. Light floral top notes, and feels unsaturated. It's a really good berry flavor without any kind of medicinal cough syrup edge, I just wish there was a bit more of it. Back half of the exhale picks up some more volume and a light fried pastry flavor. No weird playdough phenolic notes, but again just a bit on the light side. Sweetness is there, but it just doesn't seem to really stick well. Really clean finsh.
Off-flavors: Actual flavor is accurate without any weird off notes. I think the raspberry filling is maybe a bit bright and sort of borders on floral, and overall I don't quite get the heft I want out of this for a donut.
Throat Hit: Moderate. Has a bit of normal throat hit and it seems to be exacerbated a bit by the relative airiness.
Uses & Pairings: Another really full profile, bordering on one shot territory. I think if you want a lighter jelly donut profile, you could definitely do worse than adding a bit of sweetener to this at 3% and calling it a day.
If you wanted to punch this up, I'd look at adding some jammy stickiness and maybe a touch of additional richness to the fruit filling here. Right off the bat I'm thinking of a little bit of FA Blackcurrant. I find that FA Blackcurrant does a good job of showing up in the front of your mixes, so It should sort of work with fruit up front nature of this concentrate. In terms of bolstering the donut base, you could probably use FA Joy or FLV Donuts in a small percentage to get some body and a bit of yeast in there.
Barring that, I'm not sure this flavor is going to play all that well in a supporting role. It seems to need a pretty heavy hand to actually work as a full flavor.
Notes: Concentration testing, this is thin and disjointed at 1%. Mostly a light, almost perfumey raspberry. 2% is better, the berry flavor has thickened up a bit. I'm getting more blackberry sweetness out of it here. Still pretty light on the pastry, but you can pick up some of the texture in there. The berry here is about as solid as it's going to get. A bit jammy, sweet, and pretty well balanced. Starting to pick up more of the pastry flavor, but it still seems to be taking a backseat to the filling. 4% has more intense berry, but it's starting to taste a bit artificial and harsh. No real increase on the pastry notes. 5% is pushing full harsh and artificial. I'd recommend mixing with this at 2% if you want to accent the donut and the filling, 3% if you want something relatively balanced but lighter for a solo vape, and maybe 4% if you want to bring in a really heavy donut base.
Second Opinions:
H/T to /u/ID10-T for the suggestion.