Real Flavors Rice Pudding 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 Rice Pudding @ 2% and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 19 days.

Flavor Description: Rice pudding with a good hit of vanilla, bakery cinnamon, and creamier base. I'm not getting too much rice out of this, but it does seem to have a neutral kind of starch taste in there. It's a bit dry, thin, and harsh overall, and the vanilla is a bit overwhelming. Overall effect kind of tastes like a weird vanilla frosting. I think this definitely use some wetter cream to it, like FA Cream or apparently OOO creamy undertones and maybe some of that fancy FE Sweet Rice that everyone is going on about. I'd use this around 2%-3%, seems pretty harsh above that.

Inhale has a lot of airy vanilla up top. Not overly sweet, but it has a bit of a vanilla frosting note. Distractingly airy, with no real base to it, just a harshness underneath. Exhale is a bit more complex. Still getting a lot of vanilla out of this, but there is a bit of bakery cinnamon in the top notes. Not really prominent cinnamon, but it's a nice accent to the vanilla. Back half of the exhale has just a flash of a rice flavor. More of a slightly grainy texture, but without a lot of the nuttiness I'd expect from a rice. Tail end of the exhale has a kind of sticky, waxy frosting note standing in for the creams. Tastes like a weaker version of CAP Butter Cream. Dry and thin overall. I feel like this desperately needs some fullness from some additional cream. I'm also getting a good deal of harshness here. Both the tradition stinging throat hit, and that weird heartburn-ish throat hit I'm starting to associate with Real Flavors bakeries. Finish seems to have a bit of lingering bitterness.

Off-flavors: Tastes a lot like vanilla frosting. I'm getting a lot of vanilla out of this, and the cream note is kind of waxy like frosting. The dryness here also kind of pushes the entire thing off profile.

Throat Hit: This is pretty harsh. Good ol' fashioned classic throat hit along with a weird heartburn-ish lingering harshness.

Uses & Pairings: I'm still struggling a bit on the construction of these Real Flavors bakeries. I find this kind of dry and thin solo, but there is some potential here for a rice pudding. I feel like, in order to get a satisfying rice pudding, you'll need additional wetter cream and some additional definition to that rice note. You could then add some fruit in there, apples jump out at me immediately.

Outside of that, I don't feel like the cinnamon here is really prominent enough to recommend using this as a generic bakery cinnamon, and while there is a lot of vanilla here, there are better, less harsh, options for adding vanilla into bakeries.

Notes: Concentration testing, 1% isn't cutting it. I get some weird, harsh, sticky vanilla. 2% has that cinnamon show up a bit, and the rice note starts to come through. Still fairly harsh, and I'm not getting much in the way of cream. 3% is pushing pretty harsh and dry. Rice note is starting to read recognizably as rice, but I feel like the vanilla is too prominent and it's getting a bit waxy overall. 4% is just too harsh for me.

Second Opinions: Not a lot I can find.

Here's the ELR page for the SC. User "Mark Turner" says: "Authentic taste, Very pleasant flavor Creamy & Rich. Works well as a base for dessert type mixes."

Here's the product page from Real Flavors. Their take: "Yes, there is officially a rice pudding flavor. (Now Ken will leave me alone!) Our rice pudding is made from rice mixed with milk and other ingredients such as cinnamon and cream. This flavor should be very rich and thick with only a slight hint of sweetness (You may want to add more)."

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