Real Flavors Spearmint 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 Spearmint @ 2% and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 7 days.
Flavor Description: Fairly realistic spearmint, with a nice balance of light mentholation, herbal sweetness, and just a touch of actual leafy green to it. Spearmint itself has an almost creamy kind of sweetness to it. A bit sweeter than real spearmint, but it feels fairly natural and isn't cloying. A tiny bit of throat hit here, but it seems to settle in and smooth out after a couple of drags. Mentholation is pretty light for a mint flavor, something like mint gum as opposed to the full on altoid icy-ness you can get off peppermint and some other spearmint flavors. I'd use this as a realistic spearmint accent in darker fruit mixes, or as a beverage mint in cocktails or teas. Suggested mixing percentage would be 2.0-4.0%, with this getting leafier and more mentholated as you increase that percentage.
Inhale has a sharper, mint leaf flavor in the top notes. Mentholation varies based on percentage, at 2% it's light and up at 4% I still wouldn't call it super icy. Building sweetness, just barely touching on a candy level sweetness as the inhale goes on. Exhale starts off almost creamy, with a smooth spearmint flavor with some higher herbaceous green notes. Not quite "leafy" but a lot closer than other spearmints I've tried. Creamy smoothness fades out a bit on the tail end of the exhale, and it's picking up more of that herbal spearmint flavor. Sweet overall, but doesn't quite cross into candy sweetness. Mentholation is still on the subtle side, pretty similar to the inhale. Some lingering sharper mint notes. Also seems to make your lips just a bit raw, and that sticks around for a while.
Off-flavors: Nah.
Throat Hit: Light. Seems to settle in pretty quickly though. I am noticing a bit of chest tightness with really deep inhales, but that could just be the mentholation.
Uses & Pairings: This is by far the least mentholated spearmint I have tasted, and it's not quite herbaceous enough to be super realistic, it gets very close. This may be the mint for background use in fruit mixes. This should add just a bit of green freshness to apples, pears, plums, raspberries, and other slightly darker sweet fruits. I could also see this working well with citruses, melons, and cucumber.
I think the major sleeper application of this flavor will end up being beverages. This simulates muddled mint in cocktails better than the other spearmints I've tried. I also think the lack of heavy mentholation and bit of green here is going to make it work really in teas.
I also think this could be used to add a touch of mint to tobaccos without dragging them into full blown menthol.
Notes: Concentration testing, this isn't particularly aggressive. I'm not getting much at 1%, maybe a bit of green sweetness and some extremely light mentholation. 2% feels a bit flat, but it should work as a ligher background accent. Mellow spearmint sweetness with just a touch more mentholation. 3% has a noticeable but not overwhelming mentholation, and the greener herbal quality of the mint is getting more pronounced. I'm notbout getting too much more sweetness than at 2%. At 4%, you can feel the mentholation, and the greener notes are getting a bit leafy. Honestly, this does a pretty good job of selling actual spearmint at this level, but it does drag along some (realistic) menthol baggage. 5% is starting to get a bit bitter for me, that mentholation is kind of setting off whatever is making this taste a bit leafy and it's not entirely pleasant. 6% is starting to come apart a bit, and the flavor seems disjointed and a touch chemical. I'd recommend mixing with this as a light accent at about 2%, and moving up to about 3.5% if you want the spearmint to be recognizable as spearmint.
Second Opinions:
I can't really find anything.
H/T to /u/ID10-T for the suggestion.