Solub Arome Apricot Tart
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: Solubarome Apricot Tart @ 3, 6, and 10% 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 9 days.
Flavor Description: All apricot, no tart. It's named apricot tart, so you'd expect some kind of crust note in here but it just seems like an apricot flavor. Under about 6% you get a lighter tasting, sticky or jammy apricot. It's a bit less earthy than FA Apricot, so it seems fairly promising on that front but this gets weird as you try to fill out the flavor. Up around 10%, it tastes like FA Apricot mixed with too much INW Cactus. Same kind of floral, green, juicy bordering on sticky thing going you get with cactus overflavoring. While it's not terrible, it's a bit offputting for something claiming to be an apricot bakery. I can see using this to sort of push stone fruits like peaches, cherries, and plums into a fillling direction at a relatively low percentage (4-5%) but those cactus-ish off notes at higher percentages sort of limit the application of this as a primary component in a mix.
Inhale has some lighter apricot flavor but it feels pretty thin overall. As you start cranking the percentages up it gets some higher aloe or green banana notes. Not particularly sweet, but it has an interesting jammy texture that leaves a pretty tangible stickyness in your mouth. Exhale is pretty similar to the inhale. Light apricot flavor up front. Less earthy and spicy than FA Apricot, leans more toward green and floral. Cactus and banana notes in there, getting more prominent through the exhale as that apricot thins out. Same jammy mouthfeel and stickiness overall. Not really sugar lips sweet, but it's more like a gelatin kind of stickiness. Some juiciness in there, especially in the mid range of percentage between 6-8%. Below that it's pretty thin, and above it starts to get sticky to the point where it dries the vape out.
Off-flavors: First off, no real crust or bakery note in here for a tart. Also gets distracting green and sticky as you start increase percentage to try to fill out that apricot note.
Throat Hit: Nah, not really. Pretty smooth in general.
Uses & Pairings: I think the most useful application of this is going to be backup for plum or peaches flavors to add some cooked filling kind of consistency to those stronger flavors. That green note that comes out is really pretty distracting if that isn't what you're looking for, so I'd keep it at 5% and under.
That weird cactus-y apricot thing at higher percentages isn't bad, but I'm sort of at a loss for what to do with it that doesn't just end up in "weird fruit mix" territory. I love me some weird fruit mixes, but it'll be hard to drag it towards a specific profile.
Notes: Concentration testing, I don't get much out of this at 3%. Really light mouthfeel with a really light apricot taste and some sticky mouthfeel. 6% isn't that much stronger, still definitely sticky and a bit airy, but does a pretty good job of at least tasting there is an apricot involved somewhere in there. Bumping up the percentages, 8% is starting to get a bit green and floral. Really similar to cactus with less mouthfeel involved. 10% is even cactusier. Personally, I'm a fan of cactus and I don't hate the flavor but it's odd. 12% is maybe too heavy on that green floral note. I'd keep this in an accent role under 6%.
Second Opinions:
I can't find much solid information on this beyond the product page. 15 reviews on there though. I'm pretty heavily reliant on google translate here, so bear with me... but they seem mostly positive. So I could dead wrong on this flavor.
User "Medhl" says: "I love this aroma and I do not get tired of it: apricot cooked a touch of sweet biscuit, a delight!"
User "Fethy B" says: "Good but attention to overdose, under pain of having a raw meat flavor." (That's a fantastic review, even if was mangled by auto-translate.)
User "Eric B" says: "A real success alone or accompanied by this aroma is a treat for the taste buds."