Solub Arome Lime Rum
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: SA Lime Rum @ 2%, 4% and 6%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 11 days.
Flavor Description: Like hugging your uncle after he's been playing volleyball and pounding daiquiris. There's definitely some candy-ish lime here, with an actually accurate white rum to it but there's this distinct musk. Almost like a dude's deodorant or cheap cologne. This initially seemed really promising for a rum that actually has a boozy note, but that musk is fairly distracting and scales up really quickly based on higher concentrations. I'd use this as backup in trying to emulate blended alcoholic drinks that can take a lime note. 2% seems to get you a bit of an alcohol hit without going full into that musk.
Inhale is mostly "green" lime-ish taste. Kind of a candy lime, little bit of tartness, but no real zest or realistic fleshy or juiciness. There is a bit of bitter, boozy funk in here, kind of a weak rum note but it seems to be fairly realistic. Inhale is on the sweet side, just a bit syrupy. Exhale has that same sweeter candy-ish lime up front. Still tastes pretty "green." No real zest in the top notes. Boozy, musky flavor comes in hard on the back end of the exhale. Booziness is a little hard to really put a finger on, but it seems to have a bit of warmth and alcohol bit. That musk is fairly prominent and dominates the back of the exhale. Almost sandalwood-ish with that kind of generic men's deodorant aroma. Exhale is maybe just a bit airy. Some harshness on the tail end of the exhale. Still a bit sweet for a straight rum, but it seems to fit okay with that flatter "green" lime note. Lingering musk and a tiny bit of sugar lips-ish sweetness.
Off-flavors: That musk is weird. I don't think it's 100% out of place, but it seems way too prominent based on the relative strength of the rest of the concentrate. It does seem to settle in a bit, especially at 2%.
**Throat Hit:**Moderate? Mostly shows up in the back of throat on the tail end of the exhale.
Uses & Pairings: It's not a generic white rum flavor with a lime twist. It tastes a lot like a truly bad margarita or a slightly less bad blended daiquiri. I'd keep this in a accent role to add at least a bit of realistic rum to a lime cocktail flavor, leaning more towards sugary garbage cocktails. I think you could probably get away with a little bit of lime in something like a Pina Coloda as well.
That musky note makes it hard to think of a use for a primary flavor.
Notes: Chef's is recommended mixing between 5-10%, that seems pretty high. Concentration testing, this doesn't quite seem linear. At 1% I'm not getting too much flavor, just a hint of lime. Not super realistic, not too juicy, not too zesty. Just kind of tastes lightly green. At 2% the lime is a little more clear. Kind of light candy lime with just a bit of sharp boozyness. That musk is there but it doesn't really overpower at this level. 4% has more of that musk. More boozy and accurate to white rum mixed with some kind of lime, but that musk is pretty prominent and fairly distracting. 6% is pushing full cologne on top of white rum. Seems accurately boozy, but like it's been sweated out of someone. It's... interesting. If you want to avoid that musk, your best bet is sticking around 2%. I personally don't find the musk here unvapeable, but it's probably not what you want out of a lime rum flavor so I wouldn't really use this higher as a primary note.
This is not fantastic, but it seems like a step in the right direction in looking for a rum flavor. I'm not wild on how strong that musk is, but the underlying flavor shows some promise in looking for an actual white rum flavor (C'mon, FA Jamaican Rum is super tasty but it doesn't taste boozy.) It's promising enough it's got me excited about picking up some more alcohol concentrates from Solubarome and seeing how they stack up. It's not going to be quick or anything, but I'll definitely be back looking at their booze flavors.
Second Opinions:
Nah.