The Flavor Apprentice Cherry Extract
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 12 wrap 24g 3.5mm SS316 @.33 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: TPA Cherry Extract, 3% and 6%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 27 days.
Flavor Description: Hey, this isn't a dumpster fire! Thinner with an artificial edge, but not horrendous.
Somewhere between the candy red cherry type of profile TPA calls out and maybe a sweetened cherry juice. On the realistic side, definitely leans closer to a more traditional deep red bing cherry flavor. I do get a very light tartness here, and some body that isn't so much juicy as just not all that dry. I seem to feel the tartness more on the inhale and it's pretty lost by the exhale.
Light, delicate sweetness that has some of those more artificial cherry candy notes. Not much body or vibrancy here. It's a thin flavor without feeling too dry. Doesn't get any more vibrant or deep with increasingly higher percentages.
But it doesn't taste like gasoline fumes or burning plastic. So score it as a win.
Off-flavors: This is just a bit medicinal and bitter at higher percentages. It's like a 3 out of 10, so it's remarkable for a cherry, but still seems to be hiding somewhere in the background. Also doesn't respond all that well to sweetener in a primary role, seems to pick up a pretty heavy aspartame kind of diet soda vibe with at least CAP Super Sweet, FW Sweetener, TPA Sweetener, and FLV Sweetness. Thinner without much actual body.
Throat Hit: Light. Little bit of a sting at higher percentages, but nothing major.
Percentage testing: At 3%, this is really light. Leans more toward realistic, but pretty subtle. Sort of a watered down cherry juice flavor. Not much body or sweetness, with a light tartness.
At 6%, a bit more solid but still on the light side. Still lighter tartness, but feels a bit fuller and more realistic. Simultaneously picks up some more of that hard candy sweetness and some "red" candy type notes.
I've used this up to 15%, and I don't think it really helps the situation. This is going to be hard to use as a primary note in a mix, it just gets pushed around. I'd keep it around 4-6% as an accent. Gets a bit bitter above that in mixes. If you did want to use it as primary note, I'd use around 8% and use really mellow fruits or creams.
Uses & Pairings: I've actually been screwing around with this quite a bit. It's a fairly flexible cherry flavor. Not the ideal cherry for any application, but it can fit most places you'll put it without being terrible.
It's candied enough to work in sweeter, candy profiles where you're looking for a more artificial cherry flavor. It doesn't really have the body to stand alone as a primary flavor, but it could be backed up by a smaller percentage of one of the terrible candy cherries, or mixed in other berry flavors like raspberry or strawberry to provide a cherry accent. Also works well with the swedish fish-esque genre of flavors like FA Blackcurrant or CAP 27 Fish for a brighter red candy note that doesn't taste like a burning pile of tires.
Alternatively, it's not too candied for more realistic fruit mixes, again primarily in an accent role. It's a bit weak and thin to try to take center stage, and any other bright flavor you throw in a mix is going to push this around quite a bit. You can actually hack together a fairly decent rainier type cherry with this and a more mellow apricot like Capellas. For darker bing type cherries, I'd look at filling it out with plum and maybe a light touch of a darker grape flavor.
And it seems to work okay in bakery applications. Coupling it up with some FA or INW Marzipan actually gives a pretty decent, slightly dark bakery cherry. This may actually work for your cherry pastries and creams.
Also, tobacco, why not? Maybe stay away from anything intensely sweet to keep it from getting too candied. Feels like it would work more like an artificial swisher type cherry flavor than a robust pipe cherry... so maybe keep it pretty subtle.
And just to list every possible profile, should work well in beverages. Could probably pass for the black cherryish flavor in Dr. Pepper, or the slightly brighter cherry coke flavor.
Second Opinions: Apparently this has been around for a while, but BCF just picked it up so I'm officially calling out anyone who had been sitting on this miraculously not awful cherry. You're literally the worst for not bringing this up in the Cherry FOTW post.
Noted did a show on cherries, which is worth a watch if you like seeing ID10-T contemplate suicide for 70 minutes. TPA Cherry Extract talk starts at 54 minutes in. Some selected quotes: "mediocre, accurate." "In any other category of flavors it would be closer to the middle... but the bar for cherry is so low." "Flat, boring, weak... not sweet, not tart, no body to speak off." "Not that bad." "doesn't have off notes... it's a winner." "absolutely nothing wrong with it." RINGING ENDORSEMENTS FOR A CHERRY.
Here's the ELR page. User "bminor" writes: "candy sweet cherry taste, vape a bit mediciny at 5% after a couple of hours." User "MattMan" writes: "6% wasn't strong enough but had nice taste, trying at 8%." User "Subliminal Criminal" writes: "Sweet kinda natural cherry 4 -10% very nice smooth rounded cherry."