The Flavor Apprentice Passion Orange Guava
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 Passion Orange Guava, 3% and 6%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 15 days.
Flavor Description: Floral and slightly tropical fruit blend. Doesn't really read as a single flavor POG vape.
Could be the power of suggestion, but the fruit here seems fairly layered. I get some tarter passion fruit first. Seems like more of tart accent than full passion fruit flavor. The passion fruit here seems thin, harsh and floral. I do get some deeper orange juice base. Top notes have some orange juice vibrancy but the base feels a bit flat without the acidity and fullness of an actual fruit juice. Base feels a bit more artificial than realistic, with some candy orange notes. Sweet guava finish. Probably the best executed part of the trio, with a guava nectar type flavor and a syrupy sweetness. The floral notes from the passionfruit comes back around on the tail end of the vape though, and those bitter floral notes stand out.
Texture-wise, this doesn't really hit that POG profile. There is a some juiciness from the orange and guava in the base, but the passion fruit feels sharp and thin on top. This is pretty solidly harsh and sort of clashes with the moderate juiciness in the base. Sweetness level is okay for a POG profile, but it's more a white sugar artificial sweetness without more realistic and full fruit sweetness.
Off-flavors: Aggressive floral top notes. Top end of this flavor is thin and harsh.
Throat Hit: Harsh. I get a pretty solid throat hit out of this.
Percentage testing: At 3% this seems fairly thin. That passion fruit is in full effect, but lacking the heavier body from the orange and guava. A bit undersweet actually, and seems pretty harsh.
At 6% this is fuller and sweeter. Guava is starting to taste a bit artificial and the orange is fairly flat and candied. Passion fruit florals are coming across as bitter and still prominent. The bit of heavier base does make this seem a bit less harsh.
Just based on these tests, I'd probably be using this as a lighter accent around 2-3%, primarily for the passion fruit and guava. Orange gets too candied at higher percentages for a primary flavor if you're going after actual fruit.
Uses & Pairings: With passion fruit, orange, and guava this was probably intended as more of a single flavor POG style one-shot. It doesn't really hit that profile for me, and I'm not quite sure what you'd do to "fix" it. Some of the body issues could be addressed by using a small percentage of a banana cream, although the individual fruit flavors here aren't really robust enough to stand up to an aggressive banana flavor. Alternatively you could try thickening up the orange component with a orange juice style concentrate like FA Royal Orange... which would then throw off the balance and you'd have to add up a backup guava and probably more passion fruit. Probably easier to skip this rather than try to build a POG off of it.
Kind of floral to use as a main note in a fruit mix. Would probably work as a tart accent with a juicier fruit like CAP Golden Pineapple.
Second Opinions: Nah, not that I've found.