The Flavor Apprentice Popcorn (Movie Theater)
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 Popcorn (Movie Theater), 3% and 6%, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 23 days.
Flavor Description: Sweeter air popped popcorn with a slightly fruity, waxy, and slightly butyric glaze.
There's a pretty solid popcorn note in here. Light and dry, tastes a lot like freshly popped popcorn smells. Not a ton of texture, and I'm not picking up anything like an acetyl pyrazine type of crunch. The popcorn base here feels more like air-popped popcorn, rather than slightly denser and thicker movie theater style. I think the dryness of the popcorn base is pretty accurate, but nothing that tastes salty.
I don't get much butter out of this though. There's something heavier than just the straight popcorn, but it feels more waxy than rich and buttery. There is also something butyric in here. It's not full on vomity, but theres some of that kind of rancidity, especially on the back half of the exhale. I also get some fairly prominent sweet coconut in here with a bit of generic fruitiness. This tastes a lot like an attempt at a diketone free attempt at an actual buttered popcorn flavor, and the TPA spec sheet seems bears that out. I also get some distracting sweetness out of this. Maybe a kettle corn level of sweetness, which isn't really a movie theater style popcorn thing.
The only other popcorn flavor I've tried is FLV Popcorn. I feel like that has a richer dairy note to the butter, but the base level of crunch is fairly similar.
Off-flavors: Sweet coconut glaze flavor that doesn't really fit with the profile. Butryic, slightly rancid take on butter.
Throat Hit: Light. Popcorn here is a bit dry, but nothing overly harsh.
Percentage testing: At 3%, I'm getting some dry popcorn top notes without much texture and a fairly strong coconut flavor. That butyric note is still present in the top notes, but could maybe pass as something richer if you squint just right.
At 6% there is more popcorn flavor, but still not much texture. Coconut feels a bit waxy, and that butryic note is getting pretty intense.
Just based on these tests, I'd probably use this around 2% as a sweet popcorn accent. For a primary flavor I'd be around 5%, but the popcorn in here is fairly delicate and isn't going to stand up to much. I'd also steep extensively.
Uses & Pairings: Probably workable in sweeter popcorn profiles, but I'd let this steep for a relatively long time to let those butyric notes settle down and thicken up to something a bit richer. Crunch could be brought up a bit more with some AP.
I'd stick to profiles like kettle corn, popcorn balls, or maybe even a cracker jack with some heavier, nuttier flavors and extra caramel. I don't think this brings enough corn to try to bend into any kind of cornbread or corn muffin note.
Second Opinions: This has apparently been around for years but I can't find much solid info besides people in 2012 saying that mixed it at 15%.
Exactly one note on ELR. User "viliquid" succintly writes: "ewch...!"