Wrecka/Reka Sexy Mango
ConcreteRiver
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Wrecka Sexy Mango, 2 and 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 14 days.
Flavor Description: A ripe to overripe sweetened realistic mango, with a mild cooling to it.
I picked these up from Chef's as "Wrecka" but they are apparently rebottled Malaysian Reka flavors.
There's a pretty competent mango in here. The base mango is sweeter, and fairly accurate. The sweetener here pulls it a little bit toward candy or sweetened mango nectar, but there's some nuance and depth to the flavor with a slightly dry but solid base mango flavor. It stops short of a full on pulpy mango base, and could probably use a bit more body, but the bones of a realistic mango flavor are there.
I do get an overripe note. Whereas CAP's sweet mango has a more vegetal, swampy overripeness this is more on the bready side of things. It's a pretty accurate overripe note, picking up that weird, almost chalky fermented kind of edge that meatier fruits get. Sort of comparable the overripe note in FLV Jackfruit, but less intense overall. At a lower concentration, the fresher mango is actually pretty well balanced with the overripe notes. The end result is actually pretty realistic although this still seems to need something just a bit more juicy to really fill it out.
With that said, my testers of this smelled absolutely horrendous. I don't usually do the "in the bottle" thing, but whatever is giving this that overripe note is extremely present even for the 2% mix. There's a really strong green malt smell to this. I had to double check to make sure my bottles were clean, but it smells exactly like FW Malt. It's a potent enough odor that i find myself pulling my rda away from my face a bit quicker, because I can smell it in the rda after vaping. I have no idea why it smells this strongly, but it doesn't seem to translate into the actual vape to nearly the same degree. I wouldn't call anything this pungent "sexy," but I'm also not here to judge your turn-ons.
I'm still getting some sweetener and cooling in here, although both seem less pronounced than the Sparkling Mango and Sparkling Orange I had previously tested. I get a really slight hit of cooling on the back of this. It's just enough to clean up the exhale a bit, without adding any noticeable cardboard taste. The sweetener also seems a bit less obnoxious than the Sparkling flavors. It's definitely still present, but the thicker flavor here holds up to it better than the sparkling flavors.
Off-flavors: Not nearly sexy enough. That bready, overripe fermented note gets out of control pretty quickly.
Throat Hit: A little bit from the cooling. Other than that, it's fairly smooth.
Percentage testing: At 2% I get a realistic mango with a bit too much sweetener and a light cooling edge. The mango has a good balance of overripe notes and fresh mango, ends up tasting fairly ripe. That mango flavor does feel a bit thin though, and needs something a bit heavier in the base.
At 4% this feels a bit too sweet and a bit too ripe. The heavier sweetener and those overripe notes can get offputting. Cooling is still pretty light, but the sweetener seems too aggressive. Definitely pushing towards overripe here, and the cooling is making this feel no thicker than the 2% test.
Testing this higher at 6% it feels closer to rotten. That bready note is more assertive and that sweetener is just too high for me.
Just based on these tests, I'd use this an accent flavor at 2-3% behind a fuller fruit.
Uses & Pairings: This feels a bit more versatile than the sparkling mango, primarily because that cooling is cranked up as high. I think could actually be used as a component in more complex mixes. 2% of this would work well in fruit mixes that are going to have something more vibrant in the front of the recipe. Should add sweetness and ripeness to tropical fruit mixes, and the cooling here won't be out of place for a fruit recipe.
If you wanted to fill this out, you should be able to use this a lot like CAP Sweet Mango and combine this with FLV Mango.
At a lower percentage, this isn't going to be cool enough to completely rule out mixing with a cream, although it's probably too cold for warmer bakery applications.
Second Opinions:
Nothing about this flavor specifically, but there was a recent thread discussing these flavors.
Great discussion, the takeaways include:
ceedee99uk: These are rebottled Reka concentrates.
Jorakae: They separate in mixes above 50% VG. (FWIW, I mixed these at 60% VG and didn't notice any separation issues, but 60% VG is really close to 50% and I mixed 10ml batches.)
ShittyStrawman: "I'm not getting a "carbonated" sensation, but the are nice fruit flavours regardless, probably reminiscent of "soda" flavours."