Yes, but how/why do you know what an actual bandaid tastes like? Did you need one in your mouth???
Hehe, no, but how they smell must be how they taste, right ?
Don’t know, not in the habit of smelling them either…
But, won’t knock your choices mate, we are all different!
He probably mixes them into his salad along with the dirty sweat socks.
Lemon Lime Sprite (Duomei) 0.6% (1-9-23) – I remember when I first got these flavors wondering how they could get away with using the name “Sprite”, but they did it. I can see why they chose it, because this wasn’t JUST a Lemon Lime, but it did kind of favor that WITH some Sprite mixed in. I wouldn’t call it a soda per se, but it did have an almost low level fizzy-ness. The lemon and lime were paired nicely without the lime taking over as can often be the case. It was great at 0.6%, and I didn’t have to urge to increase it at all. It was surprisingly a little below mid level sweet, and it felt just a little bit lackluster, AND, maybe it could benefit from a little sweetener. Breaking my cardinal rule (again), I added 3 drops of TPA’s sweetener, and SURE enough, it started to pop. Your mileage may very on the sweetener induced pop, but it was pretty evident to me. Both the lemon and lime tasted fairly natural, and I got no candied, or other artificial-ness from them, which left this fairly refreshing, and easy to vape. I was also surprised after two tanks, it wasn’t fatiguing or boring. For a really nice lemon/lime combo with an almost fizzy (but not entirely) Sprite-like finish, this one gets it done. Solidly a 9.5/10.
Going to give Banana a go…
Good thing you’re referring to band-aids otherwise it’s a whole new topic!
Luzon Mango (Duomei) 0.2% (1-10-23) – Never have I been reminded of how IMPORTANT it is to use flavors at the correct strength, MORE than I have with THIS one. Now, when test smelling these, and mixing them up, this one REALLY seemed like it was going to be a TRAIN WRECK. As mentioned above …
Fear not @Gazza7, I’ve got your back. OK, I can’t stress this enough here guys, 0.2% is where you should start with this one. YES, that’s 1 drop in a 10ml bottle !!! ONE. Ok, regardless of how toxic this smelled undiluted in the shipping bottle, at 0.2%, it was a damned fine, and interesting flavor. Now I’ve never heard of a Luzon Mango, and as far as I know, Luzon is a group of islands in the north of the Philippines., so not sure exactly what this name references, so we’ll settle on mangos from the Luzon islands. I’ll bore you with some details, but this one presented as a pretty delicious mango, paired with a honeydew, with a smattering of “green” notes beyond that. Pretty cool huh ?? You probably DON’T have anything on your racks like that do you ? The mango was nicely tempered by literally an almost green honeydew melon, but then at the finish there were some very light, earthy, almost “green-ish” undertones. WHAT an interesting flavor. Now, it wasn’t the jucy-est, or yellow-est mangos I’ve tried, and somehow, once I tamed it, and diluted it all the way down to 0.2% it didn’t seem to matter. Completely surprising that this turned out to be a real show stopping keeper, I did NOT see that coming. At 0.2% (I have to keep repeating this), it was damned fine, full, almost juicy (but not quite), and nothing off-putting, and below mid level sweet. I do think a couple drops of sweetener would boost this up as I have tried with a few other flavors. The honeydew (or green) melon notes really worked here, paired with the yellow mango, and the ever so slightly earthy finish. It just works, and I still can’t believe it. It’s not perfect, but it’s damned good, and I have NOTHING like it on my racks. 9.85/10.
Bugger… I’m guessing my 0.75% is going to be reminiscent of paint stripper.
Perhaps I’m mad but I’m still going to test it @ 0.75% albeit with great trepidation. I foresee some dilution ahead.
Milk Tea (Duomei) 0.2% (1-12-23) – I’ve never had Milk Tea before, and had no idea how many different types of it there were. This is/was one of the stronger flavors in this run, and it smelled pretty squirely in the shipping bottle, and I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out or not. Because of this, I tested it back ALL the way down to 0.2% (1d per 10ml), and dammit, it just WORKED. After scouring the interwebs for every kind of Milk Tea, and burning through two full testers of this, not only was it a KEEPER, but it was again, like nothing else on my racks. The tea was just perfectly paired with what I believe was a milk/condensed milk combination that was slightly sweetened, and a few ticks below mid level sweet. At this ultra low testing weight, it was a very unique pairing, and was interesting from start to finish with no off notes to be had. Although the tea notes stayed fairly consistent, the milk/condensed milk combo swayed and shifted around, and almost “toyed” with the tea, where sometimes more or less was revealed. VERY interesting. If you HAVE had Milk Tea before, I think you’ll love this one, and if you haven’t (like me), I think you might be surprised by it. By name alone, it’s not one that I would have typically chosen, but I’m glad I added it to the list, as it was rather hard to put down. I cannot stress enough (like a few others) to start LOW, and I strongly recommend 1d per 10ml (0.2%) starting on this one. Black tea elements, swirling aorund a very good milk, condensed milk combo that was not fatiguing, very interesting, and tasty is what this one delivered. It impressed this NON-Milk Tea drinker. Even outside my typical wheelhouse, I couldn’t go below 9.8/10 on it. A really different, and unique flavor for me, and probably for you guys as well.
Mixed Berries (Duomei) 0.4% (1-12-23) – I was looking forward to this one, as you never know what you’ll get with a “mixed” fruit flavor. This one seemed centered around a dark berry medley, with some strawberry, and maybe a red currant. It was actually so well proportioned it was sometimes hard to really pick out the individual players, and they kept it interesting. Like quite a few others of the Duomei flavors in this series, this one just plain worked, and it tasted quite natural with no telltale artificial signs. Sweetness was just below mid level, and it had a great tartness the you didn’t really get in the beginning and middle, but really hit home at the end, for an extra POP. Two testers in, and I was still somewhat guessing as to EXACTLY what was in here, but I kept coming back to my original assessment of a great dark(er) berry blend, with some strawberries peeking through, and a great tart-ish finishing flavor, that just seemed like a red currant to my tastes. Clean, natural tasting, not overly sweet, and had just a GREAT tarty finish to it. At 0.4% it worked really well, and felt present enough, and I tried hard to find something, anything to nit-pick about it, but I couldn’t. I did add a few drops of TPA sweetener (as before), just to see if it would pop more, and it did. I didn’t add enough to really impact the overall sweetness much, but it sweetened it up just a bit, and it seemed to give the tarty/tartish finish even more impact. Didn’t get bored with this one all the way to the end, and I could see ordering another BIGGER bottle of this one. Hard to fault, but easy to enjoy. Simply placing it at 9.5/10.
Pear (Duomei) 0.4%/0.8% (1-14-23) – With only FIVE flavors left in this mega series, I did want to see how this Pear fared. Smelled GREAT and tasted great in the bottle, and it somewhat carried over to the vape, but not ALL of it. It just never seemed to really open up and bloom. I tested at both 0.4%, and 0.8% and it was just slightly better at 0.8%. The pear that DID translate to the vape was fresh, green, mostly ripe, and very natural tasting. I never got the “sugar sand” effect from it, and it stayed just below mid level sweet. I kept finger testing it from the bottle and comparing to the vaping translation, and vaping just felt like it was about 80% of the way there. Doubling didn’t do it, and neither did a few drops of sweetener, SO, this may just be how this one presents in a vape. Again, not bad at ALL with what did translate, and present, and it really DID make you want MORE, which is NEVER a bad thing with flavors. Fresh, green, juicy, and natural tasting were the 4 attributes that just kept sticking in my head. Because it didn’t really increase much when doubling to 0.8%, the sweet spot might just be 0.75%. Great pear, just needed to bloom and little bit, and more closely replicate how it tasted in the bottle. Not bad, not bad at all. After much consideration, with all of it’s great pear aspects, and some minor take-offs for presence, it felt fair at 8.0/10.
Rose Milk (Duomei) 0.2% (1-14-23) – I can safely say I own NO Rose flavors, nor have I ever vaped one, so, hehe, another FIRST. It smelled pretty strong in the bottle so I chose to mix it low @ 0.2%. At that weight, I worked out perfectly, and dammit, it tasted like Rose Milk. I don’t know how else to put it. It did have a floral nature to it, but, in a good way. Most rose milk recipes that I could find all centered around milk, sugar, rose syrup and sometimes vanilla. I didn’t get any vanilla from this one, but it really did present, as a sugar, milk, rose syrup combo. Now, if you are very sensitive to florals, this one may not be for you. They are here, but on purpose, and by design. It is a very strong flavor, and testing it at this weight would be about as high as I would go, or it COULD turn on you. Use caution, and start very low. Because the florals are intentional, if pushed too high, they could get overwhelming fast. Take a ride on the rosey wild side, and you might be surprised, I know I was. For accuracy and profile, it would have to be a 9.0/10.
Soda Ice Cream (Duomei) 0.2% (1-14-23) – All cards on the table. This one plain scared me in it’s undiluted strength in the shipping bottle. It just smelled like unadulterated vinyl shower curtains. OK, I thought maybe it would tone down, and shift like a few of the other Duomei flavors did. Mixed it up @ 0.2% (1d/10ml) and steeped it. It DID tone down fairly well, and MOST (not all) of the shower curtain notes almost shifted into more of a fizzy effervescence, BUT, some of the shower curtain remained. Honestly, it was fairly off-putting LOL. Behind the “fizz” and effervescence, I really didn’t get much, if any ice cream. I think the singular best aspect of this flavor was an almost unmatched fizzy-ness that it conveyed. It may be the MOST fizzy-est flavor I have ever tried. The problem was, the shower curtain(s) never left the room. Unless you LIKE the shower curtains, OR, are in dire need of some pretty convincing fizz, this one may NOT be for you. For science and shit, I decided to reduce even further, to 0.1% (1d/20ml), and although weaker, my original assessment stayed true. Sadly, even despite the world class fizzy-ness, the shower curtains stole the show, and the ice cream could not be found. 1.0/10.
Am curious to know if it is meant to impart a fizzy aspect only and the vinyl shower curtains taste will be covered up by some fruit? Yeah, I know, I would need to SFT it myself and experiment it with fruit myself.
I really appreciate your question @KC111, and it’s a great one !!!
The fizzy is absolutely by design, and it DID work. A somewhat comparison might be a dry champagne fizzy-ness, but even that’s a rough comparison. The ice cream was a no show, so the two stars were the fizzy, and shower curtains. COULD the aforementioned be covered up ?? It’s possible, and would take a bit of work to do so. Any fizzy left over would be questionable. It is possible, but my gut’s telling me less than 50/50 chance. Do you have this flavor ?? If so, I would be more than curious to hear what you, or anyone else thinks of this one.
I think it is the STRONGEST flavor in all of the ones I’ve tested, and I’m almost finished with the series. There were a few in this series that smelled NOT so good undiluted in the shipping bottles, but once fully reduced, and steeped, really changed, and/or worked out fine, so I had hoped this one would have followed suit. Sadly, I was not so lucky. I hope you DO have it, so we can compare notes.
I ordered the sample pack after we talked about James being so incredible, but the pack hasn’t arrived yet. SD, I don’t do any SFT’ing, so I am not the person to ask. All I do is mix OTHER peoples’ recipes. I wish I could be more useful to you. Besides the pack, I did order the 10ml Dragon Fruit, so if you are interested, I can mail you a few ml’s to test yourself.
Well, don’t sell yourself short @KC111. Do me a favor, and when you get the Soda Ice Cream, mix up a 10ml, or better yet, a 20ml tester, and mix it VERY low, and see what you think. I’ve talked to a LOT of people in the DIY community since I started, and many have said, they don’t do SFT, or can’t describe thoughts, write notes, etc., but you’d be surprised. See what you think, I’m curious…