@General-Melchett, @SquirrelSmash already gave you the golden rule, especially common with stronger flavors like FLV, start low, and then move up.
I’m seeing a lot of good mixers mixing it at around the median 0.8%, BUT, I’m seeing the SFT rate much higher, at a median of 3.0%, which DOES sound pretty high for an FLV flavor.
The Flavorah SF threads are old. So, I thought I’d create a new one and incidentally set myself up for an epic quest.
To start with, five Flavorah cinnamons reviewed side by side (yep, missing two).
All will be on a Drop 1.5 with quadcore dual Claptons at 0.13, 60W and in my 50/50 base without nicotine. I will use the same Japanese throughout and change between tests.
Persimmon Spice (0.25%)
A drier inhale with cinnamon bark, bakery and a slight sweetness. (Although nowhere near as sweet as the others). This one has more earthy and fruity notes on the exhale with the persimmon just creeping in as the source of sweetness from the base. There is a long oaky aftertaste with notes of that persimmon saying ‘hello’ occasionally.
Pumpkin Spice (0.25%)
A sugary sweetness on the inhale but the air of winter spices about to break-out coming along with it (like the moment of expectation from smelling nutmeg, clove, cinnamon etc in a spice bag before you play with it). On the exhale the bakery cinnamon sweetness jumps out. But, is silenced in the aftertaste, nutmeg dominates but in a pleasant way. The cinnamon sweetness tries to creep in but my palate still firmly, and tartly, states ‘fuck off! This is nutmeg’s time!’
Red Cinnamon (0.25%)
Hello! In, out and after this is a candied cinnamon with a kick. It gives a solid mouth feel of a shellac candy coating but manages to deliver a warming punch that keeps going. This is the one for winter warmers!
Rich Cinnamon (0.25%)
Pure bakery through and through: Sweet buttery nutmeg, cinnamon notes and a slight earthiness on the inhale. A strong sweet cinnamon with clove hints on the exhale. Then, settling into a warm cinnamon and nutmeg aftertaste which begs for pastry and filling.
Thai Chai (0.25%).
At first there is a sweet inhale with a honeysuckle note. Then a rosehip body comes to the front on the exhale, with slight tannin and tea notes. The tannin and bitterness remain in the aftertaste and are slowly joined by a stewed Oolong like tea note and bakery cinnamon sweetness which remains for a minute or two.
Thanks. I’m just prepping to bottle up lots for group SFTs in December: as many will need 3 weeks plus to steep. So far I have decided on a wine group, a spirit and mixer group and a wild card condiment one. In 2022 it’s going to become mad as I now have a self-imposed challenge to cross review them all.
Thanks for the notes. I have looked at many of her recipes when pondering how to develop my own high PG madness. Having her list makes comparison a lot easier.
Unpopular opinion, I know we got some diehards in here and cheering for your favourite flavouring manufacturer is like your sports team, they can do no wrong… But, I just found that all Flavorah flavourings lacked a lot of body to me, most of them were really thin with the exception of a handful. I think a true enough example is recipes by super star mixers SmokyBlue, where if you look at the ingredient lists of a simple profile there are sometimes over 10 flavours to achieve that and my theory is if you cloud a recipe with a lot of different flavours all supposedly achieving different things you are overloading your olfactory and making what were once thin lifeless concentrates and make them seem to have more body. If even the most experienced mixers will say, the best recipes are the simplest ones, yet Flavorah is praised as the king of the crop as far as flavourings go by their die-hard fans and they’ll tell you about it, we’ve all heard, “Oh, may cost 17 bucks a 10ml, but you use less” over and over again… But answer me this, why are there no Flavorah only recipes making people top mixed recipes?
Food Concentrates for thought.
Or maybe, if you want a Blueberry Cream Cheese Strudel, you’ll spend the money on 12 different concentrates from one company in order to achieve what could be done with less concentrates by a variety of companies? What is the cost analysis of each flavour? Is it really cheaper in the long run? Is the recipe going to be worth dishing out that extra cost, given, longer times between restocks versus having affordable flavourings at greater volumes, but used at higher concentrations. Then you gotta factor in, “When am I going to use Flavorah Turkey in another recipe” or something to that effect. My question I wonder about “Is it worth it?”
