VSO Flavor Tasting Notes

@Dippy1.

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Oatmeal (VSO) 4% / 7% (12-1-21) – For the FIRST time in this second series, I was able to run TWO different strengths for testing. At the first rate of 4% the flavor was good, but as mentioned by @whthek, it wasn’t very full, enveloping, etc. I cranked it up to 7% and now things started to look better. Much fuller, more bodied, and more, well, Oaty. The flavor itself is a very relaxed flavor, so it never slammed me with Oats, but it clearly WAS Oats, and good oats at that. Very natural, with an almost slightly creamy, somewhat sweet contour. Were they Steel Cut ? Hehe, that’s hard to say for sure. Because it is/was such a relaxed flavor, 7% did really improve the overall experience, with still no off-putting, ceiling smashing notes. In comparison to other artificial oat flavors, many of which had clear NOT natural overtones, this one remained calm, clean, cool, and collected throughout the entire dual weight test, and never offended my sensitive oat palate. All in, a VERY clean, accurate, and natural Oat flavor, that was fairly relaxed, and seemed to thrive much more at a higher 7%-ish rate. Not too bad, not too bad at all. It felt really good at 8.1/10.

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Pumpkin (VSO) 3% (12-1-21) – I’ve read TWO different takes on this flavor. 1. Naked, Raw Pumpkin Meat. 2. Pumpkin Filling w./ Spice. Now, what makes this hard, is I’ve never eaten raw Pumpkin. I mean does anybody do that ?? I have however, mowed down many a Pumpkin Pie, so let’s see what’s what. OK, to my tastes, this was not a pure, raw (just) Pumpkin, as it presented more of a Pumpkin Filling. Now it wasn’t overly pumpkin-ly, but it was still very present. I did get a little spice from it, maybe clove, maybe nutmeg, but it was blurry enough to avoid absolute detection, but I did get some, and I’m leaning towards nutmeg. It was about mid-level sweet, and it did have an overall smooth-ness, which implied a slight creamy-ness, almost like (you guessed it), a Pumpkin Filling. Now, even though again, it didn’t SCREAM Pumpkin, it was very implied, and it was quite good. I could see maybe punching in some other Pumpkin Spice, some crust, and maybe some cinna/nutmeg to really push it up. As it stood, it was a very satisfying flavor, and very full, and almost rich, just by itself. Hell you could indeed use this solo, and you wouldn’t be completely wanting, which was interesting. My take was not a raw pumpkin, but a very good pumpkin filling, that you could easily move into a full pumpkin pie, very easily. Tastily placing this at a 9.2/10.

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Raisin (VSO) 3% (12-2-21) – I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I’ve always stayed away from Raisin flavors. Finally, with a bit of trepidation, that has changed. Think you know raisins ? Let’s start out by saying this flavor, was about as perfect of a raisin, as could be made. NOW, that’s coming from someone who hasn’t even TRIED one before. Luckily for you guys, that doesn’t disqualify me, hehe. I had expected a common Sunmade Raisin flavor, and that was NOT what I got. At first I thought it was a mix of a black and golden raisin, as it was NOT a full black raisin like I had expected, but lighter, almost fruit-ier than that, but even an overly simplistic black and golden, didn’t even come close. Shane shared a fascinating story of where many of his actual FRUITS come from that he uses, and his effort and dedication REALLY show, especially in the fruit flavors, and this one, shares that same wow-ness. Maybe black, red, AND golden would START to approach what was going on here, but even THAT, doesn’t seem to be enough. Let’s just say, this was FAR more complex, and enjoyable, than a simple black, one dimensional raisin. I gotta put this one down, so I can finish this review hehe, as I keep getting more nuances. Fresh, fresh, FRESH, and clean exuded from this flavor, and it had none of the very dark, almost sugar sand effect that typical mass black raisins have. It was really a FULL spectrum raisin that simply bridged AT LEAST a black, red, and golden raisin, and much more. If you are/were raisin hesitant, or have been burned by artificial solutions, you NEED to get this one. I’m going to STOP this madness at 10/10, and go mix this up with some VSO Oatmeal, some butter, a smidge of brown sugar, and maple.

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Just out of curiosity could the raisin be bent into dried cranberries?

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Yes @Letitia I think it could. My biggest fear OF the raisin was that it was going to be a heavy, black, stand along raisin, which could have been fine, but very limiting/limited. VSO’s raisin however, turned out to be much, much more.

I think it would work.

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Strawberry Raw (VSO) 0.3% (12-4-21) – Luckily for me, I am not Strawberry Mute, but it surprised me how many people WERE. I won’t be able to directly comment on this flavor in that regard, BUT, I have heard NUMEROUS REPORTS, that people who ARE Strawberry Mute, LOVE this flavor, and THAT, is kind of a BIG deal. Over a year ago, I tested Shane’s …

Original Strawberry

Strawberry (VSO) 5% (8-30-20) – Was holding OFF on this one, because do we really need ANOTHER Strawberry ?? !!! Maybe so. Read on, and see if you agree. Nearing the end of my first VSO run here, I started to notice a trend with how Shane puts a UNIQUE touch/spin on his fruit flavors. This Strawberry is no different, and despite chain vaping the hell out of it, I couldn’t really pair it with a “it’s kinda like …”. Nope, can’t do it. It was nice and full at this weight, and did present as somewhat complex (again with the complex). Complex in that it didn’t seem to taste like a cut and dry Sweet, Juicy, Jammed, Candied, etc., but kind of wandered around while vaping it. Hard to nail down, and that makes for an interesting vape. It had a fullness that many other SB’s lacked. It wasn’t a bright SB like FLV’s Alpine, and not a Ripe per se, but seemed to be a natural tasting SB with some sweetness, juiciness, and just the right amount of tart on the top end. Not jammed, and not overly sweet, but the fullness of the main body is what kept interesting me. I guess you could say, it had more mid notes with some low notes, that I don’t typically get from Strawberries. It’s a harder one to quantify. Because of it’s unique, multiple qualities, I could see this being used a LOT, as it could fit the bill in many types of mixes. I actually finished the entire bottle before writing this, as I was struggling to “nail it down”. It’s a GREAT SB, and if you are making a VSO must have, you can add this one to it. Could not find anything to take off on this one. For a really good natural Strawberry that has surprising body, is very unique, and could fit in almost any mix, this one might be for you. I’m glad I have a 30ml of it, let’s just say that. 10/10.

and this one, was just really about the same for me, so I figured I’d just link the older review above, rather than simply duplicating the results here. At 0.3% this one had slightly less impact than the original Strawberry @ 5%, so I think bumping this one up to 0.5% would be fine, and better equalize the two. What was very interesting was Shane stated that his Grandparents moved up to Ohio, and his Grandfather planted some of his favorite plants, including a Strawberry, which Shane named “La fragola di Enrico”. Shane’s Strawberry flavors come from that original vine. Wow. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I always say. As with VSO’s other Strawberry, this one just kept driving home, a clean, natural, FULL bodied Strawberry that just had incredible body to it. Bright, mid, and dark notes were ALL present here, and just did not let you down. If you ARE one of the unfortunate Strawberry Mutes out there, it looks like you’d better put THIS one, in your cart. 10/10.

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Dang it. I think I am going to have to order this straw raw. I am one of the slightly mute folks. Can’t taste straw juicy fa, alpine straw flv is to weak at ultra low percents and astringent at 1 drop over the low. Sweet straw cap is mute, straw (not ripe) tpa is mute for me to name a few more.

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I just tried my SB doughnut ( VSO), did you find the SB to be light? I tried it on an Asgard mini with Coil Clout Alien V2’s. At higher wattages the SB is very light, lower wattage (50w) I found the SB to be a little more prominent. I was expecting more SB. I did taste doughnut though, but I see what you mean about tasting doughnut/biscuit type. I’m wondering if I’m a little SB mute at the moment.

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@Lynda_Marie I wouldn’t say it SCREAMED Strawberry, and it was lighter, but, that was because it was tempered with the “donut”. I was happy that I got no PlayDoh from it, BUT, it could have used some more solid donut notes to help it…

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Thanks so much for the reply. I was hoping I wasn’t getting sb fatigue. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Oh okay, so this is a fresh fig, not dried? A big world of difference.

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Def. fresh @muth.

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Okay thx :+1:

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You can always flavor actual food just to say you have them all :ok_hand:]p​:thinking::woozy_face:

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I missed all of these and since I’ve become a bull city only guy…totally missed. Good notes, is it just me or wouldn’t it be nice to get the full lineup in one order, it’d be easy to do a vape pack and exclude cheese and such, or do like euro did and pick the ones that can be priced together and let us MIx and match 4 30ml for $20 or whatever, honestly I’d kind of like to take this whole line and that one grape Uber concentrate really sounds cool, the notes are pretty spectacular.

I just wondered if the science and art of making flavors geared for our niche has improved, our equipment has improved, our mixing technique has improved, recipes, what is it…? but I need new flavors and they’re always getting better, why is that? And when will it be done, perfect flavors built for individual taste buds? that’d be kind of sad, right, that’s a good analogy for life

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Thanks a lot @Ericsgreen. I use BCF quite a bit, and I’m not sure how dead set you are in NOT ordering elsewhere, but if you do, and you choose to try some of these, be sure to post up what your thoughts are. :slight_smile:

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VSO had packs of 5 and 10 flavors and even a competitive priced sink collection with all their flavors. I don’t know if that’s only on sales events.

Swaggy Shane is a nice guy, so mail him on his website and I am sure he can help you find them on his website…which is sometimes not as good as his flavors.

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Have you tried the Swaggy Cinnamon one shot? I ordered that, St Paddy’s day milkshake, English toffee, caramel and cranberry (I hope I remembered cranberry). I’m looking to hood custard! I hope it’s release is soon!! :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:

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Mmmm, @Lynda_Marie no I haven’t. Can’t wait to hear what you think. :slight_smile:

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