Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.18 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: CAP Juicy Orange @ 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 11 days.
Flavor Description: Fairly light inhale. Building sweetness. Dry sweet orange inhale. Juiciness comes out a bit on exhale. Pretty straightforward out of season navel orange flavor with a solid sweetness. Almost an orange perfume type of vibe, over a sweetener. Just a hint of pithy bitterness on the tail end of the exhale after the sweetness fades out. Lingering citric almost tannic dryness.
Off-flavors: Not a flavor per se, but this gets waxy. Seems to be pretty consistent through temperature range.
Throat Hit: 7/10. Doesn't seem that bad, but builds quickly and is pervasive. Also strangely inconsistent. The throat hit comes and goes. Tightens my throat up with extended use.
Uses: Primary use seems to be top notes for orange juice blends. Sweet and thin enough to play well with milk chocolates, using it like an orange essence. Flavor tastes a lot like what they'd use in something like a chocolate orange. Creamsicle-type orange flavors.
Pairings: Sweeter citrus, especially FA Mandarin and CAP Sweet Tangerine. Lemon Sicily, or a sweeter lime like Key Lime or INW Lime. I'd stay from fruit and citrus that builds on that throat hit. Sweet tropical fruit. Medium creams, like FA Fresh Cream or FLV Cream. Your favorite smooth milk chocolate flavor. Sweet berries.
Notes: Pretty realistic, not great orange. Like a school lunch navel orange flavor. I wouldn't call this a juicy orange, although it tastes a lot like orange juice. Or the essence of orange juice without all of the acidic body and overwhelming sugar. No real rind, or bright citrus oil type of flavor. That throat hit though. This flavor is tempting, but even at 2% that throat hit becomes a defining characteristic of a mixed juice. If you could deal with the throat hit, it's useful. I can't.
CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME...This is like what they add to storage orange juice to bring back the top notes.
Second Opinions:
No love on ECX. 4 reviews, 2 star average. Primarily complaints that the flavor is weak.
A couple of good reviews on BCF.
I don't think this is all that weak, or at least not all of the concentrate. The fuller body part of the orange flavor is definitely on the weak side, but that perfumey orange note is pretty unmistakable even at lower percentages. I'd use this a lot like /u/matthewkocanda at a relatively low percentage and get my sweet orange body from something else. Or just skip it entirely and use FW Blood Orange. Found some scattered accounts of using this closer to 15% in a juice. These people are lunatics.
Source: Reddit