eLiquid Review 513: Apple & Rhubarb Macaron by Frank & Atticus

This next juice line, you might have heard of. They’ve been popping up quite a bit on social media, and I’ve noticed that they are stocked in a lot of online stores already!

Meet Frank & Atticus, one of Australia’s up and coming e-liquid companies, putting the hard yards in to bring you not only tasty but complex and flavoursome juices. Founded by two mates from South West Sydney, Frank & Atticus was born from a shared interest and culinary background.

This is quite an innovative brand, that pride themselves on making complex flavour profiles that haven’t been seen before. They’re passionate and driven to push the boundaries of what is possible with unique e-liquid flavour combinations.

Today, I’ll be reviewing “Apple & Rhubarb Macaron” from Frank & Atticus.
(This eliquid was supplied by the vendor for review.)

Flavour Description

[From the website]
Apple / Rhubarb / Vanilla Custard / Almond / Meringue

The Review

Testiment to Frank & Atticus’ dedication to bringing unique flavours to market, this is definitely an interesting flavour!

If you’re anything like me, you associate Rhubarb with every other vegetable that you hated growing up, and automatically came to the conclusion that adding it in an eliquid is just not a good idea.

Like me, you’d be completely wrong, because it really works, and it works really well. I find the rhubarb provides a bitterness that counters the sweet custard, and pulls everything together into one complex dessert.

Individual Notes

The apple in this flavour is quite pronounced, you’ll notice it during most of the vape, from the early stages right until the end. It’s a very sweet and tart apple with juicy sweetness and that unmistakable acidic bite that only an apple can give!

I’ve never tried a Rhubarb e-liquid before, but it translates well! This has the woody and slightly bitter rhubarb profile, a surprisingly great note to mix with a thick and creamy custard, because it flattens things out with a little bitterness giving the custard a contrasting flavour to battle with! A mid-range note if you will.

The vanilla custard here, is your usual smooth creamy vanilla custard. Thick and creamy, sweet and rounded, this is the deeper, dessert base that the entire profile depends on.

The macaron is provided by the Meringue and Almond. While you may not notice the sticky sweet and creamy texture of the meringue immediately, you’ll definitely notice the almond as it creates a light nutty note on the exhale, helping to mimmick that macaron taste.

Inhale & Exhale

On the inhale I immediately notice sweet fleshy apple and the lower creamy, dessert notes of the vanilla custard. As always, it’s not as pronounced at this point, but the inhale is always less intense for eliquids, specially desserts.

As the inhale continues, the custard intensifies as does the apple, offering a very sharp tartness, backed by that smooth creamy vanilla, all the way until the peak of the inhale. Right there, at the height of the inhale, the Rhubarb makes itself known, a little bitter, and a little tart itself, it aligns with the apple, very much complimenting it and stopping it from going too sharp.

The rhubarb is an interesting addition, I think it’s genius, a savoury tartness blended with a sweet dessert. What this does, is lower the sweetness temporarily, and provide that woody, tart rhubarb before the sweet custard comes back washing over the savoury, appearing even sweeter and thicker than before.

As you exhale, the rhubarb, apple and custard are all intertwined, creating one unique and deep flavour, layered just right, making this one dynamic and robust flavour profile.

Continuing the exhale, you’ll notice the rhubarb fall away a little, and drop in intensity, as the custard and apple come back just as strongly as before.
Backing on from the bitter/tart savoury rhubarb the custard has a more intense flavour, and sweetness, so much so that even the apple is sweeter than it was, all of the tart edges removed. A light nutty note appears now, with the almond, helping to give this a light pastry or macaron edge, it’s sometimes not even noticeable, but is also a very nice addition, pushing this flavour and stretching it’s complexity even more.

This flavour finishes with the smallest amount of rhubarb backed with almond, and a warm, sweet and smooth custard/apple combination that satisfies very nicely indeed.

Final thoughts

This is a delicious flavour, a completely unexpected blend of flavours, that simply works. This combination not only works, but is complex and is layered in such a way as to give this quite a lot depth also.

The addition of the Rhubarb was genius, adding a slight bitterness with body boosts the layering and drives a more rounded and deeper flavour.

The almond was also a nice touch, giving the exhale that extra complexity and nutty feel.

How would I improve on this one? I’m not really sure, and I don’t think I have anything that I can even pick on with it. This is a very well executed flavour, with tonnes of complexity, depth and a great balance of flavours.

Very well done guys!

Where to Buy:

The Frank & Atticus range of eliquids can be found at many online Australian vape shops, and is stocked at several popular physical stores.

Colour:

Light honey

Aroma:

Rhubarb / Apple

Coil and wick damage:

Minimal damage to wicks and coils, this is a pretty clean juice for a dessert.

PG/VG Ratio:

70VG/30PG RTV

Texture:

Thick, creamy, dessert.

Steeping:

This one will definitely benefit from a steep.

Presentation:

Frank & Atticus’s presentation is very nice. I received 60ml Chubby gorilla bottles, tinted grey with black caps. There is a tamper proof seal, and child-proof lid atop the bottle. A nice narrow needle tip dispenser helps get the eliquid where it needs to go.

The labels are very clean and professional, a little classy, with the easy to read black and white, with coloured accents marking the flavour profile.
The usual information can be found on the labels, bottle size, VG/PG ratio, ingredients, warnings, and various icons representing no sale to minors, KESAB and social media accounts.

Test rigs:

Original Haku Cruiser running a single 0.17 framed staple coil on a mech mod.
Augvape Intake RTA with a 0.2ohm Stainless coil running @ approx 50-80 watts.

Shane Presser

Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.