Vendor: Want2Vape
Liquid: Vapenstein Blend London
Description: "Bright Virginias, spicy small leaf Orientals and smoky Latakia tobaccos combine in the Doctor's version of the traditional English pipe blend. Dark, deep, robust and smoky, this blend is our love song to tobacco and tobacco loving vapers. The jewel of the line."
Thoughts: When I tried London for the first time, my exact words were "This is a pipe." Honestly, that's what I said. It's not a sweet, subtle, mellow, or aromatic pipe, but it instantly reminded me of camping trips when I would smoke a pipe full of tobacco bought at my local tobacconist while sitting around the campfire talking with friends or by myself enjoying nature. It has been over a decade since I smoked a pipe, but the flavor was so distinct and authentic that it instantly triggered all of those memories and made me feel that I was momentarily reliving those experiences.
If I may digress, the best way I can describe the experience of vaping London is through the Belgian Surrealist painter René Magritte's "The Betrayal of Images."
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Upon looking at this painting, the first thought that is triggered in the viewer's mind is "pipe," followed shortly by associations the viewer may have with that concept, such as memories of their grandfather, the aroma of pipe smoke, or in my case, camping trips in my early 20's. The pipe is realistically rendered and intentionally placed in an empty field without any other conflicting imagery, in order to encourage free association with "pipe," and whatever other thoughts or sensations are linked to that concept. Some viewers may even experience synaesthesia and actually detect the aroma of a pipe.
Beneath the pipe in cursive, Magritte reminds us that "This is not a pipe." Our subjective minds fool us into believing that we are looking at a pipe, when in fact, objectively, what we are looking at is a stretched canvas to which the artist has applied colored pigments suspended in linseed oil. It is not a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. A simulacrum.
Likewise, London is not a pipe tobacco. It is a natural tobacco extract with other natural flavorings suspended in a 70/30 PG/VG liquid solution. Like Magritte's painting, it is so realistically rendered, without any interfering signals, that it momentarily convinces me that I am smoking a pipe. This is the most realistic pipe juice I have tried, hands down, smoke and all.
Opinions will probably be split on this juice, with few occupying the middle ground. Fans of English pipe blends will appreciate it, but someone looking for a creamy, smooth aromatic with undertones of vanilla or fruity tartness will probably be disappointed. It is as bitter, leathery, and rich as Joan Rivers, but it is completely authentic. As the description states, it is spicy, smokey, and robust, but I might add that it has nice, slightly sweet finish that brings the experience to a satisfying conclusion.
This is one of my favorite juices, but with that said, I cannot vape it all the time. It is intense, and when I get the craving, puffing on it for 20 or 30 minutes satisfies me. I don't need to experience it all the time, and sometimes I am simply not in the mood to be forced to question my own objectivity versus subjectivity in a Magritte-esqe fashion and risk spiraling into an existential crisis. I keep some loaded up in its own clearomizer so that whenever I want it, I can throw it on a device, vape it for a little while, and then put it away for next time with no fuss. I keep it for special occasions, and it is a reward or a challenge, depending on how I approach it.
When I started vaping, I saw the potential to regain the enjoyment of tobacco that I had started with in smoking cigars and pipes, but lost through becoming addicted to cigarettes. Sadly, I was disappointed by most of the juices that I tried because they fell far short of that potential. London is one of a select few juices that should be the standard to which all other "authentic" pipe and cigar juices aspire.
