I've loved all of the Cloud Science flavors. Alpha was my absolute favorite, though. They totally nailed that one!
Silica was the only real choice of wicking material that we had for a long time. All of the cartomizers and clearomizer atty heads had silica as a standard wick. It was much more resistant to burning than cotton or rayon, but it just wasn't all that good to me. Some people still prefer it... I'm not one of them.
Back in the early days of vaping, we tried many, many different things for wicking. On the old cartridge system, we even used tea bags. Dump out the tea and stuff pieces of the bag down into the cartridge... fill it with juice and vape on. I'm not sad to see those days have gone...
Rayon is definitely my wicking material of choice. No, it doesn't stick to your coil or melt. It will burn, just like cotton... It does have better capillary action than cotton and a much purer juice flavor in my opinion. There is a very long thread about it here:
Rayon Wick: Better Flow, Flavor, Saturation and Nic Hit
I use the rayon beauty coils from Sally's Beauty Supply:
Sally's Beauty Supply (online or B&M)
Graham Cellucotton Box Numbers:
Box #s: 44060 (500 ft), 44043 (3 lbs = 900 ft), 44040 (1200 ft), 44130 (40 ft).
Trust me... it is SOOOOOo worth giving it a shot!! And check out the Rayon thread for all the tips and tricks on how to use it... it is not like cotton (you need more of it.. tighter inside the coil, actually try to get it as tight as you can without completely deforming the coil)