Alice in Vapeland... not good at all.. whats wrong? (6mg nicotine)

[ph0kused]

Nothing is "wrong".

There's not a single vendor out there that everyone likes. People have different tastes. This is why sampling is vastly superior to reading juice reviews (unless you're VERY familiar with the reviewers tastes).

If I started a thread that said, "I like liver" (and I do btw), a thousand people would post in it saying, "omg liver is disgusting". Who is right? We all are. Don't be disappointed if you don't like anything from a particular vendor, only be disappointed if you can't find any juice you like from any vendor.

That wasn't my original post, you may want to re-read it.

I was asking people if they've ever experienced or vaped AiVL's Zombie Apocalypse and had a real harsh throat hit. Not only that, but my batch had the consistency of water, unlike anything i've seen - not to mention foaming. This wasn't a bash AiVL thread - I love their juices, and if you noticed from my previous post, I re-ordered the sample pack again, and my batch of Zombie was AMAZING!

Update on my "questionable" bottle of Zombie ~

After 2 weeks of steeping the throat hit has gone down dramatically, and the consistency and color has changed. Originally it was like water w/ Red food coloring. Now it's shifted and is definitely more oil like. The throat hit is still extremely intense for a 6mg nicotine, it rivals some 24mg I have. However, it's almost enjoyable, I think 2 more weeks of steeping and it will taste like the 2nd batch i got of Zombie, which was amazing.

To the person talking about vaping it higher resistances like 1.8 - 2.5ohms, tried it, didn't taste a huge difference. I also run an eVic w/ a Vivi Nova @ 2.2ohms. To me the taste is better in my TurtleShip mod w/ Nimbus running at .6ohms. More clouds, crazy flavor. Get my nic fix a lot faster at lower resistances - that's just my opinion, probably all mental. My provari / vamo / evic are all paper weights now. I'm sure I'll go back to them at some point, but with normal PVs like my eVic/Provari vaping around 1.8 - 3ohms I end up sucking on them all day like a baby w/a bottle. With my turtleship/nimbus I can blow big clouds and be done with it.

To reiterate - I'm not ready to send the bottle back, as the juice is getting much, much better. So to all buying AiVL - like other users have suggested on here - just steep them out regardless. Every juice needs to steep if it's fresh. Ive seen some reviews on AiVL's line and people say "So good doesn't need to be steeped" - that's all relative to when the good people at AiVL made that batch.

Update s/ pictures / full review on the way...

 

[Dooter]

Just chiming in real quick to put my 2 cents in here, but I have tried AiVL (the big sampler pack at 18 mg), around Xmas time last year, and I too thought they were all quite harsh. They certainly weren't BAD, but... huge throat hit. They are the only eliquids I've ever tried that have hurt my throat to vape. I ended up PIF'ing them to my sister to get her started with vaping.

 

[ph0kused]

Not sure if anyone else has got this kind of coloration... keep in mind These are both Zombie Apocalypse 6mg Nictotine The big bottle is the one thats been killing my throat - however, after 2 weeks of steeping is almost becoming enjoyable - but is still very harsh. The small bottle is the one that came in my sample pack. Both bottles I received in the month of August.



~ It also should be noted that the big bottle has the consistency of water - whereas the smaller bottle is more like normal ejuice, very thick and oil like. The small bottle tasted AMAZING! It was by far one of the best juices I've ever had. Hopefully the big bottle just needs to steep... and if that's the case, man what a big shift from steeped vs. non steeped.

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This is usually what my desk looks like when flavor testing... right now I've been using my Turtle Ship, K100, eVic w/ different tanks. Some of the new brands I'll be writing about are: Latest batch of AVE's Boba's Bounty, FlavorZ by joe (smurf, blueberry crumble), Ben Johnson's Awesome Sauce (CR3AM), Midas (Cinnamon Roll), Mr. Good Vape (Moon sugar), Epic Juice (apple jax)

 

[ph0kused]

Update ~

For some reason I forgot to take my bottle of Alice in Vapeland Zombie Apocalypse out of my glove box at work - It's been like 100 degrees here all week in Corona, CA - I went to grab it, dripped some on my IGO-W w/ dual coils at roughly .5ohms - It's actually sort of pleasant now!

I imagine 1 more week of steeping with caps off shaking everyday, and it'll be good!

The one little sample bottle I got in my 2nd sample purchase was balanced so well, that it's good enough to be my daily vape. Currently my daily vapes are Boba's Bounty 6mg & Epic Juice's Apple Jax. Every now and then I'll vape some Mr. Good Vape Moon Sugar & Ben Johnson's CR3AM.

However, I would love to have some Zombie Apocalypse, Boba's, & Apple JAx as my daily 3. To me, Apple Jax by Epic Juice is the best dripping juice I've ever tasted. It's got such a nice exhale, and can be vaped for HOURS on end. Also when vaping at those low resistances, some juices don't do well under those temperatures, but Apple Jax is 100000 x times better vaped w/ Sub 1.0 ohm setups then normal Clearo/Carto/PV setups.

On the other hand, Boba's Bounty is the best juice for carto/clearo/PV setups... Boba's is still great through a RDA - I really love how Boba's tastes through a Kanger Protank & Vivi Nova... It tastes better through those devices then compared to my Ithaka running dual coils, or my nimbus/igo-w.

Taste is all subjective, but if you're curious try those Apple Jax out through your RDA if you're into sub ohm stuff.

 

[ph0kused]

UPDATE ~

I spoke with one of the owners, Nichole. Let me just say AiVL's customer service is amazing!

Where I made a mistake is steeping the bottles with caps off. Nichole recommended that if I am going to steep, make sure to shake daily, allow new air to get in the bottle - but close the bottle, and let it continue steeping. AiVL uses no artificial flavors, so it's very easy to contaminate.

I'm not sure contamination is the reason my bottle of Zombie burned when vaped - since it had that hard throat hit from day 1 I purchased it, but it doesn't matter, I called made an order over the phone and Nichole gave me a replacement bottle of Zombie on the house.

So all in all... Just like one of the first posters said - If you have any problem with your AiVL juice - contact them by phone/email RIGHT AWAY!

The chances of me getting a mislabeled bottle or incorrect nicotine level is highly unlikely, since their lab is separated - and more reports would have been coming in.

Not sure what happened to my bottle of Zombie, but who cares, new one on the way! Full review of every flavor +pictures coming too! I'm about 50% way through their line. I have to re-wrap coils and wicks on every flavor, so it takes time.

 

[KjAthena]

so very glad you were able to resolve the issue and are now getting to taste the wonderful flavors.....cant wait to see your reweiws

 

[Fizzpop]

I can assure you that their juices are not of a "watery" consistency. There are several I get from them that are like trying to pull molasses into my syringe. If anything, they are on the thick side. I also get almost zero throat hit from their juices - YMMV.

Personally, I find AiV juices to be some of the very, very best juices around. That being said, they do seem to be somewhat polarizing with their flavors. Like I said, I love them.

 

[Barbara21]

AIV have an unique flavour "profile" which can put many off. Sure did for me, as I can't vape them.

<snip>Personally, I find AiV juices to be some of the very, very best juices around. That being said, they do seem to be somewhat polarizing with their flavors. Like I said, I love them.

Unfortunately, I'm like Blix - AiV doesn't do anything for me. I've tried 'Twas Brillig', 'Zombie Apocolypse', 'Lemon Loves Cake', 'Crunkberry' (sp?) (and two others) and didn't like any of them. It's a bummer because I'd really like to have the same experience most of you have.

I must have weird tastebuds or something.

But at least I'm starting to understand what is meant by 'flavor profile'. I never really understood - how could two distinctly different flavors from the same vendor have the same 'profile'? But I've now come across two different vendors (AiV and DarkestDay) where that term makes sense - the juices I've tried from them are different but somehow similar. Weird.

(By the way, I love every juice I've had from DarkestDay - I particularly recommend 'Red Ape' (banana, caramel) and 'Vampire's Kiss' (strawberry <something>) So if you want to try something very different from AiV, give them a shot.)

 

[Fizzpop]

ph0kused, on re-reading some of your posts, your problem may also be caused by your sub-ohm vaping setup. I find that my AiV juices taste best at about 6 watts. I generally aim for a 2.4Ohm coil at 3.8 Volts. More than that and they get harsh quick.

 

[bluehaze013]

A 30ml bottle will take a lot longer to steep than a 3ml bottle and I really think cap off helps with these juices as they all seem to be perfumey and leaving the cap off for a couple days helps with that. Having said that though I really don't like any of the juices in my sampler pack. They all seem to have this similar base, the flavor is different between bottles but that same tart artificially sweet base is present in every one of them to the point after dripping 2 or 3 of them I don't even want to taste them anymore. Mine are about 3 weeks old now and tried a couple again tonight after seeing a post that they were open but I had to stop after the first 2 flavors again. I wanted to like them so bad too, was so excited about receiving the little bit of everything, was doing the happy dance. Love their marketing and their whole persona but egads I just can't vape their juice, not my cup of tea I guess.

 

[SethGrimm]

I have vaped AIV for months and every juice I have ever recieved vapes like silk. I adore their juice. Without a doubt you should email them asap. Something is not right.

 

[ph0kused]

I can assure you that their juices are not of a "watery" consistency. There are several I get from them that are like trying to pull molasses into my syringe. If anything, they are on the thick side. I also get almost zero throat hit from their juices - YMMV.

Personally, I find AiV juices to be some of the very, very best juices around. That being said, they do seem to be somewhat polarizing with their flavors. Like I said, I love them.

Fizzpop~
I can assure you that my Zombie does have a watery consistency lol. I bought a big bottle of zombie - 30ml, 6mg nic, and it's the consistency of water, no exaggeration. I have it right here in front of my face, I'll be glad to upload a video so you can see the consistency. I think you meant to say, out of the stuff you've purchased, it's not been watery - mine on the other hand...

Update~ I got my replacement bottle from Nichole!

So right now I have 2 big bottles of Zombie... both are 30ml 6mg nicotine. Here's the strange thing...

- The "Defective" one, is darkkkk red, almost black. And has the consistency of water. Yes, Fizzpop, water. 6 weeks of steeping - still not feeling like a 6mg, something definitely wrong with it...since it's been harsh since the day i've opened it & even after 6 weeks steeping, no change except for the color.

- The "New" bottle - amazing. A little thicker than water, it has the consistency like most other e-juices, almost like cooking oil, but a little thinner. This one has the coloration of ice tea - a tannish color, and oh man, does it taste amazing. I've been vaping it through a Vanilla Mod by Smok-E Mountain, with an GG Ithaka, and also using my new Omega RDA dual coil setup at around .4Ω, 28 gauge Kanthal 3 wraps each coil. To all of those out there rocking a genesis style atomizer, it does REALLY well through SS Mesh. I modified a RSST so i can run 2x ss mesh wicks (.4Ω - .8Ω) and Zombie is probably the best juice I've ever vaped through a SS Mesh & Genesis atomizer. I have a feeling it's because it's more PG than VG like the owner of AiVL lead me to believe.

Manufacturing defects happen, it happens to all companies - and if you think juice companies are above having a bad run once in a blue moon, you're mistaken. My friend owns a manufacturing facility where he makes the actual raw flavors companies like Lush Vapors, AiVL, AVE Juice, Epic Juice, Standard, etc buy from to make their private label flavors. I was using those companies as examples, obviously under NDA Agreement, he can't tell me who he's making them for, but it's over 30 companies. A Juice company will approach him for raw flavors, and then they take those raw flavors and mix them on their own and create their line. Other times companies will just say "Hey, please make me a Chocolate Coffee Flavor" and he'll whip up 15 variations. So obviously, these complex flavors don't start at AiVL - they have to source some of their products from elsewhere, this is why bad runs happen. No one to blame, part of business, and I'm glad AiVL customer service is far above most other juice lines.

Anyways, very, very happy with AiVL - had one bad bottle but they made up for it right away. If you ever experience issues with your AiVL juice, just call them right away and they'll make it better! Placing another $80.00 order w/ AiVL soon to stock up! I flew through 15ml of juice in 1 work-day.

 

[ph0kused]

ph0kused, on re-reading some of your posts, your problem may also be caused by your sub-ohm vaping setup. I find that my AiV juices taste best at about 6 watts. I generally aim for a 2.4Ohm coil at 3.8 Volts. More than that and they get harsh quick.

Sorry but that's not the issue, because my replacement bottle came and it's fine at sub 1.0ohm vaping.

annnnddd

The owner Nichole herself said it's fine at .2ohms if I wanted to do that. I've been building coils a long time and I've never had a juice thats "not compatible" with sub 1.0ohm vaping. I used to vape around 2.0 - 3.0ohms like you, but then I found that I actually prefer deep direct lung hitting, rather than mouth hitting.

All of my devices (except my GG Ithaka) has holes drilled out to at least 3/32 or 1.8 size, which is like sucking through a straw. To each, his own.

I would say your theory would have held some weight if my replacement bottle didn't taste absolutely amazing at .4 ohms.

There are no e-juices on the market that are not compatible with sub-ohm vaping, however they WILL taste different, you are right there, for sure. Case in point would be Epic Juice's Apple Jax. Apple Jax is by far one of THE BEST juices i've ever had for dripping onto dual coils running below 1.0ohm.

However, the moment you put it in a Vivi Nova/Kanger Protank something like that - it doesn't taste NEARLY as good. The only time you're going to get a harsh throat hit off a juice with sub 1.0ohm vaping is if your coils are setup wrong. Understanding that comes with trial and error.

 

[RT88]

at super low resistance i'd be worried about PAH formation. maybe thats where the TH is comin from

 

[ph0kused]

at super low resistance i'd be worried about PAH formation. maybe thats where the TH is comin from

I hear what you're saying, but when I flavor test from new vendors I vape out of 3 devices. I vape out of my Vanilla Mod w/ Nim bus at .4ohms dual coils, I vape from a Turtle Ship Mod w/ RSST Genesis @ 1.3ohm, and I also vape with my "daily driver" (for when im driving) an eVic w/ a 1.8ohm innokin tank.

all 3 devices produced the same crazzzy rubbing alcohol throat hit.

If you go to one of my earlier posts I did say AiVL took care of it and sent me out a new bottle and it tasted completely different. Smooth as silk.

I literally had a defective batch. I know it's rare, but honestly it happened to me. I didn't contaminate it by steeping with caps off - because the "bad" bottle had the rubbing alcohol throat hit from day 1 of opening the bottle, and it never went away. It also was much, much, much thinner than any ejuice ive ever seen - it was the consistency of water, and it foamed up when shaken.

however... my replacement bottle AiVL sent me, tasted like strawberry cupcake perfection. Since this incident I've made 3 additional orders, and will continue to give AiVL my business. No company is above making bad runs, it happens. It's rare in a clean-lab environment, but AiVL doesn't use artificial flavors, ask anyone in the food manufacturing industry - natural flavors want to go bad, they are much harder to work with than artificial flavors.

Love AiVL,and I love Zombie, B&W Cookie, White Rabbit, Cupcake City, Afternoon Tea, Twas Brillig, Quiet Morning. Those are the flavors (to me) stand out from all of the other ones. Full review on the way - I've finally went through all flavors.

 

[XeniaMike]

The 'alcohol' reference scared me since I am allergic to it. I went to AIV's website and found this tidbit:
Q: What ingredients do we use in our juices?

A: We only use the highest quality ingredients, including Premium Propylene Glycol (PG), Premium Non-GMO Soy-Free Vegetable Glycerin (VG), Premium All-natural Flavors, and Premium Nicotine (added as requested). Although some of our juices are naturally sweet, we never use sucralose. We optimize the PG/VG ratio for each flavor, so the ratios for each flavor are unique to the flavor. We use extremely precise measuring techniques to ensure absolute consistency of our products. Many vendors do add alcohol to give more throat hit. We add absolutely nothing to our juices other than natural flavors, carrier, and of course, your preferred nic level. HOWEVER, many of our natural flavors do contain very small amounts of food grade alcohol, but a thorough steeping will allow this to evaporate. Our juices are USA-made and diacetyl-free.

I've never had any problems with any of their juices other than: they all seem to have the same base bakery-type flavor. I vape 24mg so throat hit is fine but still doesn't make my throat hurt. It might be an allergen.

 

[ph0kused]

The 'alcohol' reference scared me since I am allergic to it. I went to AIV's website and found this tidbit:
Q: What ingredients do we use in our juices?

A: We only use the highest quality ingredients, including Premium Propylene Glycol (PG), Premium Non-GMO Soy-Free Vegetable Glycerin (VG), Premium All-natural Flavors, and Premium Nicotine (added as requested). Although some of our juices are naturally sweet, we never use sucralose. We optimize the PG/VG ratio for each flavor, so the ratios for each flavor are unique to the flavor. We use extremely precise measuring techniques to ensure absolute consistency of our products. Many vendors do add alcohol to give more throat hit. We add absolutely nothing to our juices other than natural flavors, carrier, and of course, your preferred nic level. HOWEVER, many of our natural flavors do contain very small amounts of food grade alcohol, but a thorough steeping will allow this to evaporate. Our juices are USA-made and diacetyl-free.

I've never had any problems with any of their juices other than: they all seem to have the same base bakery-type flavor. I vape 24mg so throat hit is fine but still doesn't make my throat hurt. It might be an allergen.

I totally hear ya... but what everyone seems to be not understanding from my original post is...

Initially received 3 (three) bottles total of Zombie Apoc.
1.) 30ml Plastic Flip top bottle
2.) 3ml small sample bottle
3.) 3ml sample bottle

Then 4 weeks later I got a 30ml free replacement bottle of zombie from the owner herself.

Now understand I bought all of these things at once. The only bottle that had a crazy alcohol-like hit to it was the large 30ml plastic bottle. The other 2 sample bottles tasted like perfection.

I then called AiVL and explained to the owner what I was experiencing. She asked me if it was my device, I told her I vape through 3 different devices, and only 1 device is sub-1.0ohm. She literally told me that vaping at low resistances will not cause this effect, she herself vapes around .4ohms. She said I could even try .2ohms if I want, it should work fine - her employees are obviously heavily involved into the mech mod, sub-ohm building.

She then sent me out a replacement bottle that looked completely different. By different I mean, the consistency of the juice was just like all of the AiVL flavors, it was more oil like, and did not foam when shaken.

If it was an allergic reaction why was the replacement bottle and the 2 other small sample bottles of Zombie so delicious?

Taking into consideration I vape from numerous devices, RDAs, Genesis style, Cartos, Clearos, and use VV devices as well as Mechanical Devices, and all across the board the juice was tasting like burning alcohol on everything I tried, wouldnt that rule out my setup? I even tried it on the newbie'est of setups... a eGo Twist w/ an Innokin 16 clearo... a very common and tried&true vaping setup, still hurt my throat like I was vaping a 60mg nicotine juice.

So again, i dont think it was my numerous devices, and it wasnt allergic because every other batch of the SAME juice at the SAME nic level tasted amazing... just this one 30ml bottle..