Thanks for all the advice, lots of stuff to ponder...
Today I decided to do an experiment, went to the shop and bought a bottle of unflavoured 50pg/40vg 12mg base liquid. The results:
- I actually prefer the taste to all the other flavoured liquids I've bought, with the possible exception of Flavour Art 7 Leaves! It's not an "interesting" flavour, but sometimes "interesting" is not what you want... at least it doesn't have the kind of "medicine" taste that I'm getting from most of the others.
- The sweetness I'm getting is mainly from the pg/vg itself. A couple of the flavoured liquids I had were a bit sweeter, but not all that much so. Not really the news I was hoping for, but at least I know now what I can expect.
- It's also related to the stickiness. Sticky lips, after I take a puff... I think that adds to the feeling that it's something sweet, my brain interprets the stickiness as being sugary, even if it's not so sweet like sugar. I guess that's something I'll also have to get used to. Could it be that my equipment has something to do with it? I have a Joyetech 510-T, with automatic battery. Is it possible that it's not atomizing it well enough, that leaves a sticky residue (I don't think the liquid is actually leaking out the top)? Or is that just the nature of vaping? Does everyone notice the sticky lips thing?
I also decided to try to have an open mind, and get my first non-tobacco flavour. I got "green tea", figured it wouldn't be sweet or candy-like, and I do really like to drink green tea. I really tried to like it! But I don't see it happening, I just can't get over the artificial-flavour/medicine feeling. Then a friend of mine let me have some of his Pipe Sauce "Long Bottom Leaf" - wow, was that awful! I'm now running a few loads of the plain liquid through, just to try to wash the taste out of the atomizer...
Probably I sound a bit hard-to-please... actually I was pretty ok with the 7 Leaves for the last few weeks, until the shop ran out of stock, so I've been scrambling to find a replacement. I guess the unflavoured base will hold me for a while, until they get it back in stock again.
I found a mail-order place here in Germany that has Torque 56, so I'll give that a try. I thought about the Captain Jack, and the Johnson Creek Silverthorn or Domestic, but I got a bit scared of pipe-like flavours by the Long Bottom Leaf... maybe next time. So far I haven't found a good way to get the other brands (Dark Horse, etc.) here in Germany, but I'll keep looking.
Thanks again everyone!