OK.... busted out a bottle of almost 6 month old Serendipity (it even has the old label!)... threw some fresh cotton in the Chrident and loaded it up.
Goodness me... it DOESN'T suck anymore! That burnt cardboard taste is gone... now it comes across as a kind of chocolate covered espresso bean kind of vibe. I haven't vaped enough to give final verdict, but unlike the other times I've given it a go, it hasn't triggered something akin to that 'bitter beer face' from the old Milwaukee's Beast ads. It's a shame that it took this long to get there.
Nice... I don't have to waste a perfectly good boiled cotton wick.
Happy it's vapable... it was approaching the age where I would either have to vape it, PIF it to someone who'd vape it quick or chuck it. As is, it was in the e-liquid black hole.... the back of one of my drawers next to some horrid MBV fauxbaccos that, for some inexplicable reason, I am keeping. It was sad to see it keeping such lowly company all these months.