My favorite juice (currently) is called Flakey Cake---it's a dessert juice that attempts to replicate white cake with vanilla icing, sliced toasted almonds, and bakers coconut. My initial bottles were retail juice purchased from the vendor StratoMyst, but since then I've developed my own DIY version, which I now make and use in various nic strengths and base blends, depending on the hardware I'm using.
I have the juice at hand in five different setups:
1. a GS H2 BCC clearo---a cheap ($2) equivalent to a Kanger EVOD---with the bottom coil head rebuilt using a 1.5 ohm 32-gauge horizontal spaced coil with cotton wicking, powered by a 1300mAh Vision Spinner VV battery set to 4.3 volts (for 13 watts). Rebuilding the coils/wicks is a major improvement on stock Kanger-type heads. The DIY Flakey Cake juice is 12mg nic in a 50pg/50vg. In this setup, the draw is easy (since Ive drilled out the air holes on the base), but not particularly airy, and still with slight resistance in the draw. Vapor production is moderate but easily adequate. The vape itself is very smooth and gives nice flavor, well-balanced across the spectrum of highs to lows or treble (coconut) to bass (cake). Each of the three elements---vanilla cake, toasted almonds, and sweet coconut---comes through in a very even-tempered way that lets me savor the taste of the juice. As modest as this setup is, if it were all I had (and all I knew about), Id still be a fairly satisfied vaper.
2. an Aspire Mini-Nautilus Tank using a stock Aspire 1.8 ohm BVC Nautilus coil, powered by an iStick 20 set to 15.1 watts (which maxes out the iSticks voltage at that resistance). I set the Mini-Nautilus at its most wide-open air intake setting, so the draw is very smooth and somewhat airy, just about in the sweet spot for me. Vapor production is more full than with the H2 clearo, and the flavor is good, but not quite as substantial as the H2. Id call the flavor Flakey Cake Lite.
3. an Erlkonigin RTA clone built with a 0.95 ohm 28-gauge microcoil using rayon wick, powered by a Cloupor Mini 30 set to 22.5 watts. The DIY Flakey Cake juice is 9mg nic in a 40pg/60vg base. With the adjustable air-flow ring limiter completely removed, the draw on the Erlkonigin is looser than a Kayfun, but somewhat more ragged with a slight whistle. Vapor production is greater than with the Nautilus, but the flavor is not quite on a par with the Nauti Mini. Id call it slightly compressed, losing a little from both the top and bottom end.
4. an Aspire Atlantis Tank clone using a clone OCC .5 ohm coil, powered by an iStick 50 set to 35 watts. The DIY Flakey Cake juice is 3mg nic in a 20pg/80vg base. With the air-flow set to the most wide-open slot, the draw of the Atlantis is extremely airy, with no resistance at all---ideal for direct lung hits, although I find it still works well for my mouth-to-lung inhaling. Even using mouth-to-lung, vapor production is impressive, with billowy, thick clouds. The vape is slightly warm, with very flavor that I would call solid rather than intense---strong, but not particularly deep. Using this setup occasionally makes me cough, but only lightly and for a moment. In general, I find the Atlantis better suited for cloud-chasers than for flavor-hounds (like myself).
5. a Magma RDA dripper, built using a single horizontal microcoil---26-gauge, 0.7 ohms, rayon wick---powered by an iPV Mini 2 70 set to 25 watts. The DIY Flakey Cake juice is 3mg nic at 40pg/60vg. I remove the air-flow ring from the Magma and leave both airholes on opposite sides of the base completely exposed. Even so, the draw is not as wide-open and airy as on the Atlantis. Vapor production is also less voluminous than on the Atlantis, but still copious and concentrated. Temperature of the vapor is pleasantly warm at 25 watts. At 30 watts or higher, however, the vape a little too warm for my comfort. Flavor is where the Magma kicks ....---it provides the most intense and potent flavor by far of any of these five setups. Quite amazing, actually, although the individual flavor elements of the juice (vanilla cake, toasted almonds, and sweet coconut) tend to meld into a single taste. Id call the flavor thick and a bit compressed, but with great impact.
Considering flavor alone, my favorites are the H2 clearo and Magma. The H2s flavor, while moderate in fullness, is very nicely balanced, while the Magma is the mostly intensely flavorful, but more compressed. Even with the slight hassle of needing to refill the Magma's generous juice wells every couple minutes, I find myself reaching for the Magnum more often than the other four, since the intensity of the vape is so compelling. RDA droppers are hard to beat.
What does this prove? Nothing. As a test, its entirely anecdotal and largely subjective. I offer it mainly to share my experience that each hardware setup provides a distinctly different vape, even with the same juice. Personally, I find all five setups to be enjoyable.
if it wasn't. These are listed as 2015 version.
