The package of eight 15ml bottles I ordered during Mt. Baker's $2.99 Build-Your-Own E-Juice sale arrived yesterday.
I made three fruit blends (Baked Apple, Blackberry Cream, and Raspberry Malt). All those are OK. The fruit flavorings are fairly accurate and moderately tasty, although not among the very best fruit replicants I've tasted. They're fine, though.
I also made three tobacco blends and two coffees. While a couple of those juices are decent, I find the component coffee and tobacco flavorings a little pedestrian. This is probably because I've been spoiled by the many spectacular natural-extract coffees and tobaccos from my go-to artisan juice sites---coffees/cappuccinos/espressos from Backwoods Brew, Copper Creek, Virgin Vapor, Vaperite, and Want2Vape are simply unbeatable, and natural tobaccos from Vermillion River, Prime Vaping, Want2Vape, Moondrop, and Mom & Pop Vapor Shop are all quite extraordinary. The coffee and tobacco flavors from Mt. Baker are clearly synthetic and just not in the same league. By contrast, vendors such as Prime Vaping and Nite Lite Vapor make amazing juices from synthetic tobacco flavorings, and some of Dekang's Chinese synthetic tobaccos are also quite good, so I'm not opposed to synthetics in principle. I just appreciate quality. Heck, these days I insist on it.
The titles of the three individual tobacco flavorings in Mt. Baker's Build-Your-Own menu (American Tobacco, Mid West Tobacco, and West Coast Tobacco) are a dead giveaway that they're sourced from Vapor-Renu/Flavor West---decidedly not among my favorite flavoring concentrate suppliers. Those tobacco flavorings are simply not very good. (In fairness, they're not awful, just somewhat below average.) The same criticism applies to the coffee flavoring---it's decidedly ordinary and not special.
I'm always surprised and disappointed that flavoring companies continue to sell such sub-par concentrates. Don't these people care about what they make? I understand that taste is subjective, but does anyone actually like these flavorings??? Who? Or is this just the best these companies can do?
Anyway, my sincere advice to Mt. Baker is to keep looking for better flavorings from other suppliers.
On the positive side, the 1st Class shipping option was cheap---only $2.56 for my order---and the 10% off coupon (bakervid) just about paid for that. Also, shipping was super-fast here on the West Coast, a mere three days from web order to my mailbox. That's quick, especially for custom-made-to-order juices.
Mt. Baker's customer service is exemplary---all the 15ml bottles were filled right to the top, so that they actually contained 18mls. That's a nice touch of generosity. While the sale price ($2.99) was amazing, even Mt. Baker's regular prices are bargains ($4.99 for a 15ml bottle). Among American vendors, that's hard to beat. They even included a 15ml bottle of Cotton Candy liquid in my package as a freebie. Many vendors toss in a 3ml sample bottle with each order, but a free 15ml bottle is a significant gift. I much prefer and am loyal to vendors who are clearly not just in it for the money. So, kudos to Mt. Vapor for wonderful service, and keep up the good work!
If Mt. Baker upgrades their flavoring concentrates, they could easily become one of my top juice vendors.
