Nice to see you back! Been looking for your postings and wondering where you have been. Is this juice something that can be bought online or is it specific to the B&M you visited?
Newb reviews. Where was that beaten path?
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Haven't found any really special juices lately. Ok, but nothing really worth getting all excited about. 
But the Drake's was something I got a sample of at Vapercon West, so it's on-line only. There are a couple more from there I'm waiting to see how they settle out in the protanks. It's one thing to taste it on a big RBA but not everything translates well to beginner equipment. Figure it you wanted those reviews you'd go to Spinfuel or PBusardo.
That would be the only thing about trying juices at some place like Vapercon West. Most of the vendors use really good toppers so it can be hard to tell what something is going to taste like on more plebeian equipment. I have a different attitude from many reviewers, which is I want the juice to stand on its own without hundreds of dollars of equipment.
Also, I've been working my way through my stash and some pretty meh juices. Although I just tripped over another unvapeable and I don't think I'm going to be able to rescue this one with Fire and Ice. I do NOT do artificial strawberry. Nope. Not happening. It's a well designed juice, for what it is, but the combination of artificial flavors in it does not do it for me.
But the Drake's was something I got a sample of at Vapercon West, so it's on-line only. There are a couple more from there I'm waiting to see how they settle out in the protanks. It's one thing to taste it on a big RBA but not everything translates well to beginner equipment. Figure it you wanted those reviews you'd go to Spinfuel or PBusardo.
That would be the only thing about trying juices at some place like Vapercon West. Most of the vendors use really good toppers so it can be hard to tell what something is going to taste like on more plebeian equipment. I have a different attitude from many reviewers, which is I want the juice to stand on its own without hundreds of dollars of equipment.
Also, I've been working my way through my stash and some pretty meh juices. Although I just tripped over another unvapeable and I don't think I'm going to be able to rescue this one with Fire and Ice. I do NOT do artificial strawberry. Nope. Not happening. It's a well designed juice, for what it is, but the combination of artificial flavors in it does not do it for me.
Ok, got this one into the coils and it's nice. Especially for the price. Like $7 for 15ml, compared to $6/15ml from Mt Baker Vapor or EC Blend. It's also available both B&M and on-line from Vape Dojo, meaning $2 shipping and handling. For a premium juice, which this is, I'd call it a win on price. It gets more expensive, relatively at $13 for 30ml, but it's definitely on the lower end price wise.
Technicals: pt3 with stock dual coil, 8-10W. It doesn't seem to want to fry if you get it to hot, just a little sweeter. And then it just fades too low. Very nice. Set PG/VG ratio, no fiddling, but it doesn't need it. Very professional and I'd definitely recommend it for any setup. Very forgiving juice. Ran it all the way up to 11W and no frying. Good trick for a fruit. Gets a little more nose on it as you heat it up more, but not in a bad way at all.
Vape Dojo/Charlie Noble - Blue Bay
Most fruit flavors stand up and scream in your face, "I'm a fruit! I'm sweet! I'm a fruit!" rather like one of those really annoying little yappy dogs. Only at 11W did this one really get 'fruity' at all, and even then it's a more mature, sophisticated fruit, not some childish punk. It's a very adult take on what could be a really, really annoyingly sweet juice.
And that's my overall impression. I'd tasted so many juices at Vapercon West, by the time I got this into my tank I'd forgotten entirely what I'd bought. Then I started vaping it and really wasn't sure what I'd bought. The description is blueberry, pomegranate with a little vanilla and lemon. Now with that description, I wouldn't have bought it on-line, but after tasting it ...
Because it's not what you think it's going to be. There's the four note chord there, but they're all real fruit flavors, complete with skins and pips. The musty darkness of the blueberry in particular shines through and is actually rather startling. Especially with how much it's brought out by the vanilla. Same with the pips of the pomegranate and the flesh, which really isn't sweet at all. There's a nice tartness that's well accented by the light vanilla on the very top with the grace note of the lemon complementing the tartness of the fruit and bringing them forward against the slight tannic bitterness of the skins. There's a huge nose on this one, far more than any other fruit vape I've ever had, and it works. That's where the sweet is hiding, just peeping out around the fruit instead of dominating the vape like so many fruit ejuices.
Now some people might take this one to be a bit floral, but hey, I like eating and vaping flowers. These are flowers that are so mature they're now fruits. And those floral notes, brought out by the vanilla and lemon, really bring out the range of the fruit. And that's what I think a premium juice should be. Not just blending a few flavors that should go together, but rather using flavors to bring out certain aspects of the fruits used for the primary notes.
For a novice just getting into premium juice, I'd say this is a definite one to try. It's well behaved on regular equipment, has a beautifully crafted complexity and is very close in price to every day vapes at least for the 15ml bottle. If you want something a little different and out of the ordinary to expand your fruit vapes, I recommend it very highly. It's certainly one I'm going to keep in the stash.
Technicals: pt3 with stock dual coil, 8-10W. It doesn't seem to want to fry if you get it to hot, just a little sweeter. And then it just fades too low. Very nice. Set PG/VG ratio, no fiddling, but it doesn't need it. Very professional and I'd definitely recommend it for any setup. Very forgiving juice. Ran it all the way up to 11W and no frying. Good trick for a fruit. Gets a little more nose on it as you heat it up more, but not in a bad way at all.
Vape Dojo/Charlie Noble - Blue Bay
Most fruit flavors stand up and scream in your face, "I'm a fruit! I'm sweet! I'm a fruit!" rather like one of those really annoying little yappy dogs. Only at 11W did this one really get 'fruity' at all, and even then it's a more mature, sophisticated fruit, not some childish punk. It's a very adult take on what could be a really, really annoyingly sweet juice.
And that's my overall impression. I'd tasted so many juices at Vapercon West, by the time I got this into my tank I'd forgotten entirely what I'd bought. Then I started vaping it and really wasn't sure what I'd bought. The description is blueberry, pomegranate with a little vanilla and lemon. Now with that description, I wouldn't have bought it on-line, but after tasting it ...
Because it's not what you think it's going to be. There's the four note chord there, but they're all real fruit flavors, complete with skins and pips. The musty darkness of the blueberry in particular shines through and is actually rather startling. Especially with how much it's brought out by the vanilla. Same with the pips of the pomegranate and the flesh, which really isn't sweet at all. There's a nice tartness that's well accented by the light vanilla on the very top with the grace note of the lemon complementing the tartness of the fruit and bringing them forward against the slight tannic bitterness of the skins. There's a huge nose on this one, far more than any other fruit vape I've ever had, and it works. That's where the sweet is hiding, just peeping out around the fruit instead of dominating the vape like so many fruit ejuices.
Now some people might take this one to be a bit floral, but hey, I like eating and vaping flowers. These are flowers that are so mature they're now fruits. And those floral notes, brought out by the vanilla and lemon, really bring out the range of the fruit. And that's what I think a premium juice should be. Not just blending a few flavors that should go together, but rather using flavors to bring out certain aspects of the fruits used for the primary notes.
For a novice just getting into premium juice, I'd say this is a definite one to try. It's well behaved on regular equipment, has a beautifully crafted complexity and is very close in price to every day vapes at least for the 15ml bottle. If you want something a little different and out of the ordinary to expand your fruit vapes, I recommend it very highly. It's certainly one I'm going to keep in the stash.
For a premium juice that isn't a bad price at all and it sounds like one I would enjoy. Nice to know you are using "beginner equipment". I'm like you, not interested in investing lots of money into vaping. Of course, I don't want to go with cheapo stuff that isn't going to last and doesn't provide a good vaping experience. I'm all about the basics that allow for good flavor. I have only been vaping for about 3 1/2 weeks and I am currently using an innokin iTaste vv v3 with smoketech pyrex glass tanks (knockoff of the kanger evod, I believe) and have been pretty happy so far. I also have an MVP v2 on the way, but I would like to try out some other tanks to see if it improves the taste of some of my less favorable juices that I've bought. Do you pretty much use the protank 3 for all of your juices?
FYI...I went online and checked out your last recommendation for Blue Bay. It appears you can go directly to the Charley Noble website and they do not charge shipping fees for first class and priority shipping with USPS.
Hey, thanks for the encouragement! Hmm, yes, all my tanks are basic Kanger bottom coils. 1 pt2, 2 pt3 and 1 Aerotank. Only the stray pt2 has a standard base. Everything else is wide open.
I have a Kayfun Lite + I use occasionally and an Aspire BCD I'm going to retire as soon as the coil dies. The draw is way too hard.
Generally I wanted stuff I could recoil myself and have one general type of heads across the various devices. It works well enough and from what I've heard, if you use cotton, they're really nice. However, I found out today the Aerotank does not take heat well.
Mods, I have a vv3, an MVP2 and a Provari. (and one stray little ego I use the PT2 on) However I don't review on the Provari, since it has the Aerotank and I really don't want to go through that much juice if I find something to be a bit much. Even the 1.5ml of the protanks can get really old really fast. The Jasmine was like that. It was fantastic for about a dozen hits and then started going downhill.
But yes, basic protanks with factory coils, many times single coil. I don't keep track of which is which. Just like I don't fuss with PG/VG ratios yet. I think that's more for fine tuning once I figure out what works.
Oh, thanks for this hint about the Charlie Noble. His stuff is really good, especially for the price. Most juices in that price bracket are just one step above basic.
I have a Kayfun Lite + I use occasionally and an Aspire BCD I'm going to retire as soon as the coil dies. The draw is way too hard.
Generally I wanted stuff I could recoil myself and have one general type of heads across the various devices. It works well enough and from what I've heard, if you use cotton, they're really nice. However, I found out today the Aerotank does not take heat well.
Mods, I have a vv3, an MVP2 and a Provari. (and one stray little ego I use the PT2 on) However I don't review on the Provari, since it has the Aerotank and I really don't want to go through that much juice if I find something to be a bit much. Even the 1.5ml of the protanks can get really old really fast. The Jasmine was like that. It was fantastic for about a dozen hits and then started going downhill.
But yes, basic protanks with factory coils, many times single coil. I don't keep track of which is which. Just like I don't fuss with PG/VG ratios yet. I think that's more for fine tuning once I figure out what works.
Oh, thanks for this hint about the Charlie Noble. His stuff is really good, especially for the price. Most juices in that price bracket are just one step above basic.
i have been contemplating which protank to try and have been looking at the EHPro kayfun Lite plus v2 clone. I've also bought wire and cotton to attempt the rebuild on the coils for the tanks that I currently have...just haven't taken that leap to make an attempt yet. Thanks for sharing your info...it definitely helps in making a decision for future purchases. Nice to know I am on the right track.
Thanks for sharing your info...it definitely helps in making a decision for future purchases. Nice to know I am on the right track.
Or at least it's the track I've been wandering down. The biggest thing I think that's helped is having good basic mods. I don't have to worry about frying them with a bad coil or leaking juice. Especially the Provari. That thing is amazingly tough.
So it gets all the experiments.
And juices, now that I've sort of figured out most of the 'families' of flavorings, I think, I can recognize who is using what base flavors. There aren't very many. But different people respond to different flavors. For example, I tasted another juice that uses the same base as Alice in Vapeland. Now if you want a buttery note, like in 'Twas Brilling, this is great. However, if you want a clean fresh pear, for example, it doesn't work well.
But that's my reaction. Some people react oddly to Virgin Vapor's flavor bases. Annette does some of her own extraction, but there is a unifying base note to VV's flavors.
For a lot of beginners, I'd say to try one or two from each manufacturer and see what their style lends itself to. VV does single notes and florals really well. AiV does amazing pastries because of that buttery note. Ahlusion does really nice fruits and beverages. Note I don't have a tobacco vendor, because I don't generally like tobacco flavors.
That's the part that's up to each individual.
So it gets all the experiments.
And juices, now that I've sort of figured out most of the 'families' of flavorings, I think, I can recognize who is using what base flavors. There aren't very many. But different people respond to different flavors. For example, I tasted another juice that uses the same base as Alice in Vapeland. Now if you want a buttery note, like in 'Twas Brilling, this is great. However, if you want a clean fresh pear, for example, it doesn't work well.
But that's my reaction. Some people react oddly to Virgin Vapor's flavor bases. Annette does some of her own extraction, but there is a unifying base note to VV's flavors.
For a lot of beginners, I'd say to try one or two from each manufacturer and see what their style lends itself to. VV does single notes and florals really well. AiV does amazing pastries because of that buttery note. Ahlusion does really nice fruits and beverages. Note I don't have a tobacco vendor, because I don't generally like tobacco flavors.
That's the part that's up to each individual.
I haven't tried any of those vendors yet. So far I've tried a several from Madvapes' premium Lion Head line, Nicoticket and High Desert Vapes. So far I like all of them except for the ones I got from High Desert Vapes. Those are the ones I'm hoping that a Kayfun would help with when it comes to the flavor. If not then I need to figure out how to add other liquid to it in order to improve the flavor. My nephew also does some DIY liquids and I've gotten quite a few from him that I really enjoy. I need to work my way through these before ordering more. I've definitely put a few of your suggestions on my "to purchase" list. My nephew is also the one who advised me on what equipment to get started on. I'm so glad I had someone to do that so that I didn't throw my money away on useless items. I haven't tried anything with floral accents yet. I'm not sure how well I would like those, but your reviews have influenced me to want to try them out.
I've definitely put a few of your suggestions on my "to purchase" list. My nephew is also the one who advised me on what equipment to get started on. I'm so glad I had someone to do that so that I didn't throw my money away on useless items. I haven't tried anything with floral accents yet. I'm not sure how well I would like those, but your reviews have influenced me to want to try them out.
Well, hmmm. For floral, I'd actually recommend trying the candy first. You can get both violet and rose candies. Not everyone likes eating flowers. They're different.
And pretty much the only thing a KFL will do is intensify the flavor. If it's meh, it may not turn it into something really good. My guess is the artificial flavors are more likely to completely miss depending on the physical makeup of the taster. (Because they actually have fewer different flavor molecules in play.) But this is just an hypothesis at this point and I need a lot more research to figure it out. Some people don't like Virgin, for example. But I've found more people that don't get much flavor out of MBV OR EC Blend. Either one or the other of those seem to miss more people. I don't taste MBV, for example. Most of it tastes like sugar water to me.
Nothing wrong with them, just a miss on my particular taste buds, but I have no problems with EC Blend. I mean I've had some missed flavors from them, but not like it's missing the flavoring in the batch. Just not a flavor I much cared for.
And pretty much the only thing a KFL will do is intensify the flavor. If it's meh, it may not turn it into something really good. My guess is the artificial flavors are more likely to completely miss depending on the physical makeup of the taster. (Because they actually have fewer different flavor molecules in play.) But this is just an hypothesis at this point and I need a lot more research to figure it out. Some people don't like Virgin, for example. But I've found more people that don't get much flavor out of MBV OR EC Blend. Either one or the other of those seem to miss more people. I don't taste MBV, for example. Most of it tastes like sugar water to me.
Nothing wrong with them, just a miss on my particular taste buds, but I have no problems with EC Blend. I mean I've had some missed flavors from them, but not like it's missing the flavoring in the batch. Just not a flavor I much cared for.
thanks for the input! Wishful thinking on my part. I guess I can be thankful that the juices from HDV that I didn't care for were 1/2 price at the time I bought them. Gotta look at the silver lining. I'll share them with a friend and see if she likes them. I know that everyone's tastes buds definitely aren't the same.
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