I'm still struggling with taste issues myself. Tried DrPepper, mom says it tastes nasty (may be freshly mixed so needs to age??) and I cant really taste it. Although thought my taste buds were just ruined from years of smoking, could taste the particularly foul cartomizers I bought on sale (I knew they were gonna be rough, but very foul and tough to get taste out of cartomizer.) Did get the dry feeling you mentioned from Desert Ship (camel) flavored cartomizer, but no real taste to it. Actually nice and clean tasting, but yeah a little weird at first.
Did it taste that way from the start or after heavy
vaping without topping off?
I started with atomizer before switching to cartomizer to avoid having to top off so often. IF you remove the cart and can see 'white' its time to add a few drops to cart. I found myself having to do this quite often to be sure I didnt burn anything on my new 510. Could over do it from time to time or draw to hard and get some bits of
juice which tended to taste weird, but then again your not supposed to get the juice in your mouth if you can help it.
When starting out its hard to tell sometimes if its your technique, your equipment (new atty's can have issues until broken in), juice (everyone is different and even same flavor can be different from batch to batch, new batches sometimes must be aged I hear, just not convinced enough to set out in the sun to do it, sticking to letting it age as a backup vape). Seems like there is a bit of a learning curve and experimental phase to all this. Until I solve my taste issues I've tended toward using unflavored 24mg 100%VG to dilute prefilled carts and thicken the thinner mixes that dont vape well for me. Cant stock up till I've got a better clue what I like or my taste buds fully recover from the analogs.
Check atomizer issues thread in tips and tricks for some of the debates on new atty break in, etc. Stick with it till you find your perfect vape.