Reviews - Is Everything 5 Stars?

[signer]

It makes it so hard to find good juice when every review on vendors' websites is 5 stars. Even the reviews with many negative things to say will only bump down to 4 stars. Is it really possible that every juice that everyone makes is perfect? I'd hate to think that vendors are censoring their customers' thoughts, but what other explanation is there?

Do the people who love a juice feel more compelled to spend time reviewing and singing its praises than those who dislike it?

I mean, stuff that I have tried that is so bad that no human should be able to find it tolerable is being raved about. Some of the reviews - to me at least - go beyond difference of opinion and to the point of "what on earth are you talking about".

I see it here on ECF, but to a lesser degree. 8 out of 10 posts on this e-liquid review forum lean heavily to the positive. I'll tell you in the last 9 months that I have purchased liquid from about 12 vendors. I have only re-purchased from 3. I steep and try different vehicles for vape, different voltage, 510 or 808, but I am just not seeing for myself that everything is so great. Tobacco, sweets, fruit, beverages, I have tried everything that looks remotely appealing.

After all that, there are only a couple (literally 2) juices that I can rely on, and even those are only average to me.

Am I just unlucky? Do I not know what I am doing? Does anyone else feel this way? Is anyone weary of seeing a rave review about every liquid out there?

Sorry for the rant!

 

[Roxxette]

Sometimes i feel the same way, its weird because people always take the time to complaint but for some reason 90% of liquid reviews are good thing even with underground vendors that you didnt even know lol

I guess take everything with a grain of salt


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[lasttango]

You are correct...

The thing to do is find/identify folks that you share similar taste with... this increases your odds of finding better juice...

I typically only give a public thumbs ups to juice I like - and tend to ignore juices I dislike.

I disliked 80%+ 0f the juices I tried when I started... and now... at best it's about 50/50.

I also tend to give reviews from those with experience... and knowledge of flavorings etc more weight... that's not always obvious by the join date... as some newbies have been vaping for years.

Tell me what you like... and what you want in a juice and I bet I can increase your odds of finding happiness... if not, I know who else to steer you towards.

 

[Tiffany Smeggin Peak]

i totally understand!
how is it that i got to a site and all of the flavors are 5 stars...
seriously? the flavor that I am vaping ATM is ok... but not no 5 stars....
i think that people feel like they need to give juices good reviews even when they don't like it

 

[bbb]

a gracious offer by lasttango

I've been vaping a lot of NETS this past year, if you're interested in those

 

[McGarnagle]

There are vendors that definitely censor the reviews. I have placed a bunch of reviews on vendor websites, many of them not so glowing (although not terrible). It's been over a month and I went back to check. Most of them still don't show up while reviews made in the same timeframe are there. I will give a quick shout out to HHV. When you place a review there, it shows up right away.

I understand the need to stop spam or obscenity. Yet clearly they are picking and choosing only positive reviews when they do let some through. I would much prefer vendors do like HHV and let them show up right away. They can always do a quick check for spam, and add a language filter (although you would need to read through some of them to check for people getting around it). That would actually be quicker than the other way of having to wade through all the stuff, and then pick the ones you want to add to the site.

It's pretty shady IMO. Although there are a couple of vendors that I like that are doing that, so I don't always hate it. Yet if I am on the fence about a vendor and almost all of their reviews are 5*'s with a handful of 4*'s, I stay away.

edit: I will also mention that I think some vendors are simply to busy to bother with the review approval process, so they have very few reviews (although like many, the few that do show up seem to be very positive).

 

[jeannest]

I agree. I've tried and hated the juices with the best reviews. I'm very juice fussy. One of the most loved juice on the forums is Ms.T's Snickerdoodle Cookie. I ordered Snickerdoodle and it was so disgusting that I threw the atty out after sampling it! I let it steep for a few weeks and added a little sweetener and it was delicious. I discovered that I don't like juice without a lot of sweetener.

I've probably spent $1000's of dollars on juice and prefilled cartos and I still order more each week (just ordered another 4 bottles tonight). After all of these years, I really don't have an all day vape and that makes me sad. I like a lot of the sweet flavors; I just get sick of them quickly. Can't vape them for more than an hour.

It is frustrating when you read a ton of good reviews and the flavor is terrible. I just got 30ml of lemon poundcake juice from a popular vendor. It had great reviews. I won't name the vendor as I'm still hoping it improves with steeping, but it was actually disgusting. I almost threw up!

 

[Dusty_D]

Since this is not a "review" per se, I'm moving this thread to General Eliquid Discussion.

 

[signer]

I've probably spent $1000's of dollars on juice and prefilled cartos and I still order more each week (just ordered another 4 bottles tonight). After all of these years, I really don't have an all day vape and that makes me sad. I like a lot of the sweet flavors; I just get sick of them quickly. Can't vape them for more than an hour.

I've spent a lot of money on hardware thinking that was the problem. I now realize it is the juice I am having issues with. I would get a juice that has 5-stars up and down, and I would dislike it. I thought my problem had to be my hardware - the whole world likes it, so the issue must be me. Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. I actually think I would be happy going full-time to 808 or 510 sticks that I like for the form factor if I could find a juice to put in them.

I really think most people would rather heap praise on something than criticize it, and that may be the source of the wonderful reviews on every single liquid out there. I personally have a hard time coming to the conclusion that I wasted money, so I'll subconciously
convince myself that I like something until it becomes impossible to keep pretending. I've given good reviews on things the day after I receive them, only to wish two weeks later that I could scrub everything I wrote. So I am guilty too.

I also think McGarnagle is right that vendor-website reviews are filtered - if you own the website, then you can control what is on it to your benefit. That's just business.

Thanks all for the feedback and letting me know that I not alone.

 

[DaveP]

Over the last three years I've bought enough individual juices to fill a shoe box and that's not total bottles, that's individual flavors and brands. There are few that I would buy on a regular basis and maybe 10 or less that I really liked and found to be worthy of a second order. I tend to favor those juices that satisfy the tobacco taste with additives like subtle caramel, some sweetness, and a good hit that isn't harsh. I want to feel it a little as it passes my throat, but not afterward. I don't care for harsh peppery vapes, but a slight after effect isn't bad. A vague peppery after taste on the tongue is ok, but don't make me feel like I need to cough it out.

You never know what you are going to get when you order any juice. It's a gamble until you find a supplier who has a repeatable process. I think far too many vendors buy in quantities and bottle it in small bottles. I wonder sometimes it they even try each batch before bottling up 100 bottles.

I get soap taste, weak taste, yuck taste, and unidentifiable juice that hardly resembles it's name and description. You have to want some sort of clearinghouse for juice in a wine taster sort of way. I'd like to see juice reviewed according to a specific form that lists type, color, flavor, taste, throat hit, aftertaste, aroma, and a comment field where the reviewer describes their reaction to a vape of the juice.

I guess I need to travel to a show where I can walk around and sample juice in a 306 dripper atty. It's disheartening to order 3 or 4 bottles and have to let them sit for two weeks and try again. I like maybe 2 or 3 of ten that I try.

A YouTube search for "review ejuice" just returned 31,800 hits. Maybe that's where I need to spend some time.

 

[Robino1]

And then you have people like me.

Let's use HHV's Sludge (formerly known as Gollum) as the example.

I do not like it. I know people that absolutely love it. Is it fair for me to write a review that says the juice sucked when it's my personal taste that doesn't play well with the juice? I know several friends that have it in their regular rotation, they know that I don't like it and that's ok. I know they love it, that's ok too

Because people have such different tastes, it's really hard to give a juice a bad review. In fact, rarely do I even review a juice because of that fact. The only time i read reviews of juices is when the description is very vague and i need something more concrete on what the flavor resembles. Hardware, on the other hand, is not taste subjective but is subjective to a persons ability to work the product.

 

[Kopfstimmen]

And then you have people like me.

Let's use HHV's Sludge (formerly known as Gollum) as the example.

I do not like it. I know people that absolutely love it. Is it fair for me to write a review that says the juice sucked when it's my personal taste that doesn't play well with the juice? I know several friends that have it in their regular rotation, they know that I don't like it and that's ok. I know they love it, that's ok too

Because people have such different tastes, it's really hard to give a juice a bad review. In fact, rarely do I even review a juice because of that fact. The only time i read reviews of juices is when the description is very vague and i need something more concrete on what the flavor resembles. Hardware, on the other hand, is not taste subjective but is subjective to a persons ability to work the product.

Have to agree with Robino1 here. If a juice is bad (to me), I won't even bother to review it. First, it may be my tastes, and second, I can't be bothered to review something I don't like. (Although I should mention that I had one reviewer chastise me here on ECF for making it look like I was "just trying to make them look good" if I only bothered with 4 or 5 stars.) Having said that, I do pay a little attention to the bad reviews, and I do see them, but I pay MUCH more attention to the number of reviews. If I see some juices that have a lot of generally good reviews, I will definitely trust them more than the juices on the same website with no reviews. If a vendor has multiple reviews on everything, but all of them are good, I just tend to stay away.

 

[boomerdude]

I tend to go by word of mouth. If a lot of folks say a juice is outstanding then I'll give it a try. Funny thing is, after trying all the Boba's and Gandalfs with some Blondie and Dragon's excretions ( Blood, Sweat and Tears ) I have found only two juices that taste five star to me. Both were samples and I got bigger bottles later. Black Honey Tobacco by Vapor Dudes and RY4 by Timeless Vapor were great. The reviews were mixed. Go figure?

 

[mommyofdoom]

Have you looked at the vaporrater.com website?

The reviewer is a professional chef and is an ECF member. Great info.

 

[Bookworm]

I agree with Robino1 as well. I feel badly about leaving negative reviews because it may just be my taste buds. Taste is so subjective. I have only left reviews for my very favorite juices.

 

[p-doze]

i'm still pretty new to this vaping thing, but learned one thing about reviews, and that's that there needs to be a large volume, say 50+ for one product before a good average happens. every product will have vocal supporters and detractors, and people that give everything 5 stars (like the people on facebook that LIKE everything). once you get a good number of reviews, the fluffers and the haters are outweighed by usable reviews with substance IMO. we could all make the e-liquid reviews better by adding in what setup we were using, what mix and nicotine levels we had (since lots of liquids only have reviews for the flavor itself, and not the variations available), and if any steeping was done. it boils down to the fact that i hate fluff reviews that just say 'love it!' or 'awesome!', or some other variation that's useless to the person looking for a review that can help them make a better purchase.

i've put liquid in a tank just a few minutes after taking it out of the mailbox and it'll taste one way, then go back to it a month later, and it will taste different, and usually better, but as the reader of a review, you have no idea whether anyone steeped it, let it rest, or it's just a troll going around and giving their competitors bad reviews...

 

[boomerdude]

Yes, but doesn't it work both ways? Your taste buds may like it but to others it may be horrid.

I agree with Robino1 as well. I feel badly about leaving negative reviews because it may just be my taste buds. Taste is so subjective. I have only left reviews for my very favorite juices.

 

[John Alexander]

Yes, but doesn't it work both ways? Your taste buds may like it but to others it may be horrid.

A good reason not to take those reviews too seriously. I recently purchased a "5-star" flavor that tasted like laundry detergent (not that I really know what that tastes like).

 

[McGarnagle]

I agree with Robino1 as well. I feel badly about leaving negative reviews because it may just be my taste buds. Taste is so subjective. I have only left reviews for my very favorite juices.

I am pretty careful to note if it's personal preference or simply a bad juice. I just did a review where my bad reviews are all ones that either don't represent what they are supposed to taste like, such as the coffee vapes that taste burnt or like popcorn. That's not really subjective. I know what coffee tastes like, and if it doesn't taste like coffee I am not about to give it a good review. Same thing with ones that taste like perfume or chemicals or paper. Unnatural or incorrect flavors should definitely be noted as poor.

I am also sure some vendors simply make bad batches. I think this occurred recently to me. There was a flavor that could in no way taste like they meant it to taste. Yet this also points out poor quality control by the vendor.

 

[Rin13]

I do believe that some places censor their ratings. If you notice, most places say that your comment is held for approval. Which is strange. However, I've been lucky enough that I haven't really had any bad experiences (vape wise) so far. Sure there are flavors I don't care for but I don't hold that against the vendor and specifically state that if I rate lower. That's one of the reasons I like Perfumer's Apprentice, the reviews aren't all sunshine and flowers and the vendor knows that. Taste is subjective.