specs: The 30ml bottle of RY4 that I purchased from CrystalClearVaping contains a golden yellow-colored transparent liquid at 24mg nic strength in a 25/75 PG/VG base. Nose of the liquid is very mild and pleasant. Testing was done by dripping into a 2.2 ohm Joye SR510 atty powered by a VAMO set to 7.5 watts.
CrystalClearVaping is a longstanding hardware vendor that sells a limited line of custom-made juices---eight tobacco blends and two menthols. “Custom-made” might mean outsourced, but numerous posts on ECF about CCV's juices state that Andrew mixes his own juices, so perhaps they’re proprietary. In the spirit of full disclosure, let me admit that I'm reviewing this juice fresh out of the mail. If steeping changes the flavor of the juice, I’ll amend my review later.
First off, a small rant. I’d really like vendors to get the details straight. The web site name for this liquid is “RY4,’ while the label on the bottle reads “RY-4.” OK, so it’s just a hyphen. No big deal, right? Yeah, mostly. Still, the thought that nobody at CCV noticed and said,
“Hey, let’s correct this mistake and decide on one name” irks me. Note to vendors: Please pay attention, and get the details right! You’re running a business, not selling homemade jams and jellies off the back of an old pickup truck.
OK, rant over.
CCV's RY4 (or
RY-4, whatever…) is a liquid that seems to want to be a Classic RY4 but can’t be. Why not? Because the tobacco isn’t neutral enough. I’m not implying that the tobacco tastes bad. Tasting good or tasting bad are, to a large extent, in the mind of the individual vaper. I find this tobacco to have an interesting flavor---more cigar-like than is typical for RY4s of any ilk. Well then, is it similar to CigaRY4 from MyVapeCreations? Nope. MVC CigaRY4 is a rough-and-ready cigar tobacco, like a Maduro. By contrast, CCV RY4 is smooth, but with the flavor of a specialty cigar. It’s closer to a cross between two Want2Vape tobacco juices: Morley and Cold Infusion Cigar. Those aren’t RY4s, of course, but I’m referring only to the tobacco flavor. W2V’s C.I. Cigar is an aggressively potent and flavorful NET, but we could think of CCV RY4’s tobacco as a milder echo of that.
While I’m not in love with the taste of CCV RY4’s synthetic tobacco flavoring, I don’t dislike it, either.
What matters here is how the tobacco blends with the other flavorings (presumably, caramel and vanilla). For an RY4 to be Classic, the tobacco must not stand out and blend seamlessly with the other flavors to produce the unified RY4 taste. The tobacco in CCV RY4 doesn’t do either. It does stand out, and it doesn’t blend in.
Does that mean that I find this RY4 sub-par? No, it just means that CCV RY4 is not a Classic RY4 and must be considered from within the Custom RY4 genre. [Note: the caramel and vanilla operate very much in Classic mode here---which is why I wrote that CCV RY4 wants to be Classic---but the tobacco makes it Custom.]
As a Custom RY4, CCV’s juice holds its own well. The combination of caramel and vanilla is quite pleasing to my palate. Not too rich or sweet, but not too lean, either. Like Baby Bear’s porridge, the caramel-vanilla component is just right. The tobacco doesn’t really play with the caramel-vanilla, however, which is permitted in Custom RY4s. As I vape it, I’m reminded a bit of Professor Marvel’s Blend from Nashville Vapors, although the similarity is more in feeling than in actual flavor profile.
Lovers of dessert-style RY4s can pass on this one. It’s sweet, but the tobacco cuts the sweetness to below dessert levels. And those who love Classic RY4s will need to look elsewhere. Basically, CCV RY4 succeeds or fails depending on how the vaper feels about the tobacco. If you like the tobacco flavor, then you’ll love the juice (as the hangdude did in his mini-review oh-so-long ago, back in October 2001 in post
#791). If you don’t like the flavor of the tobacco, then the juice will end up languishing in your stash, PIF’d or sold in the Classies, or maybe even poured down the drain.
As a result, this is really either an
A juice or a
D juice, depending on the individual vaper. I can’t give it both grades, so I’ll call it a
B. My palate tells me that CCV RY4 is a juice that could grow on me, so don’t be surprised if my grade moves up to
B+ in the future.
[Note: CCV is having a sale on this juice right now: $11.25 for a 30ml bottle. All CCV’s products ship for free, so that's a darn good deal.]
Link to purchase:
CrystalClearVaping RY4
