I have been thinking about what we call a classic RY4, have we be going by taste or by build here?
passer,
I go
entirely by taste (not just flavor alone, but all the various "qualities" of the vaping experience of the RY4). Ingredients and recipe mix aren't factored in much, if at all, because, well, I wasn't standing there next to the juice-master when the RY4 was made and don't ever know exactly what's in a given RY4. So, the end result is how I judge rather than the ingredients list.
You know, I started out this thread with just a single group: all RY4s. Early on, though, it became obvious that not all juices called RY4 actually were, while some juices with other names might as well have been RY4s. So, I started using the term
RY4-variants. But that confused some folks who weren't sure if I was dividing on a name-only or a flavor basis, so I ditched that and looked around for another simple terminology to do the apple vs. oranges thing, since duality is the most primary division of most everything: black/white, night/day, masculine/feminine, domestic/foreign, Mac/PC, breath mint/candy mint, live or memorex, etc. About six months ago, I was thinking about the general differences between Chinese and American RY4s, and I stumbled on the terms Classic and Custom, which seem to have taken root and blossomed. Not that there's anything sacred about those two words. I use the terms as a simple way to let people know how to compare a given RY4 to other RY4s, so I don't have to say, "No, this isn't like Janty or Dekang" in every review or post.
Basically, I use
Classic to mean: similar to most Chinese RY4s---bright, sparkly, emphasizing the upper register of the flavor spectrum, sweet (but not fully dessert sweet), based on tobacco-caramel-vanilla as the core (with other modifying flavors optional---nuts, primarily, but also cotton candy, marshmallow, toffee, etc.), with a balanced and blended flavor profile, mixed in recipe proportions where the tobacco base is not emphatic and recedes somewhat into the background, meaning that
Classic RY4s are tobacco blends in name only, rather than in actual taste.
Custom in my usage means:
everything else, or anything other than Classic. Could be deep or dark flavors, could be heavier bass notes, could mean other core flavors than the Big Three (like graham cracker or strawberry---you know,
gonzo flavors that wouldn't normally be associated with RY4), and with individual flavors that may be emphasized more separately or intensely in the overall profile. Any RY4 where the tobacco base is clearly distinctive and stands out is Custom to me. Same with certain RY4s that are caramel-dominant or vanilla-rich.
Two years ago, the majority of RY4s would have been Classic. In the past year, we've seen an explosion of Custom RY4s, which is now the bigger group.
I don't remember if I came up with those terms on my own or if I first saw them in a post on the thread by someone else. Not that it matters, because I don't give a hoot whether I made them up or "borrowed" them. Most everything I write on this thread is a trial balloon---I'm runnin' stuff up the flagpole to see who salutes, as they say on Madison Avenue. If it works, great! I'll use it. If it doesn't work, I toss it out and start over. If you write a post with an idea in it that I like, I'll steal it in a New York minute without any concern for who "owns" it or wrote it first. Besides having a good time, I hope to participate in developing a common language we can all share that works moderately well to help everyone understand what any one of us wants to express.
And I like to think we've done pretty well with that.
. . . 
