Review: DEKANG SILVER LABEL RY4
I've had these 2 x 10ml Bottles of Dekang Silver Label RY4 for the better part of 2 months now, this is a rock solid RY4, with an incredible Tobacco taste, imo. These bottles were gifted to me by a friend who had travelled to the Philippines and purchased these 2 bottles from a local B&M store there.
I initially thought these were just the common Dekang RY4, up until recently I posted a picture in the forum, and a member responded that it is either a Gold or Silver Label Dekang. I presume Gold or Silver Label would be of higher quality, versus regular, but I wouldn't know as I have never had a regular Dekang RY4 before.
The fact that it is a Silver Label explains the unusual bottle and labeling from the other regular Dekang bottles, or other bottles for that matter, marked with plain paper stickers. The label is of high quality and has a bright silver, hologram at the lower portion (see pic) that gives it a special, very "legit" look and feel to it. This
webpage indicates:
"The new bottle not refillable and world patent protected, consumers globally have the better rights to taste the authentic Dekang recipe with the use of new bottle.
Dekang will spare no effort to consolidate our image and spare no effort to crack down counterfeit" [sic]
When I received this, I was very excited to vape it right away. It tasted horrible. I mean really bad, like I was vaping a concentrated Raisin flavor with barely any tobacco taste. I had little hope that I would like it, even if steeped. I left the bottle alone for a few weeks, hoping that it would fix itself somehow, or maybe just to forget the yucky taste. After about a month, I tried again. It was a delightful surprise that after a little bit of steeping, it had transformed into a wonderful RY4 taste. Delicious tobacco with some sweetness, that is quite difficult to describe.
Honestly I don't detect Caramel here, nor Vanilla, both of which are quite present in other RY4's. It's another kind of fruity sweetener. As seen in the pictures, it does list Tobacco Extract in its ingredients, and interestingly, Cocoa. I presume the Tobacco Extract is what produces a very tasteful, smokey and solid Tobacco taste that is very different from the tobacco taste of so many RY4 on the market. It is a NET (which perhaps is an attribute of the Silver/Gold Labels?] According to the same
webpage previously quoted:
"Dekang is the only one who use high quality tobacco and bio extracts to make refilling liquid for electronic cigarette..." [sic]
I consumed the first bottle, and didn't break the second bottle open until shortly after that. This is when I discovered how essential it is, at least for this liquid, to be decanted. That second bottle that I opened tasted no different from the first, when I had opened that one. I then realized this needs some "air time." I decanted it by transferring to another bottle using a funnel, and then returned the rest in the original bottle, and let that sit for a few days, shaking and airing it out occasionally (I lose about 3 drops due to decanting). I took a vape and voila, what had initially taken a few weeks of closed bottle steeping on the first one, took only a couple of days on the second bottle, mostly due to having decanted it. I vaped a couple of tanks and left the rest alone until I consumed the remaining ~5ml over the last couple of days.
Throat hit is very present (I got 11mg Nic) and it is a 30/70 PG/VG mix (indicated, but not seen on the above pic), so it produces a tremendous amount of vapor, even on low voltage. Yet, it is very, very flavorful and delightlfully smokey, and clean. It's the kind of taste that would probably convert a common, hard headed, analoger towards ecigs right on the spot. Feels real, but exceptionally clean without the chemically, nor burned paper taste of analogs. Despite these familiar positive characteristics of an analog, there is that very subtle fruity-sweet flavor that is surprising in an RY4. This is fruity sweetness is extremely strong in a freshly opened bottle, but fades away into just a subtle hint after proper steeping/decanting.
Dekang does make a Gold Label as well. I wonder how that tastes? I try to source this liquid somewhere in the US, but my searches are not yielding any leads. Whatever I do find is available in Asia or Europe only. I'll keep looking. But in about 10 days, that friend of mine has family that is coming from the Philippines to visit the US, and I will be ordering a couple of 30ml bottles of this, and if possible, some Gold Label, too. Maybe share a little with some of you guys (maybe even trade) for your own assessment, and compare/contrast to other RY4's.
