This isnt a review, for reasons that will soon become clear.
Recently I read on ECF about a vendor I hadnt heard of previously---HeartlandVapes in Oklahoma City---offering high-quality liquid nicotine at very attractive prices. $74.99 for a liter of 100mg/ml liquid nic is the best retail price Ive seen anywhere, literally less than half what some vendors charge for that quantity.
So, I put a liter of it in my cart. I needed one penny more to qualify for "Free Shipping for orders over $75" and save $8.50 in postage, so I looked around the site to see what inexpensive item I might add to my cart to put my total over the top. Aha! There it was! A 5ml bottle of HY4 (Heartlands version of RY4) was only $1.99. Another RY4 to review and add to The Big RY4 List. I added the HY4 to my cart and checked out.
Cut to yesterday. My big box had arrived. Id checked out the liquid nic (which turned out to be as good as any liquid nic I've used) and written a review for the Nicotine Comparisons thread, and then it was time to try the HY4 and write a review of that.
I did my usual atty-drip test and was very impressed. Wow. HY4 turns out to be a rarity---an American-made RY4 with a Classic profile, which are about as common as hens teeth. (Almost all American-made RY4s are Custom.) On top of that, HY4 is a really great Classic RY4 to boot! Totally delicious. As I got ready to write the review, however, I ran up against two problems.
First, while the HeartlandVapes site states that their juices are "Made in the USA," thats all they say. Nothing about whether the juices are created and made in-house or if theyre totally or partially outsourced. Totally outsourced would mean that a juice manufacturer makes the juice---presumably to Heartlands recipe and spec, although that's not always the case---then bottles it, labels the bottles, and ships the finished bottles of juice to Heartland. Partial out-sourcing would imply that the flavorings for each juice are mixed elsewhere, then shipped to Heartland, which fills every order individually by adding bases and liquid nic and bottling the juice before adding their own printed labels. That's also common practice among numerous juice vendors.
I dont usually care much about such behind-the-scenes business practices, but I care this time because HY4 reminds me very much of another Classic RY4 Ive had. Unfortunately, I cant remember which RY4 that was. [When you have 140 RY4s, as I do, remembering how each one tastes is practically impossible.] So, thats the first problem. Is this an RY4 that Ive already vaped? Or at least very close to one Ive had? I comparison-vaped 10 or so other RY4s that seemed likely as possible suspects, but alas, none was a close match.
I went to the HeartlandVapes site to see if anything else was written that might give me a clue, and thats when I discovered the second problem. All the bottled juices (in 5, 10, 18, or 30ml bottles) are now marked Wholesale Customers Only---20 bottle minimum. Theres not even an Add to Cart button. Apparently, the customer has to call or send an email inquiry to order Heartland's bottled eliquids.
OK, what gives? Why was I---a humble retail customer---able to order a 5ml bottle of HY4 ten days ago? Did HeartlandVapes stop selling retail juice last week? Did my single 5ml bottle hassle Heartland so much that they gave up on retail juice sales entirely? I dont know. I did notice that Bulk E-Liquid could still be ordered by a regular customer (with an Add to Cart button and everything), but the smallest quantity was 250mls for $28.99. Now, thats a great price (12¢/ml), and the unit cost is even cheaper for larger quantities---a full liter of HY4 or any other juice Heartland sells is $74.99 or 7¢/ml---but Im not going to review any RY4 where people have to purchase 250mls of it, much less put that juice on The Big RY4 List.
I suppose I could call HeartlandVapes and ask, but I dont do that. My investigative reporting is limited to Google searches and reading online. One bad experience on the phone in 2010 with a whacko paranoid vendor who went ballistic and actually threatened me just for asking innocent questions was unpleasant enough to put me off ever doing that again.
So, the upshot is that this is not a review. All I can say is that HeartlandVapes HY4 is another superb RY4 that---like certain discontinued retail RY4s and most home-made DIY RY4s---cannot be obtained, at least not without jumping through hoops.
But AW batteries are pretty ridiculously expensive which is why I only have 2 of each size that I use in all my mods. And my main 2 (18350s that I use in my provari and my mechanicals) are getting up there in age. I own a couple Efest 14500s but they don't hold a good voltage as long as the AWs so I've been hesitant to buy more in the larger sizes. (although since 14500s drop their voltage so fast anyway, there might be a marked improvement in the Efest 18xxx's) 
or make a killing in the Black Market 
Looking at some of the old blurbs - it appears the 'vanilla' part was special - wondering if that was the part Don could no longer get?? Ejoker was discontinued at the time as well and some reviews noted vanilla, cinnamon and a hint of menthol on top of the tobacco.
