Since the beginning of the thread, I've used my bottle of Madvapes Dekang pre-mix RY4 as the "reference standard"---the midline RY4 against which all other RY4s are compared and evaluated. That bottle was purchased ten months ago, back in November 2010. I have often wondered if the RY4 that Dekang sells today is the same juice
To satisfy my curiosity, two weeks ago I ordered a 50ml bottle of Dekang pre-mix RY4 from Health Cabin. Today the package arrived from China, carrying with it numerous fascinating revelations.
The white 50ml bottle and label design are exactly the same on the Madvapes and Health Cabin Dekang RY4s. But there the similarity ends. The MV DK is 24mg nic strength, whereas the HC DK is 26mg. Also, the juices inside the bottles are different colors: my MV DK is a deep amber transparency, while the HC DK is very pale gold. Obviously, not the same juice.
The color is also a clue to another interesting Ah-Ha: the pale gold of the Health Cabin Dekang RY4 is virtually identical to the colors of Dulcis, Bloog/Volt, Taboo, Elixir RY4, and Riskee. If they're different, I'd need a spectrometer to tell. To these old eyes of mine, they appear the same.
Now, on to flavor. I loaded some HC DK RY4 into a 1.7 ohm XL510 Resurrector carto, which is my new method for comparison-vaping RY4s. (I have 22 other RY4s from the list ready-and-waiting in either those cartos or mega XL dual coils, with enough batteries providing 4.0-4.2 volts that I can have four or five RY4s sitting right in front of me. That way, comparing one to another is as easy as putting down one PV and picking up another. It's the only way to comparison test without memory-lag getting in the way.)
My first comparison was to the Madvapes Dekang. I already knew these were not the same juices from the nic strength and color, but I was unprepared for how different they taste. Both are good, but the Madvapes is lean and sparse, bare-bones, almost ascetic. The flavors aren't subdued, but they are, shall we say, more laid back. By contrast, the Health Cabin is quite rich, especially in the relative intensity of the caramel and vanilla, although the tobacco is also fully present. Having just vaped the Madvapes carto a moment earlier, the first hit off the Health Cabin carto obliterated that in an explosion of flavor. Wow! Much richer.
To the best of my ability to tell, the recipe mixes are similar: same caramel, same vanilla, same tobacco base. Madvapes has no nut element at all, while Health Cabin has a very slight nuttiness---not sufficient to put it in the Nutty Category, but just enough to let me know it's there. (By contrast, Ikenvape RY4 Gold is strongly nutty.) Another difference: the sweetness of the Madvapes has a decided sugary taste, as if provided by cotton candy or ethyl malitol. In the Health Cabin version, the sweetness seems to come entirely from the ample caramel and vanilla, with no discernible sugar taste. Doesn't mean there's no sugar ingredient, but I can't taste one. Neither juice would qualify as a "dessert RY4," however, since both are obviously intended to achieve an overall balance of flavors. My new Dekang RY4 from Health Cabin just has more flavor---how much more? I'd guess about 20% richer.
OK, so far so good. Unless my Madvapes juice has degraded over ten months (which I don't believe, since it tastes the same to me as it always has), I now have first-hand experience to support the notion that Dekang has been messing with their RY4 recipe.
Next, I compared the Health Cabin to the top 10 RY4s in the current rankings. Five juices in that group are clearly different from the HC: Ikenvape RY4 Gold, Janty RY4, Vaperite VR4, PrimeVaping PV4, and BackwoodsBrew RY4. Not surprising, since all those juices are quite distinctive in their respective uniqueness.
The other five, however---VaporTalk Dulcis, Bloog/Volt RY4, LiquidXpress Taboo, Esmoke4Life Riskee, and Elixir RY4---were so similar to the Health Cabin Dekang RY4 that I had trouble distinguishing one from another. Compared to Dulcis, HC seems to have more tobacco and slightly less caramel. Compared to Bloog/Volt, I could discern no difference at all. And the distinctions with Taboo, Riskee, and Elixir were slight if any. Basically, if you blindfolded me and handed me one after another of these six juices to ape, I probably couldn't accurately identify them. Are they the same? I don't know. Perhaps not, but they're awfully close.
I'm not sure what to make of all this, but I'll hold off revising the Rankings until I see reactions and opinions from other readers of the thread.
One thing is certain: while Health Cabin Dekang pre-mix RY4 may not be the fabled "Lost Dekang RY4," it is good juice and a heck of a deal---a 50ml bottle of juice including shipping via 2-week EMS airmail from China cost me only $14.20 total. Works out to 28¢/ml shipped. Friends, that's hard to beat for what is arguably a Top 10 RY4.
replacement with....
