Last night, after a lovely dinner, a group of my friends and I sat back and tried something new- a vaping party. I had initially planned only to get a half dozen flavors, but since vapedudes had a 40% sale going on, I indulged in getting a bunch of flavors to try. Naturally, everybody has slightly different tastes, so the nice thing is that I can report the general impressions of a group of five people.
The settings: the e-liquid was dripped into a Boge 3 ohm carto, which was then screwed into a version 1 Provari set to 4.5 volts. I went back afterwards and re-tried a couple of them at higher voltage settings, but these are the settings that were used. All of the e-liquids were nicotine free. All strengths were "standard," whatever that means. I didn't want one to win because it potentially had a higher concentration than the others or something.
I'm going to give my impressions (as a longtime vapor) first and then those of my friends afterwards.
One final note: All of the liquids tasted sweet from the pg/vg mix. I'm not sure what it is, but I would have liked to have had less sweetness from the mix, as it occasionally overwhelmed the flavors.
The flavors: Classic Menthol, Classic Tobacco, Chocolate Candy Cane, Candy Cane, Cinnamon Roll, Grape Vape, Key Lime Pie, Orange Cream, Strawberry Shortcake, Coffee, Hazlenut Coffee, Irish Coffee.
Cinnamon Roll: Pleasant. Buttery frosting flavor with a touch of cinnamon I thought. Others thought it tasted of freshly baked bread. One person couldn't taste anything. I think this flavor needed to have a higher concentration. Increasing the voltage didn't really do much of anything to it. Flavor is noticably weak, but pleasant.
Key Lime Pie: Mainly tasted of graham cracker, with the barest hint of lime. Needs a higher concentration, but needs more lime flavor as well. One or two others liked it. The others couldn't tell the difference between the key lime pie and the cinnamon roll we had just tried. This one still needs work. Higher voltage only emphasized the graham cracker flavor, although gave it maybe a slightly toasted flavor, reminiscent of smores. All agree that this flavor in a smores type mixture at a higher voltage would be phenomenal.
Strawberry Shortcake: This one is kind of funny. I thought the liquid smelled of Frankenberry cereal. On tasting though, we all thought the same thing (we're all children of the 80's). When I was a kid, there was a cartoon character known as Strawberry Shortcake who had a doll line (naturally- it was the 80's after all) which had the unique setup that each of the dolls smelled like their namesake (strawberry shortcake, chocolate, blueberry and other flavors that I'm damned if I remember). All of this is to get around to saying that we all thought that this flavor tasted like the perfume from the Strawberry Shortcake doll smelled. Very artificial. Like a sweet artificial strawberry. This one needs serious work.
Chocolate Candy Cane: Nice. Both flavors are distinctly present. The chocolate is there, but the candy cane is also present. And it's not just peppermint, it is actually candy cane- a sweet peppermint. The peppermint is not sharp. People seemed to like this but weren't impressed with it. Needed a higher concentration, but the flavor seemed pretty solid.
Classic Tobacco: This tastes like the way a cigarette smells when you first open a pack. If that is a flavor you enjoy, this is definately for you. I, however, do not particularly care for it and so didn't enjoy it. Neither did my friends, although all could recognize it for what it was. Strength seems spot on. Did not try at higher voltage, amusedly wondered if doing so would give it enough of a harsh toasty flavor to taste more like what a cigarette tastes like when it is actually burning.
Actually, now I'm curious. I'm goign to try that now. Hold on a tick.
...
Nope, not really. Didn't think it would. It does survive nicely at higher voltages, but the sweetness of the pg/vg mix becomes more pronounced at the higher voltage. Can't say I care for this one at all, but again- I don't like the taste of the smell of tobacco in a cigarette.
Orange Cream: A nice, pleasant orange with just perhaps the barest hint of some vanilla. I thought it tasted more like an Orangina. Others also agreed that while the orange flavor was very nice (tasted like real orange, not candy orange or anything like that) there was no question that there was no real cream flavor. Strength seemed okay, but the flavor needs a bit more work.
Hazlenut Coffee: WOW. This was great. It tastes like coffee which has hazlenut syrup added to it. Really spot on. Delicious. Everybody loved it. This was the clear winner of the evening. If you're going to try any of the flavors, this is the one. Went back afterward and vaped it at higher voltages, and it just got better, acquiring a toasted hazlenut flavor with the coffee that was really just delish. The only person who didn't think that this was the greatest was one person who thought it was second best but loved the plain coffee even more.
Classic Menthol: This should be called Classic Menthol Tobacco. I was expecting just menthol. In fact, I could barely notice a difference in taste between this and the Classic Tobacco. Nor could anybody else. Dissapointing. Strength was okay, but needs more menthol. The menthol is only barely there in the background. Can't tell if it is because it needs more menthol, or because the tobacco flavor completely overwhelms the menthol.
Grape Vape: Harsh. Set me to coughing, throat felt sore from it. But I was the only one affected like this, so maybe it was just me. This tasted of fake grape, a flavor which I particularly loathe, but my wife adores. She enjoyed it, as did others. If you like the flavor of fake grape, this one seems okay, though the flavor could be stronger. If you don't like fake grape, avoid.
Coffee: Seemed harsh to me, not a great coffee flavor. Others had mixed reactions, with my sister loving the hell out of it and declaring it her favorite. With such a wide variety of opinions, this one is difficult to judge. Try at your own risk.
Irish Coffee: I taste the coffee, I don't taste the Irish. Nobody could really distinguish this flavor from the Coffee flavor, although my wife insisted that the *smell* of the exhaled vapor smelled very Irish. Sister liked the original Coffee better.
Candy Cane: Nice pleasant candy cane flavor. Sweet peppermint, with the peppermint not too sharp. Could have been a stronger mix. People just kind of shrugged. It's okay, but nothing to write home over.
Whew. That took a while, but I feel better for it. I'd like to repeat that I'd like the pg/vg mix altered so that it was less sweet overall. It works for certain sweet flavors, but generally it detracts from the flavors.
The settings: the e-liquid was dripped into a Boge 3 ohm carto, which was then screwed into a version 1 Provari set to 4.5 volts. I went back afterwards and re-tried a couple of them at higher voltage settings, but these are the settings that were used. All of the e-liquids were nicotine free. All strengths were "standard," whatever that means. I didn't want one to win because it potentially had a higher concentration than the others or something.
I'm going to give my impressions (as a longtime vapor) first and then those of my friends afterwards.
One final note: All of the liquids tasted sweet from the pg/vg mix. I'm not sure what it is, but I would have liked to have had less sweetness from the mix, as it occasionally overwhelmed the flavors.
The flavors: Classic Menthol, Classic Tobacco, Chocolate Candy Cane, Candy Cane, Cinnamon Roll, Grape Vape, Key Lime Pie, Orange Cream, Strawberry Shortcake, Coffee, Hazlenut Coffee, Irish Coffee.
Cinnamon Roll: Pleasant. Buttery frosting flavor with a touch of cinnamon I thought. Others thought it tasted of freshly baked bread. One person couldn't taste anything. I think this flavor needed to have a higher concentration. Increasing the voltage didn't really do much of anything to it. Flavor is noticably weak, but pleasant.
Key Lime Pie: Mainly tasted of graham cracker, with the barest hint of lime. Needs a higher concentration, but needs more lime flavor as well. One or two others liked it. The others couldn't tell the difference between the key lime pie and the cinnamon roll we had just tried. This one still needs work. Higher voltage only emphasized the graham cracker flavor, although gave it maybe a slightly toasted flavor, reminiscent of smores. All agree that this flavor in a smores type mixture at a higher voltage would be phenomenal.
Strawberry Shortcake: This one is kind of funny. I thought the liquid smelled of Frankenberry cereal. On tasting though, we all thought the same thing (we're all children of the 80's). When I was a kid, there was a cartoon character known as Strawberry Shortcake who had a doll line (naturally- it was the 80's after all) which had the unique setup that each of the dolls smelled like their namesake (strawberry shortcake, chocolate, blueberry and other flavors that I'm damned if I remember). All of this is to get around to saying that we all thought that this flavor tasted like the perfume from the Strawberry Shortcake doll smelled. Very artificial. Like a sweet artificial strawberry. This one needs serious work.
Chocolate Candy Cane: Nice. Both flavors are distinctly present. The chocolate is there, but the candy cane is also present. And it's not just peppermint, it is actually candy cane- a sweet peppermint. The peppermint is not sharp. People seemed to like this but weren't impressed with it. Needed a higher concentration, but the flavor seemed pretty solid.
Classic Tobacco: This tastes like the way a cigarette smells when you first open a pack. If that is a flavor you enjoy, this is definately for you. I, however, do not particularly care for it and so didn't enjoy it. Neither did my friends, although all could recognize it for what it was. Strength seems spot on. Did not try at higher voltage, amusedly wondered if doing so would give it enough of a harsh toasty flavor to taste more like what a cigarette tastes like when it is actually burning.
Actually, now I'm curious. I'm goign to try that now. Hold on a tick.
...
Nope, not really. Didn't think it would. It does survive nicely at higher voltages, but the sweetness of the pg/vg mix becomes more pronounced at the higher voltage. Can't say I care for this one at all, but again- I don't like the taste of the smell of tobacco in a cigarette.
Orange Cream: A nice, pleasant orange with just perhaps the barest hint of some vanilla. I thought it tasted more like an Orangina. Others also agreed that while the orange flavor was very nice (tasted like real orange, not candy orange or anything like that) there was no question that there was no real cream flavor. Strength seemed okay, but the flavor needs a bit more work.
Hazlenut Coffee: WOW. This was great. It tastes like coffee which has hazlenut syrup added to it. Really spot on. Delicious. Everybody loved it. This was the clear winner of the evening. If you're going to try any of the flavors, this is the one. Went back afterward and vaped it at higher voltages, and it just got better, acquiring a toasted hazlenut flavor with the coffee that was really just delish. The only person who didn't think that this was the greatest was one person who thought it was second best but loved the plain coffee even more.
Classic Menthol: This should be called Classic Menthol Tobacco. I was expecting just menthol. In fact, I could barely notice a difference in taste between this and the Classic Tobacco. Nor could anybody else. Dissapointing. Strength was okay, but needs more menthol. The menthol is only barely there in the background. Can't tell if it is because it needs more menthol, or because the tobacco flavor completely overwhelms the menthol.
Grape Vape: Harsh. Set me to coughing, throat felt sore from it. But I was the only one affected like this, so maybe it was just me. This tasted of fake grape, a flavor which I particularly loathe, but my wife adores. She enjoyed it, as did others. If you like the flavor of fake grape, this one seems okay, though the flavor could be stronger. If you don't like fake grape, avoid.
Coffee: Seemed harsh to me, not a great coffee flavor. Others had mixed reactions, with my sister loving the hell out of it and declaring it her favorite. With such a wide variety of opinions, this one is difficult to judge. Try at your own risk.
Irish Coffee: I taste the coffee, I don't taste the Irish. Nobody could really distinguish this flavor from the Coffee flavor, although my wife insisted that the *smell* of the exhaled vapor smelled very Irish. Sister liked the original Coffee better.
Candy Cane: Nice pleasant candy cane flavor. Sweet peppermint, with the peppermint not too sharp. Could have been a stronger mix. People just kind of shrugged. It's okay, but nothing to write home over.
Whew. That took a while, but I feel better for it. I'd like to repeat that I'd like the pg/vg mix altered so that it was less sweet overall. It works for certain sweet flavors, but generally it detracts from the flavors.
