Three different vendors, six flavors

[RevDave]

Howdy folks, I'm glad you stopped by!

So I've been vaping for little over a month now, and I'm fully onboard, but I thought I would shared what I've learned over the past few weeks.

First of all, it seems really hard to find a good, non biased review of products, vendors, or flavors. I'm not saying I'm going to be different, but I think we're all just a little too excited here about a brand new product, and we might not be as careful in our judgments as we were with tobacco. How many of us smoked the same brand of cigarettes as our first cigarette, before we found a flavor and company we liked? I don't mean to be critical, but it seems that every review I've read, and especially the videos, all seem to follow the same script. The videos go like this: reviewer talks about how great the is company they order supplies from, they tell the name of the flavor, they vape for five minutes making pleased sounds, and then they describe the flavor as either their everyday vape or a close second. Terms like "fruity" are thrown around to describe fruit flavored juices, and "close tobacco flavor" to describe the tobacco flavors... it's nice that we're all nice, but it's okay to not like things once in a while. Sorry about the rant, here, I'll get to the reviews in a second.

OK, so I started on a Joye 510, and loved it, but quickly realized that I needed something with a longer life span for nights that I was out playing a gig or just on the town. So I upgraded to an eGo, and I'm using the 510 as my back up. I've tested all the flavors in both devices, and will gladly try them in a Screwdriver or mod box, if someone cares to give me one for free...

The first four juices were all from Nicotine Nirvana, which is a great vendor out of Nevada, and has already gained a reputation for their excellent customer care, speedy delivery, and free shipping on ALL purchases. Two of the flavors were the Chinese flavors that many companies carry, I opted for Camel Turkish Blend and Chocolate. The Camel blend was nothing like a Camel cigarette, but it was leaps and bounds beyond the 5 Marlboro carts that everyone gets with their starter kits. Those carts were nasty to me, and had a bitter sickly sweet taste like artificial sweetener mixed with wax. The Camel blend has a mild sweetness with a very lite coppery undertone. Chocolate is definitely chocolate, almost a dark chocolate with sort of a burnt aroma. My girlfriend loved the chocolate and thought Camel smelled more like a cigarette. I favored the Camel, personally.

The next two flavors to arrive from NN were advertised as US hand made juice, the American Blend and Tiramisu. My first impression of the American Blend was that it had similar qualities to the Marlboro carts: a little too sweet, with an acrid metal overtone. The American is the most popular flavor that NN has, though, and I've heard that juice needs to age a few days, so I set it aside. This left me with Tiramisu.

Now I've never eaten tiramisu, I don't eat sweets that much, diabetes has taken the limbs of enough of my family, thank you, but I do drink a lot of coffee. As a testament to how much coffee I drink, my first thought about Tiramisu was that it tasted like a warm Starbucks Mocha Frapaccino. If you don't know what that is, go to your nearest store, buy one, drink it, and come back.... Back? Good. Now imagine that flavor warm, and that's Tiramisu. There is a smooth creamy quality to this flavor, buttery with tasteful hints of chocolate. I admit I set all the other flavors aside and went through an entire bottle on two weeks.

At that point I went back to the American blend and found that it was a good when used to cut the extreme Chocolate flavor, but I decided to sample a few other companies. I ordered New York Cheesecake from Juicy Vapor and Kick-Azz Caramel from Mad Vapes. Both juices took around the same amount of time for delivery (about three days) but Mad Vapes had the cheapest price on the net for juice.

The Cheesecake, hmm, the thing I've noticed is that it doesn't taste like cheesecake at all. It's got a nice buttery flavor, which I liked in the Tiramisu, but then the primary flavors seem to be a mix of coconut and Grahm crackers. I like it but cheesecake is a misnomer, maybe macaroon would work better.

And that leaves Kick-Azz Caramel from Mad Vapes. This flavor tastes nothing like what I imagined, and it would be a lie to say I'm not disappointed. It reminds me more of ribbon candy than anything, or undercooked caramel that hasn't had time to sink into its flavor. It's a very sweet juice, very bright and almost spicy. It's not horrible, but just very sweet, and a little perfumey.

So a quick recap of juices from worst to best:

Marlboro knock off carts get my lowest score of 1 lung. Please, vendors, stop trying to push your worst crap on us!

Kick-Azz Caramel, from Mad Vapes gets 2 lungs for being way too perfumey, and too sweet.

American Blend, from Nicotine Nirvana, gets 3 lungs from me, but keep in mind that it's their most popular blend, so maybe I'm picky.

Camel from China gets 3 lungs. It's just so so.

Chocolate from China gets 3 lungs. It lacks a subtlety that could make it great.

New York Cheesecake, from Juicy Vapor gets 4 lungs from me. It's a good juice, but doesn't taste like cheesecake at all.

Tiramisu, from Nicotine Nirvana gets a full 5 lungs! By far, the best of all of these flavors...

I should get some more!

 

[joelongwood]

Excellent review, RevDave! Well-written and to the point...........I particularly like your "lung" rating system.
I haven't tried any of the juices you reviewed, but you've piqued my curiosity regarding Tiramisu. I just may have to order some. Thanks.

 

[lasttango]

I think people tend to post the positive and not post the negative.

If something doesn't have a lot of good reviews, it might mean no one bothered to review it or that it is horrible.

In any case, it is difficult to post a "negative" review... an unbiased negative review because it's easier to announce: "I like it too!" than it is... "well, you all might have liked it, but I think it sucks..."

I don't appreciated a negative review unless it is a negative review about someone's service... or that you were treated badly... or repeated experiences with defective equipment.

The more descriptive a review, the better.
I am trying myself to get away from the good/bad... two stars/three stars rating system and aspiring to be more descriptive... like... instead of "bad" I might say, juice heated up too quickly and flavor seemed harsh to me... or... this vendor's tobacco tastes like this other vendors... tastes less like a burning cigarette and more like a fresh tobacco leaf...

A lot of vendors are family here and I don't think they deserve a knock from me unless they treated me poorly. Taste is subjective...

My palate is my palate... and while that ultimately takes away from the credibility of my favorable reviews... again, it's easier and better spirited to say "I like it toooooooooo" than it is to say... "I think it was horrible..."

Good luck with your vaping... lots of good stuff out there to try...

 

[RevDave]

Taste is subjective, or at least what people like is subjective, and I don't think the vendors need a knock either, since it's such a small community still. But even if they are like family, wouldn't it be important to let them know what you think of a flavor of juice, rather than let them make a vat of it, try to sell it, and just get a lot of bad reviews? I think it's reasonable to like someone, like their service, like how they conduct business, but still expect that on occassion they are going to make a product that you don't like. That shouldn't effect your relationship with them, or their service.

I'll probably order from all these people again, but I might not order some of the juices I reviewed. It's not like they only carry the flavors I reviewed. Take the Kick-Azz Caramel from Mad Vapes: if someone likes perfumey super sweet juice, then they will love that flavor, but for me, I'm going to need to cut it with something more buttery. It's just too sweet for me. I'm not knocking Mad Vapes, or their entire product line, just not a fan of one particular flavor.

 

[David Bruno]

Thanks for the review. Rev D, I got to tell you, you look like a twin brother to my old bass player, Paul Corneki. Man they say every soul has a look a like!

 

[Vapnub]

Thanks for the review very helpful. And I completely agree, I would tell my family member the good the bad and the ugly. If you are so quick to agree with everyone else about product reviews then your not doing the product or the readers any justice.