I tend to research the crap out of everything I order on the internet, and e-juice is no exception. I came across many favorable reviews of Mountain Oak Vapors, on this forum and others, so I thought I would give them a shot.
They have a few specials going right now, so I decided to buy three 30ml bottles of juice.
** Please note: These are first impressions on juice that was less than a week in the bottle. More comments on that below.**
1) The first flavor I tried was Blue Ridge. It is part of their 'Tennessee Tobacco' line. I filled up my Phoenix RBA w/ SS mesh and gave it a vape. Wow, that was nasty! Let me try it again. Ugh....still nasty! This juice flavor actually made me a bit nauseous! I had to put the PV down and get a glass of water. I was taken aback because almost every single review I read about this said this was an all day vape. Some people even put this in their Top 5 All Time. There was almost NO blueberry character like it was supposed to have. There was a slight 'wild blueberry' note in the background, but not what I was expecting. Most other reviews called this a 'real' blueberry flavor, as opposed to a candy-type flavor, but I sure havent had a blueberry like that. It had this overpowering taste that perhaps resembled some sort of tobacco, but no tobacco I have ever vaped (or smoked). Keep in mind I have been vaping for almost 2 years, and I have tried dozens and dozens of flavors. My Phoenix was on a fresh wick/coil @ 2.0 ohms. Just to make sure it wasnt my gear causing problems, I emptied/dry burned, and loaded another familiar flavor. Nope, tastes great.
Blue Ridge - 2 Thumbs down!
2) Eager to shake off that bad first experience, I cleaned everything up and loaded the second flavor I purchased from them - Classic CountRY4. This is also part of their Tennessee Tobacco line. Same background story here - lots of great reviews, 'its the best RY4 I have ever had,' etc etc. Here we go, first vape. Dammit! Not again! It tastes bad! A different kind of bad, but still bad. It has absolutely no integration, there is a weird woodiness, and I almost thought I tasted clove? The juice actually smells pretty decent, but the flavor is a complete put-off. I am getting pretty frustrated at this point. I know its not my gear causing the problem, and now I am sitting on 60ml of juice that I want to throw away.
Classic CountRY4 - 2 Thumbs down!
3) Okay - it took a lot of courage to load up the last flavor in the shipment - Legendary. This is part of their 'Dark Temptations' line. This flavor is described as a 'Chocolate-Caramel Banana Nut Bread.' Hopefully their Tennessee Tobacco base is my big hangup, and this juice will be their saving grace. The juice smells nice. It has a warm, creamy-caramelly banana smell, with a background of nuts. I get no chocolate on the nose. Lets load this up and take a vape. Hey, not too bad! The banana comes through pretty nice, but the flavor is fairly one-dimensional. With a name like Legendary, I was expecting a bit more. I taste a bit of nuts on the exhale, and for a split second I got the whole 'banana bread' thing, but then it was gone. Still no chocolate. Dang, I was looking forward to that one, especially since one of my favorite all-time flavors is Belgium Cocoa. The vape seems heavy or weighed down, not light like I would expect a fresh piece of banana bread to be.
Legendary - One thumb up, one thumb down! Mostly because it wasnt a total failure like the other two.
** Okay - my overall thoughts on these juices. I noted above that these juices were less than a week old. I gave all three juices a heavy steep (30 mins in a warm-hot water bath, shook them all vigorously, and repeated 3 times for a total of 2 hours), and then left the lids off in my laundary room cabinet for a week. The juices improved fairly considerably on the first two. I can actually vape the Blue Ridge and RY4 for a brief time now, but no where near all-day status. The Legendary didn't change that much in flavor, but everything seemed to integrate a bit more. I still find all three flavors to lack 'pop' - there is just nothing here that is really exciting my taste buds like many other juices I have tried.
I do not believe that steeping should be a requirement for juices to be palatable. I am a winemaker in Northern California, so I know all about the need to age certain wines to bring out their complexity and approachability. BUT those are wines, and this is e-liquid. My main reason for vaping is to satisfy that craving most of us have that would normally be satisfied by smoking/chewing. Yes, I really enjoy some of the flavors, but I do not want to have to leave a bottle of juice sitting around for a month for it to be enjoyable. If you are going to produce juices that require a steep before even tasting good, I think you should really tell people that.
They have a few specials going right now, so I decided to buy three 30ml bottles of juice.
** Please note: These are first impressions on juice that was less than a week in the bottle. More comments on that below.**
1) The first flavor I tried was Blue Ridge. It is part of their 'Tennessee Tobacco' line. I filled up my Phoenix RBA w/ SS mesh and gave it a vape. Wow, that was nasty! Let me try it again. Ugh....still nasty! This juice flavor actually made me a bit nauseous! I had to put the PV down and get a glass of water. I was taken aback because almost every single review I read about this said this was an all day vape. Some people even put this in their Top 5 All Time. There was almost NO blueberry character like it was supposed to have. There was a slight 'wild blueberry' note in the background, but not what I was expecting. Most other reviews called this a 'real' blueberry flavor, as opposed to a candy-type flavor, but I sure havent had a blueberry like that. It had this overpowering taste that perhaps resembled some sort of tobacco, but no tobacco I have ever vaped (or smoked). Keep in mind I have been vaping for almost 2 years, and I have tried dozens and dozens of flavors. My Phoenix was on a fresh wick/coil @ 2.0 ohms. Just to make sure it wasnt my gear causing problems, I emptied/dry burned, and loaded another familiar flavor. Nope, tastes great.
Blue Ridge - 2 Thumbs down!
2) Eager to shake off that bad first experience, I cleaned everything up and loaded the second flavor I purchased from them - Classic CountRY4. This is also part of their Tennessee Tobacco line. Same background story here - lots of great reviews, 'its the best RY4 I have ever had,' etc etc. Here we go, first vape. Dammit! Not again! It tastes bad! A different kind of bad, but still bad. It has absolutely no integration, there is a weird woodiness, and I almost thought I tasted clove? The juice actually smells pretty decent, but the flavor is a complete put-off. I am getting pretty frustrated at this point. I know its not my gear causing the problem, and now I am sitting on 60ml of juice that I want to throw away.
Classic CountRY4 - 2 Thumbs down!
3) Okay - it took a lot of courage to load up the last flavor in the shipment - Legendary. This is part of their 'Dark Temptations' line. This flavor is described as a 'Chocolate-Caramel Banana Nut Bread.' Hopefully their Tennessee Tobacco base is my big hangup, and this juice will be their saving grace. The juice smells nice. It has a warm, creamy-caramelly banana smell, with a background of nuts. I get no chocolate on the nose. Lets load this up and take a vape. Hey, not too bad! The banana comes through pretty nice, but the flavor is fairly one-dimensional. With a name like Legendary, I was expecting a bit more. I taste a bit of nuts on the exhale, and for a split second I got the whole 'banana bread' thing, but then it was gone. Still no chocolate. Dang, I was looking forward to that one, especially since one of my favorite all-time flavors is Belgium Cocoa. The vape seems heavy or weighed down, not light like I would expect a fresh piece of banana bread to be.
Legendary - One thumb up, one thumb down! Mostly because it wasnt a total failure like the other two.
** Okay - my overall thoughts on these juices. I noted above that these juices were less than a week old. I gave all three juices a heavy steep (30 mins in a warm-hot water bath, shook them all vigorously, and repeated 3 times for a total of 2 hours), and then left the lids off in my laundary room cabinet for a week. The juices improved fairly considerably on the first two. I can actually vape the Blue Ridge and RY4 for a brief time now, but no where near all-day status. The Legendary didn't change that much in flavor, but everything seemed to integrate a bit more. I still find all three flavors to lack 'pop' - there is just nothing here that is really exciting my taste buds like many other juices I have tried.
I do not believe that steeping should be a requirement for juices to be palatable. I am a winemaker in Northern California, so I know all about the need to age certain wines to bring out their complexity and approachability. BUT those are wines, and this is e-liquid. My main reason for vaping is to satisfy that craving most of us have that would normally be satisfied by smoking/chewing. Yes, I really enjoy some of the flavors, but I do not want to have to leave a bottle of juice sitting around for a month for it to be enjoyable. If you are going to produce juices that require a steep before even tasting good, I think you should really tell people that.
