It’s that time again… This week I’ve got a pretty diverse lineup of new juices to rate and discuss in a variety of different flavors. I will tell you right off the bat that I really only liked about 3 of these juices, so if you’re one of those people who doesn’t think I should be saying anything negative about any juice, then this is your fair warning that you might not like what you’re about to read.

This week I primarily used 2 setups to test all of these. One is a 0.8 ohm single twisted kanthal coil Stillare that I use on a DNA30, and the other is my double barrel helio build that I posted a tutorial for last week. This build provides a super hot hit, and some of the most crystal clear flavor I’ve gotten from any device, and I have really been loving it.

So without further ado, let’s get on with the countdown!

#10 Alien Visions: English Toffee

I haven’t tried a ton of stuff from AVE. In fact, I think this is only the 4th juice I have sampled from them so far. Here’s what they say about it:

The best of English confections for your personal vaporizer.

Up to this point, I have been a big fan of everything I’ve tried from AVE. Unfortunately, this one really missed the mark.

Flavor wise, I don’t get any chocolate or toffee flavor at all – truly. The inhale is very plain with almost no flavor at all. The exhale doesn’t have a ton of flavor either except when you get to the very end, it has kind of a nasty finish to it. The only thing I can even think to compare it to is taking a huge lung hit of pure body odor. It’s nasty, sweaty and a little salty tasting and it is nearly nauseating.

Toffee is a favorite flavor of mine, and I’ve tried about 4-5 different toffee flavored juices so far and none of them have even been close to the real thing, so I wasn’t totally surprised that this one didn’t either. But the fact of the matter is, this one just ended up tasting outright bad. Bad to the point where it was difficult to keep vaping because the BO flavor on the exhale was so offensive – plus there’s the fact that there is literally no chocolate or toffee flavor to speak of.

I hate to put this one in last place because I thought it vaped awesome at 12mg – I was getting huge clouds and a massive throat hit which I always am really excited to see at lower nic levels. Unfortunately the flavor was so bad that this one was basically unvapable for me, so I had to put it below the others – which I didn’t necessarily care for either, but weren’t unvapable.

#9 Alice in Vapeland: Pun’kin Tumble

I’ve always liked pumpkin, and I have tried quite a few pumpkin vapes now with mixed success. This week it was AIV’s Punkin Tumble. Here’s what they say about it:

Rollin’ and tumblin’, Where did you go?

Oh where, oh where did my little Pumpkin roll? A delightful pumpkin cake rolled into a sweet vape!

I’ve gotten to the point where I pretty much dread reviewing these sample size bottles from AIV because I really haven’t had one yet that had much of any flavor. Punkin Tumble was no different. To be fair, this one does have a little richness built in. I get a rich burst of cream on the inhale. While the cream flavor itself is light, it still seems to have a built in richness to it that does help a little bit. Beyond that, there is basically no flavor at all. So while I should be tasting pumpkin, cake, spice and frosting, really all I end up getting is a small amount of cream and primarily the AIV base flavor that a lot of these juices have, which I can only really compare to fabric softener.

Aside from flavor, I didn’t really care that much for the performance either. A lot of these other sample bottles have packed a really nice throat hit at 18mg, but I felt this one hit quite a bit weaker than previous ones I’ve tried.

Overall, this one was just not good at all. The flavor I could taste wasn’t even close to being accurate, and overall it didn’t have much of anything to offer at all.

#8 The Vapor Co- Thunder Chicken

When I went to their site to get a description, I found that their domain had been suspended, so honestly I have no idea if these guys will ever be in business again. I guess I shouldn’t have wasted a ton of time and money reviewing so many of their juices, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. It’s too bad because while a lot of their juices have been total shit, they did have a couple juice battle winners that were really exceptional, so I would be kind of disappointed if there was no chance of ever getting any more of them.

At any rate, my Shark Juice supply is dwindling down now, and I only have a handful of flavors left to review. This week was Thunder Chicken. No description for this one, which sucks because I’m not totally sure exactly what it is supposed to be, although I can tell you for certain that it is a weed flavor.

Much like any other typical weed flavor, it doesn’t really taste like the real thing. It’s dry, grassy and has a touch of sourness to it. Some people would probably associate the taste with pine needles.

This one is slightly different than the average weed flavor because it seems to have a touch of spice to it. I would swear I can taste a little bit of clove in the background on this one. It has that slight clove spice to it, and leaves the tip of my tongue tingling after a hit – something that clove smokers will find familiar.

Unfortunately, clove or not, this juice really isn’t anything special. Much like other fake weed vapes, this one vapes really dry regardless of how much juice you have on your wick. There is a lot of flavor, but the dryness makes it feel a lot less full. The weed taste isn’t accurate and doesn’t taste particularly good.

Worst of all, at 24mg, I really wasn’t getting a very good throat hit on this juice. There’s nothing I dislike more than a high nic ejuice that doesn’t hit well, and unfortunately this is one of those juices.

#7 Alpha Vape: Sweet Tooth

Alpha Vape is a vendor I had never tried before until last week with their Sweet Tooth. Here’s what they say about it:

An amazing vanilla graham cracker cookie

I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of really nice quality graham flavored vapes lately. Unfortunately for this juice, it wasn’t even close to the best one I have tried.

The overall flavor is really quite light. For a premium juice, I would have expected to get a lot more flavor out of it.

It has a nice buttery vanilla undertone and a slight hint of graham to it. The flavor throughout the duration of the vape is painfully light. I really can’t even taste the graham that well until the aftertaste. The aftertaste itself is really quite good, and I wish that taste was more present throughout the actual vape, but I didn’t think it was at all.

Additionally, I have no idea what the nic level is on this juice, but it didn’t hit well at all. I got it along with a group of high nic juices so I assumed it was also a higher nic juice, but it vapes like a 6mg juice at best. If it is 6mg, then the throat hit is probably on par, otherwise it is woefully bad.

Overall, this juice has a great profile, I just thought it was way too light and the performance wasn’t there. Certainly not enough to warrant paying a premium to get this over a similar, cheaper juice with much better flavor and performance.

#6 Johnson Creek: JC Original

This week I had the opportunity to review another tobacco from Johnson Creek. This one is called JC Original. Here’s what they say about it:

The one that started it all! This everyday vapor has mellow but complex tobacco tastes. You’ll love the nutty notes that combine with a sweet grain finish and the subtle undertones of caramel and vanilla. JC Original is a great choice for traditional tobacco smokers looking for a new alternative.

I think a lot of people may be turned off to Johnson Creek because of their ties to Big Tobacco. That said, I have been really impressed with their tobacco flavors thus far, and as far as accuracy goes, they all have seemed to have a really nice tobacco flavor that is somewhere between a synthetic and a NET, giving you the best of both worlds.

This is also true of JC Original. To me, this one has a really nice nutty flavor to it and does taste like tobacco to me. It has a slight sweetness to it, and at times I get hints of caramel while vaping it. I would put this as a medium bodied tobacco – it has a much more hearty, earthy flavor than really light synthetic tobaccos like 555, but it doesn’t have bitterness or excessive dryness like you get a lot of times with NETs, so really, this one was almost perfect to me as far as flavor goes.

Sadly, I found that the throat hit was just not up to par on this juice at all. I’ve got it at 18mg and it hits like a shitty 12mg at absolute best. Really at times I felt it was like vaping a nic free juice. It just didn’t seem to have any kick to it at all.

It’s really a shame because otherwise I would say this is probably the second best tasting juice I had this week, and the best tobacco flavor I’ve had in quite a while.

#5 Bombies: Tiger Style

I’m getting down to my last couple of bottles from Bombies, and this week was Tiger Style’s turn. Here’s what they say about it:

A more mellow type vape. These flavors blend so well together your taste buds will have a hard time picking out each individual fruit.

Flavor-wise, this is another fruit jumble from Bombies. It’s got their signature super-strong-juicy-flavor, but unfortunately I didn’t think the flavor itself was that good. Basically, think of a red dum-dum. That’s pretty much how this one tastes. Red. Plain. Boring. Then, you’ve got the cool factor. This juice has a strong cool burst to it that carries from the inhale all the way through to the exhale. The cooler is probably the most interesting part of the whole vape, so I found it interesting that they really didn’t indicate this juice even has any other than a picture of a tiger holding a popsicle – which I guess indicates that this juice has a cool finish.

At any rate, as with the other Bombies fruit jumbles, I really just didn’t think this one was that great. It tastes red. Maybe strawberry, maybe cherry. Take your pick. To me, it’s pretty boring either way and you can get juice that tastes just like this a lot cheaper so I didn’t find it to be worth the extra expense for a very average flavor at best.

#4 Alternate Cig: Galactic Green Apple

In my experience, green apple has generally been a pretty safe ejuice flavor, as it seems like a difficult one to fuck up. This week I’ve got Galactic Green Apple from Alternate Cig coming it at #4. Here’s what they say about it:

This green apple taste is so good you’ll feel like your floating in space.

I felt this flavor was pretty decent, and found myself vaping it quite a bit throughout the week.

The flavor profile is pretty simple. It tastes like green apple pretty much straight across the entire vape. Now there is a touch of their base in the flavor that does give it a little bit of an artificial feel, but not enough to make it a problem. I also found that this particular green apple didn’t have a lot of sourness to it. Personally, when I think of green apple, I think of sour apple, so I expect/hope for some sourness, and I actually really like sour flavors. Unfortunately this juice really just isn’t very sour at all and I think it’s too bad because it would have elevated it quite a bit.

The flavor is pretty decent, however I really liked the performance a lot on this juice. I get great, strong throat hits and tons of vapor from it. The flavor is nice and full and stays consistent across the entire vape.

Even though I still found this one a little boring, the flavor was pretty accurate and quite crisp and combined with the performance, it kept me coming back all week. Definitely a good buy for the money.

#3 ECBlend: Dragon’s Tear

This week I checked out another juice in the Dragon Series from ECBlend. This one is called Dragon’s Tear and it’s a strawberry flavor. Here’s what they say about it:

ECBlend’s Strawberry version of Dragon’s Blood. “Oh! So Creamy!”®

I really liked this juice a lot. In fact, I honestly think it tastes almost exactly like Dragon’s Crown, which I really liked and I believe even won a juice battle last winter.

I couldn’t find much difference between the two. They both feature a strong strawberry component and more interestingly they both have a unique, zesty flavor on the inhale. It’s slightly sour with a little zing to it. It doesn’t particularly taste like anything, rather it seems to enhance the flavor of the strawberry.

Other than the unique zesty flavor on the inhale, Dragon’s Tear pretty much tastes like pure strawberry across the rest of the vape. The zing helps give a little more personality to it and makes it quite a bit more interesting than your average strawberry flavor. I didn’t get a ton of cream flavor out of this vape, however it does have a nice smooth finish, which I do believe could be due in part to the cream component.

Overall, I though this one was pretty good. For an average flavor like strawberry that usually turns out to be pretty boring in most juices, I thought that this juice has a really nice personality to it and I like the fact they found a way to make strawberry more interesting.

I found that the performance was spot on with a 60% PG blend at 18mg, and I would definitely order it again this way. If you’re a strawberry fan, this one is definitely worth a try because it will give you a different look than your average strawberry.

#2 Azure Vaping: Apricot Blossom

Azure vaping has been up and down for me, with a lot more “downs” lately. This week I hoped to turn it around with Apricot Blossom. Here’s what they say about it:

Floral blends are one of the most difficult flavors to get right but we think you’ll agree: Apricot Blossom hits all the right keys. Sweet notes of fruitiness dominate while subtle hints of floral aroma fill in the gaps.

I realized that I had never had an apricot flavored vape before. I was immediately shocked by the accuracy of this juice and the fullness of the flavor. If there’s one major issue I normally have with Azure it’s that a lot of their stuff vapes really dry and light. Not so with Apricot Blossom. This juice is totally full flavored and will leave your mouth watering. The flavor is super accurate and there’s really no artificial notes mucking up the clarity of the apricot notes. The apricot comes off as sweet, juicy and a tad bit tart – and for me, I found it to be totally accurate to a true apricot.

Throat hit is fantastic at 16mg and the vapor production is still great despite this one being a low VG juice.

Juices like this are pretty much the reason that I bother to do reviews in the first place. With a company like Azure, you get a ton of flavors to choose from at an extremely affordable price. The problem I have found is that only about 1 in 5 are really that good. Well, this week I found one of the “1 in 5”. This is a great juice for the money, and if you like apricot, then this one is going to really impress you.

#1 Smokecignals: Salty Malty

Before we go any further… If you have followed many of my juice battles, you will know that Smokecignals has done really well in a handful of recent juice battles. I want to make it totally clear that I picked out all these juices myself and paid for them out of pocket. I don’t have any stock in Smokecignals, and I have never even talked to anyone from their company, so they have only done as well as they have as of late because of the quality and flavor of their juices. Basically, I call it like I see it, and it just so happens that I have had the good fortune of trying quite a few really good quality juices from Smokecignals as of late.

At any rate, this week’s big winner is Salty Malty. Here’s what they say about it:

This is a complex dessert/sweet flavor. It’s a salted caramel toffee with a little “malt” on the back end. Mellow enough to do all day, delicious enough to make you go back for seconds.

There’s really not enough good I can say about this juice. It is totally unique, full flavored, and delicious.

To me, it tastes almost exactly like caramel corn across the entire vape. It has a nice buttery component. Not the shitty butter flavor people put in pie flavored juices, but actual real butter. It has kind of a brown sugar essence to it and it does seem to have a tad bit of a salty taste. For me, the 3 combine to create a flavor that seriously tastes just like caramel corn. I’ve never had another juice quite like it. I really liked Butter Shot last week, and this juice is pretty much of the same ilk, except I think it’s even better because it has more of a sugar component and the caramel corn taste is accurate and extremely delicious.

Basically, for me this was Butter Shot taken to the next level. The only thing I didn’t really get much of was the “malt” flavor. I’m thinking probably because the butter and sugar was so rich and full flavored, it muted any malt flavor that might have been present. It really doesn’t matter, because whatever the stated ingredients are, this juice tastes absolutely amazing. The flavor is super full and super rich, and it has the performance to back it up with a strong throat hit and excellent vapor production. What’s even better? I only paid $1.99 for this bottle. You can’t beat that value for a flavor this good.

This one really is a must-try, and I am confident it will have broad appeal.

The Bottom line

This week I really only liked Salty Malty and Apricot Blossom. Dragon’s Tear was very good also, but I basically thought it tasted exactly the same as Dragon’s Crown, so you can pretty much take your pick between the two. Otherwise the rest were non-starters for me.

In other news, last week I finally had time to do an in-depth review of my DNA20 clone I picked up from Fasttech tldr; it wasn’t great. Additionally, I got around to reviewing the 3D dripping hybrid for Nemesis mods, which I loved and I highly recommend checking out if you own a nemesis. Later on, I showed you how I like to set up a Helio to run on a Duke. This is the primary setup I have been using all week, and it’s been amazing. Afterwards, I also reviewed the Helios – this was the 3rd Helios clone I’ve reviewed and for me the third time was the charm. For under $10 it is a really versatile dripper that is very easy to set up, as long as you have a mod wider than 22mm to use it with.

Overall it was a very busy week. I have a ton more hardware reviews I want to get to this week as well as a lot of new deals, and of course another round of ejuice reviews.

Also – last week I crossed the 300th ejuice review threshold. I’ve been at this for less than a year, so I kind of surprised myself at how quickly I was able to tackle 300 reviews while still managing to post a ton of other reviews, tutorials and content. I’m hoping the next 300 reviews go just as smooth!

Until next week…