This is a review of six flavors put out by Liqua / Ritchy. I was very excited to get my hands on these, as I have until now only been able to get my hands on cheap Chinese e-juice (Joyetech), cheap Chinese e-juice of dubious provenance (no manufacturer on label; labels are all white with light blue bars at the top and bottom, and don't list the name of the flavor, which is specified with a clear plastic sticker), and cheap Chinese e-juice that is so toxic tasting that I immediately threw it out (no labels on bottles). The "Italian flavors" are very attractive in comparison -- these are apparently the famous FlavourArts ingredients.
The flavors I'll be reviewing here are Apple, Strawberry, Grape, Mints, Berry Mix and Cola. All are 18 mg of nicotine, and an unspecified PG/VG mix. All share a common expiration date of Nov 2014. And all of them get a 2/5 on TH and 3/5 on Vapor Production.
I used an eGo-V V2 set at 4v and generic CE4+ clearomizers for my vaping.
Finally, I should mention that fruit e-juice is my favorite type, so I went into this taste testing quite psyched!
The scale I'm using goes from 1-5:
1. Nasty. The mere idea of vaping it turns me off.
2. Not nasty, but not particularly nice. Tolerable for short periods if necessary.
3. Okay.
4. Nice! Would recommend it.
5. Stunningly good.
APPLE: 3/5
This e-juice has a vague taste of artificial, slightly sour apple flavoring, but the predominant note is some sort of generic Liqua artificial fruit flavoring base which is present in all the juices I'm reviewing here except Mints and Cola. It's not unpleasant, but you need to concentrate to notice that it's supposed to be apple. All in all, it's okay... but just okay. I find I add mint and/or cinnamon e-juices to it to make it interesting. Will not buy again; the generic Chinese white-label-with-light-blue-stripes-along-the-top-and-bottom apple e-juice is far superior to Liqua's.
STRAWBERRY: 1/5
This e-juice tastes like a muted version of what I assume is the generic FlavorArts fruit base with a bit of red added to it. It does not smell of strawberry and it does not taste of strawberry. In fact, it has very little taste or smell at all. I don't even bother to try to jazz this stuff up with other flavors. Not worth buying or vaping! It's in the back of my liquid drawer, reserved for a special moment of desperation when I have absolutely nothing else to vape.
GRAPE: 2/5
This e-juice tastes is simply not identifiable as grape. It's like a somewhat more intense version of the generic FlavourArts fruit base with a bit of effervescent tanginess added to it. Since it is yellowish, rather than purplish, I assume the intention was to market it as a green or sour grape artificial flavoring vehicle. The result is vapeable if you need the nicotine and have no alternatives -- it's not unpleasant, it's just not grape, or authentic anything else for that matter. Will not buy again.
BERRY MIX: 2/5
Liqua Berry Mix actually smells and tastes more like authentic artificial strawberry flavoring than Liqua Strawberry does. To its credit, it also does seem to have the odd other berry note buried somewhere in the generic FlavorArts fruit base, which reassures me that whatever mistakes they made in the factory, switching the labels was not one of them. This e-juice delivers that above-mentioned generic fruit / strawberry / other red berry flavor in a sickly sweet package of weak vapor dull throat hit.
MINTS: 2/5
With Mints, Liqua boldly leaves behind the artificial generic fruit flavoring base space behind, and moves to capture the artificial generic mint-like flavoring market. The scent of this e-juice is predominantly spearmint-like, with notes of sweetness and propylene glycol. The taste is only vaguely minty, and is not identifiable as any particular type of mint. Its mintiness is so weak that when added to other e-juices it tends to be swallowed up, rather than doing the swallowing itself, as befits mints of all stripes. Mints also doesn't produce the pleasant cool sensation that mints produce when vaped. That said, it's not actually unpleasant. And it was clear from the get-go that I was not vaping Liqua's artificial generic fruit base, which was a welcome relief.
COLA: 3/5
The Liqua Cola e-juice is extraordinary in that it actually sort of smells like the product it seeks to reproduce! It has a bit too much liminess in the recipe, but after the serial gustatory travesties that Liqua has perpetrated on my mouth and nose, this is a mere detail. In short, if you like cola flavors, you may be able to tolerate Liqua's version.
SUMMARY
I will buy more Liqua / Ritchie e-juices just as soon as Rome freezes over. I guess a combination of Italy's positive reputation for food and China's bad track record with the concept of quality led me to believe I would be in vaping heaven with these products. Unfortunately, while none of me was harmed in the making of this review, there was simply no joy for my tongue or nose!
The flavors I'll be reviewing here are Apple, Strawberry, Grape, Mints, Berry Mix and Cola. All are 18 mg of nicotine, and an unspecified PG/VG mix. All share a common expiration date of Nov 2014. And all of them get a 2/5 on TH and 3/5 on Vapor Production.
I used an eGo-V V2 set at 4v and generic CE4+ clearomizers for my vaping.
Finally, I should mention that fruit e-juice is my favorite type, so I went into this taste testing quite psyched!
The scale I'm using goes from 1-5:
1. Nasty. The mere idea of vaping it turns me off.
2. Not nasty, but not particularly nice. Tolerable for short periods if necessary.
3. Okay.
4. Nice! Would recommend it.
5. Stunningly good.
APPLE: 3/5
This e-juice has a vague taste of artificial, slightly sour apple flavoring, but the predominant note is some sort of generic Liqua artificial fruit flavoring base which is present in all the juices I'm reviewing here except Mints and Cola. It's not unpleasant, but you need to concentrate to notice that it's supposed to be apple. All in all, it's okay... but just okay. I find I add mint and/or cinnamon e-juices to it to make it interesting. Will not buy again; the generic Chinese white-label-with-light-blue-stripes-along-the-top-and-bottom apple e-juice is far superior to Liqua's.
STRAWBERRY: 1/5
This e-juice tastes like a muted version of what I assume is the generic FlavorArts fruit base with a bit of red added to it. It does not smell of strawberry and it does not taste of strawberry. In fact, it has very little taste or smell at all. I don't even bother to try to jazz this stuff up with other flavors. Not worth buying or vaping! It's in the back of my liquid drawer, reserved for a special moment of desperation when I have absolutely nothing else to vape.
GRAPE: 2/5
This e-juice tastes is simply not identifiable as grape. It's like a somewhat more intense version of the generic FlavourArts fruit base with a bit of effervescent tanginess added to it. Since it is yellowish, rather than purplish, I assume the intention was to market it as a green or sour grape artificial flavoring vehicle. The result is vapeable if you need the nicotine and have no alternatives -- it's not unpleasant, it's just not grape, or authentic anything else for that matter. Will not buy again.
BERRY MIX: 2/5
Liqua Berry Mix actually smells and tastes more like authentic artificial strawberry flavoring than Liqua Strawberry does. To its credit, it also does seem to have the odd other berry note buried somewhere in the generic FlavorArts fruit base, which reassures me that whatever mistakes they made in the factory, switching the labels was not one of them. This e-juice delivers that above-mentioned generic fruit / strawberry / other red berry flavor in a sickly sweet package of weak vapor dull throat hit.
MINTS: 2/5
With Mints, Liqua boldly leaves behind the artificial generic fruit flavoring base space behind, and moves to capture the artificial generic mint-like flavoring market. The scent of this e-juice is predominantly spearmint-like, with notes of sweetness and propylene glycol. The taste is only vaguely minty, and is not identifiable as any particular type of mint. Its mintiness is so weak that when added to other e-juices it tends to be swallowed up, rather than doing the swallowing itself, as befits mints of all stripes. Mints also doesn't produce the pleasant cool sensation that mints produce when vaped. That said, it's not actually unpleasant. And it was clear from the get-go that I was not vaping Liqua's artificial generic fruit base, which was a welcome relief.
COLA: 3/5
The Liqua Cola e-juice is extraordinary in that it actually sort of smells like the product it seeks to reproduce! It has a bit too much liminess in the recipe, but after the serial gustatory travesties that Liqua has perpetrated on my mouth and nose, this is a mere detail. In short, if you like cola flavors, you may be able to tolerate Liqua's version.
SUMMARY
I will buy more Liqua / Ritchie e-juices just as soon as Rome freezes over. I guess a combination of Italy's positive reputation for food and China's bad track record with the concept of quality led me to believe I would be in vaping heaven with these products. Unfortunately, while none of me was harmed in the making of this review, there was simply no joy for my tongue or nose!
