So after a couple months DIY’ing, I happened to be walking past my local vape shop.
I had a bit of spare cash, so decided I’d ‘treat myself’ to some ‘Premium’ juice to vape at the pub. On a glowing recommendation from the owner, I bought some Apple Pie juice and a Chocolate shake. £37 for 120ml in total, and a nic shot since I left mine at home. Ouch.
I can now say with absolute honesty I will never, ever buy Premium juice again. The choc shake one literally tarred my coils to the point I re-wicked after 15ml, and the wicks disintegrated as I pulled them from the coils. Also stained the deck brown. Ugh.
The Apple Pie which was allegedly amazing was so muted it tasted like one I could knock up with some CAP Apple Pie and a dash of sweetener and vape it with no steep.
Now on some fresh wicks and vaping a blueberry and lemon doughnut I mixed last week, and I’m now convinced I can make a better juice than I can find on the shelves, even though I’m still a beginner.
It was an expensive lesson learned, but so glad I now know for sure DIY is the way forward. Anyone else gone back to the dark side and instantly regretted it?
I still remember a few good premium juices that I still like, but just like you, I’ve learned not to trust the advice of just any e-juice seller. A lot of them are just in it for the money and probably try to sell you whatever they want to get rid of first.
Just like you review your hardware / concentrates before you buy, why not do the same with premium juice?
And do try to sample a juice before you buy.
Definitely sound advice there. I’ve really found DIY has changed my tastes in vaping - everything I’ve tried since has been so sweet I can’t cope with it for long, including juices I was sure I loved before.
In fairness, one of the juices tasted quite good to start, but as mentioned it destroyed my wicks and coils within a couple of hours and left an unpleasant sticky coating on the tongue. Didn’t even bother dry burning, just threw the coils out. I’ve made some dessert/bakery style juices at home, and the wicks and coils were still clean after 100ml!
I’m sure there’s plenty of juices out there I’d enjoy, it just seems for the relative cost and the coil-wrecking properties of many store-bought juices, if you have the time and patience for DIY there’s no point in going back. Personal preference I suppose though, as with all things vaping!
Only one bottle of some grape shit that had a very off flavor. I would also throw Vaptasia Killer Custard into a near bad experience. It was vapeable but not brilliant as a custard.
Other than those 2 I found very good luck with Banana Butt and Hawaiian POG. There are some good juices out there but I prefer DIY.
I haven’t bought any for a while but I use commercial mixes as a way of checking my taste evolution.
As they are very stable, they are a good way to check whether it is the kit/me/my crap mix that is the problem at a given time.
I find some of the Chinese juices OK, and while expensive for what it is, not the end of the world (count £1-2 for 10 mL). Not sure whether you’d count them as premium though.
In the whole of my vaping, I have only bought a single 10mL from a vape shop, the macho sales guy who blew enough clouds for me not to be able to see my hands + the lack of useful help on flavours put me off (also the high price).
Never tried Chinese juices myself, but half to 25% of the cost is a win straight away.
If anything, it feels like the cost of Premium Juice is creeping upwards rather than being driven down by increasing competition, which is odd given the margins are immense.
I suppose anything which carries the ‘premium’ moniker can be priced anywhere and someone will buy it.
I recently bought a bottle of one I used to use all the time that I always thought was really great (I decided I wanted to try to clone it if possible). Turns out, it isn’t as great as I remembered, and I actually decided not to even try to clone it.
I’ve still never had a juice that was claimed or priced to be a Premium; and I am still pretty convinced that moniker is there for marketing and not really for any real quality difference. I may be wrong, of course, but I don’t see any difference between a good vendor juice and a good DIY recipe I make myself. Will always be profoundly glad I decided to DIY. And this is from a dingaling who is nowhere near as skilled as the master DIY folks.
couple months ago got some of my original favorite juice LOOPER and it was horrible but i do like steep pop deez every now and then but i dont have to buy it i trade me juice for thos and that at a friends vape shop
Last week i ran out of juice when i was in Germany so i first had to find the closest store which was 40 miles away. It was a great shop and i immediately bought a new tank. But i didn’t want to buy something unknown so i bought a bottle of Beard #5. I’ve mixed a clone up a while ago and although it wasn’t great it was still acceptable. The original however really disappointed. Very strong on what tastes like CAP sweet strawberry. If i would have mixed a juice like that i would come crying to the fix my mix thread.
The worst was the price though. 22 Euros for 50ml plus a 5 Euro nic shot. So DIY is a form of self defence in my opinion. Who the hell can pay these prices?
isnt that funny ?? , with the looper i thought i was trying to find something that was acceptable to being close , but most diy Fruit loops vapes are actually better , all i taste in the looper now was tons of what tasted like EM o. the exhale and a semi lemony note when taking a puff
While a lot of premium juices are really bad, there are some I still like, and I still buy them from time to time (just because I’m not able to clone them, and there are definitely no real clones out there even though a lot claim to be as good). One of them is Churrios from Milkman and the other one is the famous Lemon Tart by Dinner Lady.
I think I tried nearly every recipe I found for those two juices, as well as spent month in trying to figure them out by myself. But the recipes are not even close compared side by side. Those two juices are so perfectly blend together (of course thats subjective) they are just “one taste”. While with every “Clone” recipe I tried (overall around 15-20 for each of them) I can still taste that it’s made with CAP vanilla custard, cinnamon cookie etc. Even after months of steeping (and in different ways like, just wait, heat, breathing etc).
So while my ADV is DIY stuff, I still enjoy those two juices every now and then and only use them in a dripper from time to time, so a bottle lasts quite a few weeks.
I’ve been mixing since Jan '17. I’ll buy the occasional “hype” juice to see how it is. I won’t pay B & M prices - I stick to discount sites or ebay. just about all of them have been a disappointment. that said there are a couple of juices I still buy - but those have been favorites for some time and I’ve been unable to get a good enough clone of them. Epic Juice wake n vape and Charlie Noble Vanilla Custard are the two juices I actively look for sales on and will buy a few bottles at a time when the price is right (I caught good black friday sales on both and stocked up). I’m pretty much done trying new stuff though. 9 of 10 times you can find something on ELR which has a similar profile. because you can tweak for personal preferences you will most likely enjoy your mix better anyway.