What’s up vapers!
SirRisc here with another juice review!
These Arcadia Gran Reserva liquids were sourced from VIPcig!
Premise.
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Despite the gigantic clusterfuck that is the TPD2 (or the FDA regulations), there’s still a very wide range of choice out there when it comes to liquids.
And while I do realize that a lot of the best liquids are made in the US, there is also a lot of talent in the EU among liquidmakers.
A while back I had the pleasure of speaking with a big flavor manufacturer in the EU, and gained a lot of insight on how the vaping market has changed their business in the passed few years.
It should come as no surprise that a lot of the flavors we use have been around for a lot longer than vaping has been.
Mixologists and flavor connoisseurs have been around for decades and had little to no idea that somewhere in the early '00s their world would change forever.
But not all liquidmakers are mixologists and vice versa, some vendors and most hobbyists just have a good sense of combining flavors.
That brings me to a segment of the vaping market where most vendors reside in, the ones that have their own line of liquids but are not mixologists as their main profession.
And VIPcigs, as far as I’m aware, is in that segment. They have a couple of liquid lines that are successful and their Arcadia line is their most recent.
Let’s have a look at what they taste like!
The review.
All the liquids were tested in
- Goon, dual staggered stapled fused clapton coil at 0.15ohm with 0.45mm, 0.16mm Kanthal A1 and 4 x 0.1mm x 0.5mm ribbon, wicked with Coilmaster Pro Cotton
- Cthulhu RTA III, dual fused clapton at 0.28ohm with 0.45mm, 0.16mm Kanthal A1, wicked with Koh Gen Do
- Dotmod Petri V2, dual staggered fused clapton at 0.34ohm with 0.45mm, 0.16mm Kanthal A1, wicked with Coilmaster Pro Cotton (Note: During the writing of this review, my Dotmod Petri gave up. RIP Petri V2.)
- Cthulhu Shuriken, dual staggered fused coil at 0.24ohm with 0.51mm, 0.16mm Kanthal A1, wicked with Coilmaster Pro Cotton
As always these were put on different mods, including but not limited to, Hohmwrecker G2, Reuleaux RX2/3, Smok XCube Ultra…
Wattage ranged from 50W to 150W on different coilbuilds. Each juice was tested for about a day as my all-day-vape.
A note on the “scores” included in this review: the scores are there only for reference and have no real bearing on the quality of the liquids.
I score flavor to the best of my ability to convey viability as an all-day-vape, though taste is very subjective and could be an entirely different experience for you.
Vapor is a score I include taking into account the viscosity, VG/PG ratio, and nicotine content. It’s entirely arbitrary and can be ignored.
In short: don’t take my scores as gospel, they’re subjective.
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Ingredients: 3mg/ml nicotine, PG 30 / VG 70
Description on the website:
This luscious blend is made from the sweetest of apples, ripe kiwis and Californian black grapes. Blended together to create a wondrous sensation, Holier Than Thou is definitely a VIP favourite. Orange in colour, this bright citrusy flavour is absolutely exquisite. With its vastly concentrated flavour, Holier Than Thou is jam packed with such an intense juiciness, it must be tried to be believed!
My review:
Scent: Very sweet, notes of juicy kiwi and candy apple
Color: Fairly bright orange
Taste: Let’s open with a little titbit about the name, Holier Than Thou is a Metallica song from the Black Album, in my humble opinion still the best Metallica album to date.
Despite the very strong and overly sweet scent of this juice, it doesn’t have that strong of a taste.
Don’t get me wrong, it does have a lot of flavor but it’s not as overpowering as the scent is.
Upon inhaling you get notes of kiwi and black grapes playing together in a lovely duet. Sweet and juicy.
The flavor lingers for a few seconds before the sweet apples start making their way to the olfactory.
The apples taste more like a candy apple, like the ones you’ll find on county fairs, which is a rather nostalgic thing to me. (I haven’t had one of those in years and now I want one)
The exhale is silky smooth without any real definition of the elements, the apple keeps rolling around your tongue and then slowly dissipates to leave you with a note of kiwi.
There’s no throathit to speak of, but this is because of the low nicotine content of course.
- Flavor: 7/10
- Vapor: 8/10
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Ingredients: 3mg/ml nicotine, PG 30 / VG 70
Description on the website:
An assassination on the senses, this e-liquid is a perfect after dinner vape. Fresh from the oven apple pie, gooey caramel and thick double cream make up the flavours in our tempting Pie Assassin. With a fruit filled, pastry encrusted inhale and a velvet soft exhale, this e-liquid is definitely one for those who love a great dessert type flavour. Pie Assassin has a sumptuous and luxurious feel which satisfies every sweet craving. With this delicious apple green e-liquid, every vape will be a sugar filled delight.
My review:
Scent: Sweet, green apple with a hint of bakery aromas
Color: Light green
Taste: The inhale is smooth and warm and the apple is very apparent right away.
The taste of caramel pokes through but gets immediately overpowered again by the apple.
The creams are subtle and very much hidden away behind the dominant flavor, it only serves as a smoothener in the profile.
On the exhale the caramel becomes a lot more obvious, making the flavor linger for a bit longer.
Again a very warm taste making it a more bakery oriented flavored juice.
- Flavor: 6/10
- Vapor: 8/10
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Ingredients: 3mg/ml nicotine, PG 30 / VG 70
Description on the website:
A mystical recipe of handpicked summer berries, a hint of ripe citrus fruit and a mighty blast of menthol. Viceberg Blue is an unmistakable blend with some enticing secret ingredients. This mysterious combination is one of a kind and coloured a beautiful bright blue, adding to its excitement. If you enjoy a full-bodied vape but love a refreshing aftertaste, our Viceberg Blue is the one for you.
My review:
Scent: A strong anise with subtle fruit notes
Color: Blue/green
Taste: The inhale is fresh, almost cold to the tongue. A strong and dominant anise flavor rolls into the olfactory and then takes the background as a blend of fruits takes over.
The fruity blend reminds me of gummibears, which I quite like, but it’s mostly the anise in this flavor that provides the cooling factor.
Seeing as I’m not a fan of anise in any flavorprofile, I wasn’t too keen on trying this one but it’s surprisingly well done.
The exhale isn’t as dominant on anise as most juices including this flavor, it’s mostly the fruit blend that forms the flavor here.
A surprising recipe, I must admit.
- Flavor: 8/10
- Vapor: 8/10
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Ingredients: 3mg/ml nicotine, PG 30 / VG 70
Description on the website:
A tantalising blend of full flavoured raspberries, fire-glazed crème brulee and a delectable fluffy cheesecake. With its expensive feel, Ecstasy will give you an opulent vaping experience which is second to none. A ravishing blend for those who love intense flavours. Indulgent and delightful, this lavish e-liquid is a coloured a rich raspberry red giving it an eye-catching edge. Enjoy the ultimate Ecstasy!
My review:
Scent: Sweet raspberries with subtle bakery notes
Color: Dark red
Taste: Despite the rather opulent description of this juice, I found it to be a bit underwhelming.
On the inhale the crème brulee and cheesecake are nowhere to be found, and the raspberries are rather subtle.
It does have a warm and dense flavor but the profile isn’t as well defined as it should be.
The exhale gives you a very subtle hint of the crème brulee over the raspberries but dissipates immediately to allow the sweetness of the raspberries to take over.
It also doesn’t linger as long as I feel a cheesecake flavor should, the flavor goes away after a few seconds and leaves you to take another toot to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
This definitely needs more refinement, emphasizing the bakery flavors to be more tangeable.
- Flavor: 5/10
- Vapor: 8/10
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Ingredients: 3mg/ml nicotine, PG 30 / VG 70
Description on the website:
Our Night Screamer really is something to scream about. It is a combination of homemade lemonade, thick vanilla ice cream and tangy strawberries. Although named Night Screamer because of its intensely mind blowing flavours, this blend reminds us of summertime picnics and feels like we have captured a small ray of sunshine.
Its bright pink colour gives our Night Screamer a fantastic edge and looks great in your tank. Sweet yet irresistibly sour, this fizzy flavour is not to be missed!
My review:
Scent: Strawberry lemonade with a very light vanilla note
Color: Bright red
Taste: Where most lemonade profiles tend to be soapy and harsh on the first hit, this is a subtle and smooth profile.
The strawberries and lemonade take hold immediately, the lemonade is fizzy yet smooth enough not to overpower the strawberries.
A couple of seconds in the olfactory will reveal the very subtle vanilla notes too, though they are gone just as quick.
On the exhale the strawberries are all that remains (hey, that’s another Metallica reference!).
After the exhale it’s mostly the lemonade lingering behind, though the strawberries stay there.
A well done strawberry lemonade, I could vape this more often.
- Flavor: 8/10
- Vapor: 8/10
In conclusion.
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Before I close this review I will have a short rant about something.
It seems I’ve been ranting a lot lately for a myriad of reasons, but it’s usually for a good reason.
And todays rant is for a good reason too, because it’s about something that is completely unnecessary but is still being done.
Artificial coloring in eliquids… Why do it? Why put something in a liquid that doesn’t contribute to the flavor or the smoothness of it?
I mean I get that it looks “cool” to have a menthol juice look slightly blue but does the juice get better from it?
The answer is: no, it doesn’t. In fact it makes the juice more diluted, it destroys wicks like there’s no tomorrow, and it goes against everything I believe vaping to be.
Because really, the reason I started vaping was to get away from all the chemicals they put in cigarettes.
I started vaping because it’s a healthier alternative, and eventually I started DIY’ing because I wanted to know what was in my liquids.
As you may have noticed from the descriptions and the photos, these liquids do have artificial coloring in them.
The vendor was honest enough to admit to this and stated that the coloring used has been found safe by an independent toxicologist.
Given that they have MSDS data on their entire liquidline publicly available, I’m inclined to take their word for it.
I’ll also mention that the coloring has had no effects on my wicks, nor does the liquid stain coils, tanks or decks.
Whether or not you choose to vape liquids with coloring is your own choice.
With all that out of the way, I wasn’t overly impressed by these liquids but they’re also not bad as an alternation or in the case of Viceberg Blue as a palate cleanser.
Some of the recipes need refinement, some need a bit more flavor and others are fine as they are. A lot of this depends on the brand of flavorings used by the mixologist.
For some of you these may be very intense in taste, but for me they weren’t. Again, taste is subjective and this review should be read as such.
To me Night Screamer was a surprisingly good vape, as was Viceberg Blue.
In closing I would like to thank VIPcig for sending these liquids out!
Thanks for reading, join me next time as I take a look at the Smok OSub Plus!
Need to reach me? Head over to my website.
Interested in what I vape daily? Check out my Instagram.
Want to know more about DIY? Head over to ELR.
#staycloudy !
SirRisc disappears in a cloud of Viceberg Blue scented vapor
DISCLAIMER: This review is based on personal opinions and is not intended as a promotion, endorsement or advertisement.
The publisher is not sponsored, affiliated or compensated in any way.