Saturday 16 March 2013

Cell Block Four by The Standard


I received this e-juice free of charge as part of a giveaway run by Todd of Todd's Reviews. http://www.toddsreviews.com/. Todd received it originally from Vape Revolution in California. http://shop.vaperev.com/

This is a 30ml bottle of 6mg nicotine strength e-juice of indeterminate PG/VG ratio. The Vape Revolution website describes it as "Creme brûlée cake with hints of citrus". It is available in nicotine strengths of 0, 6, 12, 18 or 24mg with a RRP of $24.

The brand name is "The Standard", which at first seems a bit unflattering until I recall the saying, "the standard by which all others are measured". There are five e-juices available in The Standard range; Cell Block Four, Irie Nights ("Jamaican rum and brown sugar party"), Dead Man's Party ("Blueberry Lemonade thingamajig"), Frankenvape ("Kiwi Marshmallow and lots of goodness) and Curious Jorge ("Banana, banana, banana and then some more Banana!!")

The day I first received Cell Block Four, the postman brought it first thing in the morning and so I took it to work with me. I was eager to try it and wasn't going to wait until I returned home in the evening. I arrived at work, made myself a cup of tea, filled a cartomizer with Cell Block Four and proceeded to vape it for the rest of the morning. I'm not sure whether it was the fresh cartomizer or that the liquid needed to steep, but there was a slightly unpleasant chemical aftertaste. That was about two weeks ago. I'm happy to say that with steeping, that unpleasant aftertaste has completely disappeared. Also, quality juices probably shouldn't be vaped in a cartomizer.

I'm now using a Vivi Nova, (1.8 ohm coil) on my Ego style battery (4.2 volts)

The bottle is a reasonably thick, clear glass with a black plastic screw top lid and a label that wraps around two and a quarter of its sides. The graphic design on the label is accomplished. All of this adds to my pleasure in using this juice. The one thing that's missing though is a dropper with which to transfer the liquid into your cartomizer/tank/atomizer of choice. This is easily remedied though with the purchase of an inexpensive eye dropper or syringe from your local pharmacy.

The liquid has the saturated amber colour of honey and while viscous is not as thick and gloopy as honey. It has the viscosity perhaps, of vegetable oil, which makes me think the PG/VG ratio must be at least 50/50, if not something closer to 30/70. In terms of aroma, the liquid smells of sweetened vanilla and slightly caramelised demerara sugar with a hint of some sort of liqueur.

Cell Block four appears to benefit in terms of flavour production from a long, slow inhalation straight into the lungs. (Drawing the vapour into the mouth until the mouth is full, before inhaling that mouthful into the lungs seems to mute the flavour somewhat.) A steady stream of vapour along the length of the tongue supplies the taste buds with a richer, prolonged hit of flavour. On the inhalation there is a very subtle tang of citrus on the leading edge of the tongue. In fact, it's so subtle you might almost miss it. I had to search for it and am still not sure that my imagination isn't playing a role in the sensation. The dominant note on the inhalation is of a warm, velvety, vanilla laced creaminess. You can almost taste the egg in the custard. On the immediate, short, sharp inhalation of air after inhaling the vapour, followed by the exhale, a dominant note of caramelised sugar is produced. Being 6mg nicotine strength, the throat hit is negligible. I'm not sure that I want a strong throat hit from my desert vapes anyway. Vapour production is excellent. A sustained drag produces thick, opaque plumes of vapour which dissipate quickly.

This is a very sweet vape (without being cloying). Like its edible counterpart, Creme brûlée, I would probably only want to vape it with a cup of tea or coffee after a meal. I imagine you would have to be quite a sweet tooth to want to vape it all day. Having said that, it is a deeply satisfying dessert vape, intense in flavour with very good vapour production and an aftertaste that is very suggestive of actual Creme brûlée. I feel like I've actually eaten it.

I highly recommend this juice and I'm looking forward to trying the others in "The Standard" range.