Disclaimer: This E-liquid was provided to me free of charge. I won it in a giveaway on Facebook. This fact notwithstanding, I will, as best I'm able, provide an honest, accurate and unbiased assessment of this product.
Diamond Vapor http://www.diamond-vapor.com/ are based in Florida, US and are run by a friendly and very enthusiastic husband and wife team. They provide a range of vaping related goods but of course, it's their e-liquids that are of most interest to me. Please see my previous reviews of two of their liquids here: http://vapour-taster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/strawberry-waffles-by-diamond-vapor.html and http://vapour-taster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/bear-tropics-by-diamond-vapor.html
Each of their e-liquids are offered in 10 ($5.00) or 30ml ($12.00) bottles at nicotine strengths of 0, 6, 12, 18 or 24mg and PG/VG mixes of 50/50, 60/40 or 70/30. There is also the option to specify your own preferred PG/VG ratio if you so desire.
The subject of this review, Pucker Up Granny, (I'll refer to it as PUG from here on in) came to me in a 10ml bottle. This is a soft, pliable plastic bottle with a non-childproof, screw top cap, which required, surprisingly, a fair amount of force to squeeze the liquid out of it. The label contains the following information: the brand name, the name of the e-liquid, the date of manufacture, nicotine strength in mg, PG/VG ratio, advice to "keep away from children" and the proud proclamation, "handmade in the USA".
The liquid is a slightly cloudy, Ivory colour and while it's a 50/50 PG/VG mix the consistency of the liquid is thinner than I would have thought it should be.
This review is an interesting case study (for me anyway) of the role vision plays in the apprehension of flavour. My wife and I are fans of cooking shows and here in the UK we get a show called Masterchef, in which amateur cooks are pitted against one another in heats, quarter and semi finals until one cook is crowned the Masterchef. One of the tests involved is a palate test in which the competitors are blindfolded, fed a number of foods and asked to identify them. I find this intriguing because recently I've reviewed some juices that had interesting names but neither the vendor's website nor the bottle gave any indication of what flavours contributed to the overall taste of the vapour. So, in a sense my palate was being tested. Whether or not I passed, I'll never know. What follows however, is an example of my palate failing dismally. As a reviewer of flavoured vapour, this is not an easy thing to admit.
When I first put PUG into my Vivi Nova several months ago, it didn't occur to me to look at the Diamond Vapor website for a description of the flavour, so in a sense I was tasting this juice blindfolded. Initially, when I tasted PUG, I didn't like it at all. It tasted to me like PK Juicy Fruit chewing gum on the inhalation and Hubba Bubba bubblegum on the exhalation. I've never been a fan of either chewing gum or bubblegum, so I put it back on the shelf and moved on. Some time later, I was perusing the Diamond Vapor website and was surprised to see PUG described as "sour apple". Well, at least the name of the juice made some sense to me now. Today, on a whim, I filled my Igo-L (with a fresh wick and coil) with some PUG and vaped it and was further surprised to discover I was no longer tasting PK Juicy Fruit or Hubba Bubba; I was tasting apple! It's certainly not as sour as the name suggests, but it isn't a particularly sweet apple either. Slightly sour, slightly sweet. A mellowed Granny Smith, perhaps. The potency of the flavour seems perfectly judged and I have to say I like it a lot. So much so, that I've been vaping it all day. The additional pleasure for me in vaping PUG today, has been discovering and pondering the role that vision plays in the apprehension of flavour.
Throat hit is negligible but this is entirely expected with a 12mg juice. Vapour production however is excellent, with dense volumes of vapour pouring forth into the room around me.
I have no hesitation in recommending any of the juices I've reviewed from Diamond Vapor.
I'll be vaping with my eyes wide open from now on.
