the grumpy vaper
Postman
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2014
- Messages
- 352
Jamie Van Dyke, owner of Van Dyke Vapes, first contacted me a while back having read some of my reviews and noting that I was on occasion brutally honest and forthright. He seemed to like that about TGV for some reason. He asked me if I'd like to review his e-liquid range, which I did, here.
It's a strange sensation when you toot on an e-liquid like Ivory Pippin. The sensation that you have amazing food in your mouth and should really be chewing on something delicious, biting through an amazing crumbly pastry when there's nothing but flavoured nicotine enhanced vapour. It's very clever stuff indeed.
I personally found two of his juices to be of excellent quality, the other two were just outside my flavour profile, but I've given them to people who now love and cherish them. Van Dyke Vapes e-liquids are never anything less than food memory triggers with a fascinating twist. When you get e-liquids in that taste amazing and make you think, well what more can you ask for? They come very highly recommended.
I say this a lot in these interviews, but Jamie has been great to get along with. I'm at risk of sounding disingenuous or shallow as I say these guys are awesome almost every week, but maybe the vaping industry (or the people I've spoken to anyway) just attracts decent folk who want to provide a great quality product with customer service to match, who don't want to rip their customers off and also want to give something back. We all share a common goal in that smoking was killing us all and when we found vaping it was an epiphany. This gives us a shared knowledge and feeling possibly like no other movement before it.
Although we all disagree from time to time we're really very lucky to have such a close community in vaping. Together we are strong.
Anyway, I'll hand over to Jamie, he's got some great stuff to say...
TGV: Hey Jamie! Many thanks for taking the time out to spend some time with The Grumpy Vaper.
How the hell are you? What juice are you vaping today?
Jamie: I’m currently vaping a zingy, sweet fruity flavour that I’m working on. That’s all I’m telling you, this is a private discussion, isn’t it?
TGV: It's just you and me and these four walls. And a few readers.
So, give me an introduction to Van Dyke Vapes, what are you all about? What influences you?
Jamie: I was a smoker for 22 years, and I wheezed when I climbed stairs. I had a crackling noise in my airways when I laid down to sleep. I tried to quit smoking so many times and with so many different methods that I was at a loss. I came across an article about cig-a-likes back in February 2010 and that was it, my journey began. I started DIYing pretty much on month 2 as I didn’t like the idea of spending chunks of money trying to figure out the strength I needed, but instead I’d work it out myself. Of course to do that I had to research the dangers and read far more than I expected to. Anyway, I’m going on a bit. In short, when I started using flavouring to get away from tobacco (starting with menthol) I knew that this was going to be the solution to my problem.
At first flavours were simple and I stuck with the ones I wanted, but then I started mixing them and coming up with new recipes. I’ve always loved cooking, and this was just like that. Plus, I got a lab jacket, syringes, test tubes and I’m losing my hair. Who doesn’t want to look like the crazy scientist?!
I concentrate on taking flavours that I’ve loved over my life time and turning them into something I can take with me everywhere. Apple pie and vanilla custard? Absolutely, that’s how Ivory Pippin began as an example.
It’s been a fun journey.
TGV: Can you tell me about your business ethos?
Jamie: It’s pretty simple really. I live by one rule and it’ll make me sound like a big hippy. I run my businesses without compromising my morals. I won’t choose greed over someone else’s happiness. I don’t see the business world as a cut throat place where you only get ahead by screwing over other people. Sentences like, “that’s what the market will bear”, translate to, “how much can I get out of my customers” and that goes against my values. Essentially, my business will be successful if my customers are happy and I’m making enough profit on my products and services to grow or sustain my business.
I’ll never be rich because of that, and that’s okay because I’m not aiming to be. I just want to be comfortable and for my customers to be happy. This business has one added bonus (one I’ve chased in my career), I get to help people and benefit them in some way.
TGV: Could you take us through how you develop your juice line and the flavours?
Jamie: My process has changed quite a few times, but here’s how I currently do it. First I pick what type of flavour I want. Am I going sweet, custardy, fruity, minty…Once I’ve chosen the foundation, the process of elimination begins. I pick flavours based on a recipe I like, or maybe a sweet or a drink. Then I put together the ingredients I think will work together in ten test tubes with some PG and VG, each one will have a slightly different ratio of the base flavours. I then vape those on my 306 bridgeless atomisers, writing notes in my notepad about what stands out, what I like and don’t like, as well as things I might want to change or add. Is it sweet enough, or custardy enough, what’s the inhale and exhale like. You get the idea. It might be that I hate them all and I start the whole process again, or that I only like a few. What I’m trying to do is figure out what stays and what goes.
Once I have the foundation of my new flavour, the long process begins. Each of those variants will be expanded to another ten, I’ll start adding or removing ingredients and changing percentages of each. At this point we’re still in the initial stages, getting an idea of what might be in the final version.
The final stages can take months, actually in the case of Ivory Pippin it took 6 months. Each variant needs to be vaped for a few weeks with notes being taken as we go. Percentages need to be tweaked in the decimal ranges, and then vaped for long enough that you understand how it steeps. The ultrasonic cleaner I have to speed up steeping makes this quicker, but once I’m happy with a variant it’s important to steep it normally (with time and darkness) for a real taste and also use cheap atomisers, more expensive ones and of course RDA’s.
You can do many things to make your life easier at certain stages. Examples:
I have a water bottle with 50/50 PG VG for playing in early stages.
I use weighing scales with double decimal accuracy to save on cleaning and time.
The 306 bridge-less atomisers save having to change wicks and coils regularly, having a few of them reduces the chance that a strong flavour will contaminate the next flavour you try out.
Understanding each ingredient you have and the percentages they work at removes a lot of guess work.
Anyway, there’s an idea of how I do it.
TGV: So, how do you come up with ideas your flavours?
Jamie: Oh it’s always based on something I know, have loved or feel nostalgic about. Prioritising which I love the most is the hard part for me because of the time it takes to be fully satisfied with it and the cost involved in releasing it. I’m not a millionaire and my business is small.
TGV: How do you know when a flavour is perfect, when it’s time to stop research and development?
The rest of the interview is, here.
It's a strange sensation when you toot on an e-liquid like Ivory Pippin. The sensation that you have amazing food in your mouth and should really be chewing on something delicious, biting through an amazing crumbly pastry when there's nothing but flavoured nicotine enhanced vapour. It's very clever stuff indeed.
I personally found two of his juices to be of excellent quality, the other two were just outside my flavour profile, but I've given them to people who now love and cherish them. Van Dyke Vapes e-liquids are never anything less than food memory triggers with a fascinating twist. When you get e-liquids in that taste amazing and make you think, well what more can you ask for? They come very highly recommended.
I say this a lot in these interviews, but Jamie has been great to get along with. I'm at risk of sounding disingenuous or shallow as I say these guys are awesome almost every week, but maybe the vaping industry (or the people I've spoken to anyway) just attracts decent folk who want to provide a great quality product with customer service to match, who don't want to rip their customers off and also want to give something back. We all share a common goal in that smoking was killing us all and when we found vaping it was an epiphany. This gives us a shared knowledge and feeling possibly like no other movement before it.
Although we all disagree from time to time we're really very lucky to have such a close community in vaping. Together we are strong.
Anyway, I'll hand over to Jamie, he's got some great stuff to say...
TGV: Hey Jamie! Many thanks for taking the time out to spend some time with The Grumpy Vaper.
How the hell are you? What juice are you vaping today?
Jamie: I’m currently vaping a zingy, sweet fruity flavour that I’m working on. That’s all I’m telling you, this is a private discussion, isn’t it?
TGV: It's just you and me and these four walls. And a few readers.
So, give me an introduction to Van Dyke Vapes, what are you all about? What influences you?
Jamie: I was a smoker for 22 years, and I wheezed when I climbed stairs. I had a crackling noise in my airways when I laid down to sleep. I tried to quit smoking so many times and with so many different methods that I was at a loss. I came across an article about cig-a-likes back in February 2010 and that was it, my journey began. I started DIYing pretty much on month 2 as I didn’t like the idea of spending chunks of money trying to figure out the strength I needed, but instead I’d work it out myself. Of course to do that I had to research the dangers and read far more than I expected to. Anyway, I’m going on a bit. In short, when I started using flavouring to get away from tobacco (starting with menthol) I knew that this was going to be the solution to my problem.
At first flavours were simple and I stuck with the ones I wanted, but then I started mixing them and coming up with new recipes. I’ve always loved cooking, and this was just like that. Plus, I got a lab jacket, syringes, test tubes and I’m losing my hair. Who doesn’t want to look like the crazy scientist?!
I concentrate on taking flavours that I’ve loved over my life time and turning them into something I can take with me everywhere. Apple pie and vanilla custard? Absolutely, that’s how Ivory Pippin began as an example.
It’s been a fun journey.
TGV: Can you tell me about your business ethos?
Jamie: It’s pretty simple really. I live by one rule and it’ll make me sound like a big hippy. I run my businesses without compromising my morals. I won’t choose greed over someone else’s happiness. I don’t see the business world as a cut throat place where you only get ahead by screwing over other people. Sentences like, “that’s what the market will bear”, translate to, “how much can I get out of my customers” and that goes against my values. Essentially, my business will be successful if my customers are happy and I’m making enough profit on my products and services to grow or sustain my business.
I’ll never be rich because of that, and that’s okay because I’m not aiming to be. I just want to be comfortable and for my customers to be happy. This business has one added bonus (one I’ve chased in my career), I get to help people and benefit them in some way.
TGV: Could you take us through how you develop your juice line and the flavours?
Jamie: My process has changed quite a few times, but here’s how I currently do it. First I pick what type of flavour I want. Am I going sweet, custardy, fruity, minty…Once I’ve chosen the foundation, the process of elimination begins. I pick flavours based on a recipe I like, or maybe a sweet or a drink. Then I put together the ingredients I think will work together in ten test tubes with some PG and VG, each one will have a slightly different ratio of the base flavours. I then vape those on my 306 bridgeless atomisers, writing notes in my notepad about what stands out, what I like and don’t like, as well as things I might want to change or add. Is it sweet enough, or custardy enough, what’s the inhale and exhale like. You get the idea. It might be that I hate them all and I start the whole process again, or that I only like a few. What I’m trying to do is figure out what stays and what goes.
Once I have the foundation of my new flavour, the long process begins. Each of those variants will be expanded to another ten, I’ll start adding or removing ingredients and changing percentages of each. At this point we’re still in the initial stages, getting an idea of what might be in the final version.
The final stages can take months, actually in the case of Ivory Pippin it took 6 months. Each variant needs to be vaped for a few weeks with notes being taken as we go. Percentages need to be tweaked in the decimal ranges, and then vaped for long enough that you understand how it steeps. The ultrasonic cleaner I have to speed up steeping makes this quicker, but once I’m happy with a variant it’s important to steep it normally (with time and darkness) for a real taste and also use cheap atomisers, more expensive ones and of course RDA’s.
You can do many things to make your life easier at certain stages. Examples:
I have a water bottle with 50/50 PG VG for playing in early stages.
I use weighing scales with double decimal accuracy to save on cleaning and time.
The 306 bridge-less atomisers save having to change wicks and coils regularly, having a few of them reduces the chance that a strong flavour will contaminate the next flavour you try out.
Understanding each ingredient you have and the percentages they work at removes a lot of guess work.
Anyway, there’s an idea of how I do it.
TGV: So, how do you come up with ideas your flavours?
Jamie: Oh it’s always based on something I know, have loved or feel nostalgic about. Prioritising which I love the most is the hard part for me because of the time it takes to be fully satisfied with it and the cost involved in releasing it. I’m not a millionaire and my business is small.
TGV: How do you know when a flavour is perfect, when it’s time to stop research and development?
The rest of the interview is, here.
