the grumpy vaper
Postman
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2014
- Messages
- 352
Superbrands!
2014 saw the rise of e-liquid superbrands from all over the world. Digbys rose to prominence here in the UK, while several from the US started appearing over here. Suicide Bunny, Five Pawns and Spacejam to name a few. Slick branding and marketing cemented their place in the e-liquid pantheon, but does the juice inside always hold up?
Today TGV shines the light on three e-liquid superbrands. Two from t'other side of the pond in the shape of Five Pawns and King's Crown, and one from the UK - Vapourlites - one of the UK’s leading suppliers of electronic cigarettes who have recently introduced their own range of 100% UK manufactured Pharmaceutical Grade E-Liquid.
I was very kindly sent these three e-liquids from Vape Club, who got in contact with me in December following our nominations in the Ecigclick 2014 Awards. Many thanks goes out to David at Vape Club for sending them. Five Pawns and King's Crown were sent at a nicotine strength of 12mg, while Vapourlites is 10mg.
How do these superbrands measure up to their incredible marketing, branding and packaging? Let's delve in, lock and load and vape on!
Gambit from Five Pawns:
Flying in the face of convention, I find Gambit from Five Pawns absolutely average. Described as, "...sweet and sugary apple pie complemented with a flaky pastry crust that adds a gorgeous savoury element to it. Not only that, but its topped with sweet caramel and finished with a couple of big dollops of unsweetened whipped cream and French vanilla ice cream. It’s the pudding vape to end all vapes!" For £25 for a 30ml bottle I expect, no demand an e-liquid that matches the incredible branding, packaging and lofty price. Gambit falls way short of that expectation. Delving into the e-liquid description a little deeper the flaky pastry crust is more akin to biting into a slightly mouldy cardboard box and with that being the leading flavour Gambit has a huge problem to deal with right out of the blocks. Having tried this juice in an Atlantis, a Freakshow and a Magma I don't get that much variation in flavour from device to device. I'm actually left wondering if I have a dodgy bottle. I do get a slight breath of apple, but from an apple pie I want more. Sweet caramel? Nope, it just isn't there, there's none of the burnt, deep richness of caramel at all. Unsweetened whipped cream? Well, my mouth is left with the feeling of a creamy coating, but that creamy coating isn't particularly pleasant and it feels rather false. I'd prefer not to have that in my mouth. French vanilla ice cream? I've said this before, any e-liquid that has ice cream in the description is a bit disingenuous for one reason: Ice cream is cold, so to represent this the juice would need to have a cooling effect added to the ingredients - Gambit has no cooling effect, so it's just not ice cream. Vanilla? It's a tough call. Gambit might have a tinge of vanilla, but I'd like a bit more in my "French vanilla ice cream". Gambit has a decent throat hit and is a 50VG/50PG e-liquid which provides good, if not exceptional vapour and that's the best thing it has going for it. Once you get past the stunning branding and packaging, you're left with a big, "So what?"
Claim Your Throne from King's Crown:
Today's second superbrand, King's Crown is the newest line from Suicide Bunny and is intended to do something a little different from what Suicide Bunny have previously done. One thing stays intact and that's the superb branding on the bottle. Unlike Gambit, Claim Your Throne keeps up the quality inside the bottle too. Described as, "...a perfect blend of sweet creams, butterscotch and brown sugar." Claim Your Throne is the closest TGV has tasted to a great crème brûlée. It's all custardy and creamy (without leaving those decidedly odd creamy trails in your mouth) on the inhale with rich, caramelised, dark sugars on the exhale. Claim Your Throne follows others in the Suicide Bunny line with an incredible smoothness to proceedings. It's subtle, but not so subtle you can't taste each flavour - if it were any more rich it may be too much to vape regularly, so I personally think Claim Your Throne gets the balance just about right. Claim Your Throne is as 70VG/30PG blend and provides huge plumes of vapour with a decent throat hit. If you're after the King of crème brûlées, then this is for you and comes with a strong TGV recommendation.
The rest of the review and pics here >>>>
2014 saw the rise of e-liquid superbrands from all over the world. Digbys rose to prominence here in the UK, while several from the US started appearing over here. Suicide Bunny, Five Pawns and Spacejam to name a few. Slick branding and marketing cemented their place in the e-liquid pantheon, but does the juice inside always hold up?
Today TGV shines the light on three e-liquid superbrands. Two from t'other side of the pond in the shape of Five Pawns and King's Crown, and one from the UK - Vapourlites - one of the UK’s leading suppliers of electronic cigarettes who have recently introduced their own range of 100% UK manufactured Pharmaceutical Grade E-Liquid.
I was very kindly sent these three e-liquids from Vape Club, who got in contact with me in December following our nominations in the Ecigclick 2014 Awards. Many thanks goes out to David at Vape Club for sending them. Five Pawns and King's Crown were sent at a nicotine strength of 12mg, while Vapourlites is 10mg.
How do these superbrands measure up to their incredible marketing, branding and packaging? Let's delve in, lock and load and vape on!
Gambit from Five Pawns:
Flying in the face of convention, I find Gambit from Five Pawns absolutely average. Described as, "...sweet and sugary apple pie complemented with a flaky pastry crust that adds a gorgeous savoury element to it. Not only that, but its topped with sweet caramel and finished with a couple of big dollops of unsweetened whipped cream and French vanilla ice cream. It’s the pudding vape to end all vapes!" For £25 for a 30ml bottle I expect, no demand an e-liquid that matches the incredible branding, packaging and lofty price. Gambit falls way short of that expectation. Delving into the e-liquid description a little deeper the flaky pastry crust is more akin to biting into a slightly mouldy cardboard box and with that being the leading flavour Gambit has a huge problem to deal with right out of the blocks. Having tried this juice in an Atlantis, a Freakshow and a Magma I don't get that much variation in flavour from device to device. I'm actually left wondering if I have a dodgy bottle. I do get a slight breath of apple, but from an apple pie I want more. Sweet caramel? Nope, it just isn't there, there's none of the burnt, deep richness of caramel at all. Unsweetened whipped cream? Well, my mouth is left with the feeling of a creamy coating, but that creamy coating isn't particularly pleasant and it feels rather false. I'd prefer not to have that in my mouth. French vanilla ice cream? I've said this before, any e-liquid that has ice cream in the description is a bit disingenuous for one reason: Ice cream is cold, so to represent this the juice would need to have a cooling effect added to the ingredients - Gambit has no cooling effect, so it's just not ice cream. Vanilla? It's a tough call. Gambit might have a tinge of vanilla, but I'd like a bit more in my "French vanilla ice cream". Gambit has a decent throat hit and is a 50VG/50PG e-liquid which provides good, if not exceptional vapour and that's the best thing it has going for it. Once you get past the stunning branding and packaging, you're left with a big, "So what?"
Claim Your Throne from King's Crown:
Today's second superbrand, King's Crown is the newest line from Suicide Bunny and is intended to do something a little different from what Suicide Bunny have previously done. One thing stays intact and that's the superb branding on the bottle. Unlike Gambit, Claim Your Throne keeps up the quality inside the bottle too. Described as, "...a perfect blend of sweet creams, butterscotch and brown sugar." Claim Your Throne is the closest TGV has tasted to a great crème brûlée. It's all custardy and creamy (without leaving those decidedly odd creamy trails in your mouth) on the inhale with rich, caramelised, dark sugars on the exhale. Claim Your Throne follows others in the Suicide Bunny line with an incredible smoothness to proceedings. It's subtle, but not so subtle you can't taste each flavour - if it were any more rich it may be too much to vape regularly, so I personally think Claim Your Throne gets the balance just about right. Claim Your Throne is as 70VG/30PG blend and provides huge plumes of vapour with a decent throat hit. If you're after the King of crème brûlées, then this is for you and comes with a strong TGV recommendation.
The rest of the review and pics here >>>>
