Juice Review: Blackdrops by Decadent Vapours

As some might have noticed, I've been reviewing some of Decadent Vapours new flavours lately. The two first one's I tried were both creamy desert flavours, Crème Anglaise and Vanille Francaise. Now for something completely different.

Blackdrops

Tested on: Kanger Subtank (RDA @ around 0.4 ohms, 30 watts)

Opening this bottle and smelling the juice gave me absolutely no surprises. Blackcurrant. I'm getting used to Decadent Vapours being spot on in their own description of their juices by now so vaping it was equally unsurprising, having read their description before I tried it: A powerfully fresh and fruity vape, reminiscent of mentholated blackcurrant lozenge. But this does not at all mean I'm bored with the juice. In fact I'm very satisfied that it taste exactly like that, cause it's a great flavour. And of course they've packed it full of flavour as usual. Loads of blackcurrant on the inhale, while the exhale gives me more of the menthol leaving me with a feeling I've got an extraordinary fresh breath. To me this is kind of an all year juice. It's refreshing on warm summer days, like we had at times while I've been in Denmark, but for me blackcurrant toddy is also kind of a traditional winter drink we usually bring when we go skiing. Now of course I haven't had the opportunity to try this one out in such a setting yet, but this juice kind of makes me want to add a hint of menthol to the toddy next time I go skiing. All in all another great, refreshing flavour from Decadent Vapours. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Decadent Vapours for sending me the juice for review.

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Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Norwegian Directorate of Health goes to war against Norwegian e-cig retailers

The Norwegian Directorate of Health recently sent out a warning to all the major Norwegian vape-shops, instructing them to remove all positive coverage and all pictures of their products from their web-sites. I believe skypumpen.no, an excellent Norwegian vaping blog, dedicated to consumer information and safety, was the first to report this here in Norway last week:

All the major Norwegian retailers have these days received a threatening letter from the Directorate of Health that takes on the entire industry. In terms like "promotion of tobacco-related substitutes" and "Discounted rates" they have, with no concrete evidence, juxtaposed vapor to smoke and smokeless tobacco. Meanwhile, they continue to refer to Nicotine Gum and nicotine spray as good alternatives to tobacco. This in spite that the vaping equipment in itself contains no nicotine, nor do any of the retailers contacted sell nicotine-containing products.

Our Norwegian retailers obviously see this as particularly unfounded and unfair .. and I do too. It is completely wrong to compare the vaping; with or without nicotine (or batteries for that matter) with tobacco .. or any other substitutes. Hence the retailers are gearing up for the battle to retain their rights to sell user equipment.

(Read the full article here. It's in Norwegian but hopefully Google translate will do a decent job)

After this some Norwegian newspapers also reported on the case and thankfully some of the retailers were also allowed to comment along with representatives from the Directorate of Health. Hilde Skyvulstad from the Directorate of Health claims that e-cigarettes are a "tobacco surrogate" and therefore covered by the prohibition of advertising for such products here in Norway. She says that illustrations of e-cigarettes and prices are not allowed other than in black on white and that the "product description shall also be neutral and not give a positive review of the product, regardless of whether the products contain nicotine or not". And she finishes of with a proper threat: "Those who do not comply may be fined". I'm happy to see that none of the retailers I usually visit have complied. I am also very happy to see what Ramzy Zaher, one of the retailers warned, told VG (Norwegian Newspaper) in response to this: He says that the retailers stand united in their case against the Directorate of Health and that there are plans to create a trade union.

One of the Norwegian retailers also published the whole letter on their Facebook-page some days after receiving it. I'm not going to translate the whole thing here. The main point is that advertising for "tobacco surrogates" is illegal in Norway, and that the Directorate of Health views pictures and positive words about the products on the retailers webpages as such advertising. Hence it's illegal they say. The problem here is the definition of "tobacco surrogates" according to the law: "Product who's usage corresponds to tobacco products, but does not contain tobacco". Now of course it's easy to see that using e-cigarettes have some similarities to smoking cigarettes. One can of course argue that e-cigarettes and vaping equipment also differs a lot from smoking cigarettes, but the way this paragraph is written and stands today, I doubt it will get us anywhere. We have to face the fact that the e-cigarette was created as a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes. The problem here is that the paragraph was written before the e-cigarettes hit the market. The intention of the paragraph was probably to stop products that imitated cigarette smoking and that could possibly encourage smoking. A gateway effect in other words. The intention of the paragraph was NOT to stop products that discourage smoking or helps people quit, like vaping does, and it has been proven over and over again that using e-cigarettes is not a gateway to smoking cigarettes. The Directorate of Health knows this very well, I mean they are not crusading against any of big pharma's "tobacco surrogates" are they? Yet they are using a paragraph that obviously works against it's intention, and hence should be revised, to start a war on a product they don't like. In fact it's a product they should be in love with, if their intention is to promote public health. Why? Again, I struggle to find any good reasoning behind this. As much as I'd like to believe that the Directorate of Health is concerned with our health alone, like they should be, their actions and statements simply does not imply this. They are consequently ignoring all evidence supporting e-cigarettes, but they seem to listen to the mumbo jumbo of witch doctors like Sanner and Grimsrud. I'd like to quote Jo Christian at skypumpen.no again: 

I do not wish to fuel conspiracy theories, but it is no secret that the "petroleum fund" (Government Pension Fund of Norway) owns and has been owning significant proportions of shares in the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries (have a look here for more info on what shares Norway owns: http://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/holdings/) [...] So what does it really take for the Directorate of Health to see how much vaping has helped ex-smokers all over the world?

Are you sure they're really not seeing it? You'd have to be blind or closing your eyes not to ... I'm not sure which one I find the most scary.

Juice Review: Vanille Francaise by Decadent Vapours

I was pretty impressed with the first of the new Decadent Vapours juices I reviewed, the Crème Anglaise, so now my expectations for the rest of them have been (and still are, I've got more to try out) pretty high. This time it's time for some French vanilla.

Vanille Francaise

Tested on: UD Zephyrus (0.13 Ohms nickel, 30-35 Watts, 500 F)

Once again the smell reminds me of some kind of liqueur. Actually it smells kind of similar to the Crème Anglaise to be honest. Starting to wonder if I, or my sense of smell, has gone totally mad, but then again, the vanilla flavour used in both juices are probably the same, and dominating to the smell. Vaping it, I also seem to recognize the same vanilla taste, but this time more on I guess it's more up front. Make no mistake, I get quite a lot of creamy flavour as well, so Decadent Vapours description (creamy French vanilla), is pretty good this time as well. To me it kind of makes sense to compare this juice to the Crème Anglaise, as I pick up several of the same flavours (if not all), but in different amounts. This is also a great juice, and I think it's of course a matter of personal taste which one you like the best. Personally I'd choose the Crème Anglaise, but I honestly think you shoud try both to make up your own mind.

Thanks to Decadent Vapours for sending me the juice for review.

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Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

Juice review: The Notebook by Black Note, Part 1

Black Note produces, according to themselves, "the first lab certified N.E.T.  vapor liquid on the planet". This means they've tested all their juices for contents of different potentially harmful substances, Diacetyl and Acetyl Propionyl being the ones that seems to be the most worrying ones at the moment. As you can see from the lab reports they've published they all came out pretty clean. I also asked them a bit about clogged up coils, that in my experience have been kind of an issue with N.E.T that I've tried. Black Note say that they do not use any artificial flavors and sweeteners, and a unique extraction process that keeps their juices coil friendly. I've been vaping some of the juices for a while now, and I see no reason to argue with that as I've had no problems with clogged up coils so far.

According to a study by Dr. Farsalinos (read about it here) Naturally Extracted Tobacco e-juices do contain somewhat higher levels of nitrosamines and some other tobacco related substances than conventional e-juice, but we are still talking about very small amounts compared to cigarette smoke. To be honest I'm more concerned about DA and AP levels in e-liquid than these substances. The article I've linked above pretty much sums this up, so I recommend reading it if you're worried. Also I recommend having a look at Black Note's web-page, which is really good with a lot of nice info on their juices and how they are made. You can even customize the labels on the bottles you buy.

The Black Note range consists of 8 tobacco e-liquids, one of them with some mint in it. In the Notebook, that I'm reviewing here, you get 7.5 ml sample bottles of the whole range, nicely packed in a box resembling... big surprise: a Notebook.

I have to say, Black Notes design and packaging is really well done. Their website is great, a lot of good information on their story, how the juices are made, what's in them and so on. I get the impression that nothing is just put out there in a hurry, and there is a good reason for everything they do. The secondary packaging, for example, is not there just cause it looks kind of cool, but it also protects the juice from light. And in addition to that, Black Note even lets you recycle the tubes, giving you a free 30ml bottle of juice if you return 5 tubes. Very consistent with their vision of natural harmony.

All of these things that Black Note have done, the design, the web-site, packaging, and so on, oozes of quality. Really makes you want to try out these juices, but also raise the expectations quite a bit. So are the juices as good as they look? The short and simple answer is: YES!

Well, at least the once I've tried out so far. You see trying out 8 of these juices are going to take a me longer than I thought, for a couple of reasons actually. You see I decided to set up my 2 Hellfire drippers (a V1 and a Raptor for those interrested) for testing these juices, simply because I find those the best ones when it comes to flavour. The problem is that once I started vaping the 2 first juices, I can't really get myself to rebuild the atties before the bottles are empty. They're simply that good. But then again, this also gave me the opportunity to really test if Black Notes' claim that the juices are coil friendly were true, and as I said, I've had no problems with clogged up coils until now. I do get some burnt taste when taking the first couple of draws on the V1 after the coil has been cold for a while, but this goes away pretty quickly so it's not an issue for me. I just do a couple of puffs without inhaling and it goes away.

I've managed to empty the two first bottles I tried, Cadenza and Adagio, and I'm now on number 3 and 4, Forte and Legato, now. All 4 of them are fantastic juices. Very authentic tobacco flavours, as you would expect from N.E.T juices, no artificial feeling whatsoever. All of them taste as natural as the ingredients they're extracted from. Good throat-hit and massive flavour from all of them as well. They're all 50/50 PG/VG which is the only available mixing ratio. As for nicotine they come in 0, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24mg/ml (the one's I've got are 18).

It's not easy to pick a favourite among these, they all have their own character, being made from different kinds of tobacco. So I'm not going to... for now, and I'm not going too go too deep in the description either, cause I'm not a tobacco expert. I think people, tobacco lovers in particular, should try all of these juices and pick their own favourite. So for this first part I'm just going to give you a short description of the 4 juices I've tried so far, and maybe I'll try to pick a favourite for part 2, that I'll probably be able to do when I get back from vacation in 3 weeks time.

Cadenza
Well balanced, sweet, smoky, woody and some hints of spices. Based on Basma tobacco that some say is the "king of tobaccos". A great one that will complement your cup of coffee nicely.

Adagio
Sweet with hints of nuts or maybe almonds. To me the nuts or
almonds come across clearly in the smell of the juice, almost have some hints of marzipan. An all day vape candidate. Based on Havana tobaccos.

Forte
Made from Burley tobacco. Smooth and sweet both on the inhale and exhale. Maybe hints of nuts in this one as well. Also a great all day vape candidate for me.

Legato
Kentucky tobacco this time. Getting kind of a woody, smokey
vibe from this one. First thing that hit me when I tried this one was that this would taste great out in the wild, with a camp fire going and after enjoying a meal you've killed yourself in some way or another. Could very well be the one I'd bring for hunting or fishing.

That's it for now. Fabulous juices these are, and I definitely recommend giving them a try. I'd say it's one of the best tobacco juices I've tried, if not the best. Only House of Liquid comes even close to these in my opinion, and if you like HOL, you'll like these for sure. Can't wait to try out the rest.


UPDATE: Black Note can now be bought at this side of the pond as well, from vapour.co.uk.

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review contains affiliate links.

Juice Review: Double Apple by Vapouriz

As I wrote in the Millionaires Menthol review I did earlier, Vapouriz also has a Premium range, which is kind of their regular range I guess, seeing that it's cheaper than the Platinum range. I was pretty impressed by the menthol from the Platinum range, so now it's time to see if their slightly cheaper juices are any good.

Double Apple
Tested on: Aspire Nautilus (Temp. control coil, 20-30 Watts, 490 F)

Having a look at the bottle, I guess Double Apple is a mix of red and green apples. Hence the name I guess. It smells quite authentic, fresh and a bit sweet. The flavour is quite strong as well, but I'm not sure I think it is as authentic as the smell. I get a bit more apple candy feeling, which I have to be honest and say was a little bit disappointing. I mean, if it's apple candy you want it is probably ok, and it's not by any means a horrible taste, but to me it is a bit on the sweet side. Now I have of course tried only one juice from each range, but judging by that I'd say the Platinum range is worth the extra £1 per 10ml. I don't know... just seems like they've put a bit more thought and effort into it. Might also be just me that have been trying quite a few apple based juices lately that I've found a lot better than this.

Thanks to Vapouriz for sending me the juice for review.

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Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
• The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.