What are eLiquids and Juices?
E-Juice is commonly composed of 4 primary ingredients:
- Propylene Glycol (Provides most of the flavour and throat hit, very thin liquid)
- Vegetable Glycerine (Provides most of the vapor, very viscous liquid)
- Nicotine (This is optional)
- Natural & Artificial Flavouring (Things that make you go mmm!)
There are many different blends that the best vape juice can come in. The most common are 50VG/50PG, 60VG/40PG, and 70VG/30PG. However there are some that are heavier on the PG (Propylene Glycol) side to provide a stronger flavour and more of a throat hit while VG (Vegetable Glycerine) heavy blends provide more vapor production.
Nicotine content in your juice will vary from person to person and depend largely on your vaping methods and device used. For instance if you are using a clearomiser like a CE4 you may find yourself vaping e-juice with a higher nicotine strength versus a clearomiser like an Aspire Atlantis, KangerTechSubTank or a dripping atomiser. Keep this in mind in case you ever change your set up. Your new device could more efficiently vaporise your juice giving you a much harsher nicotine hit than you were expecting! Nicotine can also ‘tan’ your e-juice and cause the color to darken over time.
The flavouring that goes into e-juice is a very complex process. Each flavour is composed of several extracts and when combining two or more they tend to blend differently together than one might expect. Taking a peanut butter flavouring and mixing it with banana flavouring may sound delicious if you love a peanut butter and banana sandwich but unless you can balance the correct amount (and type!) of flavourings properly you may be in for a bit of a surprise when making a similarly flavoured e-juice.
There is another process used to bring out more flavour notes and improve the balance of flavours in the best vape juice called steeping. Steeping is simply taking a bottle of e-liquid and storing it in a cool, dry, dark environment for a period of time (anywhere from a few days to a few weeks) that varies greatly depending on the juice and flavourings used, shaking occasionally. This allows the chemicals to merge further and causes the flavours to fully blossom.
Taste is also subjective. What may be amazing to someone may not be amazing to someone else. You should always keep an open mind when trying e-juice flavours. Try new things, you might just be surprised what flavours you find yourself enjoying all day!