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Johnson Creek Introduces Kiln House Gold Reserve A silky, golden smoke juice so smooth you’ll never look at eLiquid in the same way…ever.
By now its no secret how I feel about most of the Johnson Creek Smoke Juice line. Whether it’s the Red Oak (PG-Free) or original Johnson Creek smoke juice, there are few flavors I don’t have in my constant rotation. Simply put, Johnson Creek is a standard setter, the company to which all others respect, or envy, or try to emulate. There are lots and lots of great eLiquid out there, but there is only one Johnson Creek.
Kiln House
After gathering information from the Chief Product Officer at Johnson Creek, I can tell you that the background on Kiln House is really quite simple. When Johnson Creek launched their tobacco masterwork ‘Silverthorn’ they received a flood of positive feedback from customers, including yours truly.
They (We) began insisting (!) that JC develop more tobacco flavors like Silverthorn. They wanted true artisan crafted, deep, rich smoke juice… full of flavor. So, Johnson Creek decided to do just that. They began dedicating a lot of time and precious resources to new tobaccos that they felt would best give their customers the kind of product line they deserved.
I was told that as Johnson Creek launches more and more flavors in the Kiln House line they would all be rich, robust tobacco flavors.
Kiln House is going to be, in his words, “all tobacco, all the time”. No fruity flavors, no candy flavors in the Kiln House line, just bold tobacco flavors with subtle additions to round things out (like the honey and citrus notes I talk about below in the Gold Reserve).
This is big news to tobacco Vapers like Tom and John Castle, and to a lesser extent myself. Don’t get me wrong, Gold Reserve is to die for, but I’m not closing myself off to the more frilly, sweet vapes that I love every bit as much.
Gold Reserve
Gold Reserve is unquestionably one of the smoothest, cleanest, purist tobacco blends I have ever vaped. Its physical appearance is like golden silk, slightly thick, and using the accompanying dripper it pours unctuously into the Vea cartomizer. Using the new Johnson Creek Valet you’ll watch the rich and luscious liquid saturate the cartomizer with an unequivocal certitude that only liquid silk can promise.
Gold Reserve is serious in flavor, despite its lack of Propylene Glycol, the major ingredient in the flavor-carrying vein. You will instantly recognize the bold tobacco flavor delivered in the smoothest fashion possible.
Gold Reserve is a sort of dry, but only slightly so, smoke juice with a natural but barely noticeable sweetness that gives it just enough depth to enrich the flavor of the tobacco notes, not overpower it. It’s a sweetness that comes from subtle hints of honey, and I know this will sound a bit strange, but the flavor feels expensive, as though it was aging in oak barrels for decades, only to be drawn out a bottle at the time to be enjoyed on special occasions. Outlandish as that sounds, it is what it feels like to vape this inconceivably smooth and enchanting smoke juice.
The Vape
In order to truly understand what Gold Reserve is all about I ‘vaped’ it a few different ways. I filled 5 Vea Rev 2 cartomizers, 1 with the dripper and 4 with the Johnson Creek Valet. I also filled one Vea Canteen, and used all them with the Johnson Creek Vea battery. But, since many people use hardware that isn’t the Vea, I also filled 2 clearomizers for the Triton by Halo Cigs, and an X.Jet tank by Vision for use on a ProVari, and finally the Cool Fire 1 and the iClear 30B.
I decided to use the Rev 2 Vea cartomizers because the coils are rated at 1.8ohms, and produce a little more power than the Rev 3, which is rated at about 2ohms. I did this for one reason; Gold Reserve’s silky, somewhat thick liquid. The performance was great, as I suspected it would be, but the Canteen just didn’t do Gold Reserve justice. I have a feeling that the rated 2.4-2.6ohm Canteen is too restrictive for the thick Gold Reserve juice. The flavor was there, but the vapor and throat hit didn’t reach the level I wanted.
Switching over to the Triton Variable Voltage and their clearomizers the experience was noticeably better in the vapor production department and throat hit. I was using the 1.8-2.0ohm coil replacements (long wicks) with the setting on the battery between 3.8 and 4 volts. This produced a massive amount of vapor, a good throat hit, and a very clean taste. The flavor of the Gold Reserve shined in the Triton setups.
Finally, when the evening rolled around and with two setup to go, I first switched to the X.Jet clearomizers, outputting at 1.8ohms, bottom dual coils. With the ProVari I found the sweet spot with Gold Reserve at the 3.6v setting, producing the ultimate flavor and vapor, while also producing an acceptable throat hit. Pushing the dual coils a little higher, to 3.8-4.0v it produced a very warm vapor, pushed the throat hit up, but took the flavor down a notch. While some may prefer to push 1.8 dual coils up to that range and beyond, for me flavor is utmost important, so it was back down to 3.8v for the duration of my time with the ProVari.
Lastly, switching out to a wattage-mechanical-mod, the Cool Fire 1 (review is coming, really) outputs at 8.5w (more than 5000mA) fully charged, and with the iClear 30B it was an absolute delight. The Cool Fire is made to work perfectly with the new iClear 30B, which outputs at 2.1ohms. The Cool Fire 1 is a nice wattage-mech-mod except for one thing, if you try to use anything other than the iClear 30B you’re going to take a hit in performance, with too much or two little power. But with the iClear 30B it seems to be made for Kiln House smoke juice.
Out of the above setups I would say that Gold Reserve shined best with the X.Jet and the ProVari at 3.8v. The flavor stayed at its peak the entire time, and the vapor production was by far the best.
Observe
One thing to keep in mind about Kiln House and the Gold Reserve is the lack of Propylene Glycol. While this helps produce more vapor, the lack of PG lessens the throat hit, and lessens the overall flavor ‘potential’ as well. The brilliant mixologist at Johnson Creek made sure the flavor didn’t suffer with the lack of PG, just don’t expect a powerhouse throat hit without pushing your voltage to the point where the flavor notes takes a slight hit. Then again, I repeat that I am more of a ‘flavor-chaser’ than a ‘cloud-chaser’.
Buying Advice
Let’s be realistic here; if you are apt to vape sweet dessert flavors, or pastry, candy, banana, and other types of sweet, fruity, or bakery flavored eJuice Gold Reserve is probably one you’ll want to avoid. But if you are the serious tobacco enthusiast, looking for something on the dry side, with minimum sweetness but lots of mature, tobacco notes, this is even better than Johnson Creek’s masterpiece, Silverthorn (Red Oak). And if you happen to be one of the Johnson Creek customers who were screaming for more tobacco smoke juice, your screams have been heard. Come and get it.
For the Vaper looking for the successor to Silverthorne, Gold Reserve is it, though our own John Castle will be bringing you a review of the Kiln House version of Silverthorn in the next couple of days, I can only compare Gold Reserve to my experience with ‘Silverthorn Red Oak’ line.
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the Johnson Creek Original ‘Makana’, a sweet fruit punch smoke juice my wife has adopted as her “go-to” juice. Gold Reserve is as different to Makana as a hamster is to an eagle, but both have a place in world of Vaping. Some of us even like hamsters and eagles, so Gold Reserve has found a permanent spot in my rotation, along with Makana.
And last but not least, Gold Reserve is definitely an all-day-vape for the Vaper that enjoys a semi-dry tobacco flavor, and I imagine it will become a favorite for many of them.
You know the name Johnson Creek, and now you know a lot more about the new Kiln House line. Undeniable top shelf quality, only the finest ingredients, and the expertise of the Johnson Creek mixologist will soon come a complete line of tobacco smoke juice. If my description of Gold Reserve appeals to you then the only decision you need to make is what size will you start off with. 15ML is $9.95, 30ML is $19.45, and nicotine options are 1.1%, 1.8%, and 2.4%, along with a zero-nic for those that want to vape for the flavor and the vapor. And just in case you want to sample it first, Johnson Creek is offering a 5ML 1.8% nicotine bottle for just $3.95. You just might want to add one to your shopping cart on your next visit to pick up a bottle of Makana.
