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Merango – A new PG-Free Smoke Juice from Johnson Creek. First Hand Look!
It is always a special day here at Spinfuel HQ when a secret package from Johnson Creek shows up. Inside is always something new, a sneak peek at a soon-to-be-released smoke juice from the masters of smoke juice! Yesterday a brand new smoke juice arrived at 9AM via UPS… Today, as I write this, the entire staff is still happily vaping the next great PG-Free smoke juice… Merango!
Here’s the official description from Johnson Creek.
Merango
Like picking your own strawberries and taking the first bite, Merango™ brings Spring in the form of smooth vapor and sweet and juicy finish. Let this PG-Free Smoke Juice spread out over a long exhale and you’re sure to feel like you’re laying in a field of strawberries, staring up at your own clouds of billowing vapor. Perfect as an all-day vape when the temperature feels just right and the sun is in the sky.
- High Quality, PG-Free based Smoke Juice
- Made in America
- Made with all US-Sourced Ingredients
So, what does the staff think of this new PG-Free Smoke Juice?
John: I am always excited to be one the first people to try a new flavor sensation from Johnson Creek. I’m also a bit nervous too. I mean, these terrific people at Johnson Creek have been wonderful to Spinfuel, and we love being able to get a first hand look and ‘vape’ of a brand new bottle of a Johnson Creek Original. But what happens if the next new flavor by JC doesn’t live up to the previous release? Hey, it could happen!
The last time we were invited to vape a new Johnson Creek Smoke Juice they (JC) hit it out of the park with their vanilla-infused “Vanda”. I fell big for Vanda, and to this day I still vape it several times a week. It is, without a doubt, the best PG-Free Vanilla Smoke Juice I’ve ever vaped. But, Merango is something different altogether.
Like the description from Johnson Creek says, Merango is a “strawberry” smoke juice. But, unlike Vanda, where the vanilla was heavy-handed and laid on really thick (one of the reasons I love it so much), the strawberry flavor here is ‘fresh and light’, definitely not overwhelmingly strawberry. As it turns out, being a fresh and light strawberry flavor allows it to be a great all-day vape.
Vapor production, like JC’s other PG-Free flavors, is fantastic. JC gives Merango an official Throat Hit score of “4” (four), but vaping it with my JC VEA and in my yellow Halo Cigs Triton I would definitely rate it higher than that. Most assuredly a ‘5’ (five), perhaps even a ‘6’ (six). The TH is there and you know it. JC also rates the “sweetness” at their highest score, 8 (eight) and I don’t think it’s that sweet. A whole lot sweeter than “Silverthorn” naturally, but not nearly as sweet as “Vanda”. Merango is an original and I’d score the sweetness at 6 or 7.
So, after vaping nothing but Merango for nearly 24 hours, minus 5 hours for sleep, my Official Stance on Merango is this:
“Johnson Creek’s string of hits in their expanding line of PG-Free Smoke Juice continues with Merango. A very pleasant, fresh strawberry flavor that seems perfect for the springtime. Plumes of vapor and a wickedly good throat hit, especially for a PG-Free blend, Merango will become a favorite for anyone looking for the right smoke juice to accompany them during the warmer days of spring and summer.”
Julia: Last year’s “Autumn Crisp” was an amazing blend of caramel and apple goodness that instantly became a huge hit with the vape community. Earlier this year JC’s “Vanda” became the talk of the community for its super-rich vanilla warmth. Today we have “Merango”, a strawberry-infused delight that is destined to continue the winning streak Johnson Creek so richly deserves. I love this new flavor as much as I did the Autumn Crisp, and I have to hand to Johnson Creek for their mastery at creating a smoke juice blend that so perfectly fits with the seasons.
I haven’t discussed my thoughts about Merango with anyone before turning in my written review. I did this because I did not want any outside influence as I vaped a smoke juice so obviously different from Johnson Creek’s last PG-Free smoke juice; Vanda. I also didn’t want to write something that sounded more like “Ad copy” than an honest take on a new eLiquid. So I kept to myself, pondering what I would say about Merango when the time came.
No two flavors could be more different from each other than Vanda and Merango. I adore the super-vanilla super sweet Vanda. But, barely 24 hours since Merango arrived I find myself becoming a real fan of this much lighter, much fresher smoke juice.
Merango is every bit as satisfying as both Autumn Crisp and Vanda. Where Vanda floods your brain receptors with the velvety richness of sweet vanilla, and Autumn Crisp blends the sweetness of caramel with the ‘snap’ of apple to give one the sense of the cool weather of the fall, Merango takes the flavor of just-picked strawberries and offers up a smoke juice that tells you the weather is warming up and its time for something lighter, almost breezy.
I’ve probably said this before, but as someone who has sampled eLiquids from more vendors than I can remember, only a handful has mastered the art of creating smoke juice. Some Vapers may not like Johnson Creek’s ‘palette’, but no one can argue that JC hasn’t mastered the art. From their “JC Original” to the new “Merango”, Johnson Creek has produced hit after hit, and I would be very surprised with Merango didn’t become one of their all-time best sellers.
Tom: Two eLiquids that I order every month like clockwork is Johnson Creek’s “Domestic” and “Silverthorn”. Every other month, like clockwork, I place an order for “Tennessee Cured” and “Espresso”. So, I like to think that I know Johnson Creek.
The four flavors above serve as the backbone of my eLiquid collection, so whenever a new flavor comes out I’m anxious to try it just in case there is something new and deserving to join the collection. Even now I ‘bum’ a milliliter here and a milliliter there of Autumn Crisp and Vanda because there are times when nothing else will do. Naturally, when Merango arrived I was the first one to slip a clearomizer over to Julia with a note that said “Fill’er up”.
When the Spinfuel eLiquid Review Team gather together there is way more than a clearomizer of eLiquid to vape. So, seeing as how my impression of Merango is based on a single 3ML clearomizer, it’s not nearly enough to make a definitive statement about it. But it is enough to give you an idea of where my opinion might be in a week or two.
If you’ve read other reviews by the team you might have noticed that I’m not that much of a fan of fruity flavors. I used to focus my vaping on strictly tobacco flavors, then I added coffee blends to the list, and slowly but surely I’ve learned to appreciate a wider flavor palette. That being the case it wouldn’t be all that strange for me to enjoy Merango.
For a Vaper like me Merango has the right amount of strawberry flavor. It’s not overwhelming like “strawberry shortcake” or “strawberry cheesecake” eLiquids that the rest of the team enjoy so much, so right there it turned out to be better than I hoped it be.
I tasted the strawberry on the way out (exhale) more than on the way in (inhale), and in that way I found Merango to be very pleasant. In addition, since this wasn’t an official review I wasn’t bound by the rules to vape Merango exclusively. I could, if I wanted to, vape Merango for a little while and then switch off to something else, which is something I do a lot. Probably like many of you, I have a few clearomizers filled with my current favorites and I’ll vape one flavor for a while and then grab another. I gauged my enjoyment of Merango on how often I found myself switching to something else.
It would be total BS if I were to try and tell you that to my amazement I found myself magically vaping Merango all night, without switching to another flavor once. I mean, this isn’t eSmokeHub.com, ya know? We don’t pretend to be honest for forthright and then hawk whoever it is that’s paying us. For one, no one pays us to review eLiquids or anything else, and two, I’d rather mop floors than to tell you something that isn’t true. To put it as honestly as I can, the 3ML clearomizer lasted most of yesterday and way into the night. I switched out about half a dozen times, mostly between a special mix of mine of JC Domestic and TN Cured, and a couple of other strong tobacco and coffee flavors.
While Merango will definitely be an all-day vape for a whole lot of people once it gets out there, to me it wasn’t powerful enough. There was plenty of vapor, no doubt about that, and even the throat hit was stronger than I thought it would be, but I need a flavor that’s going to make an impression and stick around for a while. If you’ve ever vaped JC’s TN Cured or Espresso you know exactly what I mean.
I certainly liked Merango, and from the reactions from John and Julia I can tell that most people who loved Autumn Crisp are going to love Merango in the same way. I probably won’t spend my own money for it but like Autumn Crisp and Vanda I’m pretty sure there will be occasions where I’ll see Julia or Keira or John and, with clearomizer in hand, I’ll look them square in the eye and say “Fill’er Up please?”
Keira: If you liked last year’s Autumn Crisp you’re going to love Merango. This brand new PG-Free smoke juice is a new strawberry influenced flavor that satisfies in the same vein as Autumn Crisp does. On the sweeter side, with a fresh strawberry flavor and plenty of vapor, this will become one of my all-day vapes as soon as I can get some more.
Merango is the kind of eLiquid (smoke juice) that makes you smile when you’re vaping it. I mean it. The strawberry flavor is an utter delight, and because you taste it more while you exhale you don’t want to waste too much time between vapes. Like Jason would say; “I vaped the hell out of it”, and that got me into a little trouble.
The bottle of Merango we received was 1.8% nicotine. For all intents and purposes this would have been fine, and it was fine for everyone else. But, for me, because I love strawberries and Merango was so awesome I continued to vape it the entire day and night. Once today and one time tonight, I “over consumed” and wound up wishing I had stopped earlier than I did, or at least taken it slower. I wasn’t used to vaping 1.8% nicotine, but the flavor was just too good to stop.
If you’re looking for an excellent strawberry eLiquid, one that produces great big clouds of vapor and a naturally sweet and fresh taste, then Merango is going to be a great choice for you. But, I should also mention that unlike a lot of strawberry eJuice out there in the marketplace Merango is not a blend of strawberry and other flavors, this has a simple, fresh strawberry taste.
I’m definitely placing an order for it, in 1.1% nicotine level, as soon as it goes on sale.
Last Words & Buying Advice
Johnson Creek’s Merango goes on sale Thursday, April 11th, on johnsoncreeksmokejuice.com. Available in 5ml sampler bottles, as well as15 & 30ml bottles for $9.95 and $19.95, this premium smoke juice is going to be very, very popular.
We all agreed that the ‘sweetness’ level was not nearly as sweet as Vanda, and that the throat hit was a bit better than Johnson Creek indicates on their ‘meters’ under the product page. Fans of Johnson Creek will applaud the latest flavor in their PG-Free line, and fans that enjoy strawberry flavors are going to really enjoy it.
This afternoon I spoke with Johnson Creek about home steeping, since this is a topic we get into a lot with other vendors. I was told not to expect much of a change in the way of flavor, so feel free to vape it, as we did, right from the postman.
John Manzione
