Spinfuel Tasting Party!
During the week it’s all work and very little play. Writing and researching, designing and development, writing emails and answering emails, and of course teaming up to produce reviews, our daily workdays are serious business. When it comes to the weekend, on those rare occasions when we are not working, we’re usually gathering together to go to a movie, dine out, or hanging around watching TV.
Background
All of us are transplants. My wife and I came down to Florida more than 2 years ago, bringing along a couple of the crew that wanted to relocate to the sun and fun Florida Treasure Coast, the rest came later when Spinfuel got closer to launch time. Julia, who has been with me for more than a decade, came down earlier this year for one reason; to bring me (and the crew) back home, back to New Hampshire, because Spinfuel Design Studio needed to regroup. The other half of the team remained there, working strictly in design and web development projects. So, despite the vast differences in ages we hang out a lot. No one, it seems, has become a “resident” of Florida, and as such, has no qualms about returning north in early 2013. Okay, you have enough background now, on with the subject at hand.
A Tasting Party
All of us were gathered together Saturday night to watch “The Hunger Games”. (A great book(s), a so-so movie) Seeing as how some of our favorite eJuice companies had sent us some new flavors they’ve released recently, or had gotten back in stock after an extended absence, what better way to enjoy them then together, watching a movie. We decided to gather up all the new flavors and have a tasting party while we watched the movie and shared good company.
Halo Cigs released some new G6 cartomizers this week and they sent some to us for our consideration. Not to review, (even the eJuice companies did not expect a review in return), so all we needed was a handful of KR808 batteries and we were all set. We grabbed from the office several batteries from Halo, Apollo, and 777 eCigs (all KR808 compatible), as well as some snacks, and laid everything out on the coffee table at my house before we started the movie.
The companies that sent eJuice were Virgin Vapor, Ginger’s eJuice, and Halo.
The huge glass coffee table served as our production area and we proceeded to lay out all the eJuice, separated by company, the batteries, and then the cartomizers, syringes, flex-needles, and of course the ever-present moist toilettes, a product we use constantly around here to clean nicotine off our hands. (We’re a messy bunch)
Assignments were given out and in a matter of 20-30 minutes all the cartomizers had been filled with all the various flavors, placed in small plastic bags upon which we wrote the names of the juice and the company it came from. Each of us had 3 fully charged G6/KR808 batteries and an 8-port USB hub along with USB charges were at the ready when it came to recharging batteries.
The Hunger Games – A Movie Review! – I was the only one to have read all three of The Hunger Games books, and was most excited about watching the movie. As it turned out I was the one that least liked the movie, while Julia was its biggest fan. The rest had various thoughts and feelings about the movie, from ‘excellent’ to a ‘meh’. For myself, there was so much in the books, so much character development, detailed descriptions of life in Panem, and so many feelings and thoughts from Katniss that leaving them all out was a huge letdown. I would have preferred a 10-part mini-series for Book One than a 2.5-hour movie. In any case, the company, and the vaping (and the pizza and beer!) made up for any disappointment in the movie.
Enough!
You’re probably wondering about the new flavors though, and how they tasted, and the vapor production, and even about the new Low Resistance Cartomizers for Halo’s G6 batteries more than the movie review, so here’s the lowdown on all the new stuff we enjoyed on this particular night.
Halo Cigs new LR (low resistance) Cartomizers –
This is a product I did not expect to see anytime soon from Halo Cigs, but man am I sure glad they did it. Low Resistance cartomizer (LR)s, while causing batteries to use power faster than Standard Resistance (SR) cartomizers (though not by much), are set to operate between 2.1 to 2.3 ohms, substantially less than the SR cartos that operate between 2.4 to 2.8 ohms. It may not sound like much but it is noticeable.
Without identifying a pack of the LR cartos I filled up a couple with eJuice from Ginger’s eJuice and passed one to Julia and one to Tom. After they took a drag (at the exact same moment) both of them looked at their eCig and remarked about the warm vapor. Then they looked at me, and everyone else, and asked what “the deal was”. I told them they were using the LR cartos and their eyes widened. They looked at the cartos and saw the LR on the side and knew I wasn’t joking.
Julia and I had recently spend a bit of money stocking up on Halo’s SR G6 (we didn’t know the LR’s were coming) and Julia got a look on her face and said “Now we’re stuck with a bunch of cartomizers that I no longer want to use”. She was only half joking, she knew the SR cartos were more than fine, but she really like the warm vapor the new ones put out. As did Tom.
Eventually everybody was using the new LR Halo cartos and although we noticed a much improved vapor production and warmer vapor, the battery power didn’t seem to be an issue. I have no doubt that the charge of a full battery will drain around 15% faster or so, but in the real world terms the tradeoff is more than welcome. When I say the vapor was warmer I don’t mean by just a tiny bit, it was noticeable by all.
So far the LR cartos are only available in black. They run the same amount as the SR cartos, a nice $8.99 for a pack of 5 (packed in a reusable clear-plastic snap top box that I really like) They are in stock now and with their 15% sale and an additional discount if you buy 5 or more and 10 or more, the price is downright cheap for this kind of quality. Oh, and they are identified on the side of the carto with the letters LR just in case you get them mixed up. A nice touch.
The eJuice – Before we tell you our impressions of the new flavors you need to know that these impressions are based on using them a short while. Our normal eJuice reviews are conducted with much more discipline than we used Saturday night, and we spent probably less than an hour on each flavor, so rather than give you our complete “review” on them we’ll cut it down to covering the main points and how we rated them. Remember though, using a LR carto, (warmer vapor can alter the flavor) not allowing them to sit overnight (which helps draw out the flavor in just about every eJuice on the market), and spending a short amount of time vaping them can affect our impressions. Having said that I think if we say we liked it then the impression would be likely to improve, and if we didn’t like the flavor we could change our minds “some”, but I don’t think we could go from a total “dislike” to a total “like”.
Everybody wrote their notes down as text messages and sent them to you during the evening. Some are detailed and some are not. But you’ll get the idea. I did some editing where needed, and truncated some remarks when I had to.
Ginger’s eJuice
Ginger sent down a few new flavors and one we can’t talk about, yet. The flavors are, Blueberry Streusel, Sweet Strawberry, Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookie, and Strawberry Shortcake.
Julia – I liked all of them, but my favorite was old-fashioned sugar cookie. Sweet, rich, and lots of vapor. Tasted just like a sugar cookie. My scores would be 5 for the sugar cookie and blueberry streusel, 4 for the Strawberry Shortcake and Sweet Strawberry. These are great new flavors!
Tom – Sugar-cookie and shortcake are a little too sweet for me, but they are good. Blueberry was a solid 5, I love it. Sweet Strawberry was sweet, but nor too sweet. Overall, they are really good addition to Ginger’s collection.
Jason – Man, I LOVED the sugar cookie! Blueberry Streusel was awesome too. I didn’t much care for the Sweet Strawberry, but the shortcake strawberry was really good too.
Lisa – OMG! Sugar cookie is to DIE FOR! Blueberry Streusel was great and the shortcake was great. Sweet Strawberry tasted like strawberries, and it was good, not great. I think they are going to sell big!
Chelsey – The blueberry streusel is awesome! I want more! The strawberry shortcake was great, as was the sugar cookie. The strawberry was good too, but I’ve tasted ones that were just as good.
Jon Locke – The sugar cookie is awesome!!! Blueberry streusel was great too. Both 5’s in my opinion. Sweet strawberry and the shortcake one’s were both 4’s. Good stuff!
Dave – Oh man, these are all great new flavors. I’d rate them in order from best to least; Sugar cookie, blueberry, shortcake and strawberry. Delicious, each and every one.
John – Without a doubt the sugar cookie and blueberry streusel are awesome! I could taste the “cake” in strawberry shortcake so that’s a winner as well. If I were in the mood for Strawberry, I would grab this new one in a second.
Final Thoughts: This morning they all said that they feelings didn’t change, though to be honest there wasn’t any left. Ginger is going to do very well with these new additions so try them out; I think you’ll like them.
Virgin Vapor – Annette over at VV sent us some of her award winning Organic Kona Coffee Milkshake and Banana Coconut Colada, in a couple of different nicotine strengths as well. The Kona Coffee Milkshake took 3rd place in the Juice of the Year Award for 2011. We can see why. Neither one of these are new flavors; and we had had reviewed the Kona Coffee Milkshake before, still, it was very much worth mentioning again.
Julia – The Kona Coffee Milkshake makes me want to cry. So damn good, so rich and creamy, I took huge drags and then slowly let it out. Oh my god, so good! A little too much banana in the banana coconut colada but still pretty awesome. I’d give both of them a 5, without a doubt. I think I gave the Kona Coffee a 5 in our review.
Tom – Maybe it’s the good company, or the pizza and beer. I don’t know, but I really enjoyed the banana colada a lot! The Kona Coffee Milkshake was excellent too, strong flavors, which I love, and very rich. Vapor was great (especially when warm!). I loved it before, and even more now with these LR cartos. These are both 5’s.
Jason – Between the two the Kona Coffee Milkshake was the best. A solid 5. Perfect the evening. The banana coconut was good too, but not as much. I’d say it was 4.
Lisa – Oh, the Kona Coffee Milkshake is insanely good. So rich, so full of flavor. Loved the banana coconut colada too. It would be very hard to choose between them despite being two very different flavors. My mood or setting would dictate which one I’d pick. On a night like this the banana coconut would be a better choice, but if I were back home in NH, the Kona Coffee Milkshake wouldn’t leave my side in the wintertime. These LR cartos add a lot of warmth, which works particularly well with the Kona coffee. Both are 5’s.
Chelsey – The Kona Coffee Milkshake is so rich and creamy it’s hard to believe. In an LR carto it’s crazy good. Too much banana flavoring in the other one, though it too wouldn’t be a bad choice. 5 and a 4.
Jon Locke – I think the Kona Coffee Milkshake is too strong for me. Too rich or something. I did like the banana coconut colada a lot. Both were very rich and made tons of vapor, and I didn’t feel any harshness in my throat. These flavors are made for these LR cartos!
Dave – Unbelievably incredible! Both of them are winners in my book. Very strong flavors and good throat hits, and vapor was always thick. If I had a vote in the reviews I would give both of a 5, with the nod to the Kona Coffee Milkshake. But if anyone wants a banana vape they don’t have to look further than VV’s banana coconut colada.
John – The Kona Coffee Milkshake is an amazing vape. As I mentioned before in the review, the shot of KONA makes this an amazing flavor. The warm vapor makes this one rock even more! The banana coconut is almost perfect. Strong banana flavor that I really loved. These are two great flavors.
Halo Cigs – Some people think of Halo as a mini-eCig company that makes its own juice and others, myself included, think of Halo as a juice company that also sells its own branded hardware. So, when they put out a new flavor you can bet that it’s a serious flavor. They don’t product 200 flavors at a time, instead they careful about what they put out there. Well, they all are, but with Halo being seen as a larger corporation-type, they must take steps when releasing a new flavor that must smaller companies do not. (I feel like I really stepped in it here. I hope you know what I mean.)
Longhorn – This new flavor has only been out a couple of weeks and there seem to be two very distinct groups, ones who love and ones that hate it. No one I know considers Longhorn as a “meh” flavor.
Julia – I did not care for this one. It might be because the rest of the night I was vaping sweet stuff, I don’t know, but Longhorn is right up Tom’s alley. Dry, non-sweet, cigar flavor. I would not vape this again.
Tom – This is PERFECT. Vaping could never be better than this flavor right here. Not a hint of sweetness, and very dry. Bone dry. I loved it. I declare this bottle MINE.
Jason – I liked it. Dry and non-sweet, a definite cigar vape for people that like cigars. The trick is not to inhale it. Vape it like you would smoke a cigar, enjoy the heavy vapor.
Lisa – Sorry, I couldn’t take more than a couple of drags off of it. It could be because the whole night was spent vaping sweeter flavors. I have to have some sweetness to my flavors and Longhorn lacks sweetness. Reminded me of smoking my dad’s cigar when I was 12.
Chelsey – Longhorn isn’t bad. It’s not great, unless you like cigars. Very dry, very un-sweet. It has a nice flavor though. I would think that you would have to drink more water than usual because after 10 minutes with Longhorn I couldn’t get enough water, and I had a couple of beers already!
John – Longhorn is a dry, non-sweet flavor for people that are looking for an authentic cigar experience. I had vaped this before, the other day, and I liked it better then, so I think the fact that beforehand I was vaping strawberry, blueberry, milkshake and sugar cookie flavors. Maybe we should have started with this flavor. (Update – I’ve been vaping Longhorn this afternoon and we were right, it is better when you stay away from sweet flavors for a while. I like it quite a bit, probably not as much as Tom, but it’s a good vape for those looking for dry, non-sweet flavors.)
At the end of the night there was very little eJuice left and the LR cartos were completely gone, but they had been ‘sacrified’ for a worthy cause. It turned out to be a great night of good company in a place 1600 miles away from home.
No doubt the Halo Cigs G6 LR Cartomizers are going to be a huge hit with Vapers that use KR808 batteries and I suspect that adapters for larger batteries that allow the use of a KR808 cartomizer on a 510-thread will go up. These are great at producing a warm vapor through the G6 batteries.
And in the end…
All of us are so happy and thankful that these eJuice companies thought enough about us to send us some new eJuice just “because”. It makes us feel welcome, we’ve only been in the community since Janaury.
Things like this make us realize just how good we have it, and how lucky we are to have gotten to know such good people.
A Labor Day Message
Labor Day, the first Monday of September is an American holiday that celebrates the American worker, and that is each and every one of us, whether you are currently working or looking for a new job. In our case, the staff of Spinfuel eCigs Magazine would like to publically say ‘Thank you’ to all the small business owners that make the vaping community what it is. Without companies like Ginger’s eJuice, Virgin Vapor, and Halo Cigs (and so many others that we know and work with) there would be no vaping community. And so we celebrate every one of you as well, our readers, on this Labor Day Weekend. You’ve shown us that our hard work is very much worth the effort we all put into it. We will continue to do the best job we can for many years to come.
John Manzione
With Julia Barnes, Tom McBride, Jason Little, Chelsey Laney, Lisa Johnston, Jon Locke, and Dave Foster
