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A VaporZone Custom Blended eLiquid Review by Julia and Keira Hartley-Barnes
VaporZone is an electronic cigarette company that provides eCigarette hardware as well as custom blended eLiquids to the vape community. For an in-depth look at one of VaporZone’s electronic cigarettes we urge to watch Smokenjoey’s recent video.
The Spinfuel eLiquid Review Team was sent several eLiquids for review, but unlike any other review we’ve done, most of the eLiquids provided were non-standard flavors. When faced with reviewing an eLiquid called: “25612 – 18mg” we were uncertain on how to proceed.
For example, let’s take the eLiquid above, the 25612. This particular eLiquid lists the flavors used as: 1 Tobacco, 1 Vanilla, and 1 Dolce De Lecce. This, naturally, indicates that eLiquid #25612 is a custom-blended flavor using the three units of the aforementioned flavors to create it.
There simply is no way to standardize these numbered custom blended eLiquids in a way that could form a cogent review from the perspective of 4 eLiquid Review Members.
So, instead of the usual Spinfuel eLiquid Team Review Keira and I got together and agonized over how to present a review of the VaporZone product. We’re going to approach this in a different way. We think you’ll get more out of the way we decided to present VaporZone then from any attempt to review the non-standard, unnamed eLiquids we received.
Custom Blended… Let’s begin…
VaporZone uses a system called Vapetender, a play on the word ‘bartender’ of course. It’s the process you can use to “mix it up”, to create an eLiquid containing the flavoring you want, in a number of different combinations. In fact, there are over 30,000 different combinations available. All it takes is some imagination and a sense of what you like, or could like, and you’re on your way.
VaporZone offers a single size custom blended eLiquid bottle using the Vapetender system. For $14.99 you’ll receive your 30ML of eLiquid in a high-quality plastic bottle utilizing one of the best plastic tips we’ve ever has the pleasure to use.
Filling tanks, clearomizers, cartomizers, or anything else really, has never been easier using this long, thin, needle-like tip. The hard plastic bottles have just the right amount of ‘squeeze’ to them, giving you all the confidence you’ll need to fill your device in a clean, mess-free fashion.
About The Process of Custom Blended
The VaporZone “lab”, (and it is a top-notch lab), is registered with the FDA as a tobacco manufacturer.
Working ahead of the regulation curve, VaporZone has registered each and every formula with the FDA. When the regulations kick in more than likely VaporZone won’t have to change a thing. (Hopefully)
All the flavorings used in VaporZone eLiquids are specifically made to be inhaled.
VaporZone calls this a “step beyond food grade”. We agree. This idea that flavorings used in eLiquids should be formulated for inhalation and not digestion is a valid one, and important one, though honestly the jury is still out on whether this makes a real difference, healthy wise.
That said, knowing that the flavors used in the VaporZone eLiquids are formulated this way is rather comforting, necessary or not.
The VaporZone eLiquids are also made with USP Grade Kosher ingredients. In addition, it has to be noted that as for the Glycerin used in their eLiquids, VaporZone points out that their Glycerin is sourced, strictly, from the Malaysian Palm.
All VaporZone custom blended or not, eLiquids are also 100% Diacetyl-free. They adhere to cGMP standards, use Lot Numbers so that all batches can be traced back to the source, and as an aside, people with peanut allergies need not fear a single blend from VaporZone.
What We Think Of Custom Blended Eliquid
Clearly, VaporZone is certainly going far beyond the extra mile when it comes to the quality of their eLiquids. Using a registered lab, high quality Palm Glycerin, flavorings that were made with inhalation in mind, and all the other factors, we cannot be more impressed with their operation. And at $14.99 for a 30ML bottle, we’re very satisfied with the price consumers will pay for such extraordinary quality.
The Process of Custom Blended Eliquids
Our own Dave Foster recently reviewed another custom blended eLiquid company and noted that during the process of creating your own eLiquid you had to choose 3 units of flavor. Sure, you could make all 3 units the same flavor, or mix it up any way you like, but you had to choose 3 units. Stay us here, we do have a point.
When you use the VaporZone Vapetender you begin by choosing how many flavors you’ll want to work with in your custom blend.
In other words, while the percentage of flavorings for your custom blended vape juice, between the company Dave Foster reviewed and VaporZone are probably the same, or close, so there is less confusion with VaporZone’s method. But, we should mention that both systems are based on 3 flavor “units”. Hold on, we’re getting there…
As you begin the process of mixing your custom blend you’ll choose whether you want a single, double, or triple flavor blend. Once you choose the number of flavors you’re presented with a series of drop down menus providing all the available flavors.
If you chose a 1-flavor eLiquid blend you’ll make a choice of a single, double, or triple “shot” of that one flavoring. Blending a triple flavor eLiquid your “shots” are restricted to one unit. Follow?
When you’ve completed choosing your flavors you move on to the nicotine strength. Choose from nicotine-free to 6mg, 12mg, 18mg, 24mg and 36mg of nicotine. A couple of our “sample” blends were 36mg nicotine and neither of us was able to vape more than a couple of minutes before feeling light-headed. We vape 18mg, which is exactly half the maximum 36mg offered by VaporZone.
After choosing your nicotine strength you’ll add it to your cart and you’ll be offered a chance to continue creating additional eLiquids or simply “checkout”.
And that’s pretty much it. Simple.
The Great Flaw of Custom Blended eLiquid
Generally speaking, VaporZone eLiquids are perfectly fine. I know, I know, sounds like a backhanded compliment, doesn’t it? But its not, and here’s why.
All custom blended eLiquid services have to rely on one thing… and that one thing is “standardization”. No matter what, a flavor “unit” is a flavor “unit”.
You choose 3 units every time, there is no such thing as “half a shot of this, third a shot of that, seven-eights a shot of this and that”… this will always limit the creativity that is enjoyed by premium flavorists from eLiquid brands like Mountain Oak Vapors, Rocket Fuel Vapes, and others. This is the great flaw.
What we have all begun to call “custom blended” is as far from “custom” as you can get.
During a preliminary interview for an upcoming eLiquid review, I learned that a couple of the flavors offered by this company took more than a year to develop. This is very important to the whole argument over what constitutes a real “custom blend”.
The flavors used in a real custom blend are precise, never simply a “unit”. Most, if not all, premium brands are like this. They make dozens of recipes for a new flavor, always making fine adjustments until its “just right”, paying no regard to what makes a unit a unit. This method of true custom blends requires complete abandonment of the “units of flavor” method of blending eLiquids.
The bottom line, a bottom line that must be stressed, is this: No matter how many flavors are offered by any custom eLiquid blending house you’ll never replicate your favorite eLiquid from your favorite eLiquid brand. It is impossible, or damn near, because premium brand flavors are created without the use of any sort of standard ‘unit’.
Where Quasi Custom Blended eLiquids Belong
That’s not to say that you can’t have fun, or create some delicious eLiquids using VaporZone Vapetender. There’s no doubt that you can have a ball creating new flavors, and enjoying them a lot, but there are limits.
VaporZone Vapetender is a marvelous idea. They use awesome quality ingredients and the price is very nice indeed. In fact, if you happen upon a recipe you really like there’s no reason not to use VaporZone 100% of the time for 100% of your eLiquid needs.
And whether or not you invent these flavors yourself or choose from dozens of “semi-public” recipes placed there by VaporZone customers doesn’t matter. If you’re happy with the flavors, happy with the “vape experience”, then that is all that should matter.
What We Think
After vaping all of the eLiquids we received from VaporZone we can say with some certainty that all of them are very flavorful and produce a fair amount of vapor. However, they all taste, well, generalized. Hear me out…this is where we go all philosophic…
If you’ve read a number of our Spinfuel eLiquid Review Team reviews you’ve surely read that we’ve indicated time and again that every eLiquid brand we review have a “flavor profile” or flavor “characteristics” that are unique to the brand.
Like a hundred rock bands using 3 guitar players and a drummer… you can instantly tell one or two bands from all the others because of their unique “sound”. It doesn’t matter that they are using the same instruments, it’s how they’re used. It’s the art, the soul… the difference between the Rolling Stones and a Rolling Stones Cover Band…
The same can be said for an eLiquid “system” that uses the best possible ingredients and the best possible mechanics, but there is no art involved, no soul.
The Tell
A true premium eLiquid brand has a “tell” and a trained tongue (sorry for the imagery there) can taste that “tell”. The flavorist puts his or her soul into the work, and in each eLiquid there remains a bit of the artist’s soul.
However, the same cannot be said of companies like VaporZone. VaporZone has no ‘tell’ because it has no soul, no art. Flavorings, for the sake of gaining the most customers, need to be as generic as possible. They cannot, by their very nature, contain any ‘uniqueness’ because if they did they would not appeal to the lowest common denominator. It’s all mechanical.
Pineapple must taste like pineapple, period. Apple is apple, not one of variations of apple…just apple… and so on. This is ‘generic flavor’, meant in the politest way possible, and it will appeal to the greatest number of customers because it must.
However, that’s not to say that giving VaporZone a try isn’t a smart idea… no matter what your eliquid experience. You will taste eLiquids that are unaltered, pure, and generic. It will help you develop a baseline and a future for all other eLiquids you encounter. And you just might like them.
Order a bottle of their tobacco eLiquid and you’ll know what a basic tobacco eLiquid tastes like and from there you can venture out to specialty brands like Hurricane Vapor, Rocket Fuel and Mountain Oak, brands that make tobacco eLiquids into an art form.
Without ugliness there can be no beauty, without lies there can be no truth. Without knowing what an unaltered eLiquid flavor tastes like you’ll never understand the complexities and the nuance from a true flavorist. Putting it this way, there is Lime and then there is Limerick. There is Vanilla and then there is Vanilla Dreams.
Final Words
VaporZone uses the highest quality ingredients available, including a super high quality Palm Glycerin and flavors formulated for inhaling. A better quality eLiquid is damn near impossible to find. They offer a quasi-custom blend, allowing you to choose three units of flavor in any combination you like.
They utilize high quality plastic bottles, provide a lot of information on their labels, and ship promptly. The pricing is pretty terrific too. And the blends that were shipped to us were all good eLiquids. But they had no soul, no art, no nuance.
If you’re the kind of vaper that likes to experiment, or is thinking about DIY eLiquids and want to try it under controlled conditions, then VaporZone is a seriously good choice.
Remember this: If your favorite eLiquids come from a premium brand like those I mentioned above you’ll never come close to the kind of flavor profiles that eLiquid artists can achieve when creating any eLiquid using a basic unit of measurement.
A true artist is never restricted to a formula, and a great eLiquid cannot come from a “3 units of flavor” maxim. Custom Blended Eliquid is, most of the time, a fantasy.
Julia Hartley-Barnes and Keira Hartley-Barnes
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