Flavor variety is a big part of why vaping is fun. Cotton candy on one end, a smooth classic tobacco on the other, and plenty in between. Not every idea deserved a bottle, though. This list is not about juices that divide opinion. These are the ones that put people off picking up a vape at all.
Dairy that should have stayed in the fridge
Blue cheese
Picture the most pungent cheese you have ever had under your nose, then picture it heated and inhaled. That is blue cheese e-juice. Expect notes of cheese long past its date and warm, unwashed socks, plus a dairy film that sits on the tongue for hours afterward. Blue cheese belongs in salad dressing and nowhere near a tank.
Milk
We are not sure why juice makers keep returning to dairy. Plain milk has little flavor to begin with, and as vapor it has even less. What does come through is bland but unmistakable: warm milk. For us that is enough to trigger a gag.
Savory snacks in vapor form
Nacho cheese, sold as “Doritos” juice
It goes by a few names, Doritos juice and nacho cheese juice among them, and none of them makes it better. People who have tasted it land on the same two words nearly every time: vomit and acid. The reports describe a flavor like throw up with a sour burn on top. Make of that what you like.
Hot dog
Plenty of things on this list are fine as food. A hot dog is one of them. Turned into vapor, it tastes and smells like dog food, and it is hard to see who asked for it. It might work as a prank on a friend. As something to unwind with after a long day, we will pass.
A party drink nobody missed
Jagerbomb
If you knocked back Jagerbombs at college parties, you know the taste. A juice that copies it brings back the drunken nights, the queasy feeling and the flavor of alcohol that was never pleasant in the first place. We do not need the reminder with every puff.
The short version
Treat this as a warning label. All five are strange, and all five are unpleasant. If you are in an odd enough mood to try one anyway, tell us how it went.
For juices that are worth your time, read our roundup of the best vape flavors from that year, or browse the e-juice collection to look for your next regular.