Dinner Lady was not a brand we expected to warm to, because its dessert blends never did much for us. The Summer Holidays e-liquid range changed that. After Cola Shades, the next bottle on the desk was Black Orange Crush, a citrus, dark fruit and ice mix that ended up as our pick of the whole range.
Bottle and label
Older Dinner Lady juices shipped in painted glass with a dropper. You could not see the level inside, so guessing when to reorder was a nuisance, and the dropper often failed to pick up the last of the liquid or drew too little at a time, which made refills slow. Black Orange Crush comes in a slim 60mL bottle of clear plastic instead. A lavender label covers most of it and leaves a narrow gap for checking how much is left.
The label carries the nicotine warning: the product contains nicotine, and nicotine is an addictive chemical. An expiration date is printed on the side, though on our bottle it was faint and hard to read. We have a separate piece on how long e-juice keeps once opened if dates on e-liquid are new to you. In our case it hardly mattered, since the 60mL was gone roughly a week after it arrived. The blend is 70/30 VG/PG, the same as much of the Dinner Lady catalogue.
Filling the tank
The child-resistant cap came off without a fight, which cannot be said for every bottle. The nozzle is narrow enough to slot straight into a fill port, so a few squeezes topped the tank up with nothing spilled.
Our bottle was the 3mg strength and the liquid was completely clear. Its thickness sat midway between runny and heavy, close to olive oil. After some time in the tank it picked up a faint yellow tint. Juice can darken either by caramelizing in the tank or by oxidizing, as covered in our article on why vape juice turns brown. With a sweet, fruity liquid like this one, our guess is that the sweetener caramelized and tinted what was left. Straight from the bottle it smells sweet and soothing, enough to make us want the real fruit.
How it tastes
Dinner Lady lists the flavor as blackcurrants, oranges and koolada. We had never eaten blackcurrants, so there was no reference point going in.
- Inhale: menthol and nothing else that we could pick out.
- Exhale: a smooth fruit note mixed with citrus, then a light cooling finish.
- Aftertaste: the orange shows up most here, along with a tingle at the back of the throat where the menthol had been.
The menthol is soft and easy to take in, unlike blends that push the ice too hard. The orange stays subtle and never takes over. In a blind test we would have named the menthol easily and probably the citrus, but we would not have guessed blackcurrant as the lead flavor, and it is hard to say where the currant stops and the orange begins. Our best guess is that the handover happens on the exhale. The vapor smells as good as it tastes, and holding back from chain vaping took some effort. There is nothing about the recipe we would change.
Verdict
Until this bottle, our favorite menthol juice was Flip Flop Lychee, thanks to its clean lychee taste and smell. Black Orange Crush has replaced it. Two fruits come through in one puff, the menthol follows without drowning them, and the pairing works. It was the only juice in our tank for 4 days straight, and running out was a disappointment, especially as it had been a last-minute purchase and we had not ordered a spare. If you like fruit flavors with a touch of menthol, this is among the most enjoyable juices we have tried, and it is now our go-to menthol and fruit blend.