Picking an e-juice flavor is one of the harder parts of vaping, for beginners and long-time vapers alike. There are hundreds of brands, thousands of flavors and a range of nicotine options, and few people have hours to spend reading through them. Below are four approaches that can shorten the search. They are written from my own experience, and I have noted which one I like best.
Read e-liquid reviews
This is my favorite way to choose a new bottle. Reviews come in a few forms:
- Customer reviews: on ejuice.deals, product pages carry reviews from customers who bought that e-liquid. Most are a sentence or two saying whether the buyer liked the flavor. They are useful when you are short on time and want a quick second opinion.
- Blog reviews: our blog has a large archive of longer write-ups. At the time this article was written I was reviewing 3-5 flavors a week, mostly fruits and sweets, which are my own favorites, along with desserts and menthols. Each review runs to roughly a thousand words and covers everything from the packaging to how the flavor holds up over time. They suit readers who want the full picture before buying.
- Social media reviewers: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms have plenty of vape reviewers. Many have practiced palates and describe a first impression of a juice in detail. They often bring in guests, so a few minutes of video can give you several opinions on one e-juice.
Order a Mystery Grab Bag
Our site has an option called The Mystery Grab Bag. I like it because the delivery is a surprise without any subscription attached, and it replaces a long browsing session. When this was written, the sizes were:
- 60ml: 1x60ml bottle
- 100ml+: at least 100ml of e-juice, made up of 100ml and 120ml bottles
- 200ml+: at least 200ml of e-juice, made up of 100ml and 120ml bottles
- 300ml+: at least 300ml of e-juice, made up of 100ml and 120ml bottles
With the three larger sizes, the brands and bottle sizes are a surprise, and the total always meets the minimum for the size you picked. A 200mL order, for instance, might arrive as a pair of 100mL bottles, one 120mL with one 100mL, or a pair of 120mL bottles.
An order note lets you state preferences, such as leaving out tobacco flavors or leaning toward vanilla desserts. Requests are met where possible, depending on what is available when the order is packed.
Try a subscription service
Vape juice has subscription services that work much like Netflix or Hulu. Two of the best known are VapeBox and Zamplebox. For a monthly fee they draw on a wide range of nic-salts, tobacco, menthol, fruit and dessert flavors, which makes them a practical way to learn what you like.
You build a profile of the flavors you expect to enjoy, and each box brings something new. The drawback is that another person makes the final selection, so you will not know what is inside until the box arrives. If you enjoy surprises, it is a good route into unfamiliar flavors and brands.
There was too much to say about these services for one post, so a follow-up article compares the two in detail and says which we preferred.
Stop by a local vape shop
Subscription services did not exist when I took up vaping a few years before writing this. My only option was visiting local shops and sampling whatever looked good. The samples were already loaded into tanks, so I had little choice in the matter, and each tank came with a disposable drip tip. Tasting was in-store only and always at 0mg nicotine.
That had two problems. The juice in the tester tanks was often stale and had begun turning brown. And a flavor at 0mg did not always taste like the 3mg version I actually bought, 3mg being my usual strength.
Free samples then drew the attention of legislators, who argued that letting people taste before buying encouraged young people to take up vaping. Shops responded by charging one dollar for sampling. Some charged it once for as many flavors as you wanted, others charged it per flavor. Small as the fee was, it put people off sampling and spending more in the store.
Because juice already cost less online, many customers paid the dollar, worked out what they liked and ordered it elsewhere. My own habit was to pay for the sample, buy a small bottle in the shop if the staff were friendly, and get the remainder online. That is not the same as spending everything locally, but it felt like a fair way to support the shop. Visiting shops was also how I met other vapers, and it helped to know a place with good flavors in case my supply ran out before an online order turned up.
Wrapping up
Finding a new vape juice can be slow and frustrating, largely because a written flavor description does not always match how the liquid tastes. Each of the four methods above is meant to take some of that guesswork away. If you are curious about a particular e-liquid, you can contact us by social media, phone or email and ask about our experience with it, our personal favorites or what we would suggest for you. We will give you an honest opinion.