Cloud Nurdz builds its e-liquids around a two-flavor crunchy candy most of us ate as kids, and Grape Apple is the purple-and-green one: grape paired with green apple. It was my first bottle from the brand, and I picked up three of their flavors to review one after another. This is the first of those reviews. Short version: the vapor itself tastes good, and an aftertaste spoiled it for me.
Score: 4 out of 10
I’m starting with the verdict because it shapes everything below. The inhale and exhale are clean and sweet, and I enjoyed them. What follows a few seconds later is a soapy note that I could not get past, so this one lands at 4 out of 10 and will not be going back in my tank.
How it vapes
Copying a candy that people feel nostalgic about is hard to do in an e-liquid, and since I love the original I went in hopeful but careful.
- Inhale: apple, crisp, with both tartness and sweetness.
- Exhale: a strong, clear grape. The two fruits blend better than I expected.
- Aftertaste: soapy. It sat on the back of my tongue like grapes washed in dish soap, and I needed a drink of water to clear it.
- Throat hit: smooth, though at 3mg I needed several pulls in a row before it felt like enough nicotine for me.
- Room note: the best part. The cloud hanging in the air smells of sweet fruit and candy, and breathing it back in was pleasant.
To rule out a one-off clash on my palate I kept going, puff after puff. The soapy finish did not show up every time, but it came back often enough that I stopped trusting the juice. It also arrived late, a good five seconds or more after the grape had gone. I finished one full tank and had no wish to pour a second.
That is a shame, because neither fruit ever turned muddy. The apple stayed apple on the way in and the grape stayed grape on the way out, and together they made me want another pull until the finish arrived. I have not run into this aftertaste with any other e-liquid, and I can’t explain why it was so strong here. My guess is that this particular grape and this particular apple react oddly together. Whatever causes it, the recipe needs work. Among the juices I have reviewed, this is one of the few that came up short.
Box and label
The packaging uses green and purple to match the candy colors. The 100mL bottle ships in a large box made of thin cardboard, which fooled me a little: it looks like the boxes that hold a pair of 60mL bottles, 120mL in total. Box and bottle carry the same printing.
- The brand name is set in a big graffiti-style typeface.
- Grape Apple appears twice, once in reflective green lettering and once in reflective purple.
- The 3mg nicotine strength is printed twice as well, on the left side.
- A banner along the bottom warns that the product contains nicotine and that nicotine is an addictive chemical.
Printing things twice seems to be a theme with this label.
The back is mostly warnings. One covers possible exposure to acetaldehyde. Directly under it, another says nicotine may be poisonous if it touches your skin or is swallowed. I have written about that subject before in what happens when e-juice gets on your skin or is swallowed. Below the warnings sits the ingredients list, where I learned that Cloud Nurdz uses food grade flavorings, something I kept in mind for the tasting. Age restrictions, sales restrictions and manufacturing details are there too, along with a VG/PG ratio of 65/35. Most juices I see are 70/30, so I wondered whether I would notice a difference.
The expiration date and batch number are stamped on the bottom. Neither the box nor the bottle gives a web address for the company. I looked it up and found that the Cloud Nurdz website sells wholesale only. The label names Five Star Juice as the manufacturer, the same company that makes Barista Brew, another brand we carry, and several other e-liquid lines.
Bottle, liquid and smell
Inside the box is a clear chubby bottle holding 100mL. The label wraps almost the whole way round and leaves a narrow gap where you can see how much juice is left. The childproof cap unscrewed without a fight, and the thin, slender tip filled my tank with no drips, leaks or mess.
The liquid is reddish yellow, about the color of iced tea. It moves freely when you tilt the bottle, yet it is neither watery nor sludgy, and it seemed thick enough that I was not worried about it clogging a coil.
A gentle squeeze under my nose gave a thick, sweet grape smell, much like a grape lollipop. It had me wanting a tall glass of grape juice, and I loaded the tank straight away.
Where that leaves us
Grape Apple is not the first e-liquid to imitate this candy, and I wanted to like it. The first impression in each puff is clean, sweet and refreshing. The aftertaste is what keeps it from being an all-day juice.
Two more Cloud Nurdz flavors are next on my list. If the same finish turns up in those, I will take it as something that runs through the lineup, possibly a manufacturing matter such as the type of flavorings used. If your experience with this juice was different, or you have met this aftertaste in other grape or apple e-liquids, tell me in the comments.
Taste is subjective, so treat this as one person’s tank. If you have questions about Grape Apple or any other e-liquid we carry, reach us by social media, phone or email and we can suggest something that fits what you like.