RS250-Squid
Postman
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Messages
- 489
Okay, so I followed a link on someone's sig (can't remember who it was, but thankyou!) to the website of Dark Star Vapour (DarkStar Vapour - Home).
These guys are in York and present themselves as something of a premium brand. They draw attention to their UK-sourced high quality ingredients, and the many hours of testing they put into their flavours.
Well a few days ago, they were having an amazing launch sale: £1.50 per 10ml bottle, plus £1 postage (per order, not per bottle!). "I've got plenty of juice already" I thought, "but this is too good an offer to pass up". So I ordered 6 bottles.
They arrived today in a rather snazzy matt-black padded envelope/jiffy bag thing (a small detail, but a cool one that made me smile) with supremely strong adhesive (these things will NOT come open in the post!), which contained 7 (7? We'll come back to that) juices and some papers.
One bit of paper was a detailed and itemised invoice - we like that - and the other was a "thankyou" type card with the following:
Okay so it's an increase of £1, but it's still half the price you'd pay normally from pretty much any retailer.
So before I've looked at the juices I'm already impressed with their attention to detail as well as their customer service and general snazziness.
Bottles:
They come in 10ml bottles, and these bottles are different to the others I have. The plastic is softer and more flexible. I like this, it really makes dripping the juice out a lot easier. Some other brands that I enjoy (but shall not name) can be a bit of a bugger to drip juice from).
The bottles all have child-proof caps which I think is another plus, and they have rather fetching pearlescent black labels with subtle detailing, and clear text.
The labels include safety advice (nicotine, poisonous etc), along with a nice clear description that plainly states the flavour, strength and quantity. In this case, "Peach Melba, 1.8% Nicotine, 10ml".
Also included is the street address of the company (an actual street address, not a PO Box like some other companies would offer), along with a batch number, and the date of bottling. The only thing missing is the pg/vg ratio, so I'm assuming they use the de-facto 70/30.
Under the cap is a fairly typical plastic dripper nozzle thingy. Personally, I prefer the silicone ones (as used on ritchy/liqua juices), as you can get a syringe needle down them where you can't with plastic dropper-caps, but plastic is pretty much the industry standard, so I'm not complaining.
Juices:
The liquids themselves range in colour from almost clear to slightly-yellow. There are no neon pink colours (like the watermelon liquid I saw on a PBusardo Video) and no luminous green (my Decadent Vapours Absinthe is luminous green, but I like it as it adds to the authenticity, and it's such a nice liquid), which means that the juices here at least are not adulterated with artificial colourings.
I'm recoiling my dripper as I type this, and let me tell you, I hope these juices are as good as I'm expecting, because so far I'm pretty impressed with the company's attention to detail. I've just had some 28 guage kanthal delivered from Stealth Vape, so let's see how we go.
Methodology: Since I'm fairly new to dripping, I'm going to be concentrating entirely on the flavour. If throat hit or vapour output are noteworthy I'll mention them. Don't assume that they're not good if I don't however, it's just that I'm not experienced enough with my dripper to know what to look out for.
The hardware I'm using is a Smoktec Caterpillar RDA with a single 5/4 28 guage coil, 1.1 ohms. Wick is cotton wool, and between each taste test, the coil is dry burned and rewicked.
I'll start at 10 watts, as it strikes me as a nice middle ground - flavour, without scorching. My PV is a Smoktec SID VV/VW.
I'm gonna vape each a few times, as I notice vapour and taste change as the wick dries. Note that these are first impressions as I don't want vaper's tongue to set in and skew my findings. Nor do I want a nicotine headache
. I don't want anyone thinking that I'm missing out on a world of flavour by not vaping them properly - I'm getting through them quickly. I don't have time to spend all day vaping each one for a review .
I wash my mouth out with a few swigs of water between each test.
Let's Review The Flavours:
Peach Melba: Well, I read that melba has ice cream and stuff in it. I can't taste any ice cream. What I can taste is a lovely juicy peach taste. It's very authentic and quite pleasant. Not only does it taste of peaches, it tastes of a particularly juicy peach. I like it.
Lemon Sorbet: I've been looking forward to this one. A lovely strong (very-slightly bitter) and authentic lemon taste. Not only that, but a lemon sorbet taste. You can taste the sweetness and the lemony-ness.
Tastes exactly like it should, I'm pleased with this one
.
Kiwi Crush: Let's see what folks are so happy about... Wow. Okay, a very strong very accurate flavour of Kiwi Fruit. Absolutely spot-on.
I thought the Lemon was going to be my favourite of the bunch, but this one has just rocketed into first place.
Liquid Amber: This is a tobacco flavour. One of several that DarkStar offer. The initial taste is of a strong sweet tobacco, with the slightly honey-like taste that seems to come with very premium tobacco. This fades only slightly, and the leafy earthyness of the tobacco flavour comes to the fore. The overall impression is of a very rich premium tobacco. It's leafy, it's aromatic, it's sweet, and it tastes expensive. As tobacco juices go, this is now my favourite, pushing Liqua's "Turkish Tobacco" into second place and Liqua's "Traditional Tobacco" into third. A very, very nice vape for tobacco lovers. Thoroughly enjoyable, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys tobacco liquids.
Fresh Lime: I'm partial to "Lemon-Limed", a flavour from Electric Vape/HangSeng. Let's see how this compares. Bitter. Strong. Juicy. It's not a particularly sweet juice, but then limes aren't a particularly sweet fruit. I can practically see the lime as I'm vaping. It doesn't taste of "lime flavour" this one, it tastes of lime. Very accurate, very aromatic, very enjoyable.
I won't pick a favourite between this and lemon-limed, as they're too different to be compared. But the bottle says this tastes of lime, and wow, it tastes, really tastes of ripe, bitter juicy lime. Perfect.
Now come the stronger flavours. I've been holding these two till last, lest they blow my head off and render me unable to taste anything more subtle than a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. Ahem...
Peppermint: (I'm not really crazy about peppermint, but having had plenty of "bad" fruit flavours from other vendors and this being my first order with DSV, I thought I should stick with a fairly safe option for my final choice of juice)
Not being a chef I don't know what peppermint tastes like in its raw form. What this vape tastes of however, is a lovely clean bright (that word just seems to come to mind) mint taste. It's sweet enough to be called "sweet", but not so sweet that it tastes of Trebor Extra Strong. It's sweet without being cloying, and minty without being overpowering. A pleasant vape, I think they've accomplished what they wanted with this one.
Now finally...
Arctic Menthol: My first impression was one of sweetness - not unpleasantly sweet, but unexpectedly so. This is followed an instant later by the menthol hit, which itself doesn't taste strong, until you feel the temperature in your sinuses start to drop. A well-rounded and clean menthol taste that is strong without being overpowering, complex without being subtle, and which has a pleasing well-rounded menthol flavour that satisfies.
It's not the strongest, nor is it all show and no go. It's certainly the most complex menthol flavour that I've vaped, and this one has now become my new favourite, pushing Menthols from HangSeng and Liqua into second and third place respectively.
Summary:
I'm impressed. Not only with the liquids but with the whole experience. The website is well designed. It's informative without being gaudy, all the information is easy to find, and crucially, DSV accept paypal as a method of payment, which makes ordering and paying super easy.
Email communications are good, with confirmations both of the order and the payment appearing pretty much straight away, and when the order does arrive, it's in those snazzy matte-black padded envelopes.
The "thankyou cards" are good quality, printed on good card stock, and the itemised invoices (also printed in very high resolution on very good quality paper - for those that look for that sort of thing) are a pleasing plus as well. The brick-and-mortar that I go to only lists the generic "e-liquid" on the receipt, whereas these ones specify the flavour and strength of each bottle. A small touch perhaps, but one that pleased me nonetheless.
The fact that the bottles not only have child-proof caps but are made of nice flexible plastic (which makes dripping super-easy) is another plus, the labels have the majority of the expected information (and a great deal more than some manufacturers put on theirs).
With the sole exception of the Peach Melba (which includes peaches, raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream - whereas this one tasted only of peaches - it was still very enjoyable though), the juices fit their descriptions perfectly, and not only that, the fruit ones were incredibly accurate, moreso than any other I've tasted. I might go so far as to say that compared to DSV's Kiwi Crush or Fresh Lime, Liqua's "Berry Mix" tastes of overly sweet Ribena, and Ibreathe's strawberry tastes of Jam.
These fruit flavours have punch, they're accurate, they're strong, they're very enjoyable.
The Liquid Amber (tobacco) was an unexpected highlight, as far from being the generic tobacco flavour I was expecting, it was sweet, earthy, and leafy. It tastes of expensive premium tobacco, and I'm very impressed.
As for the Peppermint and Menthol, well it's hard for any manufacturer to go wrong with those, and DSV certainly didn't go wrong here. What they did do is add unexpected and pleasing complexity to well-recognised flavours. The sweetness/aroma ratio is perfect on both.
And the star of the show, Kiwi Crush, well, let's just say that I can see why it gets such good reviews. Absolutely perfect, totally spot on, supremely enjoyable.
Verdict:
So all in all, I am supremely impressed with DarkStar Vapour. Everything they do, they seem to do well. The juices are great, the communications are great, even the little details like the packaging and little leaflety things are great. I scrutinise attention to detail, and here, DSV have excelled. The only two criticisms that I can think of are that the plastic dropper tips won't let you get a syringe needle into the bottle, and that the Peach Melba should just be called "Peach". That's it. Those are the only 2 tiny little things that are not one hundred percent fantastic about today's shipment of vaping goodies.
So now I'm off to order some more. This time I think I'll get another Liquid Amber, another Lime, another Kiwi, and another Menthol. If my free bottle of juice turns out to be an additional bottle of Kiwi, so much the better!
Very pleased
.
DarkStar Vapour - Home
CAVEAT: While the "I love everything and want to have their babies!" tone of the review might cause some of the more cynical of us to suspect so, I am not employed by or affiliated with DarkStar Vapour or any other vendor. I am merely a very happy [new] customer.
These guys are in York and present themselves as something of a premium brand. They draw attention to their UK-sourced high quality ingredients, and the many hours of testing they put into their flavours.
Well a few days ago, they were having an amazing launch sale: £1.50 per 10ml bottle, plus £1 postage (per order, not per bottle!). "I've got plenty of juice already" I thought, "but this is too good an offer to pass up". So I ordered 6 bottles.
They arrived today in a rather snazzy matt-black padded envelope/jiffy bag thing (a small detail, but a cool one that made me smile) with supremely strong adhesive (these things will NOT come open in the post!), which contained 7 (7? We'll come back to that) juices and some papers.
One bit of paper was a detailed and itemised invoice - we like that - and the other was a "thankyou" type card with the following:
DarkStar Vapour Flier said:
Okay so it's an increase of £1, but it's still half the price you'd pay normally from pretty much any retailer.
So before I've looked at the juices I'm already impressed with their attention to detail as well as their customer service and general snazziness.
Bottles:
They come in 10ml bottles, and these bottles are different to the others I have. The plastic is softer and more flexible. I like this, it really makes dripping the juice out a lot easier. Some other brands that I enjoy (but shall not name) can be a bit of a bugger to drip juice from).
The bottles all have child-proof caps which I think is another plus, and they have rather fetching pearlescent black labels with subtle detailing, and clear text.
The labels include safety advice (nicotine, poisonous etc), along with a nice clear description that plainly states the flavour, strength and quantity. In this case, "Peach Melba, 1.8% Nicotine, 10ml".
Also included is the street address of the company (an actual street address, not a PO Box like some other companies would offer), along with a batch number, and the date of bottling. The only thing missing is the pg/vg ratio, so I'm assuming they use the de-facto 70/30.
Under the cap is a fairly typical plastic dripper nozzle thingy. Personally, I prefer the silicone ones (as used on ritchy/liqua juices), as you can get a syringe needle down them where you can't with plastic dropper-caps, but plastic is pretty much the industry standard, so I'm not complaining.
Juices:
The liquids themselves range in colour from almost clear to slightly-yellow. There are no neon pink colours (like the watermelon liquid I saw on a PBusardo Video) and no luminous green (my Decadent Vapours Absinthe is luminous green, but I like it as it adds to the authenticity, and it's such a nice liquid), which means that the juices here at least are not adulterated with artificial colourings.
I'm recoiling my dripper as I type this, and let me tell you, I hope these juices are as good as I'm expecting, because so far I'm pretty impressed with the company's attention to detail. I've just had some 28 guage kanthal delivered from Stealth Vape, so let's see how we go.
Methodology: Since I'm fairly new to dripping, I'm going to be concentrating entirely on the flavour. If throat hit or vapour output are noteworthy I'll mention them. Don't assume that they're not good if I don't however, it's just that I'm not experienced enough with my dripper to know what to look out for.
The hardware I'm using is a Smoktec Caterpillar RDA with a single 5/4 28 guage coil, 1.1 ohms. Wick is cotton wool, and between each taste test, the coil is dry burned and rewicked.
I'll start at 10 watts, as it strikes me as a nice middle ground - flavour, without scorching. My PV is a Smoktec SID VV/VW.
I'm gonna vape each a few times, as I notice vapour and taste change as the wick dries. Note that these are first impressions as I don't want vaper's tongue to set in and skew my findings. Nor do I want a nicotine headache
. I don't want anyone thinking that I'm missing out on a world of flavour by not vaping them properly - I'm getting through them quickly. I don't have time to spend all day vaping each one for a review .I wash my mouth out with a few swigs of water between each test.
Let's Review The Flavours:
Peach Melba: Well, I read that melba has ice cream and stuff in it. I can't taste any ice cream. What I can taste is a lovely juicy peach taste. It's very authentic and quite pleasant. Not only does it taste of peaches, it tastes of a particularly juicy peach
. I like it.Lemon Sorbet: I've been looking forward to this one. A lovely strong (very-slightly bitter) and authentic lemon taste. Not only that, but a lemon sorbet taste. You can taste the sweetness and the lemony-ness.
Tastes exactly like it should, I'm pleased with this one
.Kiwi Crush: Let's see what folks are so happy about... Wow. Okay, a very strong very accurate flavour of Kiwi Fruit. Absolutely spot-on.
I thought the Lemon was going to be my favourite of the bunch, but this one has just rocketed into first place.
Liquid Amber: This is a tobacco flavour. One of several that DarkStar offer. The initial taste is of a strong sweet tobacco, with the slightly honey-like taste that seems to come with very premium tobacco. This fades only slightly, and the leafy earthyness of the tobacco flavour comes to the fore. The overall impression is of a very rich premium tobacco. It's leafy, it's aromatic, it's sweet, and it tastes expensive. As tobacco juices go, this is now my favourite, pushing Liqua's "Turkish Tobacco" into second place and Liqua's "Traditional Tobacco" into third. A very, very nice vape for tobacco lovers. Thoroughly enjoyable, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys tobacco liquids.
Fresh Lime: I'm partial to "Lemon-Limed", a flavour from Electric Vape/HangSeng. Let's see how this compares. Bitter. Strong. Juicy. It's not a particularly sweet juice, but then limes aren't a particularly sweet fruit. I can practically see the lime as I'm vaping. It doesn't taste of "lime flavour" this one, it tastes of lime. Very accurate, very aromatic, very enjoyable.
I won't pick a favourite between this and lemon-limed, as they're too different to be compared. But the bottle says this tastes of lime, and wow, it tastes, really tastes of ripe, bitter juicy lime. Perfect.
Now come the stronger flavours. I've been holding these two till last, lest they blow my head off and render me unable to taste anything more subtle than a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. Ahem...
Peppermint: (I'm not really crazy about peppermint, but having had plenty of "bad" fruit flavours from other vendors and this being my first order with DSV, I thought I should stick with a fairly safe option for my final choice of juice)
Not being a chef I don't know what peppermint tastes like in its raw form. What this vape tastes of however, is a lovely clean bright (that word just seems to come to mind) mint taste. It's sweet enough to be called "sweet", but not so sweet that it tastes of Trebor Extra Strong. It's sweet without being cloying, and minty without being overpowering. A pleasant vape, I think they've accomplished what they wanted with this one
. Now finally...
Arctic Menthol: My first impression was one of sweetness - not unpleasantly sweet, but unexpectedly so. This is followed an instant later by the menthol hit, which itself doesn't taste strong, until you feel the temperature in your sinuses start to drop. A well-rounded and clean menthol taste that is strong without being overpowering, complex without being subtle, and which has a pleasing well-rounded menthol flavour that satisfies.
It's not the strongest, nor is it all show and no go. It's certainly the most complex menthol flavour that I've vaped, and this one has now become my new favourite, pushing Menthols from HangSeng and Liqua into second and third place respectively.
Summary:
I'm impressed. Not only with the liquids but with the whole experience. The website is well designed. It's informative without being gaudy, all the information is easy to find, and crucially, DSV accept paypal as a method of payment, which makes ordering and paying super easy.
Email communications are good, with confirmations both of the order and the payment appearing pretty much straight away, and when the order does arrive, it's in those snazzy matte-black padded envelopes.
The "thankyou cards" are good quality, printed on good card stock, and the itemised invoices (also printed in very high resolution on very good quality paper - for those that look for that sort of thing) are a pleasing plus as well. The brick-and-mortar that I go to only lists the generic "e-liquid" on the receipt, whereas these ones specify the flavour and strength of each bottle. A small touch perhaps, but one that pleased me nonetheless.
The fact that the bottles not only have child-proof caps but are made of nice flexible plastic (which makes dripping super-easy) is another plus, the labels have the majority of the expected information (and a great deal more than some manufacturers put on theirs).
With the sole exception of the Peach Melba (which includes peaches, raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream - whereas this one tasted only of peaches - it was still very enjoyable though), the juices fit their descriptions perfectly, and not only that, the fruit ones were incredibly accurate, moreso than any other I've tasted. I might go so far as to say that compared to DSV's Kiwi Crush or Fresh Lime, Liqua's "Berry Mix" tastes of overly sweet Ribena, and Ibreathe's strawberry tastes of Jam.
These fruit flavours have punch, they're accurate, they're strong, they're very enjoyable.
The Liquid Amber (tobacco) was an unexpected highlight, as far from being the generic tobacco flavour I was expecting, it was sweet, earthy, and leafy. It tastes of expensive premium tobacco, and I'm very impressed.
As for the Peppermint and Menthol, well it's hard for any manufacturer to go wrong with those, and DSV certainly didn't go wrong here. What they did do is add unexpected and pleasing complexity to well-recognised flavours. The sweetness/aroma ratio is perfect on both.
And the star of the show, Kiwi Crush, well, let's just say that I can see why it gets such good reviews. Absolutely perfect, totally spot on, supremely enjoyable.
Verdict:
So all in all, I am supremely impressed with DarkStar Vapour. Everything they do, they seem to do well. The juices are great, the communications are great, even the little details like the packaging and little leaflety things are great. I scrutinise attention to detail, and here, DSV have excelled. The only two criticisms that I can think of are that the plastic dropper tips won't let you get a syringe needle into the bottle, and that the Peach Melba should just be called "Peach". That's it. Those are the only 2 tiny little things that are not one hundred percent fantastic about today's shipment of vaping goodies.
So now I'm off to order some more. This time I think I'll get another Liquid Amber, another Lime, another Kiwi, and another Menthol. If my free bottle of juice turns out to be an additional bottle of Kiwi, so much the better!
Very pleased
.DarkStar Vapour - Home
CAVEAT: While the "I love everything and want to have their babies!" tone of the review might cause some of the more cynical of us to suspect so, I am not employed by or affiliated with DarkStar Vapour or any other vendor. I am merely a very happy [new] customer.
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