For a limited time, Liquid Barn sold Nicotine Feedback Kits, the information from which they plan to assess their current nicotine sources, new nicotine sources, and their formulations.
That’s such a cool idea! They want to get feedback from their customers and their community to fine-tune and develop better products.
They sold the feedback kit for $5 each and offered a $5 gift card in return after filling out the feedback survey. So essentially this kit was free. The online survey is designed to measure real-world nicotine preferences of vapers.
In the kit, there are three 30ml unicorn bottles of 3mg e-liquid, each one using a different nicotine formula. You also get your choice of one 15ml bottle of flavor concentrate. You can choose from Blue Raspberry, Strawberry Cheesecake, and White Chocolate Peppermint.
This was a hard one for me because I always hear about how good Liquid Barn’s White Chocolate Peppermint is, but I just don’t like to vape mint flavors that often. I’m sure I’d like it, I just wouldn’t vape it much. So I went with something that’s right in my flavor profile preferences; Blue Raspberry.
They ask that participants try to reduce as many variables as possible so that the test is accurate. That’s really difficult since atomizers all have differences in flavor production. The only way I can think this would be extremely accurate would be to use three of the same atomizers with the same exact coil builds in them and at the same wattage, then comparing them side by side by side.
I don’t have that ability, so I’m just going to have to use different atomizers. All of them have the same coils builds in them though, using pre-built Clapton coils. So hopefully that works well enough.
Step 1: Unflavored Test
The first test is the unflavored test. This test requires testing each nicotine variant and looking at things like harshness, specific tastes, or any other characteristics.
I tested all of these using identical coils (pre-built Clapton’s built at approximately 0.3 ohms), and at 90 watts.
Variant 1
For this test, I used the Smok Alien Mod with the Velocity RDA on top.
Smell: It’s a little sweet. It actually smells a bit like Frosted Flakes.
Vape: It’s a little sweet and a little harsh. It reminds me of when I vape fruity flavors because I seem to be sensitive to fruity flavors. They’re harsh on my throat and that’s how this one feels. The harshness is not at all what I would expect at only 3mg nicotine. It also has a dry sensation. But the flavor is the best in this variant. It’s the sweetest.
Variant 2
For this test, I used the Asvape Michael Mod with the CSMT RDA on top
Smell: This one smells like Frosted Flakes too, but not as strong as variant 1.
Vape: It seems like it has a little bit less sweetness than variant 1. This one is definitely smoother than the first one too. Not nearly as harsh. The flavor from variant 2 is sweet and better than variant 3, but not better than variant 1.
Variant 3
For this test, I used the Predator 228 Mod with the 9 Hells 13 Heavens RDA on top
Smell: This one doesn’t have much of a smell. Maybe a little sweetness, but not nearly as much as the other two variants.
Vape: This one is the smoothest of all three variants. It has pretty much no harshness at all. Variants one and two seemed to have similar flavors, but this one has a different flavor. It almost seems like it doesn’t have any flavor at all.
Outcome
Out of all three, I like variant #1 the least. Variant #2 is okay and I wouldn’t mind using it in my mixes. Variant #3 is my favorite because I don’t like really harsh e-juices and this one seems like what I would expect from a 3mg e-juice.
Adding Flavoring
Ok, the next test is the same as the last one except that I need to add the flavoring that they sent me. This is really cool too because I get to use the measuring card that they send with their other DIY kits.
They call these Tastemaker Cards and they’re designed to help beginner DIYers mix up their e-juice without having to buy a bunch of equipment. I think even an expert DIYer might be interested in using these, for example, if they just don’t feel like getting all of their gear out.
So the way it it works is that you line up the card with your bottle. The card has a sort of ruler on it, which was designed specifically for the 30ml unicorn bottles from Liquid Barn, so it might not match up to other bottles you have.
Obviously this isn’t anywhere near as accurate as using syringes or mixing by weight, but it’s a great way to mix something up fast and getting beginners started.
The flavoring bottle says that the recommended percentage to start with is 8%, so that’s what I’m going to do and each notch on the measuring card is 1%. And it needs to be the same for each bottle since this is a test. So each bottle of nicotine needs to be at the same level and each needs the same flavoring.
Step 2: Flavored Test
Ok, that’s all mixed up, so let’s keep going. This time I’ll be looking at the same things as before, but now I need to see if the flavoring has changed anything or if the nicotine has a different effect with flavoring added.
Variant 1
Vape: The harshness seems to have gone down after adding flavoring. I thought this might have been because I was vaping this variant for a while and I got used to it, but I tried it again later to confirm and it’s definitely less harsh. I can taste the blue raspberry but it has a weird flavor, like how rubbing alcohol smells. It’s not very good.
Variant 2
Vape: Now this variant is a little more harsh than the first one, which is strange, but the flavoring comes out a lot more. It still has that weird taste that the first one does, but it’s not as strong.
Variant 3
Vape: This one still has hardly any throat hit at all. In this one, the blue raspberry tastes totally different than it does in the other variants. The flavoring comes out about as much as it does in the second variant, but the flavor tastes way better. It actually tastes like blue raspberry and doesn’t have the rubbing alcohol taste.
Outcome
In my opinion, variant #3 is the best of the bunch. I should also note that in my video at the top of the post, those were my first impressions, but I’ve since let these steep for a week and my thoughts are the same.
Final Thoughts
So that was fun and pretty cool. I actually only buy my nicotine from Liquid Barn, so I’m happy to participate here because it’ll benefit me in the future.
They have mentioned that these feedback kits are in limited supply and as of now, they’re currently sold out, but maybe they’ll bring them back. If you want to check for yourself, go here.