A couple of months ago, Nathan from Daddy Pig Smoke Juice asked me to sample some of his more recent concoctions. With a great degree of trepidation and fear and after much gentIe arm twisting, I eventually accepted to do so and would put some words together to describe them. This isn’t really a review; it’s more of an extended waffle. If you do manage to get through this lot, you’ll see just how incoherent, unstructured and novice I am at this!!
I actually enjoyed all four of these juices; two of them especially as they paired well with the drink I love more than anything – freshly ground and brewed black coffee, not that that necessarily makes a juice good or bad. I’m the type that calls a spade a spade; if there’s something I dislike, I won’t hold back in my opinions and I will not blow smoke up where it shouldn’t be blown. I was actually hoping to dislike at least one of them, being conscious that some reviewers often sing praises of everything that lands through their letterbox. I didn’t want to be ‘that person’ but there really wasn’t a great deal of room for criticism. Here goes…
www.daddypigsmokejuice.com/Packaging
They arrived in 30ml bottles which is fine for zero nicotine under current EU regulations. Labels give full safety information, the warning/age restriction logos and have the tactile warning triangle. There's a little section with tick boxes for ratio as well as batch number and expiry date, address, telephone number and website URL. All seems pretty comprehensive but even though the label is pretty big, it's very difficult to read without taking a picture and enlarging on the camera. Perhaps a label that goes all the way round the bottle will allow bigger fonts or maybe just the website name on there rather than all the contact info would suffice.
Testing Setup
Setup 1) Narda – 0.85ohm single, spaced SS316L coil – wide bore drip tip and narrow bore to test as dtl – 13-20W.
Setup 2) Kayfun 3.1es, 1ohm single, spaced SS316L coil – narrow bore drip tip – 13-18W.
All juices in my preferred PG/VG ratio which is 60PG/40VG. Yes, unusual by modern standards but I’m into flavour and clouds don’t do anything for me. Also it wicks very well with my older tanks.
Custardy Cake BatterA very moreish, creamy, buttery and nutty vanilla cake/cake batter.Here I was expecting a very sweet and creamy, vanilla batter. When I first tried it in the narda, it reminded me of my childhood, cleaning out the bowl of vanilla cake mix with my finger shoving every last bit in my mouth until the bowl looked unused again!
Vaping custard flavours when I first started was incredible but now I’m quite tired of them. They lack that ‘something extra’ to keep me interested. Here there’s nuttiness on the inhale playing along with cream which tones down and balances it well. The nuttiness takes this away from those other custard/cake flavours I’ve tried and adds a bit of welcomed throat hit which is missing from most creamy, custardy juices; especially now that I vape without nicotine. This very much reminds me of the richness of a coffee walnut cake with marshmallow, almost buttercream but without the coffee but I can add that bit later...
Once took a pause from vaping this, I had a very pleasant aftertaste left in my mouth. You know those fresh cream birthday cakes which everyone eyes up hoping they get that piece with the most fresh cream; they get that piece, munch it and want more. That’s the rich, creamy taste left with me after vaping this. It sticks around for a while too.
Coffee test - I’m always on the lookout for juices that pair well with a strong cup of freshly brewed coffee. The cream and nuttiness especially aroma shines through strong coffee very well. They’re a very pleasant experience together.
Coil/wick kindness – Was fully expecting this one to be a gunker considering the flavours but it held up well. No discernable loss of flavour/vapour after 15ml.
Overall, this flavour is quite rich so more of a treat vape for me. It’s now sat on my desk waiting for my next coffee!
Rich Caramel Tobacco
A fresh and rich rolling/pipe tobacco with a smooth, caramel finish. Not an RY4.
One of my main gripes with RY4 tobacco vapes is that the vanilla and caramel sweetness tend to be dominant. The main RY4 concentrates out there are either more of a dessert vape or they use crappy tobacco flavours. The one I see used a lot is TPA RY4D which, for me, isn’t a tobacco at all. It’s a sweet, papery mess. People love it though so I won’t knock it further!
Another gripe with a lot of tobacco vapes is that they’re either overly sweet, they contain floral notes or have that dry, papery note. This one has none of those flavours that I find offensive.
It’s been over 5 years since I smoked tobacco but as soon as I started vaping this, I was hit with the aroma I used to love when opening a brand new packet of my good quality rolling tobacco. It’s a tobacco vape for those who like tobacco to take centre stage. The tobacco itself is a reminiscent of the boldness of a pipe style tobacco but none of the ash.
Hold on! Isn’t this caramel tobacco? Well, yes it is. The caramel is there; a rich, buttery caramel but thankfully subtle so doesn’t detract from the tobacco. It adds that touch of sweetness which is often needed with a tobacco flavour to make it less of a dry and tiring vape.
I’ve vaped a LOT of tobacco flavours and for a non-NET (natural extracted tobacco) slightly sweet tobacco juice, I can’t really say I’ve vaped anything better. He’s made an absolute winner here!! It’s also an extremely approachable tobacco so I would strongly recommend it to people who want to try tobacco without the risk that it’ll taste like an ashtray.
Coffee test - pass. All the boldness of tobacco cuts through the strong bitterness of coffee extremely well. If you’re eating or drinking it with sugar or something sweet whilst vaping this, you’ll lose the subtleness of that caramel.
Coil/wick kindness - 15ml through this and flavour/vapour held up fine. No chance this would happen with a NET tobacco!
I’ll say it again - this really does taste like that freshly opened tobacco pouch every vape. It’s a gem and definitely a big winner for me!
Green Almond Milk
A light and well balanced familiar tasting tea with added cream and a twist of almond. Something very different.
I’ve never actually put milk in green tea and probably never will so I did wonder whether this combination would work, however it balances the bitterness of tea with a little a stone fruit-like acidity, cream and about the right amount of almond.
Flavours are more subtle here than with the previous two juices but it’s certainly not lacking. It reminds me a little of Lipton’s peach iced tea when vaping it mtl in the kayfun. There’s also a creaminess running through it and a subtle but very detectable hint of almond. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it to start with as there’s a lot going on here. After vaping it for a while though, my palate is making more sense of it and I’m very much enjoying it.
It’s very different depending on how you vape. With mtl and restricted airflow, there’s mainly tea with a very subtle background almond and a slight juiciness. It’s a good balance. Too much almond and this tea will be drowned but in in here, it’s just a hint. Dtl with more air, the juice becomes more balanced. The cream starts to come to the fore and the tea stays but becomes less prominent. I actually like it mtl and dtl but for different reasons. I enjoy the creaminess with dtl but more of the tea flavour with restricted mtl.
Coffee test - Not entirely surprising given the flavour profile but this won’t cut through strong coffee or any other strongly flavoured drink so I’ll be vaping it without.
Coil/wick kindness - 15ml through it. No change in flavour/vapour
I find the mtl vape leans more towards the tea so that’s how I’ll be vaping it but it works very well with dtl too. I’m quite enjoying vaping this unusual combination of flavours.
Chocolate Almond Milk
Milky, almondy, chocolatey!
I’ve not had great experience with chocolate vapes. Those I’ve tried have tasted been artificial and powdery so I really wasn’t expecting to like this juice very much.
Imagine taking a small bite of Battenberg cake and having a drink of some chocolate milk. That’s what this juice makes me think of, even though I’ve never tried it before! It’s a creamy, slightly chocolatey milk drink with a good, but not overpowering dose of almond/marzipan thrown in.
I get a little of that powderiness with this juice but the chocolate isn’t the main player here so it’s not detrimental. The almond is very prominent and for me, to the point of marzipan. The cream and chocolate balance it very well so it’s not too sickly.
Restricted mtl with this juice and the almond will be very rich but dtl with more airflow, it’s toned down and the cream comes through more so I’m erring towards dtl as being the better, more balanced flavour overall here. I’ll add that this juice is quit rich and flavour packed so I wouldn’t be able to vape it all day long. It’s more of an occasional treat for me.
Coffee test - Doesn’t really cut through the coffee but you can taste the almond, albeit muted. It’s suited better to a cup of tea.
Coil/wick kindness - 15ml through this. No change in flavour/vapour.
Quick Summary
I’ve been very impressed with the juices I’ve tried here and the two I liked most of all were the Custardy Cake Batter and the Rich Caramel Tobacco. You’ll certainly not feel short-changed either as there’s no holding back with flavours in any of them but they’re not used at the expense of flavour balance. Great job!!
