eJuice Review 403: Death Valley Nectar by Vaper Empire

My reviews are going to be a little different this week. I’m throwing myself out to left field and reviewing some e-liquids as well as a device designed specifically for the beginners market.

Vaper Empire are not a new company, they have been around for many years, catering mainly to beginners with their products centred around starter kits, and inadvertently, mouth to lung vaping. So if you’re new and just getting started with vaping, give Vaper Empire a look, their eliquids are crafted just for you!

Taking a look at their website, you’ll notice that they sell e-liquid with nicotine, but due to Australian legislation and our government’s lack of willingness to allow the sale of nicotine, are forced to operate and ship their wares from the UK.

Shipping from the UK also means that they must abide by TPD rules and only provide 10ml bottles if containing nicotine.

Their starter kits are mainly mouth to lung devices with the exception being one that is more of a restricted lung inhale, and their juices also reflect this, being only available in 6mg strengths or higher. These are NOT cloud chasing juices folks. Going by the consistency of the liquid, I’m guessing that they are 60vg/40pg blends.

They have several ranges of juices, of which I’ll be going through their “Artisan” range.

Today, I’ll be reviewing “Death Valley Nectar” from Vaper Empire!
(This e-liquid was supplied by the vendor.)

Flavour Description

Amidst a vast burning desert sits an unexpected oasis of wildflowers and fragrant fruits – bilberry, kiwi, and pear – ripe for the picking. Their bright colours flash against the golden, rolling sand dunes and impossibly blue skies. The juices from the fruits are pressed and infused with the delicate flavour of cactus, making for a cool respite in a dangerously beautiful landscape.

The Review:

This’ll be interesting, as I am reviewing these juices from the perspective of a MTL vaper (mouth to lung) so some of you advanced vapers are going to have to bare with me on these. I don’t really want to say that these are not for you, because I’m sure you’d enjoy them, but they just simply aren’t designed for huge lung hits and clouds.

The flavours are specifically built for high ohm devices, with fine airflow, running at quite low wattages, so I imagine they are probably far too over-flavoured for your usual run of the mill RDA, RTA or sub ohm tank. (I will give this a crack at some point this week and give you all a bit of a laugh)

So! In preparation for these juices, I’ve gone out and picked myself up a “Vandy Vape Simple EX”, a tiny mouth to lung squonk setup that I’ve had my eye on, which will be perfect for my testing!

Individual Notes

Bilberry – I don’t notice this as much as I probably would lung inhaling, it adds a little bit of a floral note, but falls to the background with the more dominant sharper flavours taking it over.
Kiwi – Kiwi is usually quite tart and mixed with the pear, creates quite the acidic punch. Sharp and true, there’s no mucking around with these flavours, you’ll taste them all the way through.
Pear – I’m finding that the pear does tame the kiwi a little, all the while adding a more acidic, and bitter feel with a fleshy bite to it.
Cactus – Here is the magic, providing an underlying wetness and helping to bridge the berry and acidic notes together creating a more harmonious flavour.

How’s she vape?

There is not a lot of difference between the inhale and exhale when mouth to lung vaping, or at least vaping on this low wattage with tiny airflow, so the vape is much the same across the board.

Having said that, from the get-go the flavour is bright and sharp, a palate cleansing type of vape with zero lower notes.

While there are no lower notes, the floral bilberry does create a little background, as does the cactus, but more so bridging the pear and kiwi together, and helping them bond.

At the height of the inhale, you’ll note that this is where the pear and kiwi are at their sharpest, a wash of tartness hits you, and just as you begin to think it’s getting a little sour, you exhale and the cactus pulls them back into line with it’s wetness and tones them back down into a more manageable sweetened flavour.

You’ll be a little struck on how tart and acidic this mix can be, and may notice that you get a little tickle in your throat as I do. I think a higher nicotine strength would have fixed this personally though, as I notice I get the same thing when lung hitting zero nicotine juices.

Final thoughts

This is actually quite a great fit for a MTL setups. The sourness/tartness of the pear and kiwi provide a much needed flavour punch for these types of devices. I’m not sure I’d like to try lung hitting this one, it might be a little acidic and tart for that, but does brilliantly through a tighter airflow.

After trying this one, I’m really looking forward to trying the rest, it’s fun getting back to my roots! MTL vaping is how I started!

Where to Buy:

You can purchase this flavour as well as other e-liquids in Vaper Empire’s “Artisan” range directly through their website.

Colour:

Light Yellow

Aroma:

Pear / Citrus

Coil and wick damage:

No issues with coils or wicks

VG/PG Ratio:

60%VG / 40%PG

Texture:

Bright and tart, very much fruit juice textured.

Steeping:

No steeping necessary with this one.

Presentation:

I can’t fault Vaper Empire’s presentation, they’re branding packs quite the impact, being both polished and designed for the elite crowd. Sophistication is the word I guess I’m looking for. From the packaging of their starter kits through to the matt black labelling with gold/silver/bronze foil printing on their labels, it all just oozes class.

I received 10ml bottles of each of their flavours, each bottle is clear plastic with a black child-proof cap and needle tip dispenser.
The labels are classy matt black, with their logo and juice name printed in foil, creating quite an impressive look. They have a tonne of information on these labels, even if it is a little hard to read, including but not limited to bottle size, nicotine strength, best before date, warnings, ingredients and their web url.

Test rigs:

Vandy Vape Simple EX squonk kit with 22mm standard RDA and a mouth to lung clapton coil that ohms out at 0.9ohms.
I’ll be vaping somewhere between around 15-25watts.

Shane Presser

Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.