eJuice Review 429: Buddha Belly – Tropical Fruit Smoothie by VR Labs
Today, I’ll be taking a look at another eliquid that was sent through to me from across the pond. Like many before it, this one has been sent by our good friends at the OPMH Project, an eliquid distributor for some of America’s most well recognised brands.
This juice has a really cool design to it, the label design is professional and demonstrates a playfulness and familiarity without being appealing to children, you’ll also draw a bit of an assumption as to the flavour of this just by glancing at it. That’s marketing 101 right there folks!
Today, I’ll be reviewing “Buddha Belly – Tropical Fruit Smoothie” by VR Labs.
(This eliquid was supplied by the OPMH Project for review.)
Flavour Description
A pineapple, mango, kiwi, and strawberry fruit smoothie that would bring a smile to the Buddha!
The Review:
I always worry when someone hands me a fruit cocktail or a smoothie type of flavour. Often, they are a mixed fruit blend that, while tasting ok, generally do not stand out from the hundreds of others that I’ve tried. They tend to be a generic mix of fruits that rather than be pedantically fussed over, are thrown in a bottle and smoothed over with a bit of sweetener. The result is usually a “meh” and an average rating.
The Buddha Belly range, and in particular “Tropical Fruit Smoothie” is thankfully not your usual mixed fruit. I can actually taste, every-single-fruit in this juice! From the mango undertones, to the strawberry, kiwi, and pineapple tartness blended thoughtfully to create a smoothie feel. From the fruit alone, VR Labs have done a wonderful job making sure that every flavour comes through, without dominating the others, all the while working together to compliment their individual subtleties.
Individual Notes
The Pineapple is quite noticeable in the mix. It is perhaps the brightest note, and it’s slightly acidic tartness works really well against the same in the kiwi and the strawberry.
Providing another brighter note is the kiwi. Typically tarter but not so acidic as apple, Kiwi works really well to give that mid strength sharpness that helps bring the pineapple and the strawberry together.
The strawberry is a realistic strawberry flesh, tart and sweet, it works incredibly well with the kiwi with the pineapple also benefitting from having another tart profile to cling to!
You could say that the three tart flavours create one unique, sharper note, which they do, but you can still pick out each and every one. They don’t mingle into a single flavour, instead provide a group of tart, sweet and sharper flavours that bolster each other and compliment each other really well.
The mango is the base of this flavour. It’s strong lower profile, provides the rounded background that is needed to ground the sharper notes of the other fruits, and pull them together. The fresh juicy mango flesh, is ultra sweet and counters the tartness of the other fruits somewhat, creating a mixed fruit smoothie feel, all the while, still being able to taste each fruit that went into it.
Inhale & Exhale
On the inhale I notice a pineapple full syrupy sweetness blended with a Kiwi citrus or tart sharpness. Neither are dominant, very much how cooked pineapple slices lose a little of their sourness and become syrupy sweet. As the inhale continues however that tartness intensifies, getting fresher and fresher as I notice some fresh strawberry come in to play. The cooked pineapple syrup is not as noticeable here at the tail end of the inhale, it is a progression of fresher kiwi and strawberry that is most noticeable here.
As I begin the exhale, I pick up a faint mango backnote, quite low in the profile, and very syrupy like the pineapple. In fact as the exhale continues, I’m finding that the strawberry/kiwi brightness begins to fade in favour of the cooked pineapple blending with the mango as the mango intensifies more on the exhale. There is also a little sweetener here that blends things ffurther.This kinship continues, with both the pineapple and mango blending almost seamlessly to create a deeper, syrup sweetness, that carries right through to the end of the vape.
Final thoughts
This is a pretty great fruit smoothie! It is a very well balanced flavour with the deeper mango and pineapple tones creating a base for the fresh strawberry and kiwi tartness dancing across the taste buds.
There is a little sweetener here, not a lot, but it is noticeable, it won’t cause you any issues with wicks or coils. It’s purely there to provide a little more of the juicy feel. I think that this probably could have been left out to allow the natural fruits to sweeten the mix and have a slightly brighter feel.
A pretty tasty juice!
Where to Buy:
You can purchase this flavour from a few online stores, as well as Vaporite’s own retail store. But of course special mention goes out to the OPMH Project as distributors of this wonderful juice, and of course for sending it through to me for review. Thank-you very much for that guys!
Colour:
Honey Coloured
Aroma:
Mixed fruits, sweet and sticky
Coil and wick damage:
Minimal damage to wicks and coils
PG/VG Ratio:
70%VG / 30%PG
Texture:
Sweet Juicy Mixed Fruits, thicker fruit cocktail.
Steeping:
No steep necessary
Presentation:
Nice presentation from this juice maker! I received a 60ml Clear Chubby Gorilla bottle with the usual needle tip, and child proof lid and tamper seal. The label is great, it’s white background with the Buddha image front and centre, along with the juice line name, and the name of the flavour below. All relevent USA information is present, bottle size, warnings, poison instructions, nicotine warnings, manufacturer, nicotine strength, PG/VG ratio, batch date, as well as contact information.
It’s a professional looking design, with all of the information thoughtfully placed, and the labels are designed to be playful and fun, without being overly appealing to children.
Test rigs:
Haku with slam cap running a single 0.17 framed staple coil on a mech mod.
OBS Engine RTA with a 0.2ohm Stainless coil running @ approx 50-80 watts.
Rating overview
Leave a Reply