eLiquid Review 504: Basic Berries – Raspberry Cola by dRiip
Today I’ve got a flavour from a juice line you may not have heard of.
The dRiip brand of eliquids comes from the minds of Vape98 in Adelaide, SA. With these lines, they’ve attempted to release a range that is simple and pack full of straight up flavour. These aren’t overly complicated, but instead aimed to give you a punch of flavour right in the chops.
This range, known as the “Basic Berries” series, is also known in more mature circles as the “Basic B*tches” series.
Vape98 have been around for a few years now, and have a physical vape store in Adelaide City, known for it’s window to the back where they mix all of their juice in their own “on premises” clean room.
Today, I’ll be reviewing “Raspberry Cola” from the dRiip Basic Berries range.
(This eliquid was supplied by the vendor for review.)
Flavour Description
[From the website]
“For those with a sweet tooth, this ripe raspberry with just a hint of refreshing cola is summer in a bottle”
The Review
It’s well known that I love raspberry, and there’s no better flavour combination than raspberry and cola. Sweet, yet low floral tones of raspberry atop of an equally sweet, cola with fizzy accents and tangy texture.
dRiip, have done a pretty good job replicating the popular drink taking into account the strength of so many colas, and making sure there is a tonne of raspberry here so that it peeks through the cola, rather than being over run by it.
“Raspberry Cola” is a sweet and artificial blend of candy raspberry, and syrup cola that mimmicks the popular soft drink to a tea, and is packed full of flavour to boot!
Individual Notes
The Cola here is quite a sticky cola, very much a syrup cola, like you’d get in fast food restaurants, or at the movies. More of a Coca Cola than a Pepsi, with it’s extra depth, light vanilla and rounded tones.
The raspberry here is like a candy raspberry. Definitely not as tart or sharp as a real raspberry, sweet and sugary, with a light floral, this raspberry has quite a low tone to it, making it a very good background flavour.
There is a distinct tang and fizz in this flavour, I can only guess that there may be some lemon here, citrus tends to react a little with raspberry giving a bit of a sherbert feel and artificial fizz.
Inhale & Exhale
You’ll notice the raspberry first, both on smell and taste, as the inhale begins. It has a bit of a floral feel at first, but evens out as the vape continues. The flavour intensifies to a very candy like raspberry toward the end of the inhale, not a gummy raspberry, but more of a hard candy.
It’s here you’ll get your first hint of cola too. Only light at first, and a hint of that sweet syrupy cola comes through the raspberry from the background.
As you exhale, the roles reverse. The cola gets even stronger as the raspberry, falls back a little. I don’t think it loses flavour, it’s more the effect of the cola getting stronger that makes it less noticeable. The sticky sweet cola with it’s light vanilla and citrus tones, pulls to the front of the profile, as the raspberry falls back into more of a background note.
The flavours as they are now, continue right through to the end of the exhale, with the raspberry blending back and the cola becoming the prominent note.
Final thoughts
I’ve enjoyed this one a lot. The only thing I can’t get out of my head with it however, is the clashing of flavours. Where this is simply the profile, I would have liked to see a little separation between the cola and raspberry. Maybe a touch of strawberry could have been used to add an extra sharp note, to avoid this getting muddled and a little too “blended”.
All in all though, this is quite a good Raspberry Cola, not too sweet, and has all of the hallmarks of a good cola.
Where to Buy:
All of the dRiip branded flavours are available directly from the Vape98 Online store and also from their physical store. You can also pick them up from a few other online stores that stock their range of juices.
Colour:
Light honey
Aroma:
Cola / Raspberry
Coil and wick damage:
I havent noticed any darkening of wicks or gunking coil with this, so that’s a very good sign. Usually cola will trash your coils and wicks pretty quickly!
PG/VG Ratio:
70VG/30PG
Texture:
Sweet, light and fruity
Steeping:
No steep necessary for this one!
Presentation:
The presentation of these bottles is quite professional. I received tinted 60ml Chubby Gorilla styled bottles with child proof, sealed cap and needle tip. The labels are well done with colours, fruits and imagery depicted depending on the flavour with the brand, juice name and Basic Berries title prominantely displayed.
Other information on the labels includes: Additional warnings, ingredients, PG/VG ratio, bottle size, zero nicotine declaration. I like seeing all of this info on bottle labels!
Test rigs:
Original Haku Cruiser running a single 0.17 framed staple coil on a mech mod.
Augvape Intake RTA with a 0.2ohm Stainless coil running @ approx 50-80 watts.
Rating overview
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