eLiquid Review 476: Caramel Clash from Stronghold Vapour

So, today marks the end of my reviews of Stronghold Vapour’s flavours. Three down and only the last to go!

I’ve been pretty happy with all of their flavours. For the few flavours that they have on offer, it’s a great mix of profiles, there is something for everybody, dessert lovers, fruit lovers, and of course one for the menthol lovers. All of them quite flavoursome and seem to hold to a pretty tight flavour intensity across the board, which is a testament to their flavourist, and their attention to detail. 

Let’s take a look at the last one.

Today, I’ll be reviewing “Caramel Clash” from Stronghold Vapour.
(This eliquid was supplied by the vendor for review.)

Flavour Description

Ripe Banana, Caramel and cream are combined and layered together to form a truly decadent dessert experience.

The Review

Definitely decadent, this is another dessert that is creamy, and full textured while also carrying with it some fruity tones and a bunch of sweetness.

“Caramel Clash” is a tasty mix of sweet and rich caramel, ripe realistic banana base notes, and an overlay of sweet cream that packs out the vape with a lovely thickness.

Individual Notes

The banana is quite a realistic banana, it’s sweet absolutely, but still retains that thick lower, distinctive fleshy banana note. If you’re expecting this to be a sweet or candy banana cream, you’ll be disappointed.  Realistic creamy fruit tones dominate this flavour, putting it firmly in the dessert category.

Making this flavour even richer is of course, is caramel, decadent and sweet, the caramel adds a little luxury to the banana, emboldening it, and introducing an almost syrupy feel, adding more complexity to the profile.

Bolstering both flavours and bridging them together, you’ll find even more cream. This feels like a sweet cream, I could be wrong, but it seems to be there to add some thickness, rather than detract from the banana and caramel.

Inhale & Exhale

On the inhale, you’ll notice a smooth realistic banana right away, obviously not at it’s full intensity, but very distinct. It’s accompanied by a light sweet sugary caramel, as well as a cooler feeling cream thickening things up a little. Everything intensifies uniformly through the inhale, slowly building in strength.

As you begin the exhale, with everything seeming to be at it’s peak of intensity, the caramel gives you a surprise and intensifies even more! 

This extra punch of intensity, warms the vape, increasing the richness, and really establishing this as a dessert. This quickly reaches a peak and allows the banana and cream to catch up with it toward the end of the exhale, leaving a realistic banana cream that has had rich caramel drizzled and then stirred into it.

Final thoughts

Every e-liquid company needs a staple banana flavour, and this is Stronghold Vapour’s! A stand up, thick banana dessert that edges into a little caramel richness, whilst retaining that warm stewed banana and cream feel.

I often get tired of banana flavours quickly, not with this one, two days with this and I’m still not wanting to put it down. I’m really enjoying the level of caramel here, just enough to richen the flavour, but not enough to make it tiresome. The banana is also not so strong as to put you off, but instead blends really well with the caramel, creating a cleaner and more stewed banana cream with caramel feel.

Well done guys!

Where to Buy:

You can purchase this flavour as well as their others directly from the Stronghold Vapour Online Store or through their various stockists.

Colour:

Honey Tint

Aroma:

Banana

Coil and wick damage:

Minimal damage to wicks or coils.

PG/VG Ratio:

I’m assuming 70/30 VG/PG going by the consistency.

Texture:

Rich, thick and creamy

Steeping:

Steeping is a good idea with this one.

Presentation:

The presentation of these is great! Each of the 4 flavours, arrived in grey tinted 30ml Unicorn styled bottles with security seal ring, and child-proof caps. The dispensing nibs are of a great size, small enough to fit into fill holes, but large enough to let a decent amount of juice through.

The labels are bold and professional, with the juice name, brand, profile and logo, all very noticeable and readable. It’s a simple but very clean design.

Other information on the labels includes Ingredients, warnings, RDV or Doubler checkboxes as well as the company’s website address.

Test rigs:

Haku with slam cap 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.

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.