eLiquid Review 505: Mentholicious – Borealis by dRiip
I have another flavour here for you today from the great minds behind “dRiip”, manufactured by Vape98 in South Australia.
This range extends the “Basic Berries” range by adding menthol and cooling to create a chilled range called “Mentholicious”.
Today, I’ll be reviewing “Borealis” from the dRiip Mentholicious range.
(This eliquid was supplied by the vendor for review.)
Flavour Description
[From the website]
“The coolness ramps up from Coriolis, to an inhale of fresh minty watermelon with an exhale of cool, sweet grape soda.”
The label describes this as having a chill factor of 50%.
The Review
It’s a great idea bringing out a chilled range, there are a lot of people who like them, and they make a great change for whenever you need to refresh your tastebuds!
This flavour is quite interesting, blending not only watermelon with grape, but also a hint of lime and menthol. This makes for quite a minty fruit flavour that is reminiscent of one of those modern fruit mints, but with just a little more depth.
I’ve enjoyed it quite a lot, “Borealis” blends complimentary and light tones of sweet watermelon with a sharper grape, a highlight of citrus in the lime and a chilled finish.
Individual Notes
The watermelon is one of the first flavours you’ll notice, it’s light as many watermelons are, and makes for a great undertone throughout the vape. A little washed out but a combination of realistic watermelon and candy watermelon for quite a rounded flavour.
The grape, instead of being a main note also rides the undertone train, being light, yet managing to push through the watermelon a little to provide that sharp tart, yet sweet familiar realistic grape note that adds some more dimension to the watermelon.
Similar to the grape, the small amount of lime in this flavour, simply reinforces those taller notes to help build out this profile adding a little complexity and acting to build the taller notes of the grape.
The menthol, what can I say. It’s cold. I believe it’s a mixture of menthol and WS23 as it’s quite cool on the inhale and exhale. It’s a strong level of cooling, so you may want to keep this out of your RDA if you’re running anything over about 80 Watts!
Inhale & Exhale
I notice the watermelon and menthol initially on the inhale, it’s soft, sweet, and a little minty, a dryer minty, much like chewing on a powdery mint.
As the inhale continues, the grape slowly makes an appearance as well as the lime, together they form a tart and citric flavour that pulls the flatness out of the watermelon, giving the flavour a sharper and sweeter feel, adding to the complexity and a little bit of layering.
The grape and lime peak at the top of the inhale for that nice tangy sharp and tart note.
On the exhale, while the grape and lime have peaked, they still remain in the mix keeping this from falling into too much of a flat flavour. The watermelon intensifies bolstering the base as much as it can being the light watermelon that it is. After the watermelon peaks, the menthol crashes through with it’s slight bitterness creating quite a strong peppermint kind of finish. Chilled and minty, this one will definitely cool you down!
Final thoughts
I’ve enjoyed this one, particularly how dRiip have made sure to blend flavours that work well to compliment each other and create a deeper flavour rather than the flat flavour that it could have been with just the watermelon. The grape really does give this a little more strength making for a very different vape.
I would have liked for this to get even deeper, with a few different grapes and watermelons to better take advantage of each fruits strengths and weaknesses. I suppose I am saying Id like each flavour to be a little more robust and then blended together. The way that it is, it comes across as a flatter mint from the tin type of flavour.
All in all a great flavour, and I haven’t put it down.
Great job guys!
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:
Watermelon / Grape
Coil and wick damage:
I’ve had a little darkening of coils and wicks with this one, but it hasnt happened overly quickly. So even though there is a little sweetener here, it’s not too destructive.
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 Mentholicious title prominently 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
Leave a Reply