With dozens of e juice brands to choose from, it’s not an easy job to determine which are the best brands or varieties within brands. One way to establish this list is by selecting top e juice vendors and find out which are their best sellers. Another way is to figure out which brands pop up most during an internet search.
The following are highly successful and quality brands, listed in no particular order. If you are a vaper, you have probably tried at least one of these labels at some point either as an individual purchase or as part of a subscription package.
Top 10 E Juice Brands
#10: NicQuid
This high-quality brand is relatively affordable when compared with other gourmet e liquids. Tight controls ensure NicQuid satisfies every concerned consumer’s fears about hygiene and production standards, so if NicQuid doesn’t satisfy the FDA, no one will. Their flavors include tobacco, fruit, cocktails, mint, and more.
#9: Beard Vape Co.
This company from Los Angeles, CA, names all of their e juices with a number. It looks as though #5 is the most popular flavor. This one tastes of strawberry-topped New York Cheesecake, so it’s no wonder. Beard Vape Co. (recognized by the silhouette of a bearded man on the label) makes a handful of gourmet flavors which are available from vendors of quality products.
#8: Halcyon
Orange, CA, is home to Halcyon, makers of assorted fruity-style vapes. Their Dragon Chi e juice is probably the most popular to date and contains an exotic mixture of dragon fruit, pomegranate, and lychee.
#7: Time Bomb Vapors
A married couple, Greg and Alena, started their own vaping company when Greg stopped smoking. His 19-year habit was hard to break but together they weathered the storm of addiction and turned their personal success into a business with four e juice labels including Time Bomb, which could be the most successful. TNT, probably their top flavor, is another strawberry style containing notes of apple and peach. You will notice a lot of e juice companies make strawberry-style liquids and several will be mentioned here. They are frequently top-selling varieties. Time Bomb Vapors hails from Costa Mesa, California.
#6: Cuttwood
Once again, a top e juice label originates from California: this time Irvine. Cuttwood started out with Unicorn Milk and a bit of controversy over the addition of colorants, but they got through those tough early days to become one of the top-selling e juice labels in America. Not only is Cuttwood popular, but that first flavor (strawberry milk) is among the country’s favorite flavors full-stop. Many other companies have pursued their own version of strawberries and cream or strawberry milk, but Cuttwood’s version still rises above almost all of them.
#5: Suicide Bunny
The exception is Mother’s Milk by Suicide Bunny. Not only does this flavor pre-date Unicorn Milk (which sounds like a bit of a knock-off when you read the two names out loud), but it might also be a shade more popular. It’s nice to see a state other than California represented on this list: Suicide Bunny is based in Arlington, Texas. The only other non-Californian company on the list is NicQuid from Miamisburg, Ohio.
#4: Cosmic Fog
You have to love the humor behind some labels which reflect a tongue-in-cheek approach to life. Cosmic Fog is best known by their sunglasses-wearing cloud logo outlined in various colors. Each one represents a flavor, like Church (an ice cream sundae) or Milk and Honey. Milk and Honey is the top-seller from Cosmic Fog, reminding vapers of both those ingredients plus one extra. It’s like steamed milk with marshmallows.
#3: Alpha Vape
If you like treats without the calories, especially a light dessert, Sweet Tooth by Alpha Vape might be just the ticket. Sweet Tooth tastes much like a Graham cracker with vanilla. It’s sweet but not overly so. Popular Alpha Vape comes from Los Angeles.
#2: Space Jam
This is one of the industry’s best known and best selling brands of e juice. Their name turns up all the time in a search for fruity and dessert-type e liquids of quality. Try Andromeda, a darkly sweet fruit style comprised of blueberry and pomegranate flavors. Other space-themed styles include Eclipse and Galactica, the latter being their take on strawberries and champagne. There it is again: another strawberry e juice.
#1: Five Pawns
Theirs are the most expensive e juices on this list and among the dearest of all e liquids, but fans say Five Pawns is worth the price. This company from Irvine, California specializes in crafting complex and unique flavors you won’t experience anywhere else. There are pretenders, but Five Pawns blends are unique. Attempts to replicate their menu appear contrived and fall flat. Castle Long, arguably the top flavor at Five Pawns, is just one example of ten unusual blends. Kentucky Bourbon mixes with Madagascar vanilla plus caramelized brown sugar, toasted coconut, and roasted almond. Five Pawns mixologists always take pains to be as specific as possible about flavors. If they use vanilla, they always specify which type, for instance. They also utilize unexpected herbs and numerous liqueur styles in their e juices.
Epilogue
These are the best (in my opinion) of a pretty good group from the United States with plenty of other excellent contenders striving to reach the top 10.
Consumers need to watch out for a few things when they go shopping:
- One is legitimacy: If a company has been around a little while, this suggests they can be trusted to have created a hygienic mixing room and use high-quality ingredients. These companies have set high standards.
- Another is certification: Although e juice is not regulated or approved by the FDA, some firms are careful to use ISO-certified conditions, to employ chemists as supervisors, and choose ingredients which are certified organic, USP, and/or kosher.
- Third is price (and this one varies a lot): It’s not unusual to spend $12 on a 15-ml bottle of e liquid, but you will also find the same brands costing $13 or $15 from other vendors. Shop around: you shouldn’t pay $1 per ml.
About Vape Juice
Years have passed since the first bottled e liquids were introduced by Chinese manufacturers such as Hangsen and Dekang. Their products are usually panned by critics today, but it’s important to realize that both parties were pioneers, testing the vaping pathway before later vapers would realize what questions they needed to ask. This buyers’ guide should provide some answers to those questions while revealing that, with every answer, vapers still want and need to know more.
A Plethora of Possibilities
Dozens of excellent e juice labels provide flavor choices as large as any restaurant dessert menu or selection of pipe tobaccos. You’re never at a loss for options which can make the selection process too difficult. How do you narrow down the search for e juice to a set of 5 brands?
While browsing e liquid reviews, you notice a few labels have only released 2 or 3 flavors. Those might be the best flavors for your tastes, but in the early days you need to experiment. Perhaps start with a company whose list is more considerable: NicQuid, Halo, Vapor Chef, Johnson Creek, etc. These aren’t just bountiful selections but quality ones as well.
When you look at subscription companies that send out monthly e juice parcels to subscribers, you see there are several flavor profiles. Read these for an idea of what there is to choose from, even if you don’t subscribe. You will see “nut,” “dessert,” “fruit,” “candy,” “cinnamon,” and much more.
Ingredients in E Juice
The three main ingredients are a base, nicotine, and flavoring. Nicotine is optional; the base is usually a blend of vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, and extracts come from assorted sources. Other possible ingredients could be water and alcohol.
Think of e juice the same way you regard any processed foods or drinks you consume such as soda or cookies. Colorants, sweeteners, and certain chemicals that put you off could be present in e liquids, so look to avoid them.
If you don’t care, believing that a few parts per million is no big deal, you won’t be concerned about the source of flavorings and what’s in them. Flavor suspensions usually contain propylene glycol (PG) but might also include alcohol or vegetable glycerin (VG).
Flavor Mania
The issue of where flavorings come from and their components is most controversial right now. Consumers don’t always realize what their foods, drinks, and e liquids contain because wording is unfamiliar, so, rather than look it up, they take the path of least resistance. If an ingredient isn’t a known toxin in their experience, they ignore it.
Assorted vapers and vape vendors, however, have chosen to research diacetyl, acetyl propionyl, and other ingredients and found more of it in e juice than they realized. Take a position on the possible harm of either one: this will help you decide whether to try a juice or not.
Price Comparisons
When you buy a blender, you probably rule out the cheapest and go for the next one up or better. Brand names are appealing for good reason: if they are familiar, that’s usually because they are established and reputable. The same reasoning works for e liquid. If you see a name featured at several vapor juice bars or on e-tail sites, that’s probably because the brand is decent. Consider omitting the very cheapest flavors and going the next step up.
Set a budget and don’t go any further thinking expensive flavors are necessarily better quality. E juice bottled in glass won’t be affected by its container the way e juice in plastic will, but liquids made to order don’t have time to absorb the taste and smell of plastic. A number of brands are also artificially expensive. Their flavorings are no better than most; not organic or all-natural.
Brands on the List
The following brands are highlighted here because they provide proven quality and a wide assortment for a decent price. Theirs are not the most or least expensive e liquids and all products are made in America:
• NicQuid
• Halo
• Nicoticket
• Crystal Canyon Vapes
• Hurricane Vapor
• The Vapor Chef
• Johnson Creek
Of these, the oldest is probably Johnson Creek, established in 2008. This company from Wisconsin has expanded their line many times. New flavors are their six high-VG fruity juices, high-VG being ideal for sub-ohm vaping owing to its thickness. VG is sweeter than PG also, while PG doesn’t clog coils and carries a stronger throat hit.
The Vapor Chef menu is also interesting, especially titles like Arthur Dent and Ford Perfect. Often, e juice companies are inspired by movies or TV. At TVC their inspiration is “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Arthur Dent tastes “nothing like tea” while Ford Perfect is represented by strawberries and bananas. Other flavors include Blue Jazzberry, Frosty Apple, Coolcumber Melon, and Chamberry (strawberry champagne).
Complex vs. Simple
A lot of companies create complicated blends containing several elements. Five Pawns is a good example. Results are often intriguing and only the best blends survive. Ordering simple flavors seems like a boring way to go, but with a few of these in your collection you can mix them up and experiment with 20% of this and 80% of that, double flavor, three types at once, and so on.
Many labels feature only or mostly single-flavor profiles like fruits or simple tobaccos. Select several bottles from a trusted line and use them to mix your own e juice to taste. If these are inexpensive, you won’t feel too bad if an experiment goes awry and you have to throw it out.
Subscribe
When the possibilities are still too vast to navigate, sign up for a monthly delivery of e juice. Let experts help you find a brand. Some bottles won’t be successes but after a while your collection of favorites will grow.
