Ron Reviews: Root Beer from Smoque Vapors

This time around I am back to review a classic flavor from a unique company.

This initial review of SMOQUE is going to be a bit longer than my usual so I hope you have your favorite APV filled up while you read.

First Impressions

A classic flavor that I am sure most of us has sampled at one time or another and now offered in the form of an E-liquid. This flavor was supplied to me at no charge for the purpose of review by SMOQUE VAPOR (Thank you Jared).

The description from their website is as follows:

We worked hard to recreate the original soft drink.This juice is cold, smooth, and just a little creamy.

The order was promptly shipped from their headquarters in Chicago, Il via USPS priority mail in a standard padded manilla envelope. All orders are shipped in this manner and S&H is a flat rate of $6.00 with orders of over $50.00 shipping for free.

Prices are as follows. 5ml @ $3.49, 15ml @ $9.99, 30ml @ 15.99 and 120ml @ 49.99. Sometimes they do have specials so you might just want to sign up for their newsletter to make sure you don’t miss them.

Inside were well filled 30ml bottles with the kind of plastic screw on caps you might find on bottles of cough syrup. Each bottle was individually wrapped in bubble wrap and then sealed into an individual Ziploc bag.

Also included were the components for an eye-dropper. A first for me. The screw on cap with the rubber squeeze bulb and the glass “dropper” carefully packaged in more bubble wrap. Basically when you are ready to put the liquid to its intended use, you assemble your eyedropper by just inserting it the glass part into the cap/bulb part and pressing it into place (takes less time to do than it did me to write this) and then replacing the screw top cap with the dropper assembly.

The glass eye droppers themselves are a bit different as well, instead of the standard “pointed end” they have a little glass ball instead. This seems to control excess that might drip off of the exterior of a standard dropper when removed from the bottle of E-Liquid.

Thankfully, the bottles were packed in the ziploc bags because all of them had leaked. And in the process had destroyed the labels.

Anyway, I contacted SMOQUE and got a swift reply from a somewhat upset Jared who was horrified to hear what had happened, explained that they had just switched to another type of bottle, made many sincere apologies and IMMEDIATELY sent out a replacement order.

A definite pass for customer service.

This time the package arrived in good order. The labels that were totally unreadable in the first shipment are now intact. Instead of your standard paper label, these are transparent now are easily read with the SMOQUE logo, name of the flavor, level of nicotine and the born on date written in by hand and “Made In America”.

The liquid inside is just a touch cloudy and definitely a light root beer color no other way to describe it. And when shaken, you can see some small air bubbles being formed that linger for just a couple of moments. And when it comes to the good old “sniff test” my nose is telling me that it is indeed rootbeer.

Now for the actual test

SMOQUE normally creates their E-Liquids in a mix of 65% PG and 35%VG with your choice of 0, 6, 12, 18 or 24mg of nicotine. But if you ask them, they will mix as you prefer it. So I received my preference of 60/40 with 18mg of nicotine.

Anyway, I fill up a Kanger Evod with a fresh 2.5 ohm head courtesy of Rick of Vapor Alley who is most kindly supporting my reviews and attach it to my Vamo as usual and start out at 3.4v and work my way up to about 4.2v and back down to 3.9v.

The first thing I notice is what I would consider for my taste, a weak (for my taste) but definite root beer taste. Kind of like if you have poured yourself a nice glass of root beer had a few sips, set it aside for a bit and you ice has melted and diluted the flavor. A very nice rootbeer flavor but just not quite there for my taste. throat hit is spot on for me and some very nice vapor production as well. And with this one, the vapor does indeed carry the scent of root beer.

A Week Later

I am back with it and still at 3.9v. The amount of vapor is still most respectable and the throat hit seems to have increased just a bit. The flavor has also gotten a bit deeper and more in line with what I would expect. Still not quite there but there is also a noticeable improvement. And the color of the E-Liquid itself seems to have gotten at least one shade darker within the last 7 days.

The flavor while it has improved is not quite what I had hoped for. But it is showing promise. Really starting to think this is one of those flavors that needs some extra steeping time to reach its full potential.

Week Three

I love it when a plan comes together! The E-Liquid is noticeably darker in color. the scent of root beer is noticeably stronger and the flavor has at least doubled (or more) since I tried it for the first time. A very nice deep and dark root beer flavor, not too sweet, not like the root beer candies but like one of the better brands of the real deal. Again a very nice amount of throat hit as well as a respectable amount of vapor production that now definitely carries the scent of root beer with it. Very nice indeed and I am glad I waited the extra week that this product needed to come into its own!

If you like a really good root beer and have 3 weeks worth of patience to let this E-Liquid achieve it full potential, go for this one, it is well worth the wait, it is that good!

Now a little bit about SMOQUE

As usual, I spent a lot of time collecting information from Jered about his operation. Not only are they passionate about the E-Liquids they mix in house they have built their passion into a bit of a vapers paradise complete with a Brick and Mortar store complete with a line of decently priced APVs and associated gear, a very nice in house mixing facility and a vapers lounge to boot where you can come in, try their flavors and hang out with your peers.