Back in Vaping Diaries #173, I reviewed three e-liquids from Five Pawns new Mixology Edition. Now it’s time to review the remaining two — Fifth Rank and Perpetual Check. If you’re not familiar with Mixology Edition, these juices were inspired by alcoholic beverages. Fifth Rank incorporates champagne flavor, while Perpetual Check has a taste that’s similar to black currant liquer. Both are quality juices with lots of complexity. I loved one of them, while the other didn’t work for me. Now let’s get to the tasting notes!
Fifth Rank: When I first vaped this juice, I had to stop and think about what I was experiencing. There are so many flavors going on and some of the notes are so distinct. This Mixology Edition mix is a melange of horehound, champagne, vanilla bean, sweat cream, almond, and lime. The horehound flavor really made this juice for me, with its combination of moderate mint and licorice-like bitterness. The other flavors complement the horehound marvelously for a fantastic mix.
While horehound was the most distinct flavor in Fifth Rank to me, two of my friends thought that the lime had the most presence. Since this juice has so many layers and we all have different tastebuds, it’s possible that people will have markedly different experiences with this e-liquid. As for me, Fifth Rank was one of my two favorites from Mixology Edition, along with the excellent Sixty-Four. Coincidentally, this juice probably has the second-most polarizing flavor next to Sixty-Four.
Juice Specs: 6mg nicotine, 50/50 PG/VG
Perpetual Check: This Mixology Edition blend features black currant, lemon, fig, barley, and cinnamon stick. While I really enjoyed the black currant flavor and appreciated the complexity of this juice, this was easily my least favorite Mixology Edition e-liquid. It was also unusual to vape. For me, there was a wattage sweet spot with this juice where the black currant flavor was more pronounced. When the wattage got a little too high or a little too low, the cinnamon flavor became overpowering. This made vaping it on a mechanical mod an uneven experience, since output changes depending on the battery’s charge level. I preferred vaping this juice on a regulated mod with consistent output.
While a few of my friends liked this one a lot more than I did, some of them agreed that the cinnamon drowned out the other flavors. While this juice didn’t work out for me nearly as much as the other four Mixology Edition e-liquids, if you dig cinnamon and complexity then there’s a great chance that you’ll enjoy Perpetual Check.
Juice Specs: 6mg nicotine, 50/50 PG/VG
Steeping and Review Notes (Updated December 29, 2013)
On the advice of Wlad from Ahlusion, I’ve been trying a new steeping method as of December 27, 2012. When the e-liquids arrive, I leave them uncapped for five minutes. Previously, I left them uncapped for about two days. After the liquids are given a few minutes to oxidize, the caps are put back on.
RPad.TV e-liquid reviews focus on the flavor of the e-liquids, since throat hit and vapor production can be altered by the PG/VG ratio and nicotine level selected. Each juice is vaped over a period of days in a bottom-coil silica atomizer (The Russian and Aqua), various rebuildable dripping atomizers, and a clearomizer.
