In for review today I have 4 flavours from Dripper Labs E Liquid, as well as 2 that I have created myself.
“Created yourself”? I hear you ask?
Well the short of it is Dripper Labs is not so much a juice company in the traditional sense, but more of a platform to create your own flavours.
As this is a review I will be reviewing 4 of their “house flavours” but I also had a go at experimenting with their creator to see what I could come up with!
What Can We Expect From the Dripper Labs E Liquid ?
So the big thing about Dripper Labs E Liquid is they are set up to allow you to mix and match a whole range of ingredients, adjust their relative strengths and end up with something that you’re (hopefully) going to enjoy vaping.
But they have BIG plans, and it’s not just creating your own flavours for yourself that they’re going to be offering.
They are in a limited role out at the moment, but the aim is to be able to sell your flavours through their store.
You’ll be able to get feedback from people, adjust your flavours, and if you create something special? You’ll be able to sell it and earn commission.
So it’s not just a “create-your-own” site, but also a community.
Lofty goals indeed, but I’ve been impressed with how they’ve though everything through. As for the end results? We’ll take a look at those later in the review.
Now I’ve always liked the idea of creating my perfect vape liquid, but I’ve been put off mixing my own due to all the associated faff.
Bottles of concentrate, careful measuring, plenty of steeping time… and only at the end do you find out if all that effort created something you’d like to vape, or it’s going straight in the bin.
So, How Do You Create Your Own Dripper Labs E Liquid?
Firstly there is no faff on your end, and in fact incredibly little on theirs!
They have an impressive automatic bottling/dispensing system set up that will accurately produce whatever combination you dial in on their website.
You can create a flavour from scratch, or if you want, tinker with one of their house flavours.
You then have a list of 46 ingredients (with many more to be added in the future) and a variety of sliders that will let you know if that concentrate will be Background, Mild, Strong, Intense or even Dominating!
Once you’re happy, you can save it and add it to your basket. Choose your bottle size (30ml or 60ml currently), your preferred nic strength (0, 3 or 6mg) and finally your VG/PG ratio.
Special shout out to this last one, as I often vape 50/50, but a lot of the most interesting flavours on the market tend to only come in 70/30.
You’re In Control!
With Dripper Labs E Liquid you can choose, 70/30, 50/50 or even the more unusual 40/60!
We talk more about the different things that make up e-liquid here if you want to read up.
Whilst they could have set it up to have them measuring every bottle by hand, if they got as big as I’m sure they hope they will, that would have taken way too long from a customer submitting an order, to it showing up. So automation lets them do it at scale, and more importantly (for you!) it’s totally repeatable.
Say you get really close to your ideal e-liquid, but you think it could do with just a touch more cooling? Fine, go back to your recipe and bump that one slider up a little bit. There’s no risk of you mucking up the rest of your flavour profile as you do so.
But aren’t I just going to get flavours that taste nasty?
The other big factor that they sets them apart from someone buying a load of bottles of concentrate and mixing their own, is their secret weapon, aka Jack.
Jack is the flavour boss of the company, he tests every new concentrate that they add in to the mix, and he determines the sort of levels that you can adjust.
This is an important factor, as I’m sure anyone that has made their own e-liquid knows, it’s not a case of being able to just add more of a certain concentrate to get a more pronounced flavour. Go too far, and everything starts tasting weird and artificial.
So those sliders I mentioned earlier? Slide it all the way to the right on 5 different ingredients, and you might actually be adding 5 different amounts of concentrate.
The important thing is that these are tuned so that even if you do go crazy and set everything to max, it should still be vapeable.
Interesting intro, but I want to know more about Dripper Labs E Liquid!
There is an absolutely HUGE amount of things that I sadly don’t have space to cover in a review. So I would recommend having a look at their website or their YouTube channel to learn more.
The YouTube channel especially has some really useful guides for creators just getting started, so you can get a proper walk through of the system and how best to create your unicorn vape!
The vape juice was sent over free of charge directly from Dripper Labs E Liquid for the purpose of this review (thank you) as usual, I will report back honestly with what I find.
For full disclosure I have spent my own money when I first heard about them, and so my two created flavours are the second iteration. I will of course talk about that process when we get to them.
I’m using my Profile RDA, freshly wicked each time.
Because Dripper Labs concentrates are pre-steeped, you can just pop your nic in (you’ll see in my pictures it tells you how much nic to use on the bottle), leave them a couple of days, and they’re good to go!
On to the review!
Dripper Labs E Liquid – Blueberry Cordial – 0mg 70/30 VG PG
Dripper Labs Say:
Plump ripe Blueberries shaken, not stirred with hints of Blackcurrant and Lemon-Lime, layered on top of a fresh ripe Tonic
I Say:
On the nose you are immediately hit by a huge waft of blueberry, very rich and fruity. But there’s something else lurking in the sniff test that I can’t put my finger on.
Tasting on my knuckle and it’s full on blueberry, but I’m starting to identify that extra component. There’s a bit of the lemon lime there, and a touch of dryness as well.
On the vape, it’s actually a far more “grown up” flavour than I thought it might be based on the smell.
There’s definitely a strong blueberry note on the inhale, but also a touch of the blackcurrant that rounds it out a little.
Exhaling and you get the lighter notes of the lemon-lime coming through, but also a touch of dry fizziness to it.
It’s a surprisingly complex vape, and it’s not nearly as sweet as I thought it was going to be! It’s definitely got a fruity sweetness, but it’s not overpowering.
For reference, their sweetness is set to 46% on this one.
I don’t usually like overly sweet vapes, so this goes to prove that you can have a fair amount of sweetness on that slider, and not have it taste sickly!
Dripper Labs E Liquid – S.W.K.M. – 0mg 70/30 VG PG
Dripper Labs Say:
A refreshing blend of Strawberry, Watermelon and tangy Kiwi that will make your mouth water with a touch of Menthol
I Say:
The smell from this is probably the least appealing of the four I’ve tested from Dripper Labs.
It smells like banana (which is weird, as they don’t use banana) and miscellaneous fruits, but mostly it smells sweet.
Taking a little on my knuckle and it might actually be a little more complex than that. I still can’t pick out the individual flavours very well but it’s got promise.
On the inhale it’s a lot less sweet than I thought it would be, there’s a bit of sharpness from the kiwi that you get at the outset.
As you exhale, the more mellow flavours of the strawberry come out, it tastes almost like a fruity strawberry milkshake. It has that softness that you would expect.
The water melon is also running through it, but it’s not overpowering anything, just adding to a rich fruity experience.
Definitely one for the fruit lovers out there!
Not sure it’s one I’ll be going back to myself, as I find it a little too sweet and fruity. But it’s definitely a good example of different fruits working well together.
Dripper Labs E Liquid – Mango Lemonade – 0mg 70/30 VG PG
Dripper Labs Say:
Sweet sticky ripe Mango, layered with fresh bite of Dragon Fruit mixed with fizzy tones of refreshingly cool Lemonade
I Say:
I can definitely smell the sticky mango! But there’s almost a vanilla smell underneath it as well.
The knuckle test also gives you a soft element, not just the mango, though that is definitely front and centre.
Vaping it is quite a strange experience, as on the inhale the flavour seems very pretty faint. There’s mango there, but it’s not overwhelmingly strong.
The exhale… the exhale is definitely where this one comes into it’s own.
Suddenly you get mango bursting in your mouth, and that slightly vanilla like flavour is (I’m pretty sure) the dragon fruit.
It’s got a really nice rounded flavour this one. Plenty of fruit tastes, and as you keep vaping it you pick up different notes.
Juicy and delicious, and quite possibly in the running to become a proper all day vape for me.
I’m now thinking I might go back and tinker with their recipe to add a little cooling to it, for the hot summer days!
(sorry, summer was last week wasn’t it?)
Iced Caramel Latte – 0mg 70/30 VG PG
Dripper Labs Say:
Heavenly warming spices of Ginger and Cinnamon blended into a smooth Caramel, whisked into a refreshing summer Iced Coffee
I Say:
My last one from Dripper Labs and I’m going to start by saying that generally I don’t really like coffee vapes.
I went with this because although I haven’t had many good coffee vapes, IÂ do love an iced coffee!
The sniff test tells you there’s definitely coffee and caramel in here! But it feels fairly restrained.
Tasting it on the knuckle, and it reminds me of a little coffee/caramel hard sweet I remember from my childhood. Can’t remember what it was called, but the flavour is identical.
The vape from this might actually be enough to get me to give coffee flavoured vapes another go!
It’s got a dry, slightly bitter coffee taste at first. But that quickly gets built on by the smooth caramel.
As you exhale, there’s a slight spiciness to it, probably from the gingerbread. But it remains a really light and cooling vape.
So a dry coffee, that’s softened by the caramel, and then a spicy finish with just enough cooling to keep everything feeling fresh.
Genuinely quite impressed at the amount going on in this one.
Lightweight – 0mg 70/30 VG PG
Dripper Labs Say:
They don’t say anything, because I made this one myself! It’s the second iteration on what I hope I can get to be the perfect summer vape. Elderflower, Apples and Cooler are my main ingredients. And then I added a little bit of Grape and Kiwi to make it more interesting!
I Say:
Smelling it, I’m worried I may have overdone the apple, as that’s pretty much all I can smell.
On the knuckle though, I can taste some of the other flavours, definitely getting elderflower and also kiwi.
Taking a vape and I’m pretty pleased with my creation!
It’s got green fruits as the base definitely, but it seems to switch between the kiwi, the grape and the apple, with the elderflower just adding a bit more complexity
The cooling effect isn’t as strong as I thought it would be. For reference I have it set to 60%! So I think I could afford to go a little further with that to make it a really cool vape.
The biggest thing I learn on experimenting with this recipe is not to be afraid of the sweetness toggle. I don’t like overly sweet vapes as a rule. So the first time I created this I didn’t put any sweetness in it.
Turns out that’s potentially a mistake, although I’m sure you can create a lovely vape with no sweetness, it’s much harder to do.
So if you create your own, listen to the guys at Dripper Labs, and set it to 10% as an absolute minimum. My own version is at 25%.
Berry Cold – 0mg 70/30 VG PG
Dripper Labs Say:
And again, another one that I created! For obvious reasons I’m not going to be scoring the ones I put together. As those of you that have read some of my other reviews will know, I have a love of a liquid called Berry Ice. So this is my attempt to recreate that, and also to get those flavours in a 70/30. I’m going for blackcurrant and blueberry, with plenty of cooler and a touch of anise. Also sour. No idea what that does, but I threw it in there!
I Say:
I’m not sure whether I’ve gotten this right taking a smell! There’s a bit of an artificial smell to it. Like I might have overcooked the blackcurrant.
Tasting it on my knuckle, I’ve definitely got a bit of the anise coming in. It’s a flavour that some people despise, but in my mind it’s a super secret ingredient, used well it can really lift a vape, and you might not even know it’s in there!
Vaping it and I’m almost there with my creation. Got plenty of blackcurrant and a touch of blueberry.
The cooler is definitely giving me that cooling hit, but I think I went a little too far with the anise. A little goes a long way with that flavour!
It’s so close though to what I was aiming for. The first iteration of this one was just fruity and no complexity.
I’m keen to jump straight back onto the website with this one, a little bit more tinkering and I know I’ll get it right…
Dripper Labs E Liquid – Final Review Verdict
So that is Dripper Labs! And to be honest you can more or less ignore the scores on this review.
Suffice to say that I’ve been very pleased with the flavour profiles of all the house flavours, and that makes me far more confident that if I make a slightly dodgy tasting flavour, then it lies with me rather than the concentrates that they use.
The one thing that I can’t really quantify, and thus there is no score, is how much you want to investigate making your own e-liquid. Because you’re probably not going to create an incredible e-liquid right off the bat, unless you’re incredibly lucky.
But Dripper Labs isn’t just about that, if you don’t want to create your own? There will hopefully soon be a lively community of peer reviewed e-liquids that people have put together themselves.
And if you want to dive in? Well, my first two attempts were “OK”, perfectly capable, but not amazing. I still vaped all of them though. To be honest, if I’d actually watched their videos before hand, I would probably have done considerably better.
But even without that, tasting the first versions, I knew what I wanted to change. Went on, made the adjustments, and got two flavours I’m really rather happy with.
True Vaping Innovation!
Got to say, I wish these guys all the best, as I think what they’re doing is interesting and pretty innovative.
And based on my experience of their house flavours, and my own creations, I’m keen to dive back into the website and continue to have a play around!
So, do you use Dripper Labs?
Has this review tempted you to try brewing your own flavours?
Please do let me know your thoughts, opinions and of course experiences if you’ve used them…
And hey…maybe you could share your favourite creation too – sharing is caring 🙂
