Hi all
This is my first review of a Paulies juice. Paulies is run by @Paulie and for those who don't know him, allow me to say a few words. @Paulie is one of the most enthusiastic vapers I know. I am lucky to have known Paulie from early on in my vape journey. He is wildly passionate about flavours and has been mixing up juices for quite a long time. He is also a gem of a person and is very committed to the community and ECIGSSA. He has helped so much behind the scenes with so many things and is very generous with his time and efforts. Paulie is a supporting vendor here on ECIGSSA.
@Paulie introduced me to his DIY Guava quite a while back (long before it launched) and gave me a few versions to test. I have vaped this juice on its own but also enjoy it a lot with added menthol. When the juice finally launched, I got a review bottle around the March Vape Meet and have been vaping it (without added menthol) since mid April in various devices. The juice costs R250 for 50ml and Paulie mixed me a 9mg version. It's a 70% VG juice.
For this review I will focus on the production juice (without added menthol). I will also give some notes near the end on vaping it with added menthol...
PAULIES - Guava (9mg)
Bottom line - this is a fabulous juice. I love it for its authentic fresh guava taste and its granular texture. It feels like you are eating guava roll! This is a clear winner in my book. I will make sure to have this in my rotation and will continue ordering more.
The juice has a orange colour and a sweetish guava fruity smell.
On the vape, I get a fresh guava taste straight away. It's not a sweet candy type guava but the fresh thing. Very authentic. To me it tastes a lot like guava roll, which I love. Hence the guava roll in the photo above
. It's almost as if a fresh guava has been liquidised in there and is coming out the drip tip. You can taste the guava and it makes me want to eat it. The flavour is of medium strength.
The guava taste in this juice is very authentic. It reminds me of many trips to the Kruger Park, stopping at the Halls farm stall near Nelspruit and buying their fabulous guava roll. Then eating it while checking out the animals in the Kruger. It is quite amazing how some juices remind you of past experiences based on their flavour!
On the sweetness scale, it's on the sweetish side but not overly so. It's a natural sweetness, like the fruit. I find it on the wettish side. It's not warm or cool, somewhere in-between. Very authentic taste indeed, no synthetic or artificial tones for me.
The texture of this juice is just fantastic and I feel it makes this juice special. It is granular and makes you feel like you are eating a guava - almost as if there are little pieces of guava in the vapour. Just lovely.
Throat hit is on the lowish side. Understandable for a 9mg high VG juice on my flavour-focussed equipment (where I usually vape 18mg or 12mg). But the flavour is so authentic that it makes up for the lower throat hit. Vapour production is good - as expected with a 70% VG juice.
Is this a bold or mellow vape? I would say somewhere in the middle. I did find it vapable all day. It's not too sweet or too strong and goes well with most situations and is nice with food. Perhaps not my preferred vape with a cup of coffee but I found myself reaching for it at many different times of the day.
The aftertaste is great. That fresh guava taste is there for a bit. Exhaling through the nose afterward, you can still taste that fresh juicy guava, which I found pleasing. It doesn't stay for too long, so you reach for another toot.
It vapes well in my equipment but I did find it needed a bit more power to get it to shine. It's a thick juice so squonking on the Reo took a bit longer but no issues.
I thoroughly enjoy vaping this juice and I can say it's one of the few juices that has no negatives for me.
If you don't like guava, you probably won't enjoy this juice. But if you are indifferent and generally like your fruity vapes or if you like guava - then you should definitely give this juice a try. I think you will appreciate it's fresh authentic taste.
Mouth to Lung versus Lung Hit - and setup discussion
This juice vaped nicely in both MTL and Lung hit modes. I enjoyed both. I did feel it was better suited to higher power, higher airflow on lung hit devices.
I preferred Jap Cotton over Rayon for this juice because I felt it brought out more richness in the guava.
Menthol adventures
I don't usually discuss adding other things into a production juice when doing a juice review but because I did this with Paulie's Guava long before it was even launched, I do feel I should discuss it briefly.
In 10ml of this juice I add 15 drops of VM's Menthol Concentrate. I vaped this a lot in restricted lung hit devices such as the Kayfun Monster V2 and the Crius. Rayon wick to bring out the menthol crispness a bit better
Oh my gosh, it's glorious. Granted, I do like menthol, but this blend is amazing. The coolness of the menthol combines with the guava in the background for an icy guava taste. It is so refreshing and tasty. I feel the guava is accentuated, even though it moves into the background. I also like my "menthol burn" on long slow restricted lung hits at lowish power - and this blend delivers in that respect.
If you like this juice and you like menthol, give it a try - I think you will enjoy it.
Packaging:
This is my first review of a Paulies juice. Paulies is run by @Paulie and for those who don't know him, allow me to say a few words. @Paulie is one of the most enthusiastic vapers I know. I am lucky to have known Paulie from early on in my vape journey. He is wildly passionate about flavours and has been mixing up juices for quite a long time. He is also a gem of a person and is very committed to the community and ECIGSSA. He has helped so much behind the scenes with so many things and is very generous with his time and efforts. Paulie is a supporting vendor here on ECIGSSA.
@Paulie introduced me to his DIY Guava quite a while back (long before it launched) and gave me a few versions to test. I have vaped this juice on its own but also enjoy it a lot with added menthol. When the juice finally launched, I got a review bottle around the March Vape Meet and have been vaping it (without added menthol) since mid April in various devices. The juice costs R250 for 50ml and Paulie mixed me a 9mg version. It's a 70% VG juice.
For this review I will focus on the production juice (without added menthol). I will also give some notes near the end on vaping it with added menthol...
PAULIES - Guava (9mg)
Bottom line - this is a fabulous juice. I love it for its authentic fresh guava taste and its granular texture. It feels like you are eating guava roll! This is a clear winner in my book. I will make sure to have this in my rotation and will continue ordering more.
The juice has a orange colour and a sweetish guava fruity smell.
On the vape, I get a fresh guava taste straight away. It's not a sweet candy type guava but the fresh thing. Very authentic. To me it tastes a lot like guava roll, which I love. Hence the guava roll in the photo above
. It's almost as if a fresh guava has been liquidised in there and is coming out the drip tip. You can taste the guava and it makes me want to eat it. The flavour is of medium strength.The guava taste in this juice is very authentic. It reminds me of many trips to the Kruger Park, stopping at the Halls farm stall near Nelspruit and buying their fabulous guava roll. Then eating it while checking out the animals in the Kruger. It is quite amazing how some juices remind you of past experiences based on their flavour!
On the sweetness scale, it's on the sweetish side but not overly so. It's a natural sweetness, like the fruit. I find it on the wettish side. It's not warm or cool, somewhere in-between. Very authentic taste indeed, no synthetic or artificial tones for me.
The texture of this juice is just fantastic and I feel it makes this juice special. It is granular and makes you feel like you are eating a guava - almost as if there are little pieces of guava in the vapour. Just lovely.
Throat hit is on the lowish side. Understandable for a 9mg high VG juice on my flavour-focussed equipment (where I usually vape 18mg or 12mg). But the flavour is so authentic that it makes up for the lower throat hit. Vapour production is good - as expected with a 70% VG juice.
Is this a bold or mellow vape? I would say somewhere in the middle. I did find it vapable all day. It's not too sweet or too strong and goes well with most situations and is nice with food. Perhaps not my preferred vape with a cup of coffee but I found myself reaching for it at many different times of the day.
The aftertaste is great. That fresh guava taste is there for a bit. Exhaling through the nose afterward, you can still taste that fresh juicy guava, which I found pleasing. It doesn't stay for too long, so you reach for another toot.
It vapes well in my equipment but I did find it needed a bit more power to get it to shine. It's a thick juice so squonking on the Reo took a bit longer but no issues.
I thoroughly enjoy vaping this juice and I can say it's one of the few juices that has no negatives for me.
If you don't like guava, you probably won't enjoy this juice. But if you are indifferent and generally like your fruity vapes or if you like guava - then you should definitely give this juice a try. I think you will appreciate it's fresh authentic taste.
Mouth to Lung versus Lung Hit - and setup discussion
This juice vaped nicely in both MTL and Lung hit modes. I enjoyed both. I did feel it was better suited to higher power, higher airflow on lung hit devices.
- My MTL experience was with the Reo/RM2 and I struggled to get the right set up. I tried various coils. The problem is you need enough power (ie low enough ohms) but you don't have enough airflow. Some of the vapes were just a bit too hot. I got a great vape in the end on a simple 26g NI80 single at about 0.5 ohms. It's quite hot but it renders the flavour beautifully.
- For Lung hits I had the best all-round vape on the Reo/Nuppin with dual 26g NI80 coils at about 0.3 ohms. A great mix of power and enough airflow. It was also nice on the Crius tank and I even tried dripping it on the Doge V2 with a dual staged paracoil (built for me by @Ollie). But that was a bit too airy for me for this juice and the flavour wasn't as dense as the Nuppin.
I preferred Jap Cotton over Rayon for this juice because I felt it brought out more richness in the guava.
Menthol adventures
I don't usually discuss adding other things into a production juice when doing a juice review but because I did this with Paulie's Guava long before it was even launched, I do feel I should discuss it briefly.
In 10ml of this juice I add 15 drops of VM's Menthol Concentrate. I vaped this a lot in restricted lung hit devices such as the Kayfun Monster V2 and the Crius. Rayon wick to bring out the menthol crispness a bit better
Oh my gosh, it's glorious. Granted, I do like menthol, but this blend is amazing. The coolness of the menthol combines with the guava in the background for an icy guava taste. It is so refreshing and tasty. I feel the guava is accentuated, even though it moves into the background. I also like my "menthol burn" on long slow restricted lung hits at lowish power - and this blend delivers in that respect.
If you like this juice and you like menthol, give it a try - I think you will enjoy it.
Packaging:
- Great packaging overall
- Dark sturdy plastic bottle with a long tapering nozzle that I find very useful. The nozzle itself has a removable screw on cap and the whole cap itself can also be unscrewed from the bottle. The nozzle makes it very easy to fill various tanks and is a pleasure to drip with.
- Only negative with the dark bottle is you can't see how much juice you have left. You have to open the whole cap and have a look under the light. One gets a sense from the weight of the bottle, but it's not that easy.
- The cap and nozzle cap is not of the "child deterrent" variety - so keep it away from kids.
- The labelling is good and the juice name and nic strength is easy to see. I did not see the PG/VG ratio on the bottle.
- REO Grand/RM2 - 0.58 ohm NI80 single coil - Jap Cotton wick - (25 to 30 Watts, depending on battery level)
- REO Grand/Nuppin1 - dual NI80 coil around 0.3 ohms - Jap Cotton wick - (48 to 58 Watts, depending on battery level)
- RX200/Crius - 0.5 ohm Kanthal dual - Jap Cotton wick - 25 to 30 Watts
- Cuboid/Doge V2 - 0.26 ohm dual staged paracoil - 60 to 70 Watts
