Alien Visions: Gorilla Juice Review

So earlier this year I reviewed the most renowned eLiquid on the planet Boba's Bounty and I also reviewed a couple of other flavors from Alien Visions as well.

This time, I went back for what has been considered by many to be AVE's #2 best selling eLiquid.  None other than Gorilla Juice!

Since testing Boba's Bounty back in April of this year, I have somehow weened my nicotine requirements from 18mg, down to the 6mg range.  It absolutely amazes me, that a 30+ year, 2 pack a day habit of full flavored cigarettes has been replaced by a mostly innocuous eCigarette with less than HALF of the nicotine!  Amazing!

So during the last sale at AVE (Alien Visions), I picked up a 100ml bottle of Boba's Bounty and just as I was about to check out, I decided to pick up a 30ml bottle of Gorilla Juice too.  To be honest, I never bothered with GJ, simply because I never really cared for synthetic banana flavored foods/beverages.

Small side story...  Back in the 1970's when I was about 5-6 years old, there was some "beverage" that was sold in the refrigerated section of supermarkets that came in Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry and Banana flavors, that was supposedly some kind of "healthy" vitamin rich, good for you, "shake-type" drink.  I can't remember the name of that beverage for the life of me, but I guess if you're familiar with the drink "Ensure", I can only suppose it's very much like it (if you know the beverage I'm referring to, PLEASE let me know the name).  Long story short, I was getting over a cold/flu and my mother bought me a can of this stuff in Banana flavor (I always loved chocolate, why did she get me banana?), and the next thing I know I'm vomiting this stuff everywhere.  To this day the smell of phony banana flavored things has a tendency to make me queasy!

Alright, so let's get down to business...

I will be testing this one using my VAMO 3, so that I can control the Voltage.

I will be testing this one in my KamryTech X10.
I will be using a 2.5Ω ProTank atomizer head.

Here are my rating criteria for judging eLiquids:

• Taste - Does it taste like what it says it's supposed to taste like?
• Lingering Flavor - Does the flavor have PRESENCE & does it last?
• Vapor Production - Does it make lots of Vapor?
• Throat Hit - Is the throat hit too weak, too strong, or just right?

Testing Notes: One of the things I see all too often, is that "Flavor is subjective".  NO, your individual tastes may be subjective, but flavor is flavor.  I've never had a steak that tasted like chicken.  I've never had an orange that tasted like a banana.  I've never had a cup of coffee that tasted like Hawaiian Punch.  If you ever see me give an eLiquid a bad review, it's because they TASTE BAD and not because I don't like a particular flavor.  I don't care for the flavor of peaches and mangoes, so you won't see me review anything that contains those. Understand? For more information on this topic please read THIS Blog post...

Ok, so if you don't know anything about GJ, it's been described by most people as "Boba's Bounty with banana added to it".  Look, I like BB...  A lot!  As a matter of fact, if you've spent any time reading my Blog entries, you know that of all of the American made eLiquids I've purchased, there's been a 99% failure rate by the makers to produce a reliable product.  So can you blame me for wanting to try to find at least one more that I can count on?

So I got my delivery (super speedy as always), opened up the envelope (Apparently I still Rock!), cleaned out my tank of whatever it was that I was already Vaping and loaded up a new atomizer head and filled up with some 6mg Gorilla Juice.

So this is the part of the review where I tell you how disappointed I am...  Except I'm only kind of disappointed.  You see, even though I know the ProTank is incapable of reproducing the full flavor range offered by Boba's Bounty, I know what it should taste like.  This GJ tastes just like BB.  No banana, nothing else, just Boba's Bounty.  So am I disappointed?  Yes.  I'm disappointed that it doesn't taste like what it says on the bottle!  Or am I?

So after I finished the tank, I set the bottle of GJ aside, because frankly I've been trying a whole bunch of super-secret non-reviewable eLiquids lately.  But once I was done with those, I just tapped into the 100ml bottle of BB and set the GJ aside.

About 2 months later, while I was cleaning up my Vape-Shelf, I noticed the bottle of GJ and decided to load some up.  POW!  I am now the proud recipient of the "Steeping pays dividends club"!  I can't tell you how many eLiquids I've steeped, only to be greeted by NOTHING.  I've steeped every which way known to man and I've never experienced any of the changes that most people report.  This time was different.  From my very first Re-Vape of GJ, the banana flavor was so OBVIOUS!  Amazing!

So after 2 months of steeping....

Gorilla Juice is understood to be a 100% VG eLiquid.  Since the website redesign over at AVE, it no longer spells it out for either GJ or for BB.  I will tel you that the throat hit and Vapor production of the GJ is exactly what you'd expect for that level of nicotine, perfect.  The viscosity of GJ is noticeably thinner than BB.  I don't know how much thinner, but if I had a gun put to my head, I'd say that it was a 70%-30% VG/PG mix.  I also believe that I'm justified in guessing this, because the ProTank atomizer heads LAST LONGER while using GJ than they do with BB.  Coincidence?  Perhaps, but I don't think so.  Could it be that there's more flavoring or distilled water in GJ and that's what accounts for the difference?  Sure.  I don't know, I'm not one of their "wookies"...  :)  The question is, "Do I care?", and the answer is NO.  It tastes good, my atomizers last longer and it's BB with some decent tasting banana flavoring added.

I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that GJ would taste 75% better if I loaded it up in an RBA of some kind, but I'm not in the mood to set up a Genesis right now.  Perhaps I'll post a follow-up to this review once I get my Kayfun 3.1 ES clone up and running... (if it ever gets here!)

So do I recommend it?  100% YES.  But you better steep it!  Does it need 2 months to steep?  I don't know!  I wrote it off and completely forgot about it, so I don't know if it needed 3 more days or 3 more weeks!  The only thing I do know, is that I was AMAZED at the difference between fresh from the post office and 2 months in a cool, dark & dry place.

As always, thank you so very, very, very much for your continued support, thank you for your comments and thank you for Liking it, Tweeting it, Sharing it, +1ing it and telling your dog about it, etc...  ;)

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(image used in the post is Copyright © 2013 Alien Visions E-Juice)