Are they worth picking up?
The three liquids from Transistor eJuice were all delicious, and the unique flavor combinations elsewhere in the line-up inspire plenty of hope for the rest of their line-up too.
With well-captured fruits – although sometimes drowned out by the sweeter components – delectable desserts and a VG-heavy mix that’s perfect for sub ohm vaping, they’re a great deal regardless of the bottle size you choose.
But if the flavors appeal I’d recommend the 120 ml bottles for $27.99 because you’ll get through these pretty damn quickly and it’s excellent value for money.
Full review
It’s safe to say there is a lot of choice when it comes to e-juice. With the rise in boutique mixers putting out small selections of flavors around a central theme or general aesthetic and the continued popularity of larger companies offering a bit of everything, there really is something to suit all tastes. Transistor eJuice got its start in 2015 as a small-batch company, selling through a local Facebook vaping group at first but quickly being overcome with demand. Vape stores in the Chicago started placing orders as word of mouth spread, and the small business moved into a professional lab and really started to make its mark on the industry.
With a sizable selection of flavors on offer covering most types of e-juice and the buzz around the brand still going strong, their liquids are still turning heads today. But are they really that good, or is it all hype and no substance? Our Transistor eJuice review tests out a few of the juices to find out.
Bottles and Design
The bottles from Transistor look great despite each having quite distinct designs. The Transistor logo finds its way onto each, but the labels are different colors – a deep ruby red for Galactic Milk, a caramel-and-yellow combination for Carango and striking blue and red mix for Bluetiful Disaster – and each has a unique style of design. They all work really well in their own ways, and from a practical perspective they all make it easy to get the key bits of information on the nicotine strength, bottle size and name of the juice, as well as the usual warnings.
Transistor’s juices come in a few different sizes: 30, 60 and 120 ml (priced $12.99, $22.99 and $27.99 respectively), and always make use of the now industry-standard Gorilla-style bottles. The big 120 ml bottles are chunky but still easy to fill up with thanks to the easily-squeezable plastic. As always, the child-proofing is good.
Overall the big bottles look cool and definitely get the job done in terms of usability and safety.
Mixing Options
The juices from Transistor come in the usual mix of 70% VG to 30% PG, which is great for sub ohm tanks and pretty much anything apart from basic clearomizers and pod systems. The blend is widely-used because it offers enough VG to produce sizable clouds while still maintaining a slight throat hit from the PG and keeping the consistency from getting too thick. Some options would be good, but realistically this ratio works for the intended market of the juices.
There are three choices for nicotine strength from Transistor eJuice: 0, 3 and 6 mg/ml. While new vapers might have benefited from a 12 mg/ml option, if you’re picking up juices from a company like Transistor, you’re probably not a brand new vaper. Overall they offer enough choice for longer-term vapers but aren’t ideal for vapers who are just switching or are using pod systems.
Transistor eJuice Review – The Flavors
Complete Flavor Line-Up
- Bluetiful Disaster (sugary blue raspberry)
- Honey Don’t (honeydew melon and cream)
- Wrecking Ball (RY4 tobacco and berry)
- Honey Crack (cereal – based on Golden Grahams)
- CinnApple (cinnamon and apple)
- CinnaMilk (cinnamon and milky icing – similar to a cinnamon roll)
- Seductive Sour (dragon fruit, mango, lemon and lime)
- Pheonix (strawberry, pineapple and kiwi)
- Foster (bananas foster)
- Respek (maraschino cherry and nuts)
- TangoMelon (tangerine, mango and melon)
- TangoChillin (Tangomelon with menthol)
- Lemon Sugar Drop/LSD
- Carango (caramel and mango)
- Galactic Milk (cereal bar, milky icing and berries)
- Nazzo (cane sugar and grapefruit)
- Baby Clouds (strawberry, custard and nuts)
- Boo (blueberry cereal)
- Hunnid K (peanut butter, caramel and pistachio)
- Nectosphere (nectarine and orange juice)
- NectoChill (Nectosphere with menthol)
- Roswell (honey tobacco, menthol and a hint of strawberry)
Galactic Milk – Rating 4.5/5
Accuracy: This is intended as a cereal flavor, specifically modeled after a breakfast bar with a milk-icing and a mixture of juicy berries to top the flavor off. The components all come through pretty well: the cereal elements are really well-captured and definitely hit the nail on the head when it comes to the base flavor of a cereal bar. The berries are hard to identify individually but you pick up a slightly sharp but largely-sweet fruitiness that strongly evokes a berry mixture. The icing comes through as a milky backdrop, not the most notable part of the mix but present throughout your draw.
Overall: The blend of flavors makes Galactic Milk really enjoyable. The cereal bar base brings a comforting familiarity, while having an understated enough flavor to allow the other elements to shine. The berries could probably be a little more pronounced, but they come through the mix enough to add some character while not overpowering the other components. The milky icing is the key that brings the whole thing together, adding a layer of creamy sweetness and underlining the velvety, gentle taste from the juice. It’s a really pleasant juice and a potential all day vape for me.
Carango – Rating 4/5
Accuracy: This is a caramel and mango combination, which is a pretty unique flavor to start with. The combination does come through from the juice, but it’s very heavy on the caramel and quite light on the mango. You do get hints of the mango coming through the mix, but it’s quite subtle and very much drowned in the caramel flavor, adding a slight fruity touch to the taste but not really enough to come across as a distinct component. The caramel itself is nicely-captured, and reminds me of the caramel accompaniment you get with RY4 juices: not completely accurate but easily-recognizable and definitely tasty.
Overall: Despite the fact that the mango is overshadowed in the flavor, Carango is still a pretty delicious juice. The caramel is pleasantly rich and brings a ton of sweetness to the flavor that’s hard to dislike. The juice would have been better if the mango was more prominent and stood equally alongside the caramel, but that won’t exactly stop you from vaping the flavor. It’s a great option if you like sweet, dessert-style liquids, but less so if you’re looking for a fruity vape.
Bluetiful Disaster – Rating 5/5
Accuracy: This is billed as a blue raspberry e-juice with candy elements, evoking memories of luminously and unnaturally-colored candies and sodas. The result is pretty good, definitely hitting on the unique taste of blue raspberry, with some genuine raspberry-like elements coming through on the nose in particular but backed by the kind of amorphous candy “blue” flavor that I feel like I enjoy purely out of nostalgia. The candy element to the flavor is hard to miss too, with a pure, sugar-rush sweetness enveloping the whole thing.
Overall: This is a great juice if you have a sweet tooth and want to be transported back to your childhood through the medium of vaping. It’s hard not to enjoy thanks to the pretty well-captured raspberry tones and the almost over-the-top candy sweetness. The unique blue raspberry taste sets it apart from a lot of the competition too, with just enough genuine fruitiness to keep the flavor light and help the figurative spoonful of sugar go down. It might not be for everyone, but for me this is an excellent flavor and I know I’ll get through the 120 ml of it in a terrifyingly short space of time.