Juice by Numbers has a great selection of e-liquids overall, and based on the consistent quality of the five tested I’d be pretty confident that #6 (peppermint and chocolate) and #7 (vanilla custard) will be excellent too.
There might not be anything in there for tobacco-lovers, but if you’re a fan of fruity and dessert vapes it’s definitely a brand to try out. You could find cheaper options, but Juice by Numbers e-liquids are well-worth every cent. They might not be among the most well-known brands of e-liquid (at least not yet), but they definitely have what it takes to become a favorite among vapers.
Standing out as an e-liquid mixer isn’t easy. The staggering range of e-liquids available is great for us as vapers, but for an up-and-coming juice brand the sheer number of competitors must be pretty unnerving. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do well; if you take some care over your flavor creation process and spend time refining and tweaking your juices, you can put something out that will turn heads, with recommendations spreading through the community like wildfire. Juice by Numbers is one of the many brands trying to take on this tall order, hoping to make a name for itself with a growing line-up of e-liquids, but is the mixer up to the task?
Juice by Numbers started selling e-liquids through VapeRev in 2013, after being founded for practical reasons more than anything. RPad TV interviewed co-founder Eric Silverman at the E-Cigarette Convention 2013, and he told the story of how the brand got started. After switching to vaping, the now ex-smokers were going through a lot of juice (we’ve all been there), and realized that DIY mixing would save them a bit of money. Although Silverman admirably offers this praise to the other VapeRev juices too, he says that the care they put into flavor creation and refinement is what separates them from the competition.
They got pretty darn good at mixing, and soon got their sweet and fruity creations up for sale at VapeRev, choosing their unique moniker and matching approach (the juice names are #1, #2, #3 and so on) to help distinguish themselves from the competition. You can pick up a 15 ml bottle for $12 and a 30 ml for $20 (as of January 2015), and their range now goes up to #7.
Their style and approach to naming e-liquids may turn heads, but does the juice deliver? We’ve put five of their juices (#1 through #5) to the test in our Juice by Numbers e-liquid review to find out.
Juice by Numbers Mixing Options
The PG/VG ratio with Juice by Numbers is fixed at 50/50. Roughly even mixtures are pretty common with e-liquid mixers, and the blend provides nice plumes of vapor and a fairly gentle throat-hit, giving you a slight smoking-like sensation on the inhale without being overly dry or harsh. Some other vendors (though not through VapeRev) will allow you to select your PG/VG ratio, but unless you’re a lover of powerful throat hits or want something very VG-heavy it’s hard to really have an issue with 50/50.
For nicotine, Juice by Numbers offers five choices of level: 0 mg, 6 mg, 12 mg, 18 mg and 24 mg/ml. This is a pretty standard spread of nicotine levels, but that’s a good thing, offering suitable options for most vapers (including the nicotine-free ones) and the 24 mg/ml option that’s ideal for just-switching, heavier smokers. No complaints here at all!
Packaging and Design
The e-liquids from Juice by Numbers come in glass bottles, and although it doesn’t really matter (I’d vape juice that came in sachets if it tasted good enough), it does bestow a sense of quality on the juices. The labels add to this too, a simple but effective design with black text over a white background, with the Juice by Numbers logo (featuring an elongated “U” stretching down to cover the relevant spots in “juice” and “numbers”) and the specific juice’s number displayed boldly in the center. The bottling date and PG/VG blend are printed on the right of the label, with your chosen nicotine level and the standard selection of warnings to the left. The design is straightforward but pretty effective, giving of an air of class and style.
The bottle cap is a different story, though. Ours didn’t come with lids featuring in-built drippers, instead just with a basic white cap on each. For one, this means child-proofing is entirely absent from the Juice by Numbers bottles – the caps just screw on and off. More importantly (since you should never just rely on a child-proof cap to stop kids from getting at your e-liquid anyway), it makes the older bottles a pain in the ass to fill up a tank with, or especially to drip. You can risk pouring it, but ideally you’ll either need to fill up with a syringe or steal a dripper cap from an empty bottle to use with the juices. However, they’ve reportedly started to include dripper tops as standard, so new purchases shouldn’t suffer from this issue.
Juice by Numbers – Flavors
#1 – Rating 4/5
Accuracy: The first of the numbered juices is intended to be a mix of banana and waffle, a pleasant flavor combination that straddles the line between fruits and desserts. The banana is impossible to miss, taking center-stage in the juice and coming through immediately on the inhale. It’s very powerful, and although it’s well-captured there’s a definite alcohol taste, which makes the banana come across as a little synthetic. The waffle may be lingering somewhere in the back of the mix, but due to its inherently subtle taste and the strength of the banana, it isn’t really detectable when you vape this juice.
Overall: #1 definitely makes for an enjoyable vape. The alcohol overtones risk jeopardizing the flavor, but once you become accustomed to the taste it settles in starts to compliment the dominant banana flavor quite nicely. If you let it steep with the cap off overnight, the alcohol evaporates off a little, softening the chemical taste considerably. The biggest critique of this juice is that the synthetic quality takes away from the depth and authenticity of the real fruit, but if you like banana liquids it’s easy to see this being your favorite of the bunch. Don’t expect the soft sweetness of waffle or a complex balance of flavor, but if you want a powerful hit of banana you’ll probably love this juice. It’s not the best of the bunch for me, but despite its flaws #1 is definitely one to check out.
#2 – Rating 4/5
Accuracy: #2 claims to offer the “tantalizing taste of sweet honeydew, luscious lychees and mouth watering watermelon,” and it delivers on its promises quite well on the whole. The watermelon seems to dominate, particularly as a lingering taste after your draw, but the honeydew melon aroma supports it throughout. The lychee settles into the mix well, supporting the melon combination with a soft velvety sweetness, but not really standing out too much as a flavor in its own right. While you might not pick out the lychee on a blind taste-test, you’d need to have had your tastebuds surgically removed to miss the authentically-captured and powerful melon mixture.
Overall: This is avery enjoyable e-liquid, with the overriding melon being impressively realistic and making the juice downright mouth-watering to vape. Melon tends to translate very well to e-liquids thanks to its light sweetness, producing a summery vape that’s easy to find yourself enjoying all day long. The core flavor comes through thick and strong here, but it’s never overpowering or sickly-sweet. To Juice by Numbers’ credit, this is another liquid that could be the best of the bunch for vapers who love melon, and another one you should definitely pick up if you place an order.
#3 – Rating 3.5/5
Accuracy: This is a piña colada e-liquid, aiming for a blend of pineapple and creamy coconut. According to co-founder Eric Silverman, this juice took especially long to get right, and on tasting the e-liquid it seems that this extra time was well-spent. The pineapple and coconut both come through strongly, but blend together beautifully so neither dominates the flavor and the result tastes just like the drink. While the pineapple provides most of the character of the flavor (and hits you first), the creamy coconut serves as an enjoyable backdrop throughout your whole puff. In short, this is another home run in terms of accuracy from Juice by Numbers.
Overall: #3 is yet another well-mixed and very vape-able liquid from Juice by Numbers. The combination is a classic, and although they could have gone with something a little more interesting, it’s pulled off well enough to make up for its lack of originality. It isn’t a stand-out option from the selection, though, being relatively understated as a taste in comparison to some of the more powerful flavors from the mixer. That’s probably unduly critical, because there’s nothing to really dislike about this e-liquid and the balance of flavors is masterful, it just doesn’t quite reach the same heights as some of the others.
#4 – Rating 3.5/5
Accuracy: #4 is a strawberry smoothie e-liquid, aiming to produce a smooth, sweet vape that you’ll keep coming back to. The result is yet again accurate to the intention, with the strawberry hitting you immediately but coming across as quite soft in flavor, diluted by a slightly creamy sweetness. The subtlety of the strawberry prevents the result from being too powerful, and helps to make the fruit taste more authentic than the banana in #1 does. The delicate nature of the flavor also makes it taste more like a smoothie than concentrated strawberry essence in vape-able form.
Overall: This is another liquid from Juice by Numbers that it’s hard to see anybody actively disliking who doesn’t have some bizarre vendetta against the advertised flavor. It’s sweet enough on the inhale to make the e-liquid enjoyable, but the gentleness and smoothness means you can happily vape it all day long. That said, this is another fairly uninteresting flavor, and it could have possibly used another fruit (or something sweeter) in the mixture to make it something you’d rave about rather than just quietly enjoy. Again, this isn’t really a complaint, but this one could just do with a touch more character to really make it a stand-out option.
#5 – Rating 4.5/5
Accuracy: This is Juice by Numbers’ attempt at the classic combination of peaches and cream, and as usual they’ve got the intended flavor down perfectly. The cream forms the body of the aroma, with notes of peach playing on your tastebuds throughout your draw, perfectly blended so both hit you together as a unified whole. Both elements are captured very authentically, and although the peach is the most notable taste of the two, they’ve done an impressive job with the cream, which tastes rich, velvety and smooth. This juice is definitely accurate enough to identify in a blind taste-test; it’s so well-captured it evokes memories of ripe, juicy peaches draped in a thick blanket of cream with every puff. If you’ve tried Karma Cream from Mr. Good Vape (another peaches and cream juice), this is inherently similar but with the flavor balance shifted a little further towards the cream.
Overall: Although a few of the juices could take this spot depending on your preferences, #5 is the best of the bunch for me. It’s still open to criticism on the grounds that peaches and cream isn’t exactly inventive, but the execution is so good that it really doesn’t matter at all. This is the sort of e-liquid I find myself draining rapidly despite all my good intentions of testing each juice in roughly equal measure. It’s sweet in much the same way as all of Juice by Numbers’ offerings, but the beautiful creamy backdrop adds an elegance to the fruit that makes you just want to lounge around letting thick, white plumes of vapor gently rise to the ceiling. It’s just plain awesome. I’d classify it as a “dessert” vape to enjoy after dinner on a quiet evening based on the flavor, but the execution firmly pulls it into all-day vape territory. If you’re placing an order, definitely get yourself a bottle of this.