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IN SHORT:
FLAVOR 39, SIMIAM SLAM, CHIMERA'S CALL BY ALIEN VISIONS
FLAVOR 39, SIMIAM SLAM, CHIMERA'S CALL BY ALIEN VISIONS

FLAVOR 39, SIMIAM SLAM, CHIMERA'S CALL BY ALIEN VISIONS

 

HEROIC-FANTASY SCENARIO

Take an automobile manufacturer. For example, Porsche.

This manufacturer decides, overnight and without warning, to stop production of its flagship model, the 911 which, for decades, has delighted fans of dream cars. Impossible, you will tell me!

Indeed, in layman terms, we would call it “shooting yourself in the foot” or even “sawing the branch on which you are sitting” and all these expressions, each more flowery than the other which mean that the choice, commercially speaking, remains at least the most questionable and at worst a choice that could eventually lead to a serious downfall of the company, or even sign its death warrant.

Chanel © stopping his 5 number? Impossible.

LU © stopping small butters? Impossible.

Panzani © stopping the pasta? Impossible. 

And yet ...

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CRIME OF LÉSE-MAJESTÉ

Alien Visions is one of the world's most successful e-liquids manufacturing and selling companies. Existing since 2009, that is to say 7 years, an eternity in the Vaposphere, the brand has seduced a large number of vapers all around the globe who fight tooth and nail to provide their favorite liquids, which they almost all made an allday. And the secret of this relentless success lies in two references, which have become global bestsellers: Boba's Bounty and Gorilla Juice.

These two liquids, excellent after all for gourmet tobacco fans, have almost become legends in the land of scented clouds. Born at the same time as the development of a material finally capable of draining 100% VG, they made the heyday of our first experiments around Genesis puzzles and lasted when the all-metal fashion took hold. dried up. They imposed themselves as complex liquids, impossible to decipher, changing according to the time of day. In short, they have become two absolute references and, by the way, two of the best-selling e-liquids in the world.

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It was then believed that, even in the event of a meteor shock, a nuclear disaster, a force 10 earthquake on the Richter scale, a world stock market crash or even Donald Trump's victory, this existence could not be put off. in question as the evidence of the persistence of the two legends seemed acquired.

Also, it is with great amazement that aficionados and others learned in February 2016, through a laconic statement from the brand on its site that it was stopping production of Boba's Bounty, Gorilla juice and Gryphon's Breath. Reason given: the supplier of some of the magic ingredients common to these three products had closed its doors and that, my good lady, one could not continue to produce the same juice without the elements necessary for its recipe. 

So far, nothing really incomprehensible. Indeed, how to consider making a boeuf bourguignon with chicken and couscous with rice? It holds, as the other would say.

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However, mass was said: no more Boba will find. Nor of Gorilla. Well, for the Gryphon, we will do without, this liquid yet honest having never reached the sales figures of its two elders.

The King therefore died, at the beginning of the year, of heart failure since it appears that the very heart of the recipe was no longer present on the shelves. 

RUMORS AND COMPLOTIST HYPOTHESES AT COURT

And if ?

If Alien Visions, eager to adapt to a market requiring more and more health and safety, had decided to sacrifice its queen to stay in the chessboard of the vaping trade?

With the two legendary liquids born at a time that future historians will equate to the archaic Paleolithic of vaping, one could easily imagine that they were potentially packed with elements that science has determined to be harmful to inhale. Like diacetyl or other fun chemical combinations. After all, we know for a fact that an e-liquid like Grumpy Hooch, for example, contains twice as much diacetyl as the high tolerance for France. Or the Goose Juice which would contain four times more ...

From there to think that Boba's and Gorilla would also contain such harmful compounds, there is only one easy step to take because we know well that the liquids born at a certain time necessarily contain more components subject to caution than more current juices, scientific studies on the subject having been legion and very educational. One could therefore imagine that the brand, aware of this state of affairs, preferred to rework their flagship recipes before “the zeitgeist” condemns them to outright elimination. It would be fair and very smart. 

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But this is purely imaginary and, in the absence of any demonstration to the contrary, we can be satisfied with the excuse given by Alien Visions.

But, in this case, imagining that the main supplier of these mysterious ingredients has closed its doors, can we believe that a company with a storefront and abundant liquidity could not have bought the “secret of its supplier” or found new suppliers of the same flavor? In all good faith for once, if I told you that I no longer eat Big Macs because the McDonald's in my neighborhood has closed, wouldn't you advise me to go a little further and find another McDonald's?

Ah, imagination, when you hold us ... 

But, beyond the far-fetched hypotheses that I echo, there remains an inescapable truth: Boba's is no longer, and neither is Gorilla. 

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REPLACEMENTS ARE REQUESTED AT THE THRONE ROOM!

Alien Visions therefore preferred to revise its score and rebuild a Boba, a Gorilla and a Gryphon “from scratch” as our friends across the Atlantic say, that is to say by starting from scratch, by adapting the recipe to recreate the liquids. which had ensured him prosperity and reputation. However, since it is already complex to reproduce one miracle, it is assumed that it is even more complex to reproduce three.

The company has therefore communicated on the fact that the three replacements, responding respectively to the names of Flavor 39, Simian Slam and Chimera's Call, were in no way the final replacements but indeed “Polaroids” of their reconstruction work at one point. moment T and that she would continue these experiments so as, in the long term, to reproduce exactly the same tastes as the initial juices. This explains why none of these substitutes use the names of their respective models.

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What is offered to us today therefore consists of three e-liquids, extremely close in taste to their prestigious ancestors, proof that the brand is working in the right direction, but sold as having their own particularities. We will see below if the demonstration is made.

However, Alien Visions' communication about this big change is murky. Indeed, either we consider the newcomers as the replacements of the old ones and basta, we rename them Boba's Bounty V2 and the same for the other two and it's done. Either we insist on the fact that these liquids are different and, in this case, why claim that they are the missing links between the originals and their potential future successors? It is to fuel the confusion among consumers and especially to make the comparison possible between new and old. Which, nostalgia being what it is, can only be detrimental to the new portion of the range since, in principle distorted, the “it was better before” is still very much in the news.

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So consumers wonder, speculate, even moan and there lies the failure of Alien Visions' communication: to have made the birth of these three “new” juices almost illegitimate in the eyes of fans, to have impaired their chance to convince a new audience by their own qualities and having maintained an “urban legend” that “they will get there one day”, which seems impossible to achieve in practice. Indeed, a steak with pepper sauce will always taste like steak, possibly the same cooking, but cannot replace a steak with Roquefort sauce. When you change an important element of a recipe, you change the recipe, period. So, either we say that it is, for example, a healthier version of the initial product (which makes the company bigger), or a version 2 (which shows that the company knows how to evolve) but this “ medium term ”claimed by Alien Visions hardly convince on paper.

And when the theory does not stand up, can the practice seduce? 

MAJESTY, YOUR SIRE IS TOO GOOD!

FLAVOR 39

  • Sponsor having lent material for the review: Evaps

Thirty-ninth recipe aimed at getting closer to Boba's Bounty, Flavor 39 thus justifies its name. We will not be talking about conditioning or safety here. You just have to know that these are purely American juices, that the legislation at home is different from ours, we will not find our usual benchmarks or few and that no reliable protocol, apart from the tasting test, cannot restore European legal legitimacy to them.

In terms of taste, Flavor 39 is literally, and for good reason, a clone of Boba's Bounty with the same identical complexity making any attempt at peeling futile. It is therefore a gourmet tobacco, powerful in aromas and in 100% VG. We find a fairly sharp but realistic tobacco base embellished with a myriad of gourmet notes. Coffee, caramel, coconut, coke, shortbread, cinnamon and other spices coexist very well for a delicious result, strong in the mouth and very dense in terms of steam. The hit is powerful especially for the VG ratio. It's deliciously vapable and very “close”.

In terms of viscosity, the two products seem identical. Based on 100% VG, they still contain a good proportion of PG, the one that serves as the basis for the dissolution of the aromas. Thus, we obtain liquids which draw more towards the 30/70 than towards a true 100% as can be a Goose Juice for example, whose aromas themselves are “dissolved” in the VG.

The differences between the two potions appear more in the duration. Where Boba's could vary in taste within the same day and therefore arose as one of the rare polymorphic juices, Flavor remains very stable. The flavor you have at the start of the vape will be the same as the one you will have throughout your session. There won't be that surprise that fans love. 

There is also a difference in softness. The Boba's was soft, a bit nebulous and its relative lack of precision served its purpose of greedy tobacco in its homogeneity. The Flavor is more precise, the sharpness of the aromas is better. In return, it becomes a little more boring in the long run because the taste perception gives pride of place to very strong flavors and very marked notes. Less typical “allday”, it becomes here an e-liquid of privileged “moments”. 

The last noticeable difference, and positive this one, lies in the fact that the Flavor hardly deposits any residue on the coil while it was quite impossible to consider vaping three Boba tanks without a dry-burner. coil and change the capillary (if it is fibrous).

The comparison is still to the advantage of Boba's even if the Flavor 39 does not demerit. It is an excellent juice, very tasty, well defined. But there is this micro-difference that makes the original win, with greater smoothness and a sense of mystery that the Flavor does not have.

Flavor 39 is available in 3, 6, 12 and 18mg / ml of nicotine and in 10ml, 30ml and 100ml (for now). Note that there is a “bumped” version, ie with even more aromatic power. Anecdotal given the already significant aromatic power of the normal version, it may be suitable for those who like to vape very airy without losing flavor.

BOBA'S BOUNTY: 4.80/5 4.8 5 out of stars

FLAVOR 39: 4.55/5 4.6 5 out of stars 

SIMIAN SLAM 

  • Sponsor having lent material for the review: Evaps

From the start, the concordance between the Gorilla and the Simien is obvious, even in terms of the name. We then know for sure that the replacement for Gorilla's Juice is in place and that it is called the Simian Slam!

From the outset, we can safely say that there is exactly the same difference between the Simian Slam and the Flavor 39 that there was already between the Gorilla Juice and the Boba's Bounty. It jumps to taste buds! And that difference is a banana flavor, a twist, as the Yankees say. 

Always very powerful in aromas, the Simian therefore recovers 75% of the Flavor 39 recipe and adds a pronounced note of banana, not very ripe, which however goes very well with the flavors we know now. Immediately, the recipe takes a more exotic turn, less heavy and seduced by the precision of the aromas and this power which, decidedly, is the hallmark of Alien Visions. It's good, very distinctive and once again quite close to its model.

As long as we are in the comparisons, note that like the Flavor, the Simian is less sweet according to my memory than its predecessor, more brutal and the high note already existing in the Flavor is here extrapolated by the addition of a borderline banana green. Once again, the famous modest “veil” that the Gorilla posed between you and the juice is missing by this famous imprecision which played a notable score in his taste symphony. Here, it's more direct, more violent.

But it's still newsworthy and like, “lack of thrushes we are contented with blackbirds“, When the total Gorilla shortage hits the whole planet (which it already has), fans will find the SIamian Slam a reliable replacement. Perhaps a slightly more airy airflow will be appropriate to evacuate the excess of flavors and “smooth” the juice a little but it's still quite acceptable.

As for the Flavor, the Simian Slam is available in 3, 6, 12 and 18mg / ml, in the same packaging and a bumped version also exists.

Advantage quite nostalgic for the ancestor in the simian branch of the family, always for the sweetness and the taste polymorphy.

GORILLA JUICE: 4.65/5 4.7 5 out of stars

SIMIAN SLAM: 4.40/5 4.4 5 out of stars 

CHIMERA'S CALL

  • Sponsor having lent material for the review: Evaps

Regarding the Chimera's Call, the last offspring of the band, we should remember the Gryphon's Breath and, if I was able to test it very briefly on the occasion of its release, I did not keep one lasting memory. Thus, it cannot serve as a reference and the Chimera will therefore escape comparative analysis.

Very tobacco-oriented, undoubtedly much more than Flavor or Simian, Chimera presents itself as a juice with a strong character, much less greedy than its two companions. Blond tobacco is the master of this house, a flue cured tobacco, that is to say tobacco dried by hot air, which has retained a very herbal flavor close to the leaf but slightly smoky. Rather sweet although very present, this tobacco seems to be a Virginia, if we are to believe its sweet aspect. But it seems to me that this tobacco is blended with another which gives it a slightly darker and stronger aspect, perhaps a sauced Burley, with nuances of dry hazelnut. 

In the background, we believe we can guess curls of coffee or chocolate, but these arrangements are really included in the tobacco itself and should in no way constitute a delicacy. The whole is rather dry, good and goes very elegantly with an espresso.

Although very successful, the Chimera suffers from the comparison with the other two products because, as it stands, it is too close to the other productions of the brand such as the Flue Cured, precisely, or the Blend 4 and does not succeed in s' to extract enough anonymity by its assembly even if its subtlety is real. 

In short, a good but not revolutionary tobacco, as there are a few, and in the brand and in other brands. It should be noted that its relative neutrality and its very cologne-like appearance is destined to be vaped in allday without risk of weariness and possibly serve as a transition juice for a beginner who wants to access juices not yet quite complex but more typical than the liquids destined for them.

I think I remember having a similar opinion regarding the Gryphon's Breath. But in the absence of a pure element of comparison, I will therefore limit myself to this description.

CHIMERA'S CALL: 4.15/5 4.2 5 out of stars 

THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING !

Well, it's high time to conclude, I have a swimming pool and your dripper is empty!

We can kick, complain, rebel, moan like bears, that will not change the situation. The Boba's Bounty and Gorilla years are over, over, kaput! As a great fan of Boba's, I am with you but yet the verdict has been reached: the great elders are dead and buried and if their memory will last in the songs of the finds and the stories that will be told by the fireside, their such special flavors will no doubt be lost in the spiral of time. 

Today new juices have appeared and they are good. Point bar. We may find that they do not have the same aura as their predecessors and we will no doubt be right but, ultimately, they are there and there, we can buy them, vape them, they are alive, which makes a sacred difference with missing fluids. Moreover, the lucky few who have stored them will have a good time keeping them as long as possible (in the dark, dry place, without temperature variation) to bring them out from time to time as one could take out a bottle of Yquem 67, with care and tenderness, until time does its job and the divine nectar turns into an infamous residue. 

So, let's be happy to see that these new juices coming to us from Alien Visions are good and even very good if we don't compare them to anyone. They have a strong character, inherited directly from their ancestors, they also seem safer and will delight lovers of tobacco and gourmet tobacco.

Let it be so for now, hoping that maybe one day, Alien Visions will keep its promise and bring us a Boba's or a Gorilla that is larger than life. Let's be careful not to despair because we will continue to vape good. Come on, I'm getting a tank of Flavor 39 (what a silly name anyway!) In the meantime!

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(c) Copyright Le Vapelier SAS 2014 - Only full reproduction of this article is authorized - Any modification of any kind is totally prohibited and infringes the rights of this copyright.
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About the Author

59 years old, 32 years of cigarettes, 12 years of vaping and happier than ever! I live in Gironde, I have four children of whom I am gaga and I like roast chicken, Pessac-Léognan, good e-liquids and I am a vape geek who takes responsibility!