F E AT U R E
invent stuff, the eGo for example."
Ludo | Janty: “ Our RY4 for example is
named after him. I made RY4 in the lab
of Dekang on a Sunday afternoon with
the chemist and called it Ruyan nr4,
then I changed it to RY4. …Then it was
copied, just like our eGo."
Blake | GuideToVaping: "I’m shocked! I
had no clue you were the first to make
‘RY4′… nor did I know where RY4 the
name came from."
Ludo | Janty: "Ah, well now you know.
Ha! Ruyan nr4 because it took us 5
samples to get to the fourth one, which
was the one that was the exact right
formula. I knew people would love that
taste. I was a heavy smoker myself you
know, 2 packs a day. No more since
2006…"
Whether that’s the full back story or not,
it’s suffice to say that RY4 has endured
and is still a top flavor out of thousands
of options now available. Much like
a beer style like IPA, RY4 has many
different variants and some companies
even market flavors like RY5 or RY4 2.0
One of the problems with the bulk of the
RY4 e-liquids on the market today is that
most companies use the same 4 or 5
flavor houses to get their tobacco flavor
base concentrates. And, in my opinion,
52 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE USA
and the market’s opinion, those tobacco
bases are awful. Most are quite harsh,
have either a pipe or cigar tobacco
flavor element or worse, a cigarette like
flavor which as we all know - is putrid at
best. This has caused many people to
move away from tobacco flavors … but
we hope to change that.
Whether that’s the full back story or not,
it’s suffice to say that RY4 has endured
and is still a top flavor out of thousands
of options now available. Much like
a beer style like IPA, RY4 has many
different variants and some companies
even market flavors like RY5 or RY4 2.0
One of the problems with the bulk of the
RY4 e-liquids on the market today is that
most companies use the same 4 or 5
flavor houses to get their tobacco flavor
base concentrates. And, in my opinion,
and the market’s opinion, those tobacco
bases are awful. Most are quite harsh,
have either a pipe or cigar tobacco flavor
element or worse, a cigarette like flavor
which as we all know - is putrid at best.
This has caused many people to move
away from tobacco flavors… but we
hope to change that.
When I started Cafe Racer E-Liquid,
doing a proper RY4 flavor to go with my
love of craft beers was a top priority.
Given that most of the commonly
used tobacco flavors available were
unacceptable, I made a pilgrimage to
tobacco country (Carolinas, Virginia, etc)
in search of a new source. After weeks
of meetings and testing, I was able to
find an amazing tobacco flavor that
was a compound of several ingredients
creating a rich, smooth almost buttery
tobacco that was a perfect base to build
a next generation RY4 that I would love
to vape.
Lucky 13 took over 6 months to create.
We played around with many different
versions - sticking with the base of
Vanilla, Caramel and Tobacco sounds
simple but when you have hundreds
of vanillas and dozens of caramels
to choose from, this process takes a
while. Additionally, we felt that we could
improve the RY4 experience by adding
some new flavors. The addition of
toasted almonds was a big breakthrough
- giving Lucky 13 some backbone.
Additionally we added several other key
ingredients for a total of, you guessed it,
13, to get the final flavor profile.
Lucky 13 launched alongside our other
flavor Peach Guzzi at the World Vapor
Expo in Miami on May 29, 2014. Right
away the feedback was fantastic with
many people saying that it’s the best
tobacco flavor they have tried. More
recently, Lucky 13 took the prestigious
Best of Show Award at The Vape Summit
IV held in Houston for the tobacco
category.
We couldn’t be more stoked and proud
of this updated RY4 flavor creation and
are have just launched a flavor extension
of Lucky 13 that features a similar base
flavor profile but with a richer, darker
more buttery tobacco experience - which
we affectionally named Lucky Bastard.
Lucky Bastard launched in Indonesia
in early January 2015 and China in
February. USA launch was at VPX
Detroit in March 2016 with UK coming
soon.