Big Bold Fruity 100ml Shortfill

A short fill is a bottle of nicotine-free e-liquid that is deliberately not filled to the top, leaving space for you to add nicotine in the form of nic shots. The format exists because UK and EU rules cap nicotine-containing e-liquid bottles at 10ml, so anything larger has to be sold at 0mg. The short fill works around that: you buy a large 0mg bottle and a small high-strength nic shot, then mix the two.

Big Bold Fruity is sold as 100ml of liquid in a 120ml bottle. The 20ml gap is sized for two 10ml nic shots. Once you add them, the bottle fills to 120ml and the nicotine spreads evenly through the whole batch. Buying flavour and nicotine separately like this works out cheaper per millilitre than buying the equivalent in 10ml nic-salt bottles, which is the main reason high-volume vapers prefer short fills.

The trade-off is a small amount of effort and a short wait. You add the shots, cap the bottle, shake it well, and ideally leave it a little while for the nicotine to integrate. None of it is difficult, and the step-by-step below walks through it. If you would rather not mix at all, a ready-made 10ml nic salt is the simpler route, but you give up the cost saving and the larger bottle.

The maths is straightforward once you have done it once. The bottle holds 100ml of 0mg liquid with room for 20ml of nic shots. Nic shots are almost always 10ml at 18mg or 20mg in a 50/50 base. Adding one 18mg shot to the 100ml gives you 110ml at roughly 1.5mg; adding two gives you 120ml at roughly 3mg. If you use 20mg shots, two of them land you at roughly 3.3mg.

Most sub-ohm DTL vapers run a low strength, 3mg or sometimes 6mg, because the high power and big draws of sub-ohm gear deliver plenty of nicotine per puff. Two 18mg shots making 3mg is the typical choice for this kind of juice. If you want closer to 6mg you would need higher-strength shots or fewer of them in a smaller mix, but 3mg is the natural fit for a 100ml short fill.

Adding the shots slightly dilutes the 70/30 ratio toward more PG, because nic shots are usually 50/50. With two 10ml shots in 100ml the shift is small and the liquid stays firmly high-VG, so it still performs as a sub-ohm juice. The how-to steps below cover the practical side: pour, cap, shake and steep.

Big Bold Fruity is a high-VG, 70/30 liquid, and that matters when choosing what to vape it in. High-VG juice is thicker, so it needs a coil with enough wicking ports and airflow to keep up: a sub-ohm tank or a direct-to-lung pod-mod running a low-resistance mesh coil, typically below 0.5 ohm. In that kind of setup it produces the big clouds and full flavour the range is built for.

It is not the right liquid for a small mouth-to-lung pod kit. A tight 1.0 ohm-plus MTL coil, the sort in a refillable pod device, struggles to wick a 70/30 liquid properly and can give muted flavour or dry hits. If your device is a discreet pocket pod made for nic salts, a 50/50 e-liquid is the better match, and a high-VG short fill like this one will underperform.

For the best results, pair it with a dedicated sub-ohm tank on a box mod or a powerful DTL pod-mod. If you are choosing gear to go with it, our sub-ohm tanks and replacement coils sections cover suitable hardware. Run it at the wattage your coil recommends, and keep the tank topped up so the coil never runs dry.

The Fruity range is five blends, each 0mg before you add nicotine, and each leaning bold and forward rather than soft. Below is what to expect from each so you can pick by taste. Because they are sold per flavour, mixing a couple into your rotation is easy.

Blackcurrant is the classic dark-berry option: rich, slightly tart and jammy, the kind of deep fruit note that holds up well in big sub-ohm clouds. Honey Melon pairs ripe melon with a smooth honeyed sweetness, a softer, rounder flavour that suits all-day vaping. Lemon Lime is the sharp one, a zesty citrus pairing with a clean, fresh bite that cuts through on the exhale.

Mango Passion brings together ripe mango and tangy passion fruit for a tropical blend that balances sweet and sharp, one of the more complex flavours in the range. Sweet Pineapple is exactly what it says: juicy, sun-ripe pineapple with the sweetness pushed forward, a straightforward tropical hit for anyone who likes a single bold fruit rather than a blend.

High-VG fruit short fills are forgiving, but a few niggles crop up, and nearly all of them come back to the same two causes: the wrong gear for a thick 70/30 liquid, or a tired coil. None point to a fault with the juice. The quick fixes below sort out the ones we hear about most.

Big Bold Fruity does what it says on the bottle: five forward, punchy fruit blends in a big 100ml short fill, made for sub-ohm clouds and a low running cost. Berry, melon, citrus and tropical between them cover most fruit tastes, and the high-VG mix carries them well on a DTL setup. As a cheaper-per-millilitre way to keep a tank fed, it makes sense.

The catches are the usual short-fill ones: it arrives at 0mg so there is a small mixing step, it is not for a tight MTL pod, and the bold profiles can read as sweet to anyone who likes subtle juice. Match it to sub-ohm gear and a sweet tooth and it delivers; weigh the pros and cons below.