Zeus Juice E-Liquid

The brand: Birmingham, 2011

Zeus Juice began in 2011 when Paul Curtis started blending e-liquid in his kitchen in Birmingham. It is a genuine origin story of the UK independent vape scene: small-batch production, word-of-mouth growth, and a founder with a clear flavour philosophy. The company was formally registered in 2014, and by 2018 had moved into a purpose-built facility with ISO class 7 cleanroom infrastructure, three white room mixing facilities, and five bottling lines.

The brand is family-run and remains Birmingham-based, with physical retail locations in Birmingham, Perth, Inverness and Glasgow. Current production capacity is over 420,000 bottles per week, a figure that reflects how far the operation has scaled from its kitchen-table origins without losing the character of the flavour range. The brand holds ISO 9001 certification, carries UKVIA membership, and is a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer.

The house style across the range is unmistakeable: berry-forward profiles, particularly blackcurrant, with menthol used as a finishing element rather than a dominant character. The Black and Black Reloaded defined that style, and it runs through the Dimpleberry, Vermilion, Dodoberry and Atlantis flavours that sit alongside them. The dessert tier (Midas, Death by Bunny) and the Bar Liq nic salt range extend the brand without abandoning the core identity.

Awards have come consistently: multiple Vapouround Award and World Vape Show wins covering Best Brand, Best Branding, Best Fruit Flavour, Best E-Liquids and Best Tobacco. These are peer and community votes rather than purely commercial metrics, and Zeus has sustained that recognition across more than a decade of production.

Zeus Juice ranges at VapeCity

Four lines stocked at VapeCity, covering shortfills for sub-ohm and MTL vaping, a premium celestial range, and bar-style nic salts.

Core 70/30 range flavour guide

The flagship Zeus Juice 70/30 100ml shortfill flavours at VapeCity. All 70/30, 0mg, £45.99 per 100ml bottle.

The Black and Black Reloaded: what makes them different

The Black is the more restrained of the two. The profile is a clean, juicy blackcurrant with a menthol note that sits in the background. It is not an assertive menthol: reviewers consistently describe it as "not too overwhelming", a cooling finish rather than a dominant flavour layer. That restraint is what makes it an effective all-day vape. The blackcurrant note is dark and a little jammy rather than the sharp, synthetic blackcurrant that cheaper e-liquids often produce.

Black Reloaded is the enhanced version. The base is the same blackcurrant foundation, but the range widens: blackberries sit alongside the blackcurrant, and an aniseed note is added that plays a similar role to the aniseed in Vampire Vape's Heisenberg, adding complexity underneath the primary fruit without announcing itself as aniseed specifically. The menthol is more present in Reloaded than in The Black. Zeus describes it as a "reloaded" take on the original, and that framing is accurate: same identity, more intensity.

Both are available in the 70/30 core range and in the 50/50 MTL range. In the 70/30 through a sub-ohm tank at 60-80W, both flavours are full and warm; in the 50/50 through an MTL device, they are cleaner and sharper. The same flavour DNA produces noticeably different experiences depending on the device, which is worth knowing before you build expectations from a review written about a different format.

If you like The Black: Dimpleberry for a more eucalyptus-led menthol; Vermilion for a cherry-rather-than-blackcurrant menthol blend. If you like Black Reloaded but want something different: Dodoberry for more berry complexity without the aniseed; Dragon's Claw for aniseed with a citrus base instead.

Bar Liq: the bar juice alternative for pod vapers

Bar Liq is the Zeus answer to disposable bars, and it is a more direct comparison than most brands offer. The range was developed specifically around the flavour profiles that drove disposable bar popularity: lemon sherbet, sour razz blends, iced cola, tropical fruits, and a Mojito. These are not approximations of bar flavours; they are close recreations, and Zeus uses a double-concentrate recipe to keep the flavour bold across the entire bottle rather than fading in the second half.

The format is 10ml 50/50 nic salt in 5mg, 10mg and 20mg. The 50/50 ratio works in any MTL pod device; the nic salt chemistry gives a smooth throat at 20mg, which is the equivalent experience to most disposable bars. Nineteen flavours cover the key categories: lemonades and sherbets (Lemon Sherbet, Pink Lemonade, Berry Lemonade), sour and fizzy (Blueberry Sour Razz, Fizzy Cherry, Rhubarb Sour Cherry), iced fruits (Cola Ice, Grape Ice, Peach Ice), sweet fruits (Strawberry Burst, Watermelon Bubblegum) and cocktail options (Mojito, Minty Menthol).

The economics of switching from disposables to Bar Liq are clear. A refillable pod device costs the equivalent of two or three disposable bars and then runs indefinitely on liquid alone. Bar Liq at its unit price delivers substantially more millilitres per pound than a disposable, and produces far less plastic waste. The switch preserves the flavour experience while changing the format.

Bar Liq is not the same flavour range as the Zeus core shortfills. If you are a fan of The Black or Black Reloaded, they are not in the Bar Liq catalogue; Bar Liq is designed for switchers from disposables, not for the existing Zeus sub-ohm customer.

Choosing the right Zeus Juice format for your device

The Zeus range covers three distinct device types, and picking the wrong format for your setup produces poor results regardless of how good the flavour is.

Sub-ohm, direct-to-lung vaping: the 70/30 core range and the Zodiacs. Coils below 0.5 ohm at 40-80W, a tank with wide airflow, dense vapour. The high VG content is what produces the cloud; the higher temperature brings out the full flavour range. This is the format The Black and Black Reloaded were designed for.

Mouth-to-lung tanks and refillable pod devices (not bar-style pods): the 50/50 shortfills. Five flavours (Adonis, Selene, Black Reloaded, Dimpleberry, Vermilion) in a ratio that wicks easily through MTL coils. This format gives a tighter, more cigarette-like draw and delivers flavour in a cleaner, more focused way than sub-ohm. Suited to coils from 0.6 ohm upward at 15-30W.

Low-power pod kits and bar-style devices: Bar Liq nic salts. The 50/50 thin base wicks through the tight coils in compact pod devices, and the nic salt chemistry at 20mg is smooth and satisfying at low wattage. This is the switcher format: matched to what disposable bar users are familiar with.

Adding nic shots to shortfills: both the 70/30 and 50/50 shortfills arrive at 100ml in a 120ml bottle. Add two 10ml nic shots (18mg or 20mg) to reach approximately 3mg strength across the 100ml fill. Shake well and allow five to ten minutes before vaping. Neither format requires steeping time, though a short rest sharpens the flavour on complex profiles like Black Reloaded.