Pod System Reviews

Gold Bar Reload

Gold Bar already make some superb disposables, but now they are even better with the rechargeable Gold Bar Reload

by Stephen Gitsham
May 20, 2024

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Vape Club have sent over a big bundle of Gold Bar Reload pods, with a couple of the devices for us to try out and report back on.

I’ve always seen the Gold Bar disposables in my local shop and wondered what they are like. As I always state, I am not a disposable user, so I’ve never tried them, but I have wondered. Well I don’t have to wonder any more as I have more flavours than you can shake a stick at, and they’re not in disposable battery form anymore so I can vape freely without worrying about the environmental impact.

The Gold Bar Reload is a rechargeable 500mAh pod kit that takes 2ml pre-filled pods. They are simple devices so all you need to do is pop a pod in and vape away to your heart’s content. The pods have 1.2ohm coils in them for a MTL draw, and the draw is reasonably tight to facilitate this. You can buy a pack with the device and a single pod for £5.99 so it’s light on the wallet. The pods are also £5.99 for 2 so there’s value there too. Vape Club have twelve flavours available and sent them all over for me to try out. I’ve been having a good blast of them and some of the flavours are really good, with others I’m not so keen on but, as usual, that’s just my own personal taste.

One thing to note that’s not so great is the fact that there’s no way to tell how much liquid is left in a pod due to the pods being all enclosed. With the device being rechargeable, the battery won’t run out before the liquid, as it does in a lot of disposables. That leaves you with the odd burnt hit at the end of a pod to let you know that your pod’s done, and that’s never a pleasant experience. Saying that, the ease of use will allow you to just fire in a new pod and continue on tooting away to allow you to banish the horror.

The Flavours

Now, onto the flavours themselves. All of them have a degree of cooling and sweetener as most good disposables do:

24k Mango

“Captures the ripe, tropical taste of mango”

It is a tropical mango, I’ll give it that. It’s very sweet with a touch of the floral aspect that you do tend to get in some mango vapes. The floral aspect doesn’t go overboard and in the end it’s a nice, sweet mango flavour. It’s actually better than a lot of mangoes I’ve tried. A nice surprise for my first taste of Gold Bars.

Cherry Fizz

“Recreates the fizzy notes of sweet cherry soda”

I was looking forward to this after the mango as I’ve taken a liking to cherry flavours lately. It’s sweet, it’s cold, and the cherry flavour is actually quite deep in this juice. You do get a tiny touch of the dreaded marzipan on bigger inhales, but if you keep it nice and light, then that aspect doesn’t push its way through. The sweetener does well to elevate the soda part of the juice too.

Banana Ice

“Cools ripe and creamy banana on exhale with ice”

I despise banana flavours. They’re just not acceptable and that’s all there is to it. I have to taste them for reviews though, so I did have a good enough puff on this one. This one is a creamy banana flavour with a sweetness that enhances it while not bringing us into the area of foam banana sweets. The ice works well here to bump it up a little as well.

Lemon Ice

“Provides juicy notes of zesty lemon, followed by frosty ice”

It’s a sweet zesty lemon, as the description states. The sweetness brings it on a bit more on the aftertaste, and there’s a very slight bitterness there to remind you it’s a lemon flavour. The ice makes this a great lemon flavour and really helps to boost the citrus.

Blueberry Ice

“Provides bold blueberry notes on inhale, followed by cool ice on exhale”

As always, there’s a hint of dryness to the blueberry here, especially on bigger draws, but in the main it’s a sweet blueberry with a very pleasant taste to it. The ice gives it a cold throat hit. A simple flavour, but a good one.

Spearmint

“Delivers sweet, floral notes of cool spearmint”

This is minty, as it should be. There’s a wee touch of cream in it, I think, and a nice mellow spearmint. It reminds me of the spearmint chew sweeties I used to buy when I was a nipper in the 80s so it left me quite nostalgic for a 10p mix.

Raspberry Watermelon

“Fuses sweet watermelon and sour raspberry flavours”

I get sweet raspberry that quickly turns into a strong watermelon flavour. The two flavours complement each other well on this one and leave you with a lingering taste as the raspberry seems to bring on the watermelon more as you vape it. The sweetness is appropriate, and the ice is not invasive.

Hawaiian Sunrise

“Mixes watermelon with sweet peach and tangy pineapple”

It definitely leads with the pineapple here but that mixes in really nicely with the peach and then there’s a nice kick of watermelon at the end of it. The sweetener is obvious here and there’s a definite blast of coldness. Good one for the summer I’d reckon.

Blue Raspberry

“Delivers juicy, yet sharp notes of blue raspberry”

The description nails it here. It’s fruity, and you get an actual blue raspberry flavour without the slight bubblegum taste that a lot of blue rasps tend to have. It’s super-duper sweet, but that works here, and I think this is possibly the surprise package for me out of all the flavours.

Watermelon Ice

“Puts a juicy-tasting watermelon flavour on ice”

For an ice vape it’s not overly cold. You do get a nice, sweet melon, and it is a watery watermelon as promised, giving a freshness to add to the slight cool. Nice.

Lemon Lime

“Balances tangy lemon with zingy lime in each puff”

It is ‘tangy’, and it is ‘zingy’. The sweet lemon from before melds nicely with the tang of the lime to give a lovely mix of the two. I get a hint of sherbet in there as well to add to the ‘zing’. This one’s really well done, I like it a lot.

Summer Berries

“Features sweet, ripe notes of a berry medley”

Very sweet berries, like a bowl full of sugar coated berries. I can’t discern any particular berries, but it does have that ‘berry’ aftertaste that I do love so much. Perhaps a bit too sweet for me, but a nice flavour overall.

Final Thoughts

The Gold Bar Reload is a good, cheap alternative to pod systems and mimics the disposable version. The flavours are very strong, with the added sweetener and ice that disposable users will be so familiar with. Are they a bit too much for me? Perhaps but then they’re not aimed at me. I preferred to keep my draws light and soft to still get the flavours while not overstimulating my taste buds.

For those who enjoy the disposable type vapes though, these are pretty much spot on. My missus loves them but complains that she gets a wee burnt hit at the end of each pod so I would have preferred that you can see the juice level somewhere. Other than that, I don’t see anything wrong with companies trying to adapt to the upcoming disposable ban. If it keeps people vaping who would otherwise return to the smokes, then it has to be a good thing.

Thanks to Vape Club for sending the Gold Bar Reload for review.

Pros

Cheap alternative to disposables
Good flavours
Familiar for those who use them

Cons

No way to see juice level in pods

Stephen Gitsham

Reviewer at POTV

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I was a very militant smoker for many years…why would I stop doing the only thing I had left that I liked doing? Then I fell into vaping in 2017. My wife bought a cheap kit off from Amazon that stopped working and I took it to a local vape shop to see what they could do with it. An hour later and full of new knowledge about watts, ohms, and juice strength, I headed home with a new nautilus mini tank for her and raved to her about the helpful guy in the shop. I must have bored her with all my new found information. I tried her vape that night, and a week later bought my own kit. Then I found POTV and the amazingly helpful and generous people on it. A month later I was making my own (disgusting) vape juice, and a month after that I was winding coils for my new RDA. Six years on and I'm much better at making juice, and I now have no money but lots of shiny mods and tanks