Moonshiners e liquid | Premium or Essentiel, which one

Thirty-four recipes, two ranges, and names that sound more like a period film than a flavour list. The Moonshiners e liquid catalogue can be confusing when all you want is a good dessert, or a tobacco-style classic that is not too sweet. Yet the maker has split its offer neatly, and once that split is clear, you can choose without trying every bottle.

Moonshiners e liquid, two ranges for two uses

Moonshiners is a French brand born in 2020, whose liquids are made by the Lips laboratory near Nantes. It comes in two ranges. Premium gathers 13 recipes, nearly all of them desserts, some built on a tobacco-style base. Essentiel lines up 21, spread across four families, classics, fruit, cooling fruit and menthol.

The starting rule is therefore simple. For a dessert, open the Premium range, and for a classic, a fruit recipe or a mint, go to Essentiel. The two overlap on one point, the dessert-leaning classics, which appear on both sides.

The name and the look draw on Prohibition-era America. It is brand scenery, nothing more, and none of the 34 recipes the maker describes lists an alcohol note. Only the flavours matter here.

The Premium range, the dessert shelf of Moonshiners

The 13 Premium recipes are easier to read when grouped by their leading note. The grid gives the notes the maker lists for each, and the family we place them in.

Recipe	Stated notes	Family
Old Nuts	nougat, hazelnut, creamy caramel	caramel and nuts
Toffee Sins	amber caramel, brown sugar	caramel
Avant Première	popcorn, caramel, macadamia	caramel and nuts
Poker Face	toasted almonds, coconut, brown sugar, vanilla	nuts
Vanilla Goose	vanilla, custard	cream and vanilla
Time Out	sponge cake, vanilla, golden cereal, praline mocha	bakery
Cookie Song	chocolate chip cookie, brownie, white strawberry	bakery
Gold Sucker	blond tobacco blend, cereal, vanilla, caramel	dessert classic
Red Light District	caramel, nuts, tobacco blend	dessert classic
Boba’s Vision	a dessert blend with a gently spiced edge	dessert classic
Gorilla Kong	banana, tobacco blend, spices	dessert classic
Big Apple	apple, vanilla, almond	dessert fruit
Daisy Berry	blackcurrant, blackberry, pomegranate	fruit

Mapped onto The dessert balance, the tool on our home page, several recipes land on a named profile. Old Nuts and Avant Première fall under Praline, where caramel coats the nuts, Toffee Sins under Amber caramel and Vanilla Goose under Vanilla cream. Poker Face, where the toasted almonds set the tone according to the maker, sits close to Roasted nuts.

Toffee Sins also shows a trap covered in our guide to caramel vape juice and its shades of cooking. Its name points to toffee, a milky shade, while its description talks about an amber caramel drawn out by brown sugar.

The Essentiel range, from dry classics to cooling fruit

Essentiel is aimed at vapers who want direct profiles. Its four families do not carry the same weight, and the classics are where the most work has gone.

There are seven classics, eight cooling fruit recipes, three fruit recipes without cooling and three menthols. For a dessert lover, two classics deserve attention. Light Blend sets a soft blond tobacco off with a touch of vanilla and toasted hazelnut, and Old Nuts Blend carries Old Nuts over into the world of classics.

At the other end, Medium Blend goes for a dry, unsweetened blond with no dessert note, and U.S. Blend for a dry, straightforward base. Strong Blend, made from macerated leaf, Ruff Skin, a bold and smoky latakia, and Wild Ruby, a Kentucky blend paired with a morello cherry, complete the family.

The eight cooling fruit recipes pair a fruit with an icy finish, from strawberry and dragon fruit to peach, apricot or cherry. They mainly interest dessert vapers looking for a contrasting recipe.

Choosing a Moonshiners e liquid without trying it all

The easiest way is to start from what you already vape. Each row suggests a first recipe and a second one to carry on exploring, based on the notes the maker lists.

You like	Start with	Then try
straight caramel	Toffee Sins	Old Nuts
praline and nuts	Old Nuts	Poker Face
vanilla and creams	Vanilla Goose	Time Out
chocolate bakery	Cookie Song	Time Out
a classic with a sweet touch	Gold Sucker	Light Blend
a dry classic	Medium Blend	U.S. Blend
a bold classic	Ruff Skin	Strong Blend
fruit with a cool finish	Strawberry and Dragon Fruit	Cherry and Dark Fruits

The recipes the maker flags as best sellers, Old Nuts, Gold Sucker, Avant Première and Poker Face, make a good way in. Between them they cover caramel, praline, nuts and the dessert classic, which is most of what a Moonshiners e liquid from the Premium range has to offer.

Formats, kit and upkeep by range

The two ranges do not come in the same formats, which steers your choice of kit before your choice of recipe.

The maker lists Premium in 10ml at 3, 6 or 12mg/ml, as an Easy2Shake at 3 or 6mg/ml and in nicotine salts at 10 or 20mg/ml. Essentiel comes in a large bottle the maker calls Upto70ml, and in nicotine salts at the same strengths. Salts suit pods, 10ml bottles suit tight-draw tanks, and large bottles suit airier vaping.

In the UK, nicotine liquid can only be sold in bottles of up to 10ml at no more than 20mg/ml, and tanks are capped at 2ml. Every nicotine strength above sits within that ceiling, but it is worth checking the bottle size of any Moonshiners liquid bought from a UK shop.

On upkeep, the Premium recipes built on caramel and brown sugar load the wick the most. A moderate setting and a coil change as soon as the flavour dulls or turns burnt keep them readable. The dry classics of Essentiel, being less sweet, are generally easier on coils.

FAQ

Five practical questions about the brand, to round off the range breakdown.

Is Moonshiners a French brand?

Yes. Its liquids are made by Lips, a laboratory founded in 2013 and based in Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, near Nantes, which holds an AFNOR French-origin label and the ISO 9001 quality standard. Each bottle carries a batch number and a QR code linking to its production details.

What is the difference between Old Nuts and Old Nuts Blend?

Old Nuts, in the Premium range, pairs nougat, hazelnut and creamy caramel. Old Nuts Blend, filed among the Essentiel classics, keeps a nougat base and a caramelised vanilla, and adds a roasted tobacco-style note.

What are the brand’s newest recipes?

The maker flags two new recipes in the Premium range, Boba’s Vision and Gorilla Kong. Both rest on a spiced dessert blend, and the second adds ripe banana, with a depth the maker compares to the first.

Which Moonshiners fruit recipes have no cooling?

The Essentiel range has three, watermelon with white strawberry, a trio of loganberry, blue raspberry and blueberry, and pineapple with strawberry. In the Premium range, Daisy Berry and Big Apple also lean on fruit, the latter with vanilla and almond that bring it close to a dessert.

Does Moonshiners make mint recipes?

Yes, three in the Essentiel range. Deep Mint goes for intense coolness, French Mint for a moderate menthol, and Menthe Polaire for a clean, crisp mint described as controlled rather than harsh.

Moonshiners e liquid, the right reflex for choosing

The Moonshiners e liquid catalogue boils down to one rule. Premium for desserts, from the amber caramel of Toffee Sins to the praline of Old Nuts, and Essentiel for classics, fruit and mint. The choice grid and the maker’s best sellers give you a first recipe without having to try everything, and the format decides the kit.

Behind the Prohibition scenery, each Moonshiners e liquid is chosen like any other dessert e-liquid, by reading its notes.

From the same counter

Editorial content for adult readers only. Vaping products usually contain nicotine, which is addictive, and they are not for sale to under-18s in the UK. La Goutte d’Ambre describes flavours and kit and makes no buying recommendation.