FIVE PAWNS CASTLE LONG RESERVE MMXXVI 50ML SHORTFILL

Castle Long Reserve MMXXVI

Castle Long is the blend Five Pawns built their name on, and the Reserve is what happens when they leave it in a barrel. Once a year they take the standard recipe, steep it for three weeks in treated oak, and bottle the result as a dated limited edition. MMXXVI is the 2026 release.

The profile underneath is unchanged: Kentucky bourbon, toasted coconut and roasted almonds over two vanillas — Madagascar bean and French — with caramelised brown sugar rounding it off. What the barrel adds is a woody, faintly smoky depth and a smoother finish than the standard Castle Long has. It’s a sipping flavour rather than an all day one, and it’s meant to be.

If you’d like to add nicotine to your e-liquid, we recommend the following:

For MOD & POD devices:

To make 60ml at 3mg nicotine:

• Add 1 x 10ml 18mg VG Nicotine Shot
• This will make 60ml of e-liquid with a 3mg nicotine strength
• Final VG/PG ratio: 58VG / 42PG

Specification

What’s in the box

• 1 x  Five Pawns Castle Long Reserve MMXXVI 60ml glass bottle containing 50ml of 0mg
• Dropper/pipette cap

It’s 50/50 — which means it isn’t just for sub-ohm

This is the part most shortfill listings get wrong, including on this product. Almost every shortfill you’ll find is 70/30 or 80/20 VG, made for sub ohm tanks, and far too thick for a pod kit. Five Pawns run Castle Long Reserve at 50/50 PG/VG.

Practically, that means it works in a refillable MTL pod kit as well as it does in a sub ohm kit. If you’ve got a pod device and you’ve been told shortfills aren’t for you, this one is. You’ll get less vapour than a high VG liquid would give you, and considerably more flavour definition — which on a blend this layered is the point.

It also means a stronger throat hit than a high VG shortfill, which is worth knowing if you’re sensitive to that.

Adding nicotine

The bottle holds 60ml and comes filled to 50ml, leaving exactly one 10ml nic shot of headroom.

• One 10ml 18mg shot → 60ml at 3mg

Add the shot, cap it, and shake for a good minute. Give it a day or two to settle before you judge it — a barrel-aged blend this layered doesn’t show everything immediately after mixing.

One nic shot is the limit without diluting the flavour noticeably. If you want a higher strength than 3mg, you’re better off with a 10ml nic salt than stretching this.

Previous editions

Castle Long Reserve is released once a year and dated in Roman numerals. MMXXIV was the 2024 edition, released for the brand’s tenth anniversary; MMXXV followed in 2025 and sold through. MMXXVI is the current release. Five Pawns also run Chocolate and Custard variants of the Reserve, which take the same barrel aged base in different directions.

Each year’s batch is finite. When it’s gone it isn’t remade.

Why this costs what it costs

Vaping Products Duty came into force on 1 October 2026. It’s charged at £2.20 per 10ml of liquid on everything sold for vaping — and, importantly for a product like this, it applies whether or not the liquid contains nicotine. A 0mg shortfill is not exempt.

On a 50ml bottle that’s £11.00 of duty, plus VAT on the duty, so £13.20 added to what the bottle cost before. Large-format nicotine-free liquid is the category the duty hits hardest, because it’s taxed on volume and shortfills carry a lot of volume. A nic shot is taxed too, at £2.64 for 10ml.

We’re not marking this up — the increase is duty and VAT passed through. Our full guide to the Vaping Products Duty explains how it works across every format, and what it means if you’re deciding between shortfills, 10ml bottles and prefilled pods now.

Buying from Totally Vapour

Orders placed before our daily cut off go out the same working day. Age verification is carried out at checkout in line with UK law — you must be 18 or over to buy.

Please note: this product contains no nicotine as supplied. If you add a nicotine shot, the finished liquid will contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance. Not for use by non-smokers, under 18s, or people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Keep out of reach of children and pets.