Esco Bars

Who Makes Esco Bars?

Esco Bars is made by contract manufacturers in Shenzhen, China for Pastel Cartel LLC of Pflugerville, Texas, which its site says was founded in early 2019 and is best known for the Esco Bars line.³⁴

In its August 25, 2023 lawsuit against the FDA, Pastel Cartel said it markets more than 100 products, including Esco Bar disposables and bottled e-liquids, with the disposables imported from Shenzhen and the e-liquids bottled by a Texas contractor.⁴ The FDA names one maker directly: its May 25, 2023 release says Shenzhen Innokin Technology Co. Ltd. makes Esco Bars products.⁹

Reuters reported on February 25, 2025, citing USPTO data, that American Vape Company, LLC, which trades as Ludicrous Distro, owns the Esco Bars trademark.¹⁰ FDA and trade commission records place Pastel Cartel, American Vape Company and Affiliated Imports LLC at the same Pflugerville address, 13326 Immanuel Road.¹¹¹²

Esco Bars Timeline

Esco Bars was the sixth most popular flavored disposable vape in the US in the year to June 2022, Reuters reported, and in May 2023 the FDA called Esco Bars and Breeze among the most commonly sold disposable brands in the country.¹⁰⁹

The FDA said on May 1, 2024 that more than 20 percent of the more than 2.1 million youth who reported current e-cigarette use said they used Esco Bar products.¹³

The record after the May 2023 import alert runs in more than one direction. American Vape Company's lawyer told Reuters in February 2025 that the company stopped distributing Esco Bars after the alert and now distributes other firms' products.¹⁰ On September 9, 2025 the FDA still named a Spearmint Esco Bar 6000 Puffs in a warning letter to the online retailer bettyvape.com.¹⁴

Pastel Cartel dropped its lawsuit against the FDA in July 2026, and the Esco Bars store at escobars.com showed "Store Unavailable" on October 26, 2026.¹⁵⁷

Esco Bars Import Alert and FDA Letters

Esco Bars went on an FDA import alert on May 12, 2023, which placed its products on the Red List so they can be refused or detained at entry, and on June 22, 2023 the FDA said the alerts covered all products under the Elf Bar and Esco Bars brands.⁵

The Import Alert 98-06 Red List, in a copy archived December 2, 2024, named Pastel Cartel LLC, Affiliated Imports LLC and Shenzhen Pingray Technology for "All Esco Bar or Escobar ENDS products", each entry published May 15, 2023.² On January 3, 2025 the FDA moved e-cigarettes to Import Alert 98-07 and narrowed 98-06 to other tobacco products; as of October 26, 2026, 98-06 has no Esco Bar entries and 98-07 lists no firms.¹⁶¹⁷

Warning letters came in waves. The FDA wrote to Shenzhen Innokin Technology on May 25, 2023, the day of its notice on Esco Bars and Breeze, copying Pastel Cartel and American Vape Company; it warned 189 retailers over Elf Bar and Esco Bars on June 22, 2023, three distributors including EC Supply on July 27, 2023, and 14 online retailers selling brands that included Esco Bars on May 1, 2024.¹¹¹⁸¹³

No state action naming Esco Bars has been found. New York's February 20, 2025 suit against vape distributors names other brands, and Esco Bars is not on Pennsylvania's ENDS directory or its October 16, 2026 pending-certification list.¹⁹²⁰²¹

Esco Bars Lawsuit Against the FDA

The company behind Esco Bars, Pastel Cartel LLC, sued the FDA on August 25, 2023 in the Western District of Texas over refuse-to-accept orders on nine premarket applications covering more than 100 e-cigarette products, which meant the applications were not scientifically reviewed.⁴

The docket shows a stipulation of dismissal filed July 7, 2026 and an order dismissing the case on July 8, 2026, and Law360 reported the dismissal as without prejudice.¹⁵²²

The FDA's May 8, 2026 enforcement guidance says the agency generally does not intend to prioritize enforcement against unauthorized e-cigarettes whose premarket application has been accepted and filed. Pastel Cartel's applications had received refuse-to-accept orders as of its 2023 complaint, and whether any was later resubmitted or accepted is not known.²³

At the US International Trade Commission, Pastel Cartel, American Vape Company and Affiliated Imports were respondents in two R.J. Reynolds cases: 337-TA-1381, which ended after the complaint was withdrawn (notice April 14, 2025), and 337-TA-1410, which closed with a final determination of no violation on March 13, 2026.²⁴¹²

How to Spot a Fake Esco Bar

To spot a fake Esco Bar, the brand's own tool was a "Verify your product" box on pastel-cartel.com, linked from the Esco Bars site, which asks for a verification number, as a copy archived January 24, 2025 shows.²⁵

No official written guide to spotting fake Esco Bars has been found. With escobars.com offline, the specs and flavor lists on these device pages, taken from 2024 copies of the store, are the official figures a pack can be compared with.⁶