snork's Excellent Adventure

snork;7067237 said:

I've enjoyed Aroma juice with and without WTA for over a year and received my first little bottle of WTA concentrate on September 29th of 2011. Since then it has been an indispensable source of satisfaction and enjoyment for me daily. When Jerry first made the open invitation welcoming anyone to come to see the lab at which he and his cohorts make WTA I started dreaming of going. I've made several aborted attempts to rig up the time and the funding and finally the stars aligned and I made my way from Denver to Phoenix from August 22-25, 2012.

The reason I wanted to see him and his operation was strictly curiosity. I had no doubt that the production was being carried out in a professional manner and I'm not one to buy into gossip or involve myself in drama dreamed up by faceless people thousands of miles apart. The process sounded interesting to me and I wanted the chance to meet Jerry and the other people who had provided me exemplary service during the previous year. I also knew that Phoenix would be a perfect spot to take a mini-vacation. Why not combine a little business with a lot of pleasure?

Jerry In The Breakroom

Jerry's a good-sized man with a great goofy smile. I never asked where he was from originally but his personality indicated to me that he was from a large urban city where dealing with people non-stop in a direct way was a necessity. Jerry vapes on an eGo Twist with a crappy aluminum driptip, that really caused me a lot of consternation. The man deserves better than that but such things don't interest him. Whatever.

The Aroma ejuice lab is located in a huge building in a light industrial area in Chandler. The building is shared by a mixture of high-tech, lower-tech, scientific and academic entities. Aroma is listed on the door as one of the tenants. Aroma's rooms are in a small area at the left end of the building. I've been in a lot of labs in my life, mostly medical, some commercial. Jerry's lab is typical of every lab I've ever been in regards to cleanliness and organization. It isn't an immaculate sterile operating room; you can tell work gets done here, for sure. Things are organized and stored safely, in fact safety struck me as one of Jerry's priorities in the time I spent there. Here and there I saw various labels of equipment inspection certification.

An Example Certification

I was privileged to have Jerry show me and tell me about the process from beginning to end. Well, I didn't get to see the end except for a sample of a previous run. One of the most startling revelations I had during my visit is the incredible amount of time, money and effort it takes for Jerry to produce a *small* amount of WTA which is up to his standard. We're talking days and days. You just don't go in and whip out 1000 bottles of WTA in a night with a coffee filter. Much much less in much more time.

Jerry employs a doctorate chemist he calls Dr. Fred who has extensive experience and credentials both academic and commercial. He is responsible for QA testing at the final stage, among other things. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet him (I did see his name everywhere), both evenings Jerry and I were at the lab Dr. Fred had been and gone before Jerry and I arrived. Jerry likes to do his thing in the lab at night into the wee hours of the morning. In fact I don't know if Jerry ever sleeps aside from 20 minute catnaps sprinkled sparsely through the day. Jerry himself also has some expertise in chemistry both from education and experience, but Jerry leaves the most exacting steps to the chemist. These guys know what they're doing. The main objectives when creating a batch of WTA are quality, safety and consistency; Jerry and Dr. Fred cut no corners. I also barely missed meeting Chris, the person responsible for shipping. Just didn't have enough time to meet the whole gang.

Continued in Part 2

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