Believe it or not, your lungs are six weeks old - and your taste buds just ten days!

[DMertz99]

Yea....Twinkies just aren't the piece of heaven they were when we were 5. Still not bad though.

[rave]

Just a note, as you get older the microvilli or what we call taste-buds don't completely regenerate, down to about 50% of what we have when we're young which would explain the differing experiences - and kids intolerance to strong tastes.

I strongly agree. For 42 years I smoked one and a half to two packs a day of menthols. When I quit completely in August of last year it took about two weeks for my sense of smell to begin returning. Now it's better than I can ever remember it. However, my sense of taste, although certainly better, is definitely not up to the level of the young folks on here. In DIYing my own eliquids I need 40 - 50% flavor in order to taste anything.

[pianoguy]

Mine started to come back pretty well inside of 2 weeks. I notice that I am much more sensitive to spicy or sour foods now - I thought the top of my head was gonna come off the first time I had a Granny Smith apple after vaping for a while. And I can now smell the coffee brewing from upstairs with the bedroom door closed - that never happened before. And it seems like I can smell an analog from a mile away.

[techtony]

I'm fearing crawfish season

[lostdaze]

I think for me I will just give it more time for my sense of smell and taste to return, I dont think I could do the neti pot thing.

I have noticed improvement its just that Ive read so much here about people being able to smell again after only days or weeks, it left me wondering why I wasnt having the same kind of results.

For the first time, today I ordered some food at a fast food joint and the cashier smelled like a ashtray to me.
When people would write that others smelled like ashtrays I thought they were exaggerating but its true, smokers really do smell just like ashtrays to people who do not smoke.

Anyway my sense of smell is comming back gradually, but the taste is behind, with juice flavors I only notice hints of flavor.

[jlmanno]

Oh yes, that raunchy smell of an analog drives me crazy! Now I know why my kids complained and were sometimes embarrassed about the way I smelled. My wife still has a couple analogs a day, and my god her smell makes me gag and close to vomit! just imagine.

[shadow2595]

If it's not the nicotine in cigarettes that cause us to lose our sense of smell what is it? Is it because of the burning tobacco that messes everything up? I've been curious about this for a while and i haven't seen any topics explaining it on here so i figured i'd ask.

[Doc Florida]

My smell was dramatically improved after a week...everything tastes the same as it did before though.

[KellsBell]

Hello evry1! I'm a vaping newbie and this is my first post and my biggest complaint, my taste buds are off, when I first started vaping about 2 weeks ago I loved the taste of pralines and cream, cotton candy, all the sweet ones, now I can't taste them at all, whats up with that? I can smell them, but not really taste them kinda really ticks me off, cuz they were soooo good. I haven't smoked a stinky for almost 2 weeks, I have to admit I took a drag 2 different times to see how they tasted, nasty, like the chemicals they are made of. I had also used listerine at one point after quitting the stinkies just to help things along, and I read somewhere that listerine can screw up yer taste buds, I looked at the back of my tongue and OMD, the back buds were big and raised, so I grabbed the flashlight and inspected husbands tongue (he too is now vaping) and no his were not big, thought I had tongue cancer, so I jumped on google and found that this is also normal when the buds are irritated. So I guess my question is... anyone else having this problem? I don't know if it's from vaping flavors, quitting the stinkies or the listerine. I wake up every morning hoping they are back to normal, but it hasn't happened yet, please tell me this is not unusual and they will come back.

[lonercom]

I think it might be a matter of perspective as well. Been a heavy smoker for 40+ years. To me, any improvement in taste and smell (they're related) is a major improvement.

Aside from the vapor cloud, I recall a term I learned from my assn. to the great "Friends of Bill W.", a term called "Pink Cloud"
Basically, it's the euporia associated with the realization that everything is different.

If things taste and smell SO DIFFERENT after a few weeks tobacco free, I'm scared to imagine how they will smell in a few months.

I wouldn't worry too much about your seemingly slow pace of recovery, just wake up and smell the coffee and one day you may notice all of those scents you've taken for granted. If you keep looking for it, you'll never find it.

Rinning out of cliche's here. Umm... something about a watched pot never boiling? Where the heck is the mailman and does he have my new supply of cartos??? God, He never gets here THIS late. GRRRRRR.

BTW, this was me last month!