It is all about the coffee....sorry juice ! Your real quest.

Hands up whose first post on a vaping forum was about hardware ?

Jumps up and down with hand in the air.

Well as you can guess mine was but in the replies, I can't remember whose sage advice it was, someone said it is all about the juice.

Eh ? Thought I. In my defence I hadn't even vaped at that point but now with my whole 2 months experience I get it. I do.

You can buy expensive coffee cups. Cheap coffee cups and those middle of the road coffee cups but unless you actually like the coffee in the cup you have an ornament.

PV's or e-cigs are actually the same. They are a mixture of a battery that discharges power to a device nominally an atomizer or cartomizer that vapourises juice. Now some are clever in that you can discharge more or less power to your chosen device. There are some that feed juice from below into your atomizing device or even from above however the analogy with a coffee cup holds true unless you like the juice you have an ornament.

So as you ponder your weapon of choice to enter this brave new world just as much if not more attention should be given to the e-liquid that the PV is going to hopefully going to spend some time reducing to vapour.

So to steal from one of my three year olds favourite shows, Agent Oso no less, there are three special steps you will probably need to go through.

I am going to be brave and suggest that you are reading this as you want to see if these electrical cigorattes thingies work ?

The official line I have seen written all over the place is that e-cigs may help replace the nicotine you currently get from cigarettes. Ok. Got that ?

My personal opinion is a little simpler. Yes, they work. How can I say that ?, you ask. They stopped me from smoking is my reply.

But even thinking about stopping smoking makes me nervous, you say. Really ? Think I can relate to that completely.

Let's see if this helps.

Step One

Espresso, Bold, House or Cappuccino ?

Yep going to keep thrashing the analogy.

So you have reached the point where the e-cig is bought. You are looking at e-liquids bemused by Strawberry Shortcake, Freeze, more fruit than you will find in a green grocers and more deserts than in the freezer aisle in Wal-Mart. What is this Bounty fixation ? Bobas ? Hunter ?

Confusing.

Initially you really need to concentrate on finding the right amount of nicotine in the juice to adequately replace the nicotine you enjoy from your cigarettes. That is it.

Generally e-juice is available in 6/12/18/24 and 36mg strengths. Something in that range will hit the spot.

My first vaping experience was with 24mg juice which I thought was too much. You know a spinning head will give you a sign. I had read somewhere that as I smoked Ultra Light 100's that I should use 12mg juice. Given my previous experience this sounded about right so I ordered some.

Have to say I was close. I went from 25 cigarettes a day to 1 or 2 immediately. That said it wasn't quite enough for me to not have that 1 or 2 a day so I ordered some 18mg juice and that was it. I really was on the way to becoming an ex smoker.

I really do not get too caught up with nicotine strength. To my mind I vape to stop me smoking. As long as I am not in taking the assorted substances that are a special feature of tobacco I am good.

Order a range of strengths in flavours you think you may enjoy. Your body will tell you if it is too strong, the cigarette in your hand will tell you if you need to step it up a bit.

Step Two

Cream, Milk, Sugar or Baileys ?

If you are lucky you may have hit the nail on the head as regards a juice you love to vape.

Or you could be me !

This part of your quest is totally subjective. Different folks love different vapes however remember that if you have found a vape that you dislike that also means there is probably a vape that you like. They are out there waiting for your discovery.

My road to discovery was rather rocky. I created a Sin Bin. Buy it, vape it, hate it, sin bin it.

Now the Sin Bin is actually a rather large pickle jar. It started as a smaller pickle jar so that will tell you how good I am at judging my tastes. The Sin Bin does come in handy. As your taste buds recover from the years of tobacco abuse they can do some odd things to you. Like losing all flavour from the vape.

I use these moments to go through the Sin Bin as there is usually something there I can taste and it reduces the stock of nastiness.

Every now and again something odd happens and a previously disgusting juice changes to something quite pleasant. I think it was my third vaping order I was looking through the Mad Vapes website and noticed Key Lime flavour. Now I love key lime so ordered a small bottle.

I was rather looking forward to the sweet combination of sugary limes and graham crackers after all thought I who would actually just sell a lime juice flavour ? Mad Vapes ! That is who I realised that the citrus flavour hit my tongue with all the assertiveness of a real lime.

The malaise of losing taste hit me a month later and I was going through the Sin Bin with an atomizer dripping through the flavours and my hand lifted the offending bottle. I nearly put it back in the jar with a shudder but thought why not ?

Two drops in the atomizer and I paused to steel myself for the acidic assault and.....hold on that is different. While the citric bite was there is was diminished and there was now an underlying sweetness which was rather delicious. Next time I order from Mad Vapes this flavour will feature and be promptly ignore for a month or so.

I was lucky in that the 18mg juice mentioned earlier was also the best tasting juice I had tasted. For me that vape mail in that nicotine strength was the nail in the head of cigarettes. It wasn't so much of quitting smoking it was more a case of preferring to vape. Bounty Hunter I can say I love you and you will be vaped at least once or twice a week daily.

Step Three

Sit back and savour the flavour.

Just vape. Really that is it. Have fun experimenting.

If you have found the strength of juice that satisfies your needs that is half the battle. Once you find a flavour you like you are set.

You will find more than one flavour in time, I have. For close to three weeks I just vaped Bounty Hunter but now I have added Bobas Bounty, Gorilla Juice and Hype. Yep I gave up being creative in my selections and just picked what seemed to be popular. They are popular for a reason.

Whether these will last in my rota I have no idea and truth to tell do not care as they serve me well for now.

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