When you shop at an e-liquid superstore like vapejuice.com, you’re going to find hundreds of different vape juice flavors all collected in one place. The huge variety of available flavors invites experimentation. Who knows; trying something new could lead to the discovery of your next all-day vape. Taste is very subjective, though, and when you experiment with new flavors, you may occasionally end up with an e-liquid that doesn’t work for you at all. If you’re an experienced vaper, you know that getting an occasional e-liquid you don’t love is sometimes just the cost of experimentation.
If you’re new to vaping, though, you haven’t done a lot of experimentation yet. The e-liquid that you don’t like, in fact, could actually be the first vape juice you’ve ever purchased. So, let’s suppose that you’ve never vaped before. You’ve bought a refillable vape pen and a bottle of e-liquid, and you’re not happy. Have you picked the wrong vape juice, or is vaping just not working for you in general?
Take heart. If you’re not happy with your first vaping experience, it’s unlikely that vaping itself is the problem. It’s far more likely that you’ve simply picked the wrong vape juice for your taste. Let’s learn the signs that your e-liquid isn’t the right one for you.
Your Vape Juice Is Too Harsh and Irritates Your Throat
Vape juice is available in an enormous variety of different nicotine strengths ranging from no nicotine all the way up to 50 mg/ml. Some of the most popular in-between nicotine strengths include 3, 6, 11, 18 and 25 mg. The amount of nicotine that you get from your e-cigarette per puff depends on the vapor production of the e-cigarette and the nicotine strength of the vape juice. Since there are so many possible combinations of vaping devices and nicotine strengths, selecting the wrong nicotine strength is one of the most common problems that new vapers encounter.
If you find an e-liquid so harsh on the throat and lungs that you have trouble inhaling it, the nicotine strength of the e-liquid is probably too high.
Your Vape Juice Isn’t Satisfying; You’re Using It Too Quickly
As you can probably imagine, low e-liquid nicotine strengths – such as 3 mg and 6 mg – are intended for use in more powerful devices that produce large vapor clouds. Higher nicotine strengths, meanwhile, are for lower-temperature devices that mimic the inhaling style and throat hit of smoking. A small refillable pod system, for example, usually works best with a nicotine salt e-liquid that has a nicotine strength of at least 25 mg. Many brick-and-mortar vape shops, however, cater mainly to experienced vapers who use more powerful vaping equipment.
So, let’s suppose that you’ve purchased a small refillable pod system. You walk into your local vape shop, and you walk out with a vape juice that has a nicotine strength of 3 mg. Your equipment and e-liquid will be poorly suited for one another. You’ll never get enough nicotine to be satisfied. You’ll go through your e-liquid far too quickly, and you’ll still feel strong cravings for cigarettes. If that sounds like your situation, the nicotine strength of your e-liquid is probably too low.
Your Vape Juice Tastes Burned
In addition to nicotine strength, another aspect of e-liquid that varies from one brand to the next is its thickness. E-liquid is comprised of nicotine (except in the case of nicotine-free e-liquid), flavors, propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin (VG). PG and VG comprise the majority of what’s in any bottle of e-liquid. They create the clouds that you see when you vape, and they also dilute the nicotine and flavors to the correct concentrations. VG is much thicker than PG. An e-liquid with a high percentage of VG creates very full vapor clouds and works best in more powerful vaping equipment. An e-liquid with a high percentage of PG, on the other hand, flows easily through small openings and works best in lower-temperature vaping equipment.
As with the nicotine strength, the VG/PG ratio of an e-liquid can cause unexpected problems if you buy your vape juice from a brick-and-mortar vape shop because many vape shops specialize in carrying high-VG e-liquid for more powerful vaping equipment. If you use a high-VG e-liquid with a small vaping device such as a refillable pod system, you might be in for a nasty surprise because the thick e-liquid may have difficulty flowing efficiently through the device’s small atomizer coil assembly. When that happens, you’ll taste a burned flavor when you vape because the wick in your device’s atomizer coil won’t be fully saturated with vape juice.
If you have a smaller vaping device, try using an e-liquid with a VG concentration of 50 percent or less. Note, though, that just changing your e-liquid may not eliminate the unpleasant flavor if your device’s wick is already burned. Most vaping devices use cotton wicks, and if the cotton burns, nothing can fix it. You’ll need to replace your device’s atomizer coil or pod and try a thinner e-liquid.
Your Vape Juice Doesn’t Taste Like a Cigarette
When you’re new to vaping, it’s highly likely that you’ll choose a tobacco or menthol vape juice first because you want to replicate the experience of smoking. If you choose a menthol vape juice, you’re in for a pleasant surprise because the menthol that vape juice makers use to flavor their e-liquids is the same as the menthol that tobacco companies use for cigarettes. Menthol e-liquids are often truly spectacular. If you buy a tobacco e-liquid, though, your first impression might not be quite as positive because tobacco isn’t really the thing that you taste when you smoke a cigarette. What you really taste is smoke. Vape juice, meanwhile, contains no tobacco and doesn’t produce smoke. You’re not going to find an eliquid that tastes like cigarette smoke.
There are many, many different tobacco e-liquids in the world. It’s worthwhile to experiment with several flavors because, even with the lack of smoke, you’re still likely to find a tobacco flavor that you enjoy. We encourage you, though, to experiment with non-tobacco flavors as well. Vape juice can’t taste like cigarette smoke, but it can taste like almost anything else because the flavors that e-liquid makers use are the same as the flavors used by the makers of your favorite candies, sodas and snacks. Most people who vape actually don’t buy tobacco flavors; they buy fruity and sweet flavors because vape juice has helped them realize that they never really liked the flavor of cigarettes in the first place.
Image Credits: Nick Demou
Like this article? Share with your friends!