Flavour Chasing 101
When most people start vaping, they think of it primarily as a replacement for smoking – an alternative way of using nicotine that’s much more enjoyable and satisfying than nicotine gums or patches. For many people, though, vaping becomes something else with time. For long-term vapers, cigarette cravings are nearly non-existent – and nicotine is no longer the central focus. The aspect of vaping that keeps those people coming back is the incredible variety of flavours possible with skilled e-liquid blending. From fruity cereals to creamy milkshakes, e-liquids can really capture some amazing flavour profiles – and people who enjoy flavour chasing want to taste every detail.
Preventing a Burned Taste When Vaping
As the vaping community has matured, flavour chasing has become an increasingly popular trend. While many vapers have chosen to avail themselves of the increasing selection of powerful vaping devices and huge sub-ohm tanks, it might surprise you to learn that many others have ditched their personal fog machines in favour of smaller mouth-to-lung vaping devices. Why is mouth-to-lung vaping experiencing an increase in popularity? Let’s learn why vapers around the world are deciding to “downgrade” to smaller vaping devices.
The Drawback of the Sub-Ohm Arms Race
Sub-ohm vaping tanks are becoming larger and more powerful all the time. Some sub-ohm tank coils have as many as a dozen heating wires, and they can envelop a room in a blue raspberry haze in seconds. To produce those enormous clouds, though, a cloud chasing tank needs extremely large air intake vents.
A large intake vent facilitates the impressive vapour production of a cloud chasing tank while helping to keep the coil cool – but the free airflow has one major drawback: air adds no flavour to the vaping experience. A large vaping coil produces large clouds, but there’s a point of diminishing returns because all of the air that you inhale dilutes the flavour of your e-liquid. Meanwhile, every increase in vapour production comes with an increase in e-liquid consumption. Have you ever felt like you’re burning through bottle after bottle of e-liquid – and spending a fortune in the process – without ever really enjoying the flavour profiles that e-liquid makers have worked so hard to create? You’re not alone, and that’s why mouth-to-lung vaping is experiencing such a dramatic comeback.
How Does Mouth-to-Lung Vaping Improve Flavour?
One important thing to consider about direct-to-lung vaping is that you don’t taste things through your throat and lungs – you taste them with your mouth. When you inhale directly into your lungs, you aren’t focusing the flavour in your mouth – most of the e-liquid is in your lungs before you have an opportunity to taste it. Mouth-to-lung vaping maximizes the amount of time that the vapour spends in your mouth, giving you a chance to taste it before you inhale it. Also, when you inhale the vapour from your mouth to your lungs, the opening of your vaping device’s mouthpiece points toward your tongue rather than the back of your throat. That further helps to focus the vapour on your palate.
The second – and even more important – way in which mouth-to-lung vaping improves flavour is by minimizing the amount of air that you inhale. A typical mouth-to-lung tank has very small intake vents because high air resistance is necessary to get a vaping experience that feels like smoking a cigarette. If you’re inhaling less air, you’re inhaling more vapour – so the flavour is more concentrated. The smaller air vents also have the second benefit of giving you a slightly warmer vapour. The warmth serves to heighten the sensory experience and help the flavour notes of your e-liquids come through more clearly.
The final reason why some people are “downgrading” to mouth-to-lung vaping setups is because they want to feel the intense satisfaction that comes with a stronger and more assertive throat hit. If you want to switch to a mouth-to-lung setup without reducing your total nicotine intake, you’ll need to begin using an e-liquid with a higher nicotine strength. In doing so, you’ll enjoy a throat hit that’s greatly heightened compared to what you currently experience.
Can I Try Mouth-to-Lung Vaping With the Gear I Already Have?
Some vaping tanks are highly adaptable and can provide a good experience for both direct-to-lung and mouth-to-lung vaping. To adapt your tank for mouth-to-lung vaping, you should start by lowering the wattage setting of your vaping device. The changes that you’ll make to your tank will increase the temperature of your atomizer coil, and lowering your device’s wattage helps to ensure that you won’t burn your wick. If your vaping tank has different types of coils available, use the highest-resistance coil that you can find. A higher coil resistance allows you to lower your device’s wattage without lowering the battery voltage, thus allowing you to enjoy reasonably large vapour clouds even at a lower wattage level.
After you’ve adjusted the wattage of your vaping device and the resistance of your atomizer coil, the next thing you’ll need to address is your tank’s airflow. The goal here is to minimize the amount of air introduced into the vapour path while creating the air resistance necessary for mouth-to-lung vaping. Adjust your tank’s airflow collar to make the intake vents as small as possible. If puffing on your tank feels a bit like smoking a cigarette, you’ve found the ideal airflow setting.
The last thing that you’ll need to do when modifying your tank for mouth-to-lung vaping is find a smaller mouthpiece that further increases air resistance while focusing the vapour on your palate. We suggest using a 510 drip tip, which is about the same size as a cigarette filter. If you have a tank with a wide mouthpiece, it’s likely that your tank doesn’t accept 510 drip tips. Your tank most likely uses 810 drip tips. To correct that, you’ll need to install an 810-to-510 adapter. Remove your tank’s original mouthpiece and install the adapter in its place. You can then put the 510 drip tip into the adapter’s top hole.
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