So those of you who know me know I used to smoke… Fulltime, pack-a-day, all day smoker… And that was for over 20 years (give or take a few times I managed to quit for a few weeks or months). 11 weeks ago, I kicked the habit. Not easy, but necessary. I mean I have a kid I want to be around for, I was sick of smelling like smoke, standing outside freezing, and at $6 a day, my budget just couldn’t take it anymore…

At first it was kinda easy. Lots of my friends had quit and I just wasn’t around it anymore. Crazy as it sounds though, I really missed the “act” of smoking. I missed holding something, having an excuse to “step away” from whatever I was doing, having something to make the ‘commute’ less boring, etc… I missed “inhaling” something (yes, I know this is the point at which non-smokers think I’m crazy, but any of you who smoked more than just socially know what I mean…). All the years I’d smoked I’d always wished there was some healthy alternative. But quitting always meant giving up the “smoking” part of smoking. Chewing gum (ya get an oral fix and some nicotine, but your jaw can only take so much…); the patch(a continuous dose of nicotine with nothing to satisfy the other parts of the habits -- and you get really messed up dreams…); chantix ( expensive, but for the nicotine addiction part -- it works… The depression however I could do without… No need to mess up my brain chemistry that way…)

Along comes the e-cig. I know I’d heard of ‘em, but never really considered it. A few friends suggested it, but I thought I’d just go “traditional” and try quitting with the gum… Then I tried one… And I researched it. And for some reason it took a second to put two and two together, but here right in front of me was that mythological “healthier” alternative I’d been dreaming existed! Could it be -- I could resume the parts of smoking I enjoyed, while skipping all the bad stuff, and still ween myself off Nicotine (which by the way, may or may not be as bad for you as some may have you think -- studies show health benefits including positive effects against depression, alzheimer’s, parkinsons, and diabetes to name a few…)… Needless to say, I was pretty excited… Sure, I was 9 or 10 weeks into this latest attempt to quit, but the gum chewing was getting old quick (and it’s not the cheapest stuff out there either) and I could already sense that will to stay a non-smoker breaking down a bit… (Plus the techie geek part of me saw this as a neat gadget…an added bonus).

This would probably be a good spot for a little technical review for those of you who don’t know or understand what and e-cig or vaping is…(see I like to pretend like people read this…tee hee). I’m going to borrow a bit from the Wikipedia entry on e-cigs, but essentially it goes a little something like this…

An e-cigarette is a battery-powered device that provides inhaled doses of nicotine or non-nicotine vaporized solution….this vapor also provides a flavor and physical sensation similar to that of inhaled tobacco smoke, while no smoke or combustion is actually involved in its operation. See I bolded a few important bits right off the top there? You can get this with no nicotine, and there’s no combustion (the primary part of burning tobacco that previously filled my lungs with 1000′s of chemicals…). Let’s continue…While electronic cigarettes take many forms, they each generally employ the same basic components: a mouthpiece, a heating element, a rechargeable battery, and various electronic circuits.

Nicotine solutions sold separately for use in refillable cartridges are sometimes referred to as “e-liquid” or “e-juice”, and commonly contain some amount of flavoring, with hundreds of different flavors available. They consist of nicotine dissolved in propylene glycol (PG) and/or vegetable glycerin (glycerol) or VG. Both PG and VG are common food additives. PG has been used as the aqueous-based chemical additive in asthma inhalers and nebulizers since the 1950s, with no serious side effects known. So essentially the amount of chemicals and garbage being inhaled is not even close to what goes in your body when smoking ‘analog’ cigarettes.

So it boils down to this… Sure, ultimately I suppose partaking in NONE of the previous items would be the best health option. But much like enjoying an occasional alcoholic beverage or a chocolaty desert, there are things we as humans enjoy that aren’t spectacularly healthy for us, and if I can reduce the health risk by such a substantial amount, it seems like a good plan, ya?

That brings me to some of the lunacy I discovered as I read up on vaping (it really makes no sense to call it smoking, as there’s no smoke…).  See, it seems the mere existence of e-cig’s as an alternative to smoking or pharmaceutical nicotine cessation solutions is a serious threat. So much so, there’s some crazy law proposals on the books right now. South Carolina and Oregon are trying to include e-cig’s in the umbrella of smoking bans, essentially forcing vapers to occupy the same smoking areas with the smoke they’re trying to get away from… The FDA is trying to get weird regulations passed as well and even some groups feel that because “less harm” isn’t “no harm”, these things shouldn’t exist. They’ve even gone as far as citing “potential for public confusion” as a possible reason to ban e-cigs. The CASAA is a great place to keep on top of current legal battles…

That brings me to a quick note on the vaping community. See, I had a bit of a delay between ordering my e-cigs and receiving them (backordered, weather delays, weekends & holidays, etc). But this gave me a chunk of time to really dive in and understand not only the Bloog product (which I swear I’ll touch on before this post is over), but what an amazing group of people appear to be out that there championing this not only as a way to stay off regular smokes, but as a completely different activity. It reminded me at first of  the beer aficionados… Sharing tips and techniques, recipes, opinions… There’s obviously this activity as a common ground, but what’s remarkable is the wealth of information being put out there and the willingness to share with us ‘noobs’ to the vaping experience… Just a quick few links I’ve checked often already include the ECF, Vapers Forum,  GrimmGreen, Vapenstein, and VapeTV. There’s tons more as well, including vaper meetups and podcasts…

So that (finally) brings me to the Bloog MaxxFusion, the e-cig I decided to go with. I sampled a few others but after checking out some of these sites, I found again and again rave reviews of the Bloog. I basically started to put together the interesting tale of “Leaford“, someone who’d been a big part of the early days of the vaping community, so much so that he’s brought his expertise to a number of places to improve the overall quality and experience of vaping and the hardware involved. Turns out, he’s now helping Bloog create their latest product -- the MaxxFusion. Improvements in battery life, better vapor and stability in cartomizors, etc. It’s actually a great story…

Well I knew I wasn’t ready to jump into mod’s (custom built units for vaping -- they come in every shape and size you can imagine), but I wanted a quality starter kit.  This Vapenstein review was really what sold me, but I also recommend checking out Grimm Green’s review as well (I’ll stick it at the end of the post). These guys are well respected (from what I can tell) in the vaping community, and both gave some love to this product.

I decided earlier this evening to write a noob review of my first few hours with the Bloog over on the ECF, so I’ll plop a condensed version here (I mean I’ve been typing for an hour now…this is easily the longest post spipasucci.com has ever seen…). But as a note, if anyone has interest and would like me to include more info about my foray into vaping down the raod, drop me a line or a comment -- I’ll be happy to oblige…

The Bloog MaxxFusion Ultimate Starter Kit & Additional Cartos:

Nice packaging, easy to tell what was what, and some nice quick directions included… I decided to charge the batteries (didn’t check if they had any charge to them, but since the kit came with a passthru (a usb version that runs off a usb cord instead of a battery),  I figured I’d start with that…)…
The hit was super smooth, nice blast of vapor, easy to drag… There seems to be no delay to it (some e-cigs, especially automatic need what is called a ‘primer puff’ to sort of activate and get rollin…)

The cartos: (the pre-filled cartomizors -- ie: the things that give the flavor and produce the vapor…) I ordered the ‘Red’ with the kit and then a pack of ‘Coffee’ & ‘RY4′ (all 11mg Nicotine)… The Red is a nice taste. More of a nutty taste than a true tobacco taste, but I kinda dig it. It tastes the ‘cleanest’ of the 3 to me (meaning I guess the least amount of ‘flavor’). I still think I need to adjust to all the variety… There’s zero harshness to me (in any of the cartos I tried) which is nice as I just got past a nasty cold…

Next I tried the Coffee… To me it’s much more of a mild hint of caramel than coffee. Being my first try at a “non-tobacco” flavor, I have to say I quite enjoyed it as well… I could see this being a nice morning vape or post-meal vape for sure…

Last there’s the RY4. I’d say, of the 3 I tried, this may be my favorite (though they are all quite pleasing). The website describes a hint of caramel taste in this, but I still felt the coffee was closer to a hint of caramel. There’s a definite sweetness there however… I’m sure I have a lot of experimenting to do before I can better accurately describe vape flavors…

Overall, I’m super thrilled with this product and can seriously see this keeping me away from analog cigarettes for good… There’s a definitive cost savings as well as an obvious health benefit over my previous ways… And, if I get to meet and talk with some great folks along the way, all the better!