Your Journey to Menthol Vaping

Adult menthol smokers are facing the Menthol Ban with varying degrees of scorn and bitterness. For them, one of their daily joys/vices is being taken away by faceless bureaucrats from either London or Brussels, and they don’t want to go back to smoking plain tobacco cigarettes because they simply don’t like the taste.

For me, it seems funny that menthol smokers see taste as the most distinctive feature about their smoking, for the people I know at least, the one word they never mention is … nicotine.

No-one can define what smoking is like for every smoker with a single explanation. Smoking, like coffee, is an intensely personal experience. A nicotine patch cannot address the rituals that smokers take, letting colleagues and friends know they are just nipping out for a few minutes, unwrapping their smokes, looking for a lighter or asking a complete stranger who is currently smoking, for a light, and then their first inhale, followed shortly by the nicotine hitting their bloodstream.

It almost sounds seductive and serene, except it’s a chemical addiction that destroys people’s health and daily eats away at their net income.

The EU wide menthol ban is being brought in because multiple studies have shown that menthol cigarettes are more attractive to first time and under-age smokers. The ban on menthol is designed to reduce the appeal of smoking to younger smokers and over time, reduce the number of adult smokers. Research also shows that contrary to some wishful-thinking, menthol cigarettes smoking is NOT less harmful than smoking plain tobacco.

The menthol ban is likely to see nearly 2 million UK menthol smokers facing three options; they can stop smoking as of May 20th, they can move to tobacco cigarettes, or they can look for an alternative.

I KNOW I'M BIASED BUT NOT ALL ALTERNATIVES TO SMOKING ARE CREATED EQUAL

The fact is that some tobacco alternatives taste awful, some have no taste at all (please read the instructions carefully for patches, if they have a taste you’re not using them properly) and some options are just too much hassle for someone wanting ‘a quick smoke’, so whatever options are out there, the better ones will address the habits and behaviours of smokers.

Vaping offers smokers a great alternative, ranged across costs and experiences. Vape companies cannot state that vaping is healthier than smoking, but Public Health England (PHE) has gone on record, TWICE, to say that vaping is 95% less harmful than tobacco. In addition to be less harmful (please take that up with PHE, not me), an ex-smoker can save hundreds to thousands of pounds a year (I promise this is not bullshit – I’ll show you how at the end this blog). And as for taste, there’s more choice in vaping e-liquids than has ever existed in the history of cigarettes; I mean honestly, have you ever come across a Lemon Tart cigarette before? It might sound odd if you haven’t tried it before, but if you’re a smoker looking for a great flavoured alternative to tobacco, try it, and you’re welcome.

For menthol smokers, Dinner Lady offers Cherry Menthol, Blue Menthol, Fresh Menthol, Ice Menthol and Spearmint, and that’s just one company, one multi-award winning, internationally successful vape company.

WHICH WAY TO OZ?

If you’re a menthol smoker and all your menthol has been taken away (crush balls too I’m sorry – although that one always sounded a little odd in public), you might be wondering where do I go from here?

Vaping devices can cost a little or a lot, based on your passion and your purchasing ability. An occasional cyclist will pay a small amount for a bike, where an enthusiast will pay thousands (and wear lycra) for something more specialised. In vaping terms, a disposable vape pen costs a small amount compared to more sophisticated vaping marvels of engineering that can cost a lot more, if you like vaping and want something more specialised.

Where the analogy with a bicycle falls flat (sorry) is when you start looking at e-liquids.

E-Liquids are the flavoured heart of vaping and you can enjoy a superior vape experience with a £4.99 disposable e-cigarette. More expensive vape kits and devices are available, and they have their own merits and capabilities, but to enjoy a full flavoured alternative to smoking, you do not need to spend more than £4.99.

Vape Dinner Lady has developed a wide range of award-winning e-liquids and in 2019, launched its own branded devices in the form of Dinner Lady Vape Pens. A critical design feature about this product is that was built around a premium e-liquid, rather than a price point. The first three flavours on launch were Lemon Tart, the company’s iconic flavour, Smooth Tobacco and Blue Menthol, a fruity and cooling menthol vape. This means that Dinner Lady currently offers two menthol alternatives which combine both vape hardware and vape e-liquid for just £4.99 each. Each device is equivalent (in puffs) to a pack of 20 cigarettes and delivers 20mg of high-quality nicotine salts which emulate the higher nicotine levels found in cigarettes. For vapers wishing to reduce their nicotine levels over time, the flavoured e-liquids are all available with lower nicotine levels for vape pod, pen and box devices.

POD, PEN OR BOX?

Pod devices are the first step up from disposables, the flavoured e-liquids can be added manually if the pod is an open-system device, and these allow people to try flavours and discard them when their pod needs replacing. Pods contain both e-liquids and a coil (or atomiser) and these can need replacing after 2-4 weeks of regular use. Changing the pod and coil can tailored to meet the suggested requirements for different types of e-liquids. Pod devices are often preferred by vapers who like higher nicotine levels in their vape e-liquids.

Pen devices are larger than pods, they often have bigger batteries and can support greater power output. While often seen as more stylish, pen devices sit somewhere between pods and vape boxes.

Vape box mods are typified by larger batteries which support high coil/atomiser temperatures and are preferred by sub-ohm vapers who like to vape throughout the day and enjoy creating rich clouds of vapour.

In making a purchase choice, Vape Dinner Lady recommends purchased respected brands that developed strong reputations for build quality and customer support. Dinner Lady does stock vape device kits from respected brands like SMOK, GeekVape, Innokin and VooPoo.

SO ..

The menthol ban is coming, if you know a smoker, and every vaper knows a smoker, have a chat with them. If they don’t want to quit and are looking to switch to a fully flavoured and less harmful alternative to smoking menthol tobacco cigarettes, they do have a choice.