What to Do About Lingering Flavours
It’s always exciting switching up your flavours, especially with so many flavours to choose from, but we don’t want you left with an eerie essence of your last flavour each time you try something new!
Sometimes a hint of an old favourite can create a nice hybrid, but jumping between extremes like Spirited Irish Cream and Ferocious Birthday Cake can leave you with a confusing fruity coffee mess. ‘Flavour ghosting’, or ‘flavour creep’ may sound spooky, but it’s easily solved!
How Does Flavour Ghosting Happen?
It may seem obvious that remnants of flavours past may outstay their welcome in your tank but vape devices tend to contain a lot of fiddly components. Old flavours can linger in the ridges of coils and stubbornly remain soaked into wicking material.
Since the wick has the prestigious job of carrying liquid from the tank to the coil, it’s inevitable that it can get a little sticky. With the most common material for wicking being cotton, it also happens to be quite absorbent.
What Can I Do?
Ensuring good maintenance is key, and really not as tricky as it may sound. A between-flavour or once-a-month clean out can keep things shiny and fresh.
In most cases, specific cleaning instructions for your device are likely available, but it’s a fairly intuitive process regardless.
A good starting point is to take apart your kit and wash out the tank, which is easily achieved with warm water, gentle shaking, and repeating the process until the water remains clear upon shaking. The drip tip should be blown through and lightly brushed with a cotton bud or similar tool.
Next up, clean the atomizer/coil gently by soaking it gently in warm water for around 15 minutes and drying with a paper towel or soft, thin flannel. Of course, opting for a new coil with fresh wicking material already encased is a win, but not a sustainable option for those who love trying new flavours on a regular basis. F
or advanced vapers with DIY coils, it may be worth going one step further to change your wicking material between flavours, and the whole coil every few.
Can’t Taste E-Liquid Anymore?
This is what the industry calls Vape tongue. If you’ve been vaping for a while then chances are you’ve found your favourite flavour and you’ve been vaping it for a while. But like all great things in this world, too much of a good thing can lead to a tolerance, meaning you can’t taste the e-liquid anymore.
This is completely natural and all you need to do is take a break from that flavour and switch to a different one for a while. A quick way to see if you have ‘vaper’s tongue’ is to drink some black coffee and then return to your vape juice to taste the full flavour like new again!
Another reason you can’t taste e-liquid is that you might have developed flavour fatigue. This is where your sense of smell and your taste buds have been overworked from vaping too much. Simply take a break, ensure you are hydrated, and you will be back to normal in no time!
If you’ve just quit smoking and started vaping, your taste buds will still be recovering from the cigarette smoke. The longer you stay away from cigarettes, the more flavours you’ll be able to enjoy with time!