Sorry I've been sleeping on this blog.  I still vape and love it.  I told myself it was going to be a method to quit, but I still enjoy the hobby of it.  As many of you know, this is the Aspire Triton.  I need to get on my high horse for a second (get the ladder) and tell you what I think of Aspire's line of tanks.  I'm only writing this because I love Aspire's products overall.  I own this and the Atlantis.  I've owned the Nautilus, but it's buried somewhere deep the the bowels of my soulless vape gear.  Nautilus was a great starter tank.  It showed me that flavor without the relentless need to drip could be achieved.  Atlantis blew my mind away.  Atlantis V2 was a great show of attempt that Aspire cared about the vaper's wishes and tried to improve upon their devices.  It failed without doubt.  Triton, just holding it in my hand, looked like it was the answer that everyone needed.  Well designed.  Well machined.  Everything you could ever ask for...until you tasted it.  What a let down.  Don't get me wrong, I love the engineering and features.  Somehow, they failed in flavor production.  On top of that, it leaks more during normal use (that is, traveling in a car and leaving it in a cup holder) than any other device, save leaving a dripper upside down.  That being said, a quick quarter-turn of the cap and I'm good.  Nothing I can't make a habit.  My problem is the flavor.  Turn down the air intake, still nowhere near the Atlantis.  Final order: Atlantis-best, Atlantis V2-not so good, probably tied with Atlantis V2-Triton.  Recommendation:  Aspire, keep the improvements, fix the airflow so that flavor is not diluted.


P.S. - I still use my Atlantis over anything else.  I own 3, of which 1 leaks the least.

Cuttwood Sugar Bear

The label reads "Hand Crafted Los Angeles CA". The flavor profile:  Sugar Bear has a Sugary Cinnamon inhale paired with a Smooth Creamy body on the exhale. Reminiscent of your favorite Cinnabuns! After vaping it, I definitely give it sugar and cinnamon. It is precisely those flavors and it does it very well, maybe one of the best I've had so far in this profile. It is a little heavy on the cinnamon and might benefit from more of a sugary note or blended with creme. It might be amazing mixed with a creamy custard. It just needs something to cut the heavy cinnamon, which don't get me wrong, is spot on. It is like someone stuffed a cinnamon stick in my dripper. It fortunately avoids the fake cinnamon gum flavor I've had in other juices. I would not describe it as a cinnabun, though. It is missing the darker caramel note. With this, imagine a snickerdoodle, cinnamon toast crunch cereal, or cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on toast. It is pleasant and accurate. I'd give it a 9 out of 10. Look out for another great flavor they make, Unicorn Milk. It beats the pants off the similar Mother's Milk. Nails strawberry milk or strawberry custard like some old school Nesquik. They also make a melon juice that I have not tried. Cuttwood keeps their juice choices few, but excellent. 

Health Risks of Vaping Debunked: A Series

ScienceNews reported analysis of numerous tests on electronic cigarettes in academic journals. This article from Nicotine and Tobacco Research concludes that the higher the voltage on mods, aka the higher the temperature that you vape your juice, the more toxic volatile compounds will be released. One of the first assumptions that stood out to me was the temperature 350 degrees Celsius that researchers pulled from two other studies. They stated, "It has been estimated that theoretical vaporization temperature of the heating element may reach up to 350^oC." For all you warm blooded, non-scientific, 'Muricans out there, that's 662 degrees Fahrenheit. Seems a little steep just to get some juice to boil when water takes a third of that temperature. Finding separate corroboration proves to be slightly difficult. I found an MSDS on another site that reported the boiling and thermal decomposition temperature of vegetable glycerin to be 290^oC. It is also advised that, "irritating and highly toxic gases may be generated by thermal decomposition or combustion." Its seems that the researchers are at least in the same city as the ballpark. The MSDS for propylene glycol reported a boiling point of 187^oC and no information for the thermal decomposition. Dow, the chemical and whatever-else-they-do-in-those-labs-probably-trying-to-take-over-the-world guys, have an interesting summary of another study of the degradation of aqueous propylene glycol. The study was conducted to measure the effect of PG on oxidation of copper and aluminum alloys. When slightly heated to no more than around 101^oC, PG broke down into lactic, formic, and acetic acids, even when exposed to no metal. At that temperature after 2000 hours, formic and acetic acid seemed to be on a steady incline around 40 ppm. Lactic acid, a naturally occurring substance in common foods, was found in much higher amounts after 2000 hours at 180 ppm and exponentially increasing. Before you worry, your body already handles lactic acid on its own by breaking it down in the liver. Humans are exposed to higher-than-normal amounts when they go on a cheese binge or have low oxygen in the blood due to strenuous activity. The EPA classifies it as a low toxicity pesticide. Nicotine is also a pesticide, though. The moral of this story, boys and girls, is that other potentially toxic compounds are released when both PG and VG are heated. The same can be said for smoking, or eating, or running, though. Dow also reports the gaseous release of glycol esters in circumstances outside of thermal decomposition. That certainly does not mean your e-juice will react in exactly the same way. It just gives an idea of what is possible. To conclude, does it take 350 degrees of Celsius to heat up that delicious juice? Probably not. Is your balls to the wall sub-sub-sub-ohm hextuple "dragon inception unicorn" coil small-d**k compensation method going way to far for what is needed? I'd put my money on "yes". A future continuation of this series will try to answer just how much safer vaping can be than smoking.

Nicoticket Custard's Last Stand

Here's an update on the bottle I got a week ago that was actually mixed on 7/22/2014. I jumped the gun and tasted it right out of the package. Nothing like custard. I only purchased this flavor based on all the great reviews. I contacted Nicoticket a couple of days later asking about steeping tips specifically for this flavor. Clark referred me to this section of their site Steeping Recommendations. I have followed their instructions pretty closely. I've been doing a mix of steeping with about 30 minutes of breathing each day for 4 days now. Tonight I will let it breathe overnight with the cap and nipple off. My apprehension about this flavor is this:  I have found some phenomenal flavors that have not had to steep/breathe for them to taste much better than this one. I really do want to give this a fair shot, not because of the money I paid for it, but because I don't think that many people could be wrong about it. My initial thoughts about the juice were that it tasted artificial and inaccurate. I tasted it again after the strict 4 day steeping and breathing. It is slightly less so now. I hope this trend keeps going.

Update 8/5/14:  It smells better, but vapes nearly the same. I can't pinpoint what it is, but it is most certainly not custard. Pro tip - there are way better juices in this profile. I will be more than willing to neutrally review any other juice they carry, but I will not be spending any money on them in the future. As a standalone juice I give it 7 out of 10 for flavor, 4 out of 10 for a custard.

The Flavor Build

I can never be accused of being a cloud chaser. Feel free to hate on me here. I use drippers for air flow. I can build it so it gets better flavor than a kayfun. It is not about vapor volume dictating flavor alone. Believe what the forums tell you. A 2mm diameter 10/11 wrap of 28 gauge, preferably a double build, is just right. I get the same results out of my Tobh and Infinite. I challenge anyone to tell me differently. I'll build it and prove you wrong. Oh, and cotton.

Neckbeards Custard Spice

This is Neckbeards Custard Spice by ... you can figure it out. It currently fills the number 2 spot on my "Best Custard of Eternity" list. I purchased it less than a week ago. It was decent enough for me to buy, but I really bought it based on other reviews.  Since then, it has gotten better than when I initially tasted it. Definitely custardy. The description on their website describes a spice note upon exhale. That exists. It misses the entirety of custard-dom with its lack of much of an egg aspect. If you all are tired of hearing about eggs in custard, tough. Custards have egg. This has a leg up on some with its simplicity and the inclusion of spice. I don't detect nutmeg as that spice as standard custard recipes will include, but there is something there. Plenty of vanilla. Plenty of creme. With its 6mg of nicotine, it gives that wonderful throat tingle that some detect in custards. I thing that level works with this category and adds to the flavor composition to give it what it needs.

Lazarus Vintage

I want to call your attention to the stunning Sir James VSOP juice in the treasure chest.  If you don't know about it, stop everything! Get some. Thank me later. Without having a description from Lazarus Vintage, I can only give you what I taste. The most prominent flavor is a chocolate liqueur. When I say chocolate, think dark dry chocolate that the most delectable truffles are rolled in. It is easily at the top of my list of dessert vapes. What sets this apart from almost every other juice is that it is barrel aged, thus smooth and exclusive. It is flanked by No. 1 and Trinity Reserve, two solid flavors from their current line. Unlike other juice companies, these flavors do not strive to mimic something precisely.  They are just GOOD! This means that you can vape it all month long without getting tired of a specific taste.