Last year I wrote about my decision to quit smoking, and I think my continued contribution into the pockets of the makers of Camel cigarettes proved that my efforts were somewhat failing... My husband's steadfast dedication to his nicotine fix certainly didn't help either, add a few glasses of wine and the answer to "Are you coming for a smoke?" annoyingly becomes a swift affirmative. Or at least it used to...
One of my best friends discovered something a few months ago, an e-cigarette known as the Odyssey. This little (and when I say little it is with a huge dose of tongue in cheek, it being one of the heftiest fake cigarettes I've ever seen) gizmo combines flavoured oil with a touch of nicotine and you're basically smoking water vapour once the battery is applied and the burner heats the oil.
Well I figured anything that could change someone from smoking a twenty deck a day, scarily at a cost of about £250 a month, to using just this Odyssey at about £35 a month for oils was worth a punt. So I bit the bullet and logged on to order one.
The next day my package of new "smoking" paraphernalia turned up and I excitedly tore into the box and put the Odyssey together. It takes five to ten minutes to prime the cartomizer which is where the oil burns and produces the steam, but other than that it's pretty quick to assemble. It also comes with two rechargeable batteries which is brilliant because otherwise you'd have to buy so many it would become ridiculously expensive! So anyway, it's all assembled, and I've primed and filled it with my oil of choice, I went for cherry which actually tastes like cherry drops for those my age, cherry lips for anyone younger... ;) Well, thought I, time to give it a try!
This is when I hit my little gripe at the Odyssey. Rechargeable batteries are brilliant, until you realise that you can't use any other batteries in it and the ones they send you arrive without any charge... So having bought and assembled your new toy, you can't use it for at least four hours wile the batteries charge. I think I gave up after three hours and put a partially charged one in there which was fine but still kind of annoying. For me it didn't make much a difference, I didn't smoke many a day at that point but for someone who does smoke heavily they probably end up doing five or six cigarettes while waiting to be able to quit smoking... Lol!!
This hurdle overcome I started on the Odyssey proper, and I'll tell you what, it's lovely! The flavours in the oils don't taste horribly chemical, they're actually very pleasant, although obviously some experimenting is needed to find the right flavour. Within a week I was a little sick of the cherry flavouring, but this might also have something to do with the cartomizer, as the original set comes with a single coil cartomizer which burns oil quite unevenly, burns it fast so you get through a lot of it initially and is also prone to flooding which means you end up with a touch of warm oil in your mouth; not pleasant I assure you!
At this point I'd probably had one cigarette in the week I'd been using the Odyssey, so it was working but the issues I was having and the amount of oil I was using was starting to put me off. On the advice of the friend who'd originally put me onto this path I ordered some dual coil cartomizers along with some new oil, this time I decided to try coconut.
Although I should've had them the next day it took a couple to turn up, though I would say that was due to Royal Mail's issue and not the company I ordered from. Once installed, primed and coconut'd I gave it another try. What a difference!!! The coconut was a nicer taste, to me anyway, the dual coil was much more efficient and gave me a smoother flavour as well as burning at a better rate. One pot of oil lasted me about a week with the initial combo of single coil and cherry, on the dual coil with the coconut it's lasted me three...!
So, now I've been using the Odyssey for four weeks basically, during which time I've not bought any cigarettes, I've still got five or six in the box I bought over a month ago sat in the living room, and I've had maybe four cigarettes at the pub. Two things with the ones I have had though -
1) I have only smoked cigarettes when I've run out of batteries so can't use the Odyssey.
2) The cigarettes I've had since moving off them? Tasted fucking vile!!!! Seriously how did I manage puffing on like five or ten of those things a day?! Bleugh!
So personally I'm sold, no smoke or tar, and you can choose the level of nicotine from 0 to 32mg per pot of oil. So if, like me, your addiction is more about the physical smoking rather than the nicotine it's perfect! At the moment I'm using the 8mg nicotine setting, it's the lowest one, but I think in a couple of weeks I'll just drop it down to 0mg.
So I think I can pretty much now say I don't smoke, I vape. Ladies and gentleman, I am a vapist!
Check it out for yourself those of you who smoke, you never know, you might like it!
www.totallywicked-eliquid.co.uk
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