Disposable vapes have made more than a big splash since landing on UK shelves in 2021/22. Most people will be aware, that from youth access issues to illegal stock, the small, brightly coloured vapes have sparked a lot of debate.
Regardless of controversy, the British vaping public en-masse have begun to use disposables, and regularly tout the fact that they are very enjoyable to use, thanks to an amazing flavour.
Why is this the case however? As expert e-liquid manufacturers, the LiQuid team know a thing or two about what makes a good vape juice, and we’d like to help explain to you why these little devices seem to taste so damn good!
Disposable Vape Design
Firstly, we need to take a look at the design of a typical disposable vape. We don’t mean the funky patterns, colours, or even shapes – this is all about airflow.
For those not in-the-know, airflow is really important when it comes to both flavour and vapour delivery. A more open flow allows more vapour to pass through without obstruction, which delivers a bolder hit of flavour in-turn.
Many similar sized devices like the EDGE Go or SMOK Novo 2 have tighter airflow, intended to more closely replicate the draw of a cigarette, granting familiarity for the type of users who tend to start their journey with such kits.
Disposables however take the convenience of the small pod format (albeit without the pod as they are a single unit) and gives it an open airflow comparable to a more advanced kit like the Vaporesso Xros 3 or Aspire Flexus Q.
This means they are tailored to deliver optimised flavour, and that’s before we get into what they’ve actually put in that ‘moreish’ vape juice within.
Disposable Vape Flavourings
On of the main things people comment on when describing disposable vape flavours are how sweet and refreshing they are, particularly the fruit flavours. While it would be pretty cool if the developers had cracked the secret to perfect flavour, unfortunately this isn’t the case, and there is a little bit of flavourist trickery going on.
The sweetness is created by adding sweetener to the e-liquid. While this is a pretty standard practice for many vape flavours, particularly fruits, desserts, and drink style flavours, the extreme level at which the Chinese-made vape juice in disposables is added far exceeds normal levels. These vapes are seriously sweetened!
Now alongside this sweetness, the refreshing aspect is nothing to do with the actual flavour concentrates themselves either. It is down to something called ‘WS23’ a cooling agent. What we mean by that, is it is an ingredient, albeit stable and safe, that adds a flavourless cool sensation to whatever flavour it is added to – imagine the blast you get from menthol or mint, but without any minty flavour at all.
Cooling agents are great for vape flavours, because it means we can actually make a berry taste frozen, or an ice cream flavour taste like it just came out of the freezer, but it is not needed in every flavour, at least not if your base flavour is decent quality.
This brings us onto the main thing to bear in mind about disposable vape flavours, we won’t deny they taste pretty good, but the amount of sweetener and cooling agent they add disguises what could be poor quality flavourings. Taking into account the fact they are produced in China, and them imported, this adds an extra layer of concern vs juices like ours which are made in the UK, under strict TRPR regulations and MHRA approval systems.
The next time you puff on a disposable, just remember that sweet freshness could be masking a pretty nasty flavour beneath, so if you must, buy them with caution from trusted retailers only, or just save yourself the hassle and shop our range.
Disposable Vape Nicotine Salts
Adding to the sweetener and cooling agents, every disposable vape on the market utilises a special kind of nicotine call nicotine salt. While this does not mean we’ve salt-baed a few granules into each batch, it does mean the nicotine is modified during manufacture, to have a neutral taste.
Nicotine is naturally very alkali in pH, this is why freebase e-liquids have a throat hit that increases as you move up the strengths from 0mg nicotine free up to 18mg.
Nic salts are combined with a ‘salt acid’ molecule, which neutralises this alkali effect, resulting in an incredibly smooth taste that makes disposables even more palatable. It also does a lot to mask the higher strength of the products, which is often 20mg, written as 2%, the highest amount legally allowed in a UK e-liquid.
You can learn more about nic salts here.
How To Replicate The Disposable Vaping Experience Without Buying Into The Fad
It’s not actually too hard to build you own “disposable cessation” kit, all you need is to choose a pod device, refillable ones will give you the least waste and increased lifespan like the Innokin Klypse, however for uber-convenience choose a pre-filled pod device like the EDGE GO.
Pair this kit with a nic salt e-liquid in either 10mg or 20mg, and in a flavour that suits you! our nic salts are blended properly, and only use cooling and sweetener where necessary. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a nic salt, but this will give you a more like-for-like experience.
And that’s all you need! Keep topped up with vape juice and coils with a LiQuid Subscriptions and you’ll never need to waste money on a disposable vape again (the planet will thank you!)
