When you smoke a cigarette, you feel a strong nicotine hit in your throat and probably equate that feeling with the overall satisfaction that you derive from the experience. To switch to vaping easily and successfully, then, you need to find a combination of e-liquid and vape hardware that mimics that sensation. In the vaping community, we call that sensation “throat hit,” and throat hit is generally extremely important for those who are new to vaping.
Throat hit is the sensation that you feel in your throat as nicotine passes over the sensitive tissue. It’s actually a mild form of irritation – overpowering throat hit is one reason why many people avoid unfiltered cigarettes – but it’s also a feeling that many people associate with deep satisfaction.
So, are you a recent convert from smoking to vaping? If you are, the throat hit that you experience when you vape will undoubtedly be important to you – and getting the best throat hit is what this article is about. We’re going to discuss the aspects of your e-liquid and vaping hardware that influence throat hit, so you can fully customize your vaping experience. Let’s begin!
Not Sure What to Choose? Try a Pre-Filled Pod System
If you’re new to vaping, it’s understandable that you might feel a bit overwhelmed when you start to research the different vaping devices and e-liquids that are available. Thankfully, there’s an easy solution if you can’t make up your mind – you can simply buy a pod system with pre-filled pods. JUUL is the most popular pre-filled pod system, but there are dozens of other pod systems on the market that all have their own unique flavor selections and sets of features. When you buy a pre-filled pod system, you know that you’re getting a vaping system designed specifically to please smokers who are trying to switch to vaping. You’ll enjoy a very satisfying and cigarette-like throat hit from this type of vaping device.
As convenient and easy to use as they are, however, pre-filled pod systems also have a major drawback in that their flavor selections are limited. No pre-filled pod system has more than about 8-12 different flavors available, and you may eventually grow tired of those flavors if you’re the type of person who likes to add variety to your vaping experience.
So, what if you don’t want to be stuck with the limited selection of flavors available for one vaping device? Let’s learn more about how to customize throat hit with your hardware and e-liquid choices.
How Vaping Hardware Affects Throat Hit
As we’re about to explain, you’ll always get the strongest throat hit with a higher-nicotine e-liquid. If you want to get the best throat hit out of your vaping setup, then, you’ll need to choose a device that produces smaller vapor clouds. If you use a high-nicotine e-liquid with a high-output vaping device, you’ll find the experience overwhelming and unpleasant because you’ll get far too much nicotine in each puff of vapor. Ideally, your vaping device should produce about as much vapor as a cigarette produces smoke – so look for a device that’s small and highly portable. Small vape pens and refillable pod systems tend to be the best vaping devices for throat hit.
How can you tell whether a vaping device will give you the ideal cigarette-like throat hit that you want? The easy way to answer that question is by looking at the device’s mouthpiece. If a vaping device has a mouthpiece that’s similar in width to a cigarette filter, it’ll give you the same slight air resistance that you would get when smoking a cigarette. That’s what you want; a vaping device with a small mouthpiece is designed for mouth-to-lung inhaling. If a vaping device has a mouthpiece that’s wider than a cigarette filter, that device has unrestricted airflow and is designed for direct-to-lung inhaling. A device that’s designed for direct-to-lung inhaling works best with lower-nicotine e-liquids and will not give you a strong throat hit with those e-liquids.
How E-Liquid Affects Throat Hit
The primary way in which an e-liquid affects throat hit is in its nicotine content. A higher-nicotine e-liquid will provide a stronger throat hit. Your goal, then, is to choose an e-liquid with a high enough nicotine strength to provide the assertive throat hit you want. At the same time, you don’t want the nicotine strength to be so high that you find the vaping experience irritating and unpleasant. Experimentation will help you find the best nicotine strength for your needs.
E-liquid can have two different types of nicotine. Those types are freebase nicotine and nicotine salt. Most e-liquids use freebase nicotine. You can assume that an e-liquid uses freebase nicotine unless it says “Salt” somewhere on the label.
Nicotine salt e-liquid has an additive that makes it less alkaline. Reducing the e-liquid’s alkalinity makes it possible to create a vape juice that contains a high concentration of nicotine but doesn’t cause intense irritation in the throat and lungs.
Freebase nicotine e-liquid typically comes in strengths ranging from 0-18 mg. Nicotine salt e-liquid, on the other hand, tends to come in strengths higher than 20 mg except in regions where local laws limit the maximum nicotine strengths of e-liquids.
If you use a vape pen with a glass tank, you should generally use freebase nicotine e-liquids. If you use a refillable pod system, you should generally use nicotine salt e-liquids. Always remember, though, that a device with greater vapor production requires an e-liquid with a lower nicotine strength. While a very small vape pen may work well with an e-liquid that has a nicotine strength of 18 mg, a larger vape pen may require a lower-strength e-liquid to provide a good experience without irritating your throat and lungs.
The final thing to remember about e-liquid and throat hit is that most e-liquid contains two different base liquids: propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin (VG). A bottle of e-liquid will generally specify its PG/VG ratio on the label. Choose an e-liquid with a higher percentage of PG for the strongest throat hit.
