Millions of former smokers around the world have put their cigarettes down for good because vaping has proven to be a compelling enough alternative for those people to make the switch. Those who have successfully switched to vaping haven’t just made that decision because vaping costs less than smoking or because many researchers agree that vaping appears less harmful. They’ve also made the switch because vaping tastes infinitely better than smoking. No matter how good the tobacco blend in a cigarette may be, it can never taste like anything but tobacco. When you vape, you can experience hundreds of different flavors ranging from blue raspberry ice to chocolate chip cookies.
There is no end to the variety of flavors available in the vaping industry – at least, that’s the case until the day you realize you can no longer taste your e-liquid. That’s right; vapers around the world periodically suffer from a form of palate fatigue that the community has colloquially called “vaper’s tongue.” Annoying as vaper’s tongue may be, it’s just a sign that your palate is on overload. Not only is it easily cured, but if you keep these tips in mind, you’ll likely find that you enjoy your favorite e-liquids even more than ever.
Drink Plenty of Water When Vaping
Vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol are the two most plentiful ingredients in any e-liquid. Both of those compounds absorb and trap moisture, which is one reason why they’re used to help prevent shelf-stable foods from becoming stale. While that feature may be good for foods, it can lead to the unpleasant side effect of dry mouth when you vape. If your palate is overly dry, nothing will taste quite as it should. Always drink plenty of water when vaping.
Keep Your Mouth Clean
If you want to taste every nuance of your favorite e-liquids, you’ve got to keep your mouth clean. Suppose, for example, that you’re the type who likes to drink sugary soda throughout the day. The soda might taste good, but it’s going to leave a coating of sugar in your mouth that will make it difficult to taste anything else. Keep your mouth clean if you want to taste your e-liquid.
Try a Palate Cleanser
Has an attendant at a perfume shop ever offered you coffee grounds to sniff after testing different scents? Perfume is strongly scented, and olfactory fatigue can set in after you’ve sampled a few products. Suddenly, every perfume smells the same. Coffee grounds function as a sort of palate cleanser for the nose. They’re strongly scented, but they smell nothing like perfume. They help to reset your sense of smell, allowing you to sample more scents. Likewise, people often use palate cleansers between samples of things like coffee, chocolate and wine. If you’re having trouble tasting your e-liquid, it might be time to reset your palate. Some popular palate cleansers include:
- Still or carbonated water
- Lemon
- Black coffee
- Dark chocolate
- Milk
- Pickled ginger
Change Your E-Liquid Flavor
Changing e-liquids constantly throughout the day – or using a single e-liquid for too long – can both cause vaper’s tongue for different reasons. If you’re always changing flavors, you’re overloading your palate and are losing sensitivity to the nuances of those flavors. It’s much the same as sampling several perfumes in quick succession. If you use nothing but the same e-liquid all of the time, on the other hand, your palate can start to become numb to the flavor.
In either case, the fix is simple. If you’re constantly switching flavors, pick one and stick with it. If you’ve been using one flavor for too long, try a new one. Flavor fatigue is one reason why many people establish e-liquid rotations. If you use a new e-liquid each day – or one e-liquid in the morning and another in the evening – you’ll probably never have to worry about palate fatigue.
Try an Unflavored E-Liquid
The ultimate fix for vaper’s tongue is to remove flavor from the equation entirely by using an unflavored e-liquid. No, using unflavored e-liquid isn’t the most exciting way to vape – but you may end up enjoying it more than you think. Firstly, flavorless e-liquid is cheap. You can buy a big bottle and keep it around for those days when you run out of your normal e-liquid and don’t feel like running out to the vape shop.
Also, unflavored e-liquid isn’t technically flavorless; propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin and nicotine all have flavors of their own. Some former smokers swear by unflavored e-liquid as the perfect replacement for tobacco cigarettes because nicotine is the most prominent flavor. Also, the best part about switching to an unflavored e-liquid temporarily is that when you return to your favorite vape juice, the flavor will really pop.
Replace Your Coil
The final thing to keep in mind about vaper’s tongue is that your palate may not always be to blame when you can’t taste your e-liquid. Are you having trouble tasting anything at all when you vape, or is it just that you can’t taste the nuances of your e-liquid because the flavor of burned sugar covers the other notes? If you taste an overpowering burned sugar flavor when you vape – a sense of throat irritation may accompany that flavor – your palate isn’t the cause of the problem. You’re actually using a coil that’s coated with caramelized sucralose.
Sucralose is the most popular sweetener for e-liquid. It adds no calories, and it makes any e-liquid taste almost like candy. The problem with sucralose, though, is that it doesn’t vaporize. It sticks to the coil, and it forms a layer that caramelizes and eventually burns. When you vape and can’t taste anything but “coil gunk,” the only thing that you can do to begin tasting your e-liquid again is replace the coil. If you switch to an unsweetened e-liquid, you’ll enjoy much better coil life. Try an unsweetened e-liquid if you’re tired of replacing your coil each day.