Last Updated on February 5, 2016 by
Mister E-Liquid -Interview
SPINFUEL: Welcome to the pages of Spinfuel. We’ve been looking to talk to you for some time now. Would you like to introduce yourselves to our readers?
Hi, my name is Dan Lawitzke and I am the president and owner of Mister-E-Liquid.com and Mister-E’s Vape Shop. We manufacture Premium E-Liquid right here in Grand Rapids, MI.
SPINFUEL: Getting down to business; Who or what inspired you to get into the e-juice business? When was that?
I got into vaping after I saw a friend using an eGo. This was back when eGo batteries had just hit the market. He told me it helped him stop smoking so I went out the next day and picked up my first kit from a local smoke shop. It was a stick battery with a PCC case which left me unsatisfied so a few days later I picked up my first eGo kit.
SPINFUEL: Where are you located? What’s the local and state level situation there with electronic cigarettes? What’s the “attitude” of the people there about eCigarettes?
We are located in the great state of Michigan’s second largest city: Grand Rapids. One of the only growing cities in Michigan, Grand Rapids is known for our museums, art fairs, music festivals, furniture industry, Amway, and Grand Valley State University. Grand Rapids is also well known for being one of the greenest cities in America, with the most LEED-Certified skyline in the US. With over 1.5 million in the greater Grand Rapids Area, and only 40 min from Lake Michigan, GR is a wonderful place to visit and vacation. The vaping industry in Michigan is growing very fast and people are incredibly supportive of vaping and vape companies. We couldn’t ask for a better city for the MEL headquarters.
SPINFUEL: It seems that no matter how many eLiquid vendors we review, they all have their own “signature” recipes. Each brand is different, which I find remarkable. With just a handful of ingredients each company is able to create their own specific traits. How would you describe your signature?
We specialize in fruity, candy type flavors, delicious baked good type juices as well as a solid tobacco offering. But where we really shine is our Ice Collection. The Ice Collection offers fruity flavors blended with Menthol for a bold, in your face vape that’s as cold as ice.
SPINFUEL: We steep all the eLiquids we receive for review purposes, even if we’re told there is no need to do so. It’s become a habit I suppose. Do you steep your eLiquids before they are shipped? If so, how long do they sit before you ship them out? If you do not, do you suggest that customers ‘home steep’ them before vaping?
Mister-E-Liquid is handmade to order. We make the juice after the order is placed to guarantee freshness, this also gives the ability to create custom juice just for our customers. We always suggest to steep our E-Liquid for 7 days. Simply store the juice in a cool dark place, allowing them to blend well will result in increased flavor, vapor production and an overall better vaping experience.
SPINFUEL: Let’s talk about packaging. How are your eLiquids packaged?
Our E-Liquid is housed in plastic 6ml, 18ml, and 36ml bottles. At Mister-E-Liquid we hand write our labels. We feel like this gives our customers a much more personal experience. There are real people making our juice and many of our customers know our lab technicians on a first name basis because we handwrite our labels and hand write messages on the customer invoices. We believe that this provides a much more in-depth customer to vendor relationship that keeps our customers coming back for more. We package all of the bottles in a given order into plastic bags to prevent any leaking during shipping. We then apply a tamper evident label which seals the bags so when juice leaves our lab, it is guaranteed to be clean and contaminant free.
SPINFUEL: There is a lot of concern these days about how and where eLiquids are being made. Could you describe your ‘mixing’ area? Where do you do your mixing?
The Lab at Mister-E-Liquid operates on fully nonporous working surfaces. We use stainless steel tables, antimicrobial/antibacterial lab chairs, as well as one piece vinyl flooring. We use highly accurate nicotine dispensing equipment that is accurate within .5% and is NIST calibrated and certified. As a founding member of AEMSA our Lab is to AEMSA spec and exceeds FDA recommended standards for consumable products. Every surface in our lab is cleaned and sterilized daily as well as scheduled maintenance and cleaning of all mixing equipment. We take the manufacturing process very seriously and we do not cut corners when it comes to cleanliness, sterilization, and safety. We send samples of every batch of nicotine that we receive to a private lab for a full GCMS evaluation as well as monthly GCMS tests of final products. Our customers want to know that the products they are receiving are safe for them to use and these GCMS tests ensure the quality of our E-Liquid. In the coming months, we have plans to publish the results of these tests on our website for everyone to see. We want to remain as transparent and credible as possible.
SPINFUEL: Does your crew wear any type of special clothing when they are mixing?
Our lab team wears MEL work shirts as well as aprons, gloves, eye protection, and hats or hair nets at all times while in the lab. We also have hand washing procedures, illness procedures, cuts and scrapes procedures and a strict no food or open drink procedure to ensure the cleanliness of our products and our lab.
SPINFUEL: Do you mix everyday?
At Mister-E-Liquid, we manufacture juice from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm every day except for Sundays.
SPINFUEL: What is your suggested PG/VG ratio for your eJuice? Is there a reason for that ratio?
Our MEL custom blend is 33%VG. We feel this ratio gives a very well rounded vape, pronouncing great flavor, throat hit and vapor qualities. We arrived at 33% after months of testing and tweaking until we finally reached our goal of a well-balanced base ratio.
Personal Vaping
SPINFUEL: Were you a smoker before you switched to vaping? If so, what made you decide to quit smoking?
I was a smoker for 6 years. I switched to vaping because, as a musician and a singer, I started to notice I was working harder to sing while on stage. My voice was becoming deeper and I had developed a bit of a smokers cough. And, since I love playing music much more than smoking, I made a commitment to quit. After I took my first puff off of a personal vaporizer I was hooked and never looked back.
SPINFUEL: What type (and/or brand) of eCigarette did you use to break away from analogs?
I would have to say that it was an eGo that got me off of the analogs. I started with a 401 type of ecig and it really didn’t have the power to replace my Marlboro Smooths. Once I finally picked up an eGo (they had just hit the market) I was in love and there was no way I was going back.
SPINFUEL: How long did it take to completely leave analogs behind?
It took me about a week to quit smoking completely. I would find myself smoking 1-3 cigarettes a day and finally I told myself that enough was enough and that was that.
SPINFUEL: Do you have a “favorite” flavor? What is your favorite category of eLiquids for your personal vaping? Fruity, tobacco-based, sweet, and so forth?
I have 4 favorite flavors, they include Pure Michigan, VapeNectar, Dime Piece, and Calypso (all MEL blends). My favorite type of vape is most definitely fruity and sweet but unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of time to vape my favorites because I spend most of my days working on new mixes and testing new flavors that our lab technicians are coming up with. It is awesome to work with our employees to fine tune juices that they have created, but at the end of the day I have to choose if and when a juice hits the website, so I am very selective when it comes to new flavors. Only the great ones will be beta tested and only the best will make it up on the website.
SPINFUEL: What makes a good eLiquid? In other words, what order of importance are flavor, vapor, and throat hit in a Mister E-Liquid flavor?
Flavor and throat hit are my top priorities. It has to taste good afterall, and if I don’t receive that crunch in the back of my throat when I take a draw, then I am not interested. I would like to see a lot of vapor, but flavor and throat hit are my top priorities.
SPINFUEL: Where do you think the ecig industry is headed? Are eCigs the future of smoking?
I believe that eCigs are the future of smoking and I am not the only one who thinks so. With big tobacco buying up companies like BluCigs, we now know that the tobacco industry feels the same way. Welcome to the future, happy vaping!
SPINFUEL: Why should our readers buy their e-juice from you?
We invite the Spinfuel readers to try our products. We are an honest hardworking company who started from nothing and has turned into a widely known name in the vaping community. We have done this by exceeding expectations, delivering high quality products, and doing business in an honest and trustworthy way. At Mister-E-Liquid, we ensure that our products are manufactured in a clean safe environment and we take every precaution to make sure we can deliver the best product that we can. At the end of the day taste is subjective, not everyone will like every flavor, but our reputation will show that we know what we are doing. We love what we do and it shows in our products. We would like to thank SpinFuel for taking the time to review our products we hope you enjoyed them, thank you very much and to all the vapers out there… Happy Vaping!
SPINFUEL: I can’t thank you enough for talking with us today, even if it through email. We really enjoyed your eLiquids and we look forward to arranging a “sequel” down the road.
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