UNBROKEN LIQUID
INTERVIEW

Read The Unbroken Liquid Review Here

SPINFUEL: Welcome to the pages of Spinfuel. We’ve been looking forward to talking to you. Would you like to introduce yourselves to our readers?

JUSTIN: Thank you, my name is Justin Wiesehan and I am the VP of Marketing at Unbroken E-Liquids. Unbroken is a line of premium e-liquids that we developed exclusively for the vape shop channel. Unbroken liquids are derived from natural extracts from fruits found in the Amazon rainforest and Brazil. There are five fruits we use for extraction: Carambola named Aurora, Jabuticaba named Root, Guarana named Haven, Pitanga named Raw, and Cupuacu named Rain.

All of the names have back stories that match something about the fruit and its origins in Brazil. Those back stories can be found on our website, .

SPINFUEL: What position(s) do you hold in the company?

JUSTIN: Vice President of Marketing

SPINFUEL: Who or what inspired you to get into the eLiquid business? When was that?

JUSTIN: Our company has actually been in the vape industry since 2009. We first developed the Mistic brand of cig-alikes back then and gained distribution in national retail. Since then, we have developed an ego type PV (Personal Vaporizer) for mass retail branded Haus.
Mistic and Haus are in over 70,000 traditional retail doors today. In the middle of 2014, we recognized a shift in the vaping industry and with vape consumers. A good portion of those consumers that had bought at traditional retail stores, like c-stores, drug stores, mass merchants, etc, were changing their buying habits. They were migrating to vape shops. We saw this shift and wanted to follow the consumer to where they shopped while still offering a superior product. That is when we began to develop Unbroken, that was in late 2014. After months of developed we finally landed on the five flavors you see in the Unbroken line today. We officially launched with the brand in May 2015.

SPINFUEL: Where are you located? What’s the local and state level situation there with respect to electronic cigarettes? What’s the “attitude” of the people there about eCigarettes?

JUSTIN: We are located in Charlotte, NC. Currently the local and state level situation on vaping is about the same as it is nationwide. Vape consumers and advocates are continuing to fight for their rights to vape and are faced with many challenges. North Carolina recently enacted a tax on all vaping products based on milliliters of liquid contained within the product.

North Carolina is also becoming a hot bed for vape shops. There are many successful vape shops in the Charlotte area and some have even begun franchising and expanding outside of the city and state lines.

SPINFUEL: When you launched your company how did you decide on your first flavor or “set” of flavors?

JUSTIN: We wanted to develop a line of premium e-liquids that were different from everything else on the market. Everyone is pushing cereal, dessert, custard type flavors. We didn’t want to be another “me-too” brand. Our chief flavorist is from Brazil, so when we approached her with the challenge to create something different, a light bulb went off. You can’t buy a lot of amazonian fruits in the states, in fact you can really only get one, carambola, better known in the US as starfruit. Being from Brazil, our flavorist knows and has tasted all of the fruits that we use in our liquid and knew they would be unique and distinct tastes for the US market. Because they aren’t available in the US, these fruits would be something new for the vape consumers, which was our goal. To create something unique and different, something that consumers have never experienced before.

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, and exciting too. With just a handful of ingredients each company is able to create their own specific traits. How would you describe your signature?

JUSTIN: Our signature is based on the uniqueness of the flavor. These liquids have never been tasted before by the US consumers. It gives them something new to try and experience. It’s also a double edged sword, because they are so different, some people are taken aback by them at first, but once they continue to vape them, they come to love them. It is almost like we have developed a line that is an acquired taste.

SPINFUEL:  Do you steep your eLiquids before they are shipped to customers? 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?

JUSTIN: The liquids are steeped, I cannot divulge for how long as that is a trade secret. But they are steeped for a period of time to enhance flavor.

SPINFUEL: Let’s talk about packaging. How are your eLiquids packaged?

JUSTIN: Our liquids are packaged in a 30ML green square bottle. This goes right in line with our whole strategy of being different. Everyone is in a round clear bottle. We wanted to stand out as different when displayed in a vape shop. We went with the green bottle because it is identifiable with the Amazon rainforest and Brazil. When you think Amazon you think lush green landscape. The color of the bottle and the bottles labels all stay true to our all natural extracts and the Amazon.

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, bottling, and shipping?

JUSTIN: We do all our extraction, mixing, and bottle filing in a facility in North Carolina. Everything is done in an ISO 8 Class 100,000 clean room. Once the bottles are filled, they are sent to our shipping facility in Charlotte, NC and shipped out to the vape shops or distributor.

SPINFUEL: How do you make sure your mixing tools and containers are kept clean and sterile?

JUSTIN: Everything is done by ISO 8 Class 100,000 clean room standards

 

SPINFUEL: Does your crew wear any type of special clothing when they are mixing?

JUSTIN: Yes, to our clean room standards.

SPINFUEL: Do you have a specific audience in mind for your eLiquids? In other words, are your eliquids best used with cartomizers, tanks, and clearomizers? Are they blended for dripping, or subohm coils?

JUSTIN: Our liquid is made at a 50/50 VG/PG ratio so it is targeted toward tank, sub-ohm, and drippers. Some drippers were skeptical at first about the VG/PG ratio, but after testing them, they were surprised by the cloud they were still able to produce. We tried to go higher in VG but once we got above 50/50, the VG compromised the quality of flavor. Because we are dealing with all natural extracts from fruits, solubility started to be compromised the higher VG we went, so we stuck with 50/50 which delivers the best flavor.

SPINFUEL: What types of hardware do you use when testing your liquids? Is there any specific hardware that provides the best ‘vape’ for your eLiquids?

JUSTIN: We use every type of hardware when testing. We test on ego style tank units, sub-ohm tanks, clearomizers, etc to ensure that our liquids perform with all types of hardware.

 

SPINFUEL: Were you a smoker before you switched to vaping? If so, what made you decide to quit smoking?

JUSTIN: I was a smoker, but ironically I did not quit smoking by way of vaping. I quit smoking cold turkey when my daughter was born. I later took up vaping when I got into the industry.

SPINFUEL: What type (and/or brand) of eCigarette did you use to break away from analogs?

JUSTIN: Like most people I started with a cig-alike. A Mistic actually, because that was the first ecigarette we sold. From there I went to our Haus branded ego type unit and now I use a Kanger sub-ohm MOD.

SPINFUEL: How often do you vape? How many hours per day?

JUSTIN: I vape all day, everyday. Our liquids are so good i can’t put this stuff down!

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?

JUSTIN: My favorite flavor is our Raw liquid for Unbroken. It is a sweet, sugary cherry type flavor that is so clean and crisp.

SPINFUEL: What makes a good eLiquid? In other words, what order of importance are flavor, vapor, and throat hit in your e-Liquids?

JUSTIN: I think flavor is the most important, if it doesn’t taste good, you aren’t going to continue to vape it. I would say throat hit is second and vapor production is third.

SPINFUEL: Where do you think the ecigarette industry is headed? Do you have any predictions on the upcoming FDA regulations?

JUSTIN: I think FDA is going to come down with something soon. What will it be, no one knows. Hopefully we can begin to shed light on the harm reduction that we believe vaping is doing. That would be big. More tests have to be done and studies complete, but the future is bright for the industry I believe.

SPINFUEL: Why should our readers buy their eLiquid from you?

JUSTIN: Our liquid is unique and different. Having the ability to offer your customer something they have never tried before, that is also a good flavor, is something that will become important. No one wants to vape custard, dessert, and cereal forever!

SPINFUEL: I can’t thank you enough for talking with us today, even if it is through email. We really enjoyed your eLiquids and we look forward to arranging a “sequel” down the road!! 🙂

JUSTIN: Thank you very much, it has been a pleasure speaking with you guys and thank you so much for reviewing our liquid! We are always evolving as a company and try to stay ahead of the curve, I can assure you we have more coming very soon and look forward to the sequel!