Vaping With Julia – And The Beat Goes On…

“Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain

La de da de de, la de da de da…” – Sonny & Cher

Boy am I ever glad it’s Friday! This has been one hell of a week. Playing catch up is never fun, and it’s especially ‘not fun’ when all is said and done and you’re still behind. But, it is Friday like I said, so that’s a good sign.

We have a ton of reviews coming your way next week, including an eLiquid review I wasn’t a part of! The next 10 or so eLiquids from Mt Baker Vapor have been vaped and scored, with John as the head writer this time because I was up north while it was going on. From what I am hearing there is a whole bunch of great scores in this batch, from Caramel Coffee (a Tom fav) to Sticky Bun and Mango, favorites of John and Jason. I see at least a couple of Spinfuel Choice Awards going to Mt Baker Vapor next week.

Tom is working on a VAMO Rev 2 review that he is just about done with. His favorite APV is a VAMO and apparently the Rev 2 has some cool changes. This time he’s working with a chrome finish VAMO 2, and he is thrilled with it.

There are also some other eLiquid reviews in the works, including some from SnG and Evo eLiquid. Lots of promise with these two brands. SnG has a Pear flavored ejuice that Keira got a hold of and wound up vaping about 8 out of the 10ML, leaving me with just 2ML. The SnG flavors are only about 4 or 5 in the bunch so it won’t take long for her and I to get that review done and published. The Evo eLiquid is going to take longer because there are several flavors involved. Smaller bottles that usual, so its only going to be me, Keira and Tom vaping those flavors.

The shootout between the Innokin iClear 30 and the Kanger ProTank was supposed to be published today, but it just wasn’t quite right so we pushed it back till Monday. I think you’re going to be very surprised by the results. Results we are ALL in agreement with, by the way. The review is going to be controversial in the vape community and I don’t know about you, but I am tired of having a few people, or a couple of companies, dictating what should be a huge seller and what shouldn’t. In order for a product to get a good review in Spinfuel it has to be a GOOD product, no matter what company you are or how big your marketing and PR firm is. ‘Nuff said.

Let’s see, what else went on this week?

There has been a lot of discussion around here to cut way back on the reviews, at least hardware reviews. Truth be told, there hasn’t been much in the way of breakthroughs in the vaping technology and just because a product is new it doesn’t mean its better than what’s been out for a while. Besides, the Halo Triton was a wonderful surprise, we all LOVE the product, and there are a couple of ego-style hardware kits we’re writing about because they are great values and trusted technology. The things we have in the pipeline, the things we are currently using and testing, will be the last ones for a few weeks. I hope. You never know though, John might get a call from some company somewhere that want us to try something and he’ll agree to it. So, maybe I should rephrase that and say we’re going to try and be more careful about the products we review.

We think our efforts and best be spent talking about the e-cigarette industry, various companies, and the people behind them. That means more interviews, more tutorials, more opinion pieces, and more articles you can actually use. I mean, if you’re all set with your hardware choice there’s not much reason to read about something that is only slightly different than what you already have, right?

Wouldn’t you love to read more interviews? Dave, our administrator, gives us weekly reports on what people are reading and every time we publish an interview it gets read by a whole lot of people. So, let’s do more interviews! (I’m going to interview my hero, Jon, at MyVaporStore, whether he wants to or not. This guy is wonderful! So generous with Spinfuel and with his customers.) There are a bunch of people I want to talk to in this industry, from Johnson Creek’s Heidi and Bob to Ginger at Ginger’s eJuice and so many more.

That’s not to say there won’t be hardware reviews, it just means we are no longer going to try and be the first to review a new APV or some new clearomizer. Why not spend more time talking about how to get the most out of what you already have?

And that reminds me of something John and I have been talking about since yesterday morning. We know several vendors selling hardware, and they’ve been telling us some real horrors stories about the Chinese companies and how they are beginning to play games with raising minimum orders from 100 to 500, or 5000 or charging almost double for something new, and holding back orders, losing them, and just all kinds of nastiness. I don’t like it, and I think that once these vendors get tired of being jerked around there will be a much larger market for American Made products. Provari sells a ton of hardware, all American Made, and despite the cost being somewhat higher, so is the quality. Personally, I would gladly pay a little more for an American made product. Do you really think we’d have as much trouble with our batteries and clearos if they were made right here in the US or even in the UK?

Speaking of American Made, we haven’t reviewed a single Chinese made eLiquid in months. We do have one coming up, but only because it’s from 777 eCigs and they DO have a staff in China that makes their eLiquid, so yea, they take advantage of the lower cost of producing the product but they do CARE about the product, and it really doesn’t have that Chinese eLiquid flavor to it. The first time I tried one of their flavors I swore it was an American eLiquid. Other than them, we don’t plan on promoting any Chinese eLiquid for the foreseeable future. There is more than enough American eLiquid companies out there and we want to spend more time working with them, especially the one’s we’ve already reviewed, and trust. Always new flavors coming out, so why not revisit them and bring you guys up to date?

Finally, you’ve probably seen the popup Ad for Hurricane Vapor when you drop by. These guys opened for business today and I want to tell you, they have some really great eJuice. If you’re looking to try something new you guys need to go over to hurricanevapor.com and place an order for a couple of bottles. Christian and Lisa have put their heart and soul into Hurricane Vapor and it shows in the quality of their juice. I can’t wait to get my order!

Well, that’s about it for this Friday. Sorry to be so short but there is a ton of stuff left to do before Keira and I head out to dinner and a movie. Date Night!

Vape Away My Lovelies!