Experiencing Blu Electronic Cigarettes
I’ve been smoking for eight years. Something about going outside for five minutes, burning something and inhaling harsh air has been strangely appealing to me. However, a new healthcare initiative at my workplace and mounting scientific evidence suggesting I was steering myself toward an early grave convinced me I needed to stop smoking.
So I quit, often for several months at a time. But it was the lifestyle that kept pulling me back. I liked my smoke breaks; they helped me think, served to punctuate conversation, and generally offered a small window of time away from whatever else I was doing. Thanks to Blu, that’s all behind me now.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, Blu electronic cigarettes are battery-powered atomizers that resemble a conventional cigarette in feel and appearance, but vaporize a relatively harmless nicotine/glycerin compound without emitting any offensive odors. They’re really phenomenal devices.
A bit heavier than an old-fashioned cigarette, a Blu is a smooth black cylinder with a blue light on the end that illuminates when you take a puff, simulating the smoldering tip of a traditional smoke. The vapor it produces is relatively cool and comes in several flavor varieties as well as nicotine strengths.
The Blu Premium starter kit comes with two batteries (a cartridge refers to the filter portion of the e-cigarette, the battery being the remaining length including the blue indicator light at the end), a rechargeable battery pack disguised as a pack of cigarettes and a five-pack of your choice of cartridge flavor. The pack is impressive; it stores all five cartridges as well as your active e-cigarette and a spare battery in a charging compartment. Indicator lights on the side communicate the charge level of both the pack and its currently-charging battery, and the whole apparatus recharges via a USB cable and wall adapter.
The smoking experience with the Menthol cartridges is very pleasurable. The taste is on par with that of a Camel Crush, once the mint capsule has been activated. With a small draw from the tip, you can produce a great cloud of vapor that dissipates almost instantly, and a couple of puffs is all it takes to feel the nicotine go to work. I’ve never been one to experience nicotine highs before, but it’s easy for me to tell when to put the Blu down. If you drag on it too many times in a minute, the tip will flash warning you to take it easy, thus preventing the atomizer from overheating and you from imbibing too much nicotine. One of these cartridges is expected to last as long as a pack of analog cigarettes.
I promptly ordered the coffee-flavored “Java Jolt” cartridges to try next, since coffee is one of my longest-running affairs, and was extremely disappointed. The taste I could overlook if it weren’t such an abysmal experience to smoke. (They taste, by the way, more like burnt Corn Nuts than any kind of coffee I’ve ever enjoyed.) My main objection to these Java cartridges is that they take three or four puffs just to get the vaporization going, and it’s hardly worth the effort.
The best part of the Magnificent Menthols is that smoking one is completely effortless; just like smoking a tobacco cigarette. The Java Jolts resemble getting a pipe going and leave you puffing away every time you want one lungful of tasty vapor. Then the taste is horrid enough that you quickly put the e-cig down.
Blu Customer Support is fantastic; I’ve always been able to get a chat representative within a minute of engaging the session. My representative suggested that I tap the device like I would tap a pack of cigarettes, as the contents of the cartridge may have “settled” in a way that interferes with the functionality of the atomizer. This seemed to have no effect at all. She also recommended that I take long, slow drags and while this helped some, it still resulted in a chore of a smoke. I asked if this was peculiar to the Java Jolt variety, and she said that all of the flavors can have this problem from time to time. Needless to say, I switched back to the Menthol cartridges before even finishing my first day with the Java Jolts and I cannot recommend them to anyone. If I were to rate the two flavors, Magnificent Menthol would be honored with 5/5 stars, while Java Jolt is lucky to manage 2/5.
That being said, the Blu smoking system is a wonderful futuristic answer to the problem of smoking. When it works, it’s effortless and incredibly pleasurable. I would recommend it to anyone. However, it is hard to find any fair and unbiased reviews on the internet of the flavor cartridges, so I (veteran smoker that I am) will attempt to offer those here. While I’ve only tried two of the five that they offer, I’ve just placed an order for another flavor, Cherry Crush, and you can expect my review of those shortly.
If you’re curious, the Blue Premium starter pack is $79.99 and includes one five-pack of cartridges in the flavor and strength of your choice. Subsequent flavor cartridges run $12 for a pack of five and, since each cartridge amounts to a pack of cigarettes, is roughly half as expensive as smoking has been in the past. Shipping is free unless you pay to expedite it.
(I apologize for a lack of pictures, but I didn’t like the lighting in the ones I took. Feel free to browse www.blucigs.com if you want a clearer visual picture.)
