Vaping is a great way to enjoy the tastes you love but without the calories – but how? How do E-Juices impact our flavour perceptions? Electronic cigarettes are a popular way to administer a dose of nicotine without smoking. Filling your vape device with the vape liquid of your choice is a satisfying experience, and one that can be enjoyed even without the nicotine hit. In recent years vaping has become a popular pastime and an effective smoking cessation tool. As it grows in popularity, so too does hobbyist interest in what makes a great flavour. People spend time, energy, and hard-earned cash to find the ideal flavour. But flavour is subjective. What tastes good to one person might not to another.
Today we are discussing taste buds and e-juices. When flavour perception mixes with vaping, what happens? Is it like cigarette smoking? Does vape juice kill your tastebuds? Let’s find out.
Quick Links
The Influence of Vaping on Taste Buds: Flavour Perception and E-Juices. 1
What is Vaping and E-Juices?. 1
How do different Flavours affect Taste Buds?. 1
Impact of Nicotine on Taste Buds. 2
Effects of Prolonged Vaping on Taste Buds. 2
Is Vaping Bad for your Taste Buds?. 3
What is Vaping and E-Juices?
Vaping is the new craze destined to wipe cigarette smoking off the face of the planet. About 18% of successful tobacco quitters quit cigarettes using a vape device to help them. In NHS testing, vaping is proving to be more effective than your average Nicotine Replacement Therapy. But what is it?
Vaping is the practice of using an electronic cigarette (known as a vape device) to administer nicotine. Rather than smoking the thousands of harmful chemicals in a cigarette, a vape device uses heated e-juice to produce vapour. This vapour is just like regular steam, but it is flavoured by the tastes used to make the juice.
Vape juice, A.K.A. e-liquid or e-juice, is the liquid mixes we place into the vape device to give us that flavour hit. They come in all tastes and nicotine strengths. You can see our full selection of flavoursome vape juices in our UK-based vape shop.
How do different Flavours affect Taste Buds?
Your taste buds are receptors within your tongue that send the signal to your brain to inform it what flavour they have encountered. They are mainly on your tongue, but they also line the back of your throat and within your nose. This is why we can both smell and taste[i] a flavour.
Your sense of taste is split into flavour groupings which make it easier for scientists to talk about ‘flavour’ in a logical sense. To this end, your tongue can pick up the following flavours:
- Sweet
- Sour
- Salty
- Bitter
- Savoury
Breaking it down further, we encounter scents every day which are made up from the environment around us. We might break these specific scents down into individual smells or tastes which we recognise in our brains because our taste buds remember them.
Impact of Nicotine on Taste Buds
Nicotine specifically can dry out your taste buds. However, that’s not where the story ends.
There are over 4,000 chemicals in an unlit cigarette and more when it starts to burn. Cigarette smokers are known to suffer loss of taste due to this effect. The hot smoke can burn off your taste buds and the chemicals can kill the cells. Cigarette smoking will harm your taste buds over time, so there is a premise.
Vaping with nicotine can also dehydrate the mouth. Over time this can cause problems. These issues are usually minor and temporary, but scientists require further tests to be sure of the true impact of vaping on taste buds.
What we do know for sure is that it seems better than cigarette smoking so far.
Effects of Prolonged Vaping on Taste Buds
E-juice flavours change when your tastebuds get used to the taste, just as you get used to a smell. The first time you walk into a room, you notice the smell it has. Once you have been in the room for some time, you no longer smell it. You go nose blind. This is the same issue that you might encounter with vape juice.
When we have favourite tastes and a free reign on no-calorie products that let us enjoy them, humans can go a little taste-crazy. After the initial buzz of beginner vaping wears off and you advance to connoisseur status, you will find that you have favourite flavours you routinely rely on.
After you have used the same product excessively, you fall fowl to one of the age-old issues with vaping your favourite flavour all the time: the curse of Vaper’s Tongue…
What is “Vaper’s Tongue?”
Vaper’s Tongue is like going nose blind but with tastes and smells. The condition happens to most regular vapers at some point. The symptoms of this condition are only temporary and usually wear off within 1-3 days. However, during the course of those few days, the vape user loses their sense of taste and their sense of smell.
The longest reported cases of vaper’s tongue have lasted for a full fortnight. The condition occurs because your tongue becomes so dehydrated that your taste buds simply cannot work any longer. This is one of the reasons why you should drink more water if you vape or smoke. That permanently dry mouth can affect your bone density, teeth, and overall dental health.
How do you avoid vaper’s tongue? Drink more water than you would if you didn’t vape. You can fix vaper’s tongue by subjecting your mouth to a variety of flavours. Try a sharp citrus fruit. You should replace your coil or try to clean it if no replacement is possible. You can even try changing your vape juice to something sourer to give your mouth a chance to produce more natural saliva.
Is Vaping Bad for your Taste Buds?
Vaping different e-juices once in a while will do no harm to your taste buds. You should take precautions and remember to drink more fluids when you vape. Long-term dryness might harm your dental health, so chew sugar-free gum when you are not vaping and produce more natural saliva.
In fact, trying new flavours will keep your tastebuds active and stop them becoming used to the same old thing. Vaping lets you get all those fulsome flavours but without the guilt of pudding.
[i] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279408/
