There’s a great scene in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film. In it, Gene Wilder (as Willy Wonka) shows off his lickable wallpaper. He proclaims that “The strawberries taste like strawberries. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!” Whoever heard of a snozzberry? Not us – but if you love to vape, you’ve heard of crazier flavors still.
Lava Flow. Sour Flash. Sensu. Red Frozen. What are these flavors? Only the dreamers, like Willy Wonka, truly know.
Flavored vape juice has a long and storied history – to this day, homebrewers create crazy concoctions in their own backyards. Flavored vape juice isn’t always a positive thing, however. In this brief article, we’re going to look at what makes vape flavors so important – both to vapers and to governments.
Bigger flavor, bigger audience
To be blunt, the more flavors a vape shop offers, the wider its audience. Some folks love fruity flavors. Others love dessert. Others still prefer the classic taste of mint or tobacco. And some are looking for the strangest juices they can find.
That means shops are incentivized to provide as many different flavors as possible – and that juice manufacturers want to find the next flavor craze. These marketers must also compete with homebrew flavors – and many vapers are tinkerers at heart.
The consequence of these incentives is a vast array of different vape juice flavors on the market. Look at the different kinds of vape juice in Winnipeg, and compare those varieties to what you might find at a vape shop in Austin. You’ll find completely different brands and totally unique flavors.
We don’t want kids to vape
The Willy Wonka comparison at the beginning of this article wasn’t for nothing – kids love crazy, fun flavors. That’s why we brought up a children’s movie – and one that, when viewed as an adult, takes on a much darker tone.
Chocolatiers and vape juice manufacturers alike want to reach the broadest market they can. Unfortunately, that market includes children. When there are juices flavored like sweetened cereals and marketed with colorful cartoons, kids will be interested.
Vaping is a way of reducing the harms associated with adult tobacco use. Unfortunately, when kids start vaping because they want to taste cool new flavors, the good that vaping does is all but undone.
The compromise: Adult-only flavors
Many jurisdictions have opted to come to a compromise: Vape juice is legal to purchase for users over 18 years of age, but vendors cannot sell flavored juices. The only two exceptions are often tobacco flavor and menthol flavor.
Have you ever seen a kid get excited about the taste of tobacco or menthol? We didn’t think so – and we haven’t either. This compromise keeps the benefits of vaping as a stop-smoking aid, all while limiting the ability of marketers to create flavors that appeal to children.
Of course, many manufacturers, retail stores, and consumers want an abundance of flavors, so there has been a backlash against these regulations.
Are flavored marijuana vapes next?
That’s not likely. Where marijuana is legal, it was almost always legalized after vaping became a known public health concern. As such, manufacturers are seriously limited in what they can offer. There are flavored marijuana vapes you can find – though availability might be different in a Winnipeg cannabis shop than in a San Francisco cannabis shop.
If more flavored marijuana vapes start popping up on the market, expect a crackdown. Many cannabis connoisseurs are more into terpenes than traditional flavors anyway, so flavored marijuana vapes might not have a large audience.
Now you understand why flavors and vaping are so intertwined and more about the legal, moral, and financial ramifications of the existence of flavored juice. We hope this knowledge serves you well.