It is day seven today, of my giving up, of ciggies. Last time during the first week I was virtually crawling up the walls.

This time I did some thing very different. I've tried nicobrevin (quinine based), patches, gum and inhalers.

But thanks to progress - this time I picked up a full nicotine Hydro e-cig starter pack and a pack of refills.

Now I am no expert on e-cigs, but I’ve picked a lot up in my research.

It came charged which they don’t always – that’s a huge plus if your going straight off the ciggies like I was and cant wait for a charge before a puff.

The action of triggering the vaping seems to be sucking with this model, which avoids having to mouth it too tight, like apparently you do some models, and it generates a decent hit of steam/vapour, which is visible.

Here’s someone doing some “smoke” tricks with a hydro brand one.

Plus two and three. All good on a number of counts there. The taste is really not bad. It’s probably more green tea than tobacco but I like it, its nice and similar enough to a real cig, and again apparently something that can be got horribly wrong in certain brands. So, not bad on the taste either.

The hit of vape is nearly as satisfying as real smoking. It’s pleasurable, just less “broad” than usual tobacco. I suspect I will much enjoy it, once I have re-adjusted to a slightly lower level hit thats just nicotine and not the other smaller dose complimentary alkaloids (which only make 10% of the content FYI). It definately keeps you from going barking mad, and its actually nice!. Good with chocolate, or caffiene, and in the morning. I have had just 8 real ciggies for the time since I have stopped, and none in the last few days, just e-cigging. Getting into it.

It's kinda "cool" too. Lol. Like cigs were before the backlash.

At this stage, I am a little more active, but not bugging out. I think this option is will worth a look for smokers who struggle with quitting or the idea of it. It seems this will work out a fair bit cheaper of course too, I think maybe half as much for me money wise.

Two other notes that are important here – all e-cigs need charging. A charge pack, or two starter packs can be good if you want to be extra sure you’ll always have one charged to puff on properly.

The high nicotine ones are good for quitting smokers and withdrawals, but probably slightly high for my tastes in term of me wanting a longer pull rather than short hard hit. The balance of throat hit versus buzz versus draw etc, ie nicotine level, is a personal tuning thing moreso than with cigs. I'd still start with a high nico one, but adjusting to shorter puffs is a little annoying in this intermediate phase as a less than pack a day or non-camel smoker, when id rather have big easy draws...this probably partly because you can more deeply inhale steam with less difficulty...

Worth mentioning, this is more of a tarless, less harmful way of continuing to smoke than a quitting tool. You'll enjoy it a fair lot more than patches or gum, and a little less less than cigs.

I’ll be turning my smoker friends and family onto these for sure. Be interesting to check out some high end brand too, if we ever get any, although I am pretty darn happy with these ones. (And im extra curious about the stranger flavours overseas, like chocolate mudcake, and coca cola!)