I started smoking at the age of 13 and have always enjoyed it. I started smoking ‘proper’ cigarettes and eventually moved onto rolling my own. I’ve had dalliances along the way with a heavy interest in Cuban cigars, and the occasional enjoyment of a corncob pipe but nicotine has been a part of my life for over twenty years now.

The venture into cigars taught me that it wasn’t all about addiction, and that nicotine wasn’t necessarily best enjoyed as a ‘quick hit’ but a gradually titrated dose. Having a cigarette didn’t necessarily take that ‘wanting a cigarette’ feeling away, but a cigar was something to be savoured. Not just for the taste, but for the stimulation and the hobby aspect of storage and finding the ideal cigar for the moment.

The ritual has very much been part of it for me and whilst a ready-made cigarette fed the habit, I missed the preparation aspect of it. Electronic cigarettes have been around for a few years and I’d always feared that they wouldn’t be as satisfying as a real cigarette. On a holiday to Spain I saw the film The Tourist, where Johnny Depp uses one.  On the same holiday, I saw an old man sitting on a bench happily puffing away on something similar to my first e-cig purchase. There was a good chance he’d been smoking properly for many more years than I had, so if he was satisfied, there was a distinct possibility that it might be worth a try.

I’d had the odd look before and the choice seemed overwhelming. Given I currently smoked around seven rollies a day, even a basic kit with some juices was equivalent to a couple of month’s smoking for me. Bear in mind I have smoked a lot more in the past, and you need a rather heavy tolerance to not OD on some of the cigars I smoked, so do not match your own x-a-day habit with mine. This was my bare minimum ‘maintenance’ level that I could not break through.

I’d had a couple of years off at one point but it sucked me back. The physical effects start to catch up with you once you reach a certain age and I was not content to tolerate these, but still felt unable to lose my crutch.

So after about a month’s research (very much my style as you might come to learn) I bought a Kanger Mini Protank 2 with a Ego-C Upgrade battery, a charger and an odd variety of juices. I didn’t know at this stage what juices I would take to, so wanted the glass tank to be able to use certain juices that could damage plastic tanks. It took a few days to get round to trying it but within a week I’d pretty much stopped smoking. I was shocked. It was not my intention to stop smoking at all, I just wanted a less harmful nicotine delivery system. I got this and a whole lot more.