Is There Sugar in Vapes?

Have you noticed how sweet vapes have become these days? Some vapes are so sweet that they practically taste the same as candy. The fact that modern vapes taste almost like real candy, though, might lead you to ask a question: Is there sugar in vapes?

The short answer is “no” – these is no sugar in any commercially produced vape or vape juice.

The ingredient that’s most commonly used to sweeten vape juice is sucralose, which is a low-calorie sweetener sold in stores under the brand name Splenda. 

Sucralose is one of the most common alternative sweeteners, and it’s used in everything from sugar-free candies to diet sodas. 

Its use in vape juice, though, is a relatively recent thing – and as you’re about to learn, sucralose in vapes has both benefits and drawbacks. Before we dig into those things, though, how did vapes get so sweet in the first place?

The History of Sucralose in Vape Juice

The use of sucralose as a sweetener in vapes and vape juice dates back to the mid-2010s. Before then, vapes had the same flavors and flavor profiles that they do now; they just didn’t taste sweet. Some individuals who made their own e-liquids added sweeteners to their vape juice, with some common sweeteners being honey, simple syrup and stevia. Ethyl maltol – a chemical that tastes like cotton candy – was also a common additive. Even in those days, though, some people were adding sucralose to their e-liquids. Commercial e-liquids, however, didn’t use sweeteners in the early days.

It’s difficult to say which commercial vape juice was the first to include sucralose, but some may point to an e-liquid called Muffin Man by One-Hit Wonder as the first one that really gained critical mass. Capturing the flavor of a freshly baked apple-cinnamon muffin, Muffin Man was one of the handful of e-liquids over the years that really captured the community’s attention and became one of those flavors that everyone had to try at least once. 

After the success of Muffin Man, the use of sucralose in vape juice expanded rapidly. This development coincided with an overall consolidation phase that took place throughout the vaping industry. 

Before the mid-2010s, vape juice makers were primarily smaller companies that served local or regional customer bases. During this era of rapid expansion, though, national wholesale vape distributors began to appear. Vape shops began carrying the brands that the distributors offered, and those brands established national footprints. For the most part, the products that those new national brands produced were sweetened – and before too long, almost everyone used vape juice with sucralose. The regional vape juice brands either adapted to the trend, or they eventually shut down. Although unsweetened e-liquids and vapes do still exist, they’re in the minority today compared to sweetened offerings.

What Are the Benefits of Sweet Vape Juice?

The benefit of sweet vape juice is a fairly obvious one: It tastes good. The difference between sweetened and unsweetened vape juice is almost like the difference between drinking one of those flavored unsweetened soda waters that you can find in the supermarket and drinking a popular mainstream soda. Whether it’s cherry, strawberry or something else, you can definitely taste the flavor in an unsweetened soda water – but without any added sweetness, it just doesn’t hit your palate in quite the same way and definitely won’t convince you that you’re drinking actual cherry or strawberry juice. Add a little sweetener, though, and the flavor suddenly comes alive.

Vape juice is much the same way. Many people would argue that a plain tobacco or menthol e-liquid doesn’t benefit from added sweetness, but those flavors don’t represent the majority of what people actually use. By far, the most popular e-liquid flavor profiles are fruit, dessert and candy. Many people who have used vaping to help themselves quit smoking have stated that they wouldn’t have been able to do so without sweet flavors. 

Does Sweet Vape Juice Have Any Drawbacks?

As popular as they are, sweet vape juice flavors do have one major drawback in that sucralose doesn’t vaporize cleanly when it’s heated. Instead of vaporizing fully, a portion of the sucralose sticks to the device’s atomizer coil and creates a foul-tasting residue called coil gunk. Coil gunk makes a vape produce a smoky and burnt flavor. The residue becomes thicker with time – and the thicker it gets, the worse the vape’s flavor becomes.

Coil gunk doesn’t just taste bad; it also drives up the cost of vaping. If you use a refillable vaping device, you need to replace the pod or coil when the flavor quality is no longer acceptable – and coil gunk can ruin a device’s flavor in just a couple of days. If you use a refillable vaping device and are wondering why you’re spending so much on replacement pods or coils, now you have the answer – and we’ll present some possible solutions as we bring this article to a close.

How to Avoid Coil Gunk from Sweet Vape Juice

Sweet vapes may taste good, but coil gunk definitely doesn’t. If you’re sick of tasting burnt flavors or overspending on replacement pods or coils, we’re going to give you some solutions now. Do you want to avoid coil gunk? Here are three strategies to help you accomplish that.

• You can use an unsweetened e-liquid. As we mentioned above, many plain tobacco and menthol vapes contain no added sweeteners. You can even find many “sweet” vapes and e-liquids that don’t contain sucralose, although they aren’t as common as they used to be. If you use a refillable vape, switching to unsweetened e-liquid will help you save a lot of money.
• If you’re currently using a powerful vape mod, you can switch to a less powerful device like a pod system. You may also need to switch to a higher nicotine strength. Coil gunk forms more quickly if you use more e-liquid. Switching to a smaller device and using a higher-nicotine e-liquid will mean that you won’t need to vape as often, so it’ll take longer for coil gunk to form.
• If you use disposable vapes, you can switch to a dual-coil device that alternates between the two coils each time you puff on it. Dual-coil designs are very popular currently, so these types of disposable vapes aren’t hard to find. If a vape has two coils but only uses one coil at a time, it effectively spreads the residue between the two coils. This can help to ensure that the device won’t produce a burnt flavor even after you’ve used most of the e-liquid.