Day 19 after quitting vapingMango, mint and the shop on the corner

By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min read

In shortIn a laboratory study, the same nicotine vape was rated more rewarding when flavoured and people took about twice as many puffs. Flavour became a cue. Cut the supply lines today: unsubscribe from shop emails, delete saved orders and remove the card from the vape site.

What's happening in your body

Flavour is part of how a vape holds on. In a laboratory study with young adult smokers, the same nicotine vape was rated as more rewarding when it was flavoured, people worked harder to earn flavoured puffs, and in a free session they took about twice as many of them. Anything that went with the reward often enough becomes a cue, and flavour went with every puff. So a cloud of someone else's mango on the street can set off a craving three weeks in.

What to expect

Cravings with a commercial source. The display behind the counter, the shop you pass every day, a discount email, a delivery app that remembers your usual order. Also sweet smells and tastes that resemble your old flavour, a mint, a fruit drink, a candle. They fade the same way as other cues, each time they go unanswered.

Try this

Clear the supply lines today. Unsubscribe from the shop emails, delete the saved order and remove the payment card from the vape site.

What else you could do

If a shop sits on your daily route, walk the other side of the street for a month. Each of these takes a minute now and saves a negotiation later. For the first weeks, choose drinks and sweets that taste nothing like your old liquid.

Sources. Measured with e-cigarettes, in young adult smokers. Audrain-McGovern J, Strasser AA, Wileyto EP. The impact of flavoring on the rewarding and reinforcing value of e-cigarettes with nicotine among young adult smokers. Drug Alcohol Depend, 2016. Cue learning: Conklin & Tiffany, 2002.