The Vaporist – A Hardcore Brand Interview

The Vaporist is one of those brands that you’ve likely heard of – and if the name doesn’t ring a bell immediately, once you see the logo chances are you may recognize the distinguished gentleman with the top hat and monocle. But even in the off-chance that you still can’t put a finger on how you know them – then you probably have tried and have likely raved about one of their best-selling e-liquids, most notably Tree of Life: Apricot.

The Vaporist is known as one of the OGs of the Canadian vape community, and Phil, the creator behind the brand, is widely known as one of the most candid and no-bullshit juice makers in Canada. That is, he knows what he loves (and hates), and he loves what he does; but most importantly, he loves making some of the best juices ever created in Canada – and that says a lot in a nation full of many delightful makers.

And that’s not just my opinion. A quick jaunt on Reddit or Discord and you’ll find many experienced vapers who are quick to show their love for The Vaporist products.

Case in point: last year, when I was at the Canadian Vape Expo, one of their biggest fans and customers requested that I make an unusually large order on their behalf (over 2 litres of juice!). The reason? He knew that if he made the order himself, that the Vaporist would give him a special treatment – which he didn’t want. He loves their juices so much, that he is fully willing to pay full retail on an essentially wholesale order without any special treatment. Now that’s love.

You may know me as the guy who does hardcore reviews on vape hardware and juices – because I love to spend an extended period of time with my products before I give an opinion. For example, I’ve been working on an 8-month hardcore review with pod systems (serious!). So what’s a Hardcore Interview? Well, this is my deep dive into The Vaporist, sharing everything I have with you.

The following is an interview and walk-through that I conducted with Phil, Pat, and The Vaporist. All opinions are my own, and all of their answers are unfiltered.

So, Phil, how did this all start?

I started vaping in june 2013 when a friend lent me his device! I officially stopped smoking on that day! My first vape was a Vaporus VV Spinner with a CE5. As a curious and autodidact person, I started digging into vaping, and quickly amassed a vast amount of knowledge. My IT/electronics background also made me fall in love with regulated devices and proper consistent power delivery.

Within a few months, I decided that I should try to leverage it by opening a store, just to be able to break even with my spending on the habit. Most vaping websites in those days looked horrible! Having a very strong IT background and job, I decided I would build The Vaporist website from scratch by myself and the company was officially started in April 2014. Being a fan of supply chain management, efficient workflows have always been important to me, which is why we strongly leveraged 3D printing to help us with day to day operations, especially in the lab. We develop our own solutions in-house, which has always provided us with a bit of an edge to what we do. It is thanks to this that we were able to become extremely efficient and also bring Bargain E-juice to market.

We were originally located in Montreal, but moved to Ontario because of bill 44, and now, we are now located in Hawkesbury, Ontario.

We have always been active and interacting with the community, from helping them out with their problems to just having a good time. We are mostly active on the Canadian_Ecigarette Reddit and on Discord.

In April 2018, The Vaporist hired it’s first full time employee. I was lucky enough to be able to bring in one of the best coil builders on the planet, Patrick, or Staggertunes on instagram (we won’t tell you his name on Discord, because, well, it’s kinda NSFW).

As a coil builder, attention to detail and focus are very important. These skills allow Pat to seamlessly adapt to the procedures and workflow required to be successful at The Vaporist. He even has a dedicated workstation to continue building amazing coils and taking great photos to share.

Pat has allowed me to focus even more on process efficiency and workflow. These aspect are extremely important due to the implementation of Bill S-5 in 2018. Now, we have some ambitious plans for 2019, with a bigger menu selection and new projects that we’re sure will delight our fans.

How did you come up with The Vaporist?

The name came up as a joke during a supper while discussing the website project with my friends. We then brainstormed on what should be used for the logo.

The Vaporist is a fancy name, so we figured we’d want the logo to be elegant. We toyed with the idea of adding a hat/monocle/mustache like the memes, and had a graphic designer make our first logo. Unlike our present logo, the elements were added into the name (the monocle is the “o” in Vaporist).

Eventually we redesigned it to what it currently is and we’ve been told countless times that our clients can’t imagine us a better representation of our brand.

I was shocked to learn in Vapexpo Paris 2017 from prominent European and American manufacturers that while they didn’t know our products, they knew the company name and the logo!

What flavor profile is The Vaporist best known for?

Fruits have always been our forte. With the reception of Tree Of Life: Apricot, it truly gave us the recognition of being a premium e-liquid manufacturer – which are incredibly humbled by and proud of.

We did step outside of our comfort zone to make an amazing coffee (Double Trouble) and desert flavor (Decadence Pistachio Marzipan) – which are both wildly popular and flavors that some of our customers swear by.

We are currently at our third flavor in the Tree of Life series, Tree of Life: Peach, and it currently is our best seller!

Our lines are expanding in 2019 to cater to more flavor profiles – and you’ll be the first to hear about at The Vape Review 🙂

Let’s talk tech: does The Vaporist carry hardware?

At the hardware level, we are not your typical vaping company. Our objective is not to have the mod of the month, or have every possible item available.

We want to sell curated hardware that we know function well and is reliable. We also sell a few advanced pieces for the tinkerer who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty.

What’s your favorite setup?

My favourite setup is an XvoStick DNA60 with a Kayfun Prime (or [lite]) with a 3mm 5.5 wraps Kanthal 34/28 Clapton. I also carry an Lost Vape Orion dna Go pod system as a backup.

As a hardcore mouth to lung vapour and flavour chaser, I mostly vape our liquids. I am currently alternating between Tree of Life: Peach and the recently released T.M.G. (Tangerine Mango Guava) from Bargain Ejuice.

My favorite liquid that does not come out of our labs would be Smilenvape’s Exotica.

Onto another kind of hardware: show us how you make your liquids

We’re proud of our planning, process, and attention to detail. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Here is a closer look of where the magic happens:

We use the same setup for shows and flavor development. We setup our pass-through mods on our R&D table so that we can have quick access to working RDAs when testing flavors in development.

Tell us about what The Vaporist’s values

Our values are simple: Be open, honest, and work properly!

• Be open: Don’t hide behind walls. Show people what you have to offer, how the product is made. Which is why we’re always very transparent with our process.
• Be honest: Don’t promise the moon and under-deliver! Don’t be afraid to admit making a mistake and own up to it.
• Work properly: Do things the right way. Don’t try to cut corners when you know it can lead to mistakes.

We firmly believe you cannot succeed without amazing customer service. We are customers too in the vape world! We ask ourselves “How would we want to be treated?”. Those who fail to do so never end up lasting long because the vaping community always bands together.

It’s a word of mouth game! Make people happy by delivering quality products at great value and the good word will be passed. Pull a fast one on your customers and the message will spread.

We have stepped up to the plate on multiple occasions to offer care packages for customers that were scammed by companies that went under yet still took their money.

We are proud to be helping people transition from cigarettes to vaping and I am proud to have a successful business that can literally save lives. Wherever we can help the people – whether it’s quitting smoking, finding the right setup, or making products that they love – we’re happy to do it.

Final thoughts

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Phil and Pat quite well over the past year – and was long a fan of The Vaporist prior to meeting them – as their flavors were some of the most recommended when I first started vaping years ago. And I’ve had several of their flavors on rotation in my daily setup ever since.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to get to learn more about what they do, how they do it, and have had our fair share of vape, beverages, and sushi together.

Thank you, Phil and Pat, for sharing your story with us. We are fortunate to have your continuous support of the vape scene in Canada – and we look forward to sharing more about your exciting endeavors in 2019.

I would highly recommend you to try out some of The Vaporist’s flavors – and let us know what you think. These are some e-liquids you’d not want to miss.

Cheers,

K

About The Vaporist

The Vaporist
226 Kipling St
Hawkesbury, Ontario
K6A 2N2
T: (647) 478-8042
W: https://www.TheVaporist.ca
FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheVaporistCA
IG: https://www.instagram.com/thevaporistca/