FEATURE
DIARY
OF A VAPER
Scott Friedman, CEO Tasty Cloud
My partner, David Kurey, got me into vaping. In
2012, I was smoking up to two packs a day. I tried
everything to quit like patches, gum, prescription
drugs and after failing over and over again, I thought
there was no hope. I came to terms with it until Dave
brought me to a vape shop. After picking up my first
ego kit, everything changed. I started at 12mg and
after five years, I’m currently vaping on some 3mg
Dragonaire. When you come from a place where you
think you will probably die of cancer to a place where
you’re not coughing all, it’s an experience that you
can’t fully understand unless it happens to you.
Dave and I used to be roomies in early 2012. We
discovered vaping at the same time and gave up
smoking immediately. One evening we were sat vaping,
whilst watching TV, and we started discussing the idea of
setting up something in this amazing new market. Dave
initially suggested opening a shop and the conversation
eventually evolved into utilising Dave’s amazing palette
as a super-keen amateur chef and my pharmacy-tech
background to start manufacturing our own juices.
We both put cash in and rented the use of a lab in the
evenings, when everyone had gone home for the night!
Very quickly we had hundreds of mason jars worth
of juices, steeping in dark cupboards anywhere and
everywhere available, trying to get the flavours just right.
We spent weeks and weeks perfecting them and would
take the best to vape shops to get their feedback. The
first successful one was Dragonaire, which took such a
long time to pass the Goldilocks test; not too cool, not
too fruity, but just right. They were all 50:50 back then, as
everything was about flavour, so our Tasty Cloud range
38 | VM18
did exactly what it said on the tin. All of this range of
juices is still being sold in over 2,500 vape shops in the
US still, six years later – so I’m proud to say they have
stood the test of time.
It wasn’t long before devices started getting bigger and
cloud-chasing rush started, so we brought out our 75:25
Fixx-e range, which went crazy too. We couldn’t get over
the demand for them and feel so happy to have created
something that people seem to keep vaping, rather than
just buying one bottle and moving on to something else.
We then brought out The Cakery range a couple of years
ago, which ended up overtaking both the other brands,
especially in the slight colder regions and countries.
Now, in time for summer, we have launched Chilled Milk,
which is nothing like anything else on the market. The
unique flavours are going crazy over here and we’re
hoping the sales will overtake The Cakery at some point
soon.
We love the vaping industry and love the fact we’ve
been able to contribute to it and generate a successful
company from it. We’re so lucky to have a huge purpose-
built lab in California now, but it’s still nice to look back at
those days of using the rented lab, in the middle of the
night, to ensure we could up with something spectacular
for people to enjoy.
To this day we still haven’t ever done a trade show and
have made over two million sales, which, we feel, tells
all you need to know about the flavours we have worked
hard to create. But, there is still one state in the US that
doesn’t have our juices now so we’re not ready to rest
yet.