The big smoke

BRITAIN’S “vape” market is puffing along nicely these days. In 2012 there were 340 tobacconists—a category that includes vape stores—in England, Scotland and Wales. There are now 1,552. Vapers, who smoke electronic cigarettes that may contain nicotine but never tobacco, can pick up supplies in locations from shabby streetside vendors to slick dispensaries with assistants in lab coats.

Choices too have grown. Vapour flavours range from Baba Napoletano (“Imagine the delicious rum-soaked cakes from the Neapolitan cookbook”) to Alice in Vapeland Crunkberry (“2AM in cereal land: the satisfying hit of a spoon to milk and cereal. Oh, yum!”). But most vapers end up choosing menthol or tobacco flavours, says Andrew Moss of E-Cig Wizard, a firm with 33 branches across the country. “People look for what they’re used to when they’re trying to quit,” he adds.