It’s not often that I get something sent for review which I’ve never considered using before. Receiving an electric cigarette starter pack from Electric Zebra was a bit of a surprise, with one minor issue: I don’t smoke. How do you solve a problem like that? Simple: Find a smoker…

Warning: Smoking is hazardous for your health, we do not advise anyone to take it up, it does not make you look cool. 

The Complete Starter Pack which Electric Zebra sell for £25.95 consists of two zebra print batteries, USB charger for said batteries, 5 cartridges and an information card to shove into the faces of people that are too eager to complain about the user “smoking in public” when the user isn’t actually smoking, if the weird colour scheme and the green light on the end doesn’t give them a bit of a clue first. Since it’s an electric device which doesn’t burn tobacco and fill the user’s lungs with airy death, it beats the UK smoking ban and is also a pretty good way to slowly stop smoking.

Our tame racing driver smoker knows and loves cigarettes after having an addiction to them for over 30 years, and after attempting to give up smoking many times in the past, she’s reached a point where even the doctors suggest using multiple forms of nicotine for a slow adjustment towards a clear-breathing lifestyle. She knows her real cigarettes, her inhalers, her gums and patches and therefore would be the perfect test subject.

For a start, it’s lighter than most other electronic cigarettes. It’s still heavier than a cigarette but not by much. It’s texture seems much closer to a cigarette filter than other electric ones too, which makes using it as a replacement far easier. Each cartridge according to the manufacturer should be the equivalent of 20 cigarettes, and it does seem to match the claim. It also doesn’t seem to dry the mouth out as much as others, but it is still advised to inhale into the mouth instead of down to the lungs. Taste-wise, the supplied cartridges were quite pleasant, far more so than a cigarette. There are other types including menthol cartridges, which at £1 per cartridge is certainly a decent cheaper-alternative to the average £6 pack.

It doesn’t make you smell like an ashtray, it can help you cut cigarettes out of your life and seems to be acceptable to non-smokers in the near vicinity.

If you smoke, try this to save you money. If you don’t smoke, show the smokers you know this and suggest they try this.