South Beach Smoke

As mentioned, the South Beach Smoke website has recently undergone somewhat of a transformation and everything looks simply lovely. They are the sister company of Eversmoke who scored 5 stars out of a possible 5 in our review. It’s not much to expect South Beach Smoke to live up to the same standards, is it?

Starter Kits

I should start with the starter kits which, as expected, are plentiful. I went with the Deluxe Starter Kit which currently retails at $59.99. For your money you will get your hands on the following items:

• 1 x Extra Capacity SuperMAX battery
• 1 x Standard SuperMAX battery
• 1 x USB Charger – Deluxe
• 1 x Wall Adapter
• 10 x Cartridges (Your choice of both strength and flavor)

If you upgrade to the Deluxe Plus Starter Kit which will cost an additional $30 at $89.99, you’ll get everything mentioned in the Deluxe Starter Kit plus a USB cigarette (which is constantly plugged in), a car adapter and a carrying case.

The Deluxe Ultimate Starter Kit will set you back about $159.99 and is a pretty impressive kit. There are 4 batteries – 1 USB cig, 1 automatic standard battery, 1 automatic extra capacity battery, 1 manual extra capacity battery and three chargers – USB, wall and car. A lanyard, 20 cartridges and a carry case completes the set.

The Deluxe Couples Kit Combo from South Beach Smoke gives two people the opportunity to make the change from regular cigarettes to electronic cigarettes at the same time. Perhaps a couple or best friends? At $109.99, it’s cheaper than buying two Deluxe Starter Kits and gives you two of the Deluxe kits side by side.

The most basic kit offered by South Beach Smoke is the Reusable Express Kit which, for $21.99 will give you a standard battery, 2 cartridges and a USB charger. I found myself buying this mini-kit to replace some of my older bits of kit once I’d been using it for a while.

There are disposables from South Beach Smoke that you can make use of but these have shown to get expensive over long periods of time. As the name suggests, you use them once until the battery runs out and then you throw them away. It is cheaper to buy more of these in one go and a 12 pack (which should last you 12 days if one e-cigarette is equivalent to 20 cigarettes and I used to smoke a pack of 20 per day) will cost $99.99. It does say on the website that it should last two days but the couple of disposables I tried only lasted me about a day each.

You can only get the disposables in one strength — 1.8%, and in Classic Tobacco or Menthol flavors.

Batteries

There are a couple of battery options available from South Beach Smoke – Standard and Extra Capacity SuperMAX batteries. The standard one is 2.5inches long (similar to a “regular” cigarette) and the longer one is 3.25inches long and is a bit longer and heavier; it’ll take a bit longer to get used to when you start using it.

The high capacity one is said to give you around 500-600 puffs. A cigarette is said to be around 20 puffs so technically, these should last you 25 cigarettes. This means that they should last you about a day on a full charge, if you smoke this cigarette like you do a normal cigarette. In my experience, the long one DID last me a full day, although I must admit, I can chain-smoke them from time to time.

The short one is meant to last for 300-400 puffs which is relative to about 15 cigarettes. To be fair, it probably wasn’t far off this.

The batteries were of good quality and you could see that they were well created. The gem-like crystal tips gave it a little something extra over other brands – it seemed to be more elegant and luxurious. The tips aren’t to everyone’s taste but I quite liked them.

You can get a 3-pack of batteries for just shy of $50, or the standard one alone will cost $17.95 and the extra capacity one $22.95.

Cartridges

There are some new flavors available in the South Beach Smoke cartridges so I had to give the new ones a go before I finished the review…

These days you will find the following cartridge flavors available:

• Vanilla
• Menthol
• Tobacco Blue
• Chocolate
• Peppermint
• Cherry
• Peach
• Classic Tobacco
• Golden Tobacco
• Pina Colada
• Grape Hookah
• Double Apple Hookah
• Orange Mint
• Frank’s Lemon Lime
• Tobacco Mint
• Watermelon

You’ll find the more you buy, the cheaper things get and a 45 pack will set you back $99.99 making them just $1.48 per cartridge. Technically, it will only cost you $1.48 per day to smoke. If you choose to refill your own cartridges, things can get even cheaper still.

There are five different strengths available:

• Bold – 24mg
• Full Flavored – 16mg
• Light – 12mg
• Ultra Light – 6mg
• No Nicotine – 0mg

The flavors offered were enough to tantalize my tastebuds and although I wasn’t impressed with the watermelon, lemon lime or apple hookah ones, I did very much like classic tobacco which was very similar to a genuine smoking experience, and I quite liked the cherry flavor every now and then.

The cartridges tended to outlast the flavors which was a tad frustrating but this seems to be the case with most e-cigarettes companies in my experience. It wasn’t as bad as some of the others that I have come across, but they probably could have done with a bit more juice.

Although the flavors were weak, the throat hit was fairly impressive although less than others I had tried. The same could be said for the exhaled vapor – at times, I had wished for more.

Accessories

Clearly there is one must have accessory from South Beach Smoke that rules above all else – at $49.99, it seems a bit pricey but the Deluxe Portable Charging Case is one of the best things you will ever invest in. There are some companies out there that haven’t yet added a portable charging carry case to their wares but once you’ve had one, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

For just shy of $15, you can add a power cig (USB cigarette) to your order, and you can get a 3-pack of USB chargers for just under twenty bucks. This is great for someone like me – I ended up leaving one at work and having two at home. It worked better that way as I found I was always leaving one somewhere.

With spare batteries, lanyards, various chargers and cases, South Beach Smoke have pretty much what you’d expect. All good here!

Warranty

A topic that normally causes some form of debate, the South Beach Smoke warranty is a “Lifetime Warranty” that once again, doesn’t actually work out as a lifetime warranty. What a surprise…

You are only eligible for the warranty if you have signed up their cartridge home delivery program which I shall talk about in just a moment. When the battery or charger has become damaged, you give them a call, troubleshoot and then get an RMA to send the faulty one back and get a replacement sent out. This does mean you are a battery down for a while so it’s probably a better idea to buy a new battery before you send the faulty one back anyway. Sigh…

Added Extras

As with other good e-cig brands like V2 Cigs or Green Smoke, there are a few extras and added bonuses you get with South Beach Smoke that are certainly classed as impressive. For example, there is the Home Delivery Program that we discussed in the warranty review. You will save 20% off future cartridge purchases as well as having a steady supply of the thing you’ll need the most delivered to your house every month without you ever needing to place an order for it. You can even set how many and how frequently the cartridges turn up. It might get a bit pricey after a while but it certainly is a lazy way of doing things!

You can refer a friend to South Beach Smoke and get your hands on discounts too. You will get $25 to spend on the e-cigarettes when you refer someone to them and they sign up and purchase using your discount code band they will also get ten percent off their first order. It’s pretty easy to get the ball rolling too with Facebook and Twitter links to make life easier for you.

On top of all of this, they even offer gift certificates so you can subtly decide for someone that they need to quit smoking 😉

In Conclusion

Although the flavors didn’t last long in the cartridges and the warranty wasn’t quite as described, South Beach Smoke are still a pretty decent company that has a lot to offer someone looking for a new way to smoke without actually smoking. They might be a bit pricier than other brands and the vapor and throat hit not quite as strong as we would have liked, but they are well worth giving a shot and are still an enjoyable brand to smoke! A still impressive 4 stars out of 5 for South Beach Smoke!