A Smooth Disposable Vape Minus the Microplastics

Let’s back up.  All of these disposables use a concentrated cannabis oil which is typically stored in a chamber made of a plastic. The most widely used plastic for this application is called PCTG, which is food-safe. When Raw Garden and its manufacturing partner Ispire were developing the device that would become the Sprout they were testing the devices in a heat chamber to make sure they wouldn’t leak, but they noticed something weird: The clear plastic that stores the oil was getting cloudy rather quickly, which shouldn’t be happening. Repeated tests with both their own product and other products that use PCTG revealed the same thing.

What they concluded was that while PCTG might be food-safe, it wasn’t weed-safe. At least not weed-oil-safe. Interestingly, while testing it with different oils, they found that those with a higher amount of terpenes (natural chemicals found in weed that gives different strains their distinct flavors, aromas, and to some extent, effect) got cloudier faster. Because this cloudiness was permanent they determined that it was highly likely that it was being compromised, and that plastic particles were ending up in the oil, which when vaped could end up in consumers’ lungs.

So, Raw Garden did something pretty admirable, and scrapped more than $1,000,000 worth of product that was ready to go. It then went back to the drawing board with Ispire and identified an alternate material called PA-12. PA-12 is also a plastic, but it’s been used for a long time in the electronics, automotive, and medical industries because it’s known for being durable, heat-resistant, and critically here, chemical resistant. Through repeated testing Raw Garden found that PA-12 did not break down, even when filled with pure terpenes and exposed to high-ambient heat (120 degrees F) for a week straight. It also chose to publish this information and refrain from patenting it in the hopes that other makers of disposable vapes would adopt the safer material as well.

Okay, so back to the Sprout itself. To power it on, you just give it five rapid clicks (which will be familiar to anyone who has used a cartridge style vape). It will then light up to show the current heat level selected: blue for low (2.0V), green for medium (2.3V), and red for high (2.6V). To switch between these levels, you just click the button three times. A double-click will preheat the device, which will get you a fuller first hit, but I rarely bothered with this. Raw Garden says low will get you the best flavor and smoothest hit, medium is for “balanced flavor and potency,” while high is the strongest hit, for experienced users.

For this review I tested two units: an indica Live Sauce called PB Souffle with 80.7-percent potency (and 15.9-percent terpenes) for a hearty mix of favor and punch, and a Refined Live Resin hybrid called Strawberry Gas that came in at a staggering 90.7-percent potency, and still tasted good, but tread lightly or don’t make any plans, if you know what I mean. Seriously, start with just a small hit or two and then wait a bit, because it’s much stronger than you think. I usually kept the power level turned down to green, which was absolutely delicious, and generally so smooth that I wasn’t sure if I was getting anything until I exhaled and saw a cloud emerge from my mouth. I usually find disposable and oil-based pens to be pretty chokey, so this was a remarkable experience for me. Medium definitely hit harder, and I did try it at high (in the name of science), and it was definitely more than I wanted. It was smoother than others I’ve used in the past, but still a bit harsher than I like. I’m trying to keep my lungs pretty in pink.

There are some other innovative features packed into this little thing, which also help it produce an unusually smooth, consistent hit. The Spout features an “anti-clog design” with a unique Overflow Chamber. Most disposables use a post (kind of like a wick) to draw the oil up to the nozzle where it gets heated. The Sprout features a post-less design, which eliminates the primary point of clogging for most vapes. The Overflow Chamber is secondary space within the device where the excess vapor can condense and be trapped away from the main chamber. In most vapes, the excess cloud gets flushed back into the one and only chamber, where it can congeal and not only cause clogging, but also that nasty burnt taste disposable/cartridge vapes are somewhat known for.

There’s not a lot to ding this thing on. The biggest knock is that while I love that Raw Garden is trying to keep garbage out of your lungs, it must be noted that no disposable is great for keeping garbage out of landfills. Once this thing is empty, the whole thing goes in the trash, lithium battery and all. Not great. It’s a shame that there isn’t a way to enjoy the innovations of the Spout while just swapping out a little PA-12 cartridge (or even, better, making a refillable version). Also, there is no label on the Sprout device itself, and they all look exactly the same, no matter what strain is inside it. That means if you lose the box, or have more than one and they get shuffled around in your pocket you’ll have no way of knowing what’s what.

If I was to nitpick a little more, I’d say that while I love that once the device is on you don’t have to press any buttons (you just inhale and it’s ready to go), I do wish there was a way to disable the glowing light from coming on with each inhalation. If you were at a dark concert or something and trying to be extra discreet, that might be a giveaway. That said, it’s so small that even people with small hands can tuck it away in their palm, but it would be nice to have the option. The last thing is with Raw Garden being a California company, and federal weed-laws being the dumb things that they are, the Spout is only available in California. Sorry, rest of the world.

Ultimately, the Spout is by far the best disposable vape I’ve ever used, by many miles, and honestly, I wasn’t that surprised. When I wrote about the best money-is-no-object-ways-to-get-high a few years ago I talked about Raw Garden. It is a farm-to-lung operation, where it grows, processes, and manufactures everything that it sells, and the people who run it are absolutely obsessed with purity and quality. It is Clean Green Certified (like the weed-industry’s organic certification), and it also dedicates a large part of its operation to R&D, where it tests new strains, develops new genetics, and clearly, works on better, safer devices. For a disposable vape, it’s the new gold standard.