GAYLETTER

Let’s recap: Vaporizing heats herbs to a temperature that is hot enough to release active ingredients, but cool enough to avoid combustion (which is smoke, which is filled with toxins, which we’re supposed to avoid.) The magic part is: different temperatures result in completely different medicinal and buzz properties. Most portable vaporizers have one temperature setting — it decides your high and you’re stuck with it — until now.

Enter Crafty: I didn’t know quite what to expect when he appeared. He’s a bit coy and hard to pin down on first impression. Tall, dark, and mysterious. Let’s start with the face pic. I would describe him as early Star Wars meets Black & Decker chic with a future norm cordless look we’ve yet to see in 2015.

Crafty is comfortably hand-sized and portable, but not quite suited for carrying in your pocket — he’s packing a little too much meat for that. He’s not for movies, he’s not for concerts and he’s not for walking to work. Crafty hosts. He is to a vape pen as a Roor is to a joint.

Aside from pulling so smooth it feels like you’re breathing oxygen, Crafty offers precise temperature control ranging from 104F to 410F. It’s an invitation to study advanced technique and Crafty completely flattens the learning curve.

311-316F is for the daytime. It also helps with your ADHD and any pain relief. 320 – 334F is great for the anti’s. Anti-septic, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory. 365F is where we get calm, cure our insomnia, and is right for nighttime, or come-downs. 385F is maxing out for medicinal properties, which is great for bed-time, but is also apparently the “club favorite.”

There is a single button on the device, leaving complications enjoyed by complicated people elsewhere. It turns him on, it gives him a little boost, and it turns him off. So how do we get precise control? An iPhone app. Yes, Android too. You set the temperature and he shows you his real-time heat. He keeps a tab the hours you’ve smoked, helps you track battery life, and even gives advice on temperatures for different herb blends. When he’s ready for you, he’ll give you a buzz, send a phone alert, whatever you’d like. This eliminates a lot of wasted material. He can take up to two minutes to heat up, so if you need your hit fast, you two are not a match.

But there’s more. Crafty is not only for your greens. There are plenty of other herbs that have plenty of other great effects and benefits. Many blend well with the greens to enhance flavor, take the edge off, or add to the calm. Alternate herbs include peppermint, thyme, rosemary, sage, lavender, lemon balm, chamomile, green tea, yerba mate (yes, the caffeine comes through), and even hops. Apparently damiana was used by the Mayans as an aphrodisiac. Each herb has its own temperature ideal, making a single-temperature portable device incompatible.

And so there you have it — a whole new world to explore with a clean, safe, perfect companion. He’s Crafty and you’re welcome.

Get yours at vapeworld.com