Disclaimer: I didn't pay for these, they were sent to me by Liquid Barn. Shout out to Liquid Barn
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Liquid Barn Vanilla Cream Tobacco, 5 and 9% @ 1g/ml, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 33 days.
Flavor Description: Vanilla cream with a little bit of grassy tobacco hidden in there.
There's quite a bit more vanilla cream to this than tobacco. Liquid barn calls out a vanilla bean, but I'm not getting much in the way of a darker, spicier vanilla. It's more of a frosting type vanilla. I'm getting a decent amount of cream as well. There's quite a bit of volume and some actual buttery notes. I'm not picking up anything overtly dairy, but it feels a bit like a whipped cream. The base of the cream is a bit waxy, but it's identifiably a vanilla cream.
The tobacco underneath that vanilla cream is relatively subtle, but it feels like a mismatch for that creamy vanilla. The tobacco I get is mostly on the tail end of the exhale, although you start to pick up a bit underneath the beginning of the exhale as well. It's a relatively bright, mellow kind of tobacco with a little bit of citrus and a relatively prominent hay type grassiness to it. There's also a a bit of warmth and throat hit in here. No smoke or ash, feels relatively clean as far as tobaccos go. Most of the tobaccos paired with vanilla lean more towards a darker, bolder kind of pipe tobacco while this doesn't really have the intensity to keep up the vanilla and that light grassiness doesn't feel like it meshes all that well.
The Vanilla Cream here brings in a sort of fluffy mouthfeel. This is relatively sweet as well. This feels like it may have some of whatever is going on with their sweet pipe tobacco in the base, as it has fluffy sweetness that feels a lot like a heavy dose of FA Oba Oba.
Off-flavors: Not a whole lot tobacco, and probably a much lighter tobacco than it actually needs to stand up that vanilla cream. Cream is a bit waxy.
Throat Hit: Moderate. For as smooth as this should be from the cream, there's a pretty solid harshness here more in line with a tobacco.
Percentage testing: At 5% I'm mostly getting a light vanilla cream. Some waxy body down low, but thin in the middle. I'm not picking much tobacco at all.
At 9% that vanilla cream fills in quite a bit. The vanilla picks up and the middle of the flavor feels less thin. That tobacco component is still fairly light, but it's more present at 9% than 5%.
Liquid Barn suggests mixing this at 9%. That seems like a good starting point for using this as a vanilla cream base for a tobacco.
Uses & Pairings: Solo, this doesn't really deliver on the vanilla cream tobacco thing. I'd be using this around that 9% suggested mixing percentage and then adding something substantially darker, like INW Black for Pipe. Seems like a good jumping off point for making your own vanilla or just generally sweet pipe tobacco flavors.
Second Opinions:
Here's the ELR Page. User "JoJo" writes: "6% (SnV - definitely getting the creamy vanilla flavor, but not much tobacco. 1 week - Very nice creamy vanilla. Getting some coconut. Still not much tobacco flavor. 2 weeks - same as 1. A great vanilla cream, but no tobac. 3 weeks - same. A very nice creamy vanilla flavor but not getting anything resembling tobacco. Maybe my tobacco tastebuds are broken. 4 weeks - same. So weird. Really nice creamy vanilla. A little dry, maybe a bit of a bite?)" User "Silhouette" writes: "I dunno, maybe it's just my taste buds, but the small wisp of tobacco may be a tad too grassy for me, it's not a robust or aromatic tobacco, by any means. I'm not entirely sure I like the vanilla in it either. It has a mildly burnt smell, along with the grassy aspect it makes it somewhat unappealing to me."
It just tastes like a vanilla popsicle that you dropped on the ground and then picked up and ate anyway.
What is it with you and dropping things on the ground and still eating them? Is it really that dire?