What are your top 5 favourite tobacco concentrates? For me..
INW Black for Pipe- Not my favourite blend of tobacco but it's done so well and very authentic. Good as a main flavour or to back other up.
TFA Western- Decent Virginia type flavour with some ashiness. Not great standalone but doesn't need much help to become good. I use when trying to replicate an anolouge, around 3-5%
INW Vanilla for Pipe- Great Vanilla taste and mild tobacco. Can't add much to it or covers up the tobacco but good standalone.
Hanseng RY1- good replace my for RY4 if you want a more authentic tobacco. I get a dark, sweet leaf from it. I use around 4-5%
FA Desert Ship- Some might say this doesn't have strong tobbaco notes. To me it has a woody and spicey taste which I strongly relate to analogue cigs. Generally use between 1-2%.
Flavorah, Flavorah, Flavorah, Flavorah, Flavorah.
In no order
Red Burley, Cured, Kentucky, Virginia, Turkish.
In Order.
INW Black for Pipe is still my top dog. I put it in pretty much everything. 1-2% for me.
FLV Kentucky has been going in a lot of my stuff lately as well. I don’t find it ashy or smoky in the way that Dirty Neutral Base is, but I do like the body it gives. Usually keep it around .75-1.25%
HS Elder Captain has quickly become one of my favorites. Nice spiced tobacco. On its own I get more clove than anything, but low in a mix gives a nice touch of spice. .25-.5% usually does what I want.
FE Hongtashan has been pretty useful for me when it comes to the less authentic type of tobacco mixes. It’s like a slightly cinnamon type of thing. 1.5-2.5%
FLV would get the last spot probably, but it’s hard to pick one. It’s definitely not Cavendish, Cured, Turkish, Arabian, or Classic Cigarette. It’d mostly be between Oriental, Red Burley, and Connecticut Shade. If I really had to narrow it down it would be between Oriental and Red Burley, but I can’t narrow it down any further than that.
Can I ask you about Connecticut shade? I love the flavor except there is a weird chemical off flavor in my tester. Is there a limit on percent you use? Some good pairings that mellow out the flavor?
I find it to be pretty strong. In a mix I probably will never go above .5% because it starts to overpower things pretty quickly. I think the cocoa and coffee notes in it will pair nicely with vanilla sand creams.
Oh wow. Ok. I mixed my tester way higher. I think 3%. I also tried it with creme brûlée at 1.25% but I guess that’s much higher than you are recommending. Tobaccos seem to do much better at lower %’s in general and my gauge was off. Thanks for the tip.
Edit: do you also pair it with other more authentic tobaccos? Or less ‘authentic’ ones?
FLV Tobaccos have a tendency to fade, do strange things, then come back beautifully after a steep. It's like their tobaccos have a "college years" they have to outgrow. There are a lot of good ones but they can be difficult to work with developing new recipes. As others have said, if time doesn't solve it, try a lower percentage.
Black for Pipe is at the top of my list as well, and I also enjoy the other "for pipe" flavors from INW. FA 7 Leaves Ultimate is pretty good too, it's reminiscent of something like Bali shag or maybe drum with a hint of sweetness. Very versatile and easy on coils too. I know FA gets a bad rep with their "tobacco" flavors, but if you're slightly interested and want to get your feet wet, they are worth trying a 10mL, but don't expect a full on tobacco taste.
I see a lot of praise here for FLV Red Burley, but aside from it being tobaccoesque as a SnV, it steeps into something reminiscent of a dark chocolate/peanut butter flavor to me, and really shits my coils fast. I've wanted to like it but I can't appreciate it past about a week or 10 days, and have trouble finishing a 30mL with it in the mix.
7 Leaves is one that I can kind of get down with. It’s been a while since I’ve used it, but I think I might give it a go. I had a recipe that used it with INW Garuda and it was a pretty nice combo since they are both pretty light and leafy. I just couldn’t really get down with the rest of them that I tried. There’s a couple that I haven’t had, and I’m sure I’ll eventually cave and try them. Cam Blended, Royal, Shade, Maxx Blend, Cigar Passion, and Cuban Supreme are the ones I haven’t had. Tried any of those that you’d recommend? Cigar Passion and Cuban Supreme I’ve heard good things about.
Red Burley loses its crisp bite on a steep for me, but the main base flavor I don’t really notice a big change on. I almost always mix FLV with some INW tobaccos though, so maybe that helps with making them taste better over a longer steep.
I've sampled the FA Cuban Supreme, it does carry more tobacco taste compared to the few others I've tried from FA. It does lack body and complexity, so something from INW and/or FLV might be a good idea here if you're after a full on cigar. I also scribbled up a recipe which I haven't made yet that has it with FA Caramel, FA Nut Mix, and some FA Vienna Cream. I recall thinking these would be excellent pairings taste wise, despite pulling it away from being a tobacco/cigar.
I haven't tried any other FA offerings you have listed.
What is a good recipie you would recommend that uses Black for pipe?
I have not tried Black Phillip personally, but I know a few people mixed it up and vaped it on Halloween and it got some pretty solid reviews from that. Seems like if anything, it would benefit from a slight tweak on the Creme Brulee.
The only recipes from ATF that I have tried are my own, but my favorites of those include Brigade 2506, Black Fig, and Humbug.
I guess I did mix up Tinted Limo but had to use TFA Toasted Marshmallow instead of the Butter Cream, but it was pretty good.
I just added a few tobaccos to my last order and have been playing with them lately. I got so few of the ones mentioned thus far. Been testing them all until today I frankestiened them all at 0.5% with some menthol into some crazy blend that I’m loving for no particular reason. I love this thread already despite the fact it will probably hurt my pocket in a week or two.
I’d like to add that if anyone wanted to link to or name a few favorite recipes, I’d be most appreciative.
Which ones you working with? Here’s my ATF.
Wow. Those are some recipes. I don’t think I have any of those flavors. I just got on ATF yesterday and will add all those to my favorites. Looks like an interesting year ahead of me...
I don’t know how I picked the ones I did, but I got: western, ry4 double, native, burley, 7leaves, 555, gold ducat, black fire, dark vampire, ct chafe, and shade. Not sure all the companies at this moment as I’m on mobile.
Tobaccos are a deep and dark tunnel to start down. I’ve stayed busy with them for about 3 years. About 170 different tobacco flavors later, and the light at the end is almost visible.
I can guess the companies for most of those based on the name. Most of those I don’t really use very much, but if you look them up on ATF and look at some of the recipes you can probably get some ideas. Just a warning: there’s a recipe on there that has like 10% RY4 Double with 10% Black Fire. Do not mix that! About 99% sure that’s a troll recipe. Black Fire will rarely ever be used over .5%.
So far all I've tried is TFA Black Honey. It doesn't have any tobacco taste, all I get is honey and very light cloves with none of the bite of a clove cigarette. I've been really enjoying it as a SF actually! I did get a few tobaccos in my last order so very excited to try them. Too bad Nic River is missing a lot of the most popular tobaccos. I absolutely love the taste of cigarettes so I definitely need to play around with tobbacos more.
Diyordie has a few vids on all the tabaccos out there, I'm still working through them and taking notes.
I have ry4 double and it's good, but seems like a mixer into other profiles, being more caramel than tobacco.
I'll preface my preferences by confessing that I am an old school vaper where tobaccos are concerned: high flavor concentrations, low wattage, MTL only. Here are my SF favorites:
FLV Kentucky Blend @ 3.5%
NN Tobacco @ 2.0%
FLV Black for Pipe @ 3.75%
GF Arabian Nights @ 4.0%
HS Desert Ship @ 5.0%
I’m gonna have to give the GF Arabian Nights another shot. I didn’t care much for it when I first tried it, but it might go a little better this time.
I prefer to let it steep for a month or more. The fruity accents fade to the background, it becomes semi-dry and has a hint of toasted taste. Not an aggressive flavor but it has enjoyable subtleties IMO.
Flavourart is about the only company's flavors I'll vape. In any case, I've tried most of their tobaccos and the only ones that stick out are Glory and Desert Ship. I found 7 Leaves to be awful and Monsoon even more so (yuck).
Flavorah has more authentic tobacco flavors. I remember Flu Cured being really good but it's been a couple years. I stopped vaping Flavorah flavors because they were always so cryptic about the DA/AP/Acetoin content of their flavors. Browsing their website just now, it seems this has changed. I may pick a few of their flavors up.
I still haven't tried a tobacco vape, I'm actually all for it but just don't know where to start. My shop didn't sell any, and I've never tried any "fine" tobacco's to reference :/
INW Vanilla for Pipe might be a good start. Can mix by itself at 4-5%, no long steep required.