I’ve had this concentrate for a while. I originally got this along with a few other meat concentrates from OoO to experiment with adding them to tobacco recipes for the missing smoky/savory elements from combusted tobacco. However, less than 24 hours after receiving the package and leaving it on a table in my office, the house started smelling like I’d stashed a corpse under the floorboards. I traced that smell to the OoO package, and promptly exiled it to the garage.
It took a couple months, maybe 3, for the garage to stop smelling like an Union Carbide plant died of cancer. More accurately, the smell subsided enough for me to approach the package without Level 4 PPE and determine that the culprit was the bottle of OoO Beef. That shit went into the trash, and the rest of the concentrates went back onto my flavor rack. If you were wondering why convoys of Superfund trucks were coming in and out of the local landfill for several weeks last year, now you know. OoO Beef, not even once.
So, Smoky Bacon. “Good God, Greybush, are you mad?”, you ask. Sort of, but that’s beside the point. I’ve been messing with DIY tobaccos for a while, and I was attempting a “like for like” approach to recreating the pouch aroma of a freshly opened thing of Drum rolling tobacco. One of the relatable elements from that was a similar sort of savory/smoked element that was a lot like the smell of beef jerky, but more subtle and less overtly meaty. That’s what got me to start hunting down smoked/salty meat concentrates, I was gonna test using them in small doses as casing/saucing additives to the base leaf flavors.
I didn’t get around to actually trying this until recently, partly from being traumatized by the OoO Beef fiasco, and partly because I’d forgotten about it. Here we go!
Mixing details: around 70VG/30PG, 12mg/mL nicotine, 10mL testers.
Device used: QP Gata in MTL mode, 2.5mm ID 1 ohm 26 gauge KA1 coil, at 15-25 watts. Steeped and tasted over the course of a week.
The suggested percentages from OoO was a range from 1% to 3%, so I started at the high end and then went low.
3%: The tragic aftermath of a grease fire gone out of control.
1.5%: Burnt bacon bits embedded in black frying pan sludge.
1%: ::lights a Snausage and takes a deep drag::
0.75%: Intense bacon grease and liquid smoke. After about a week, it sort of calms down to a heavy wood smoke with some lingering bacon grease.
0.25-0.5% max seems to be where it’s at for an additive, especially when paired with DNB in equal proportion. I can’t really imagine vaping this flavor solo, and as a support flavor, it’s potent enough to overshadow anything else at the recommended 1%-3% percentages.
Suggested pairings: Use in tiny doses to add a bit of smoked/pan fried character to other food flavors maybe? I’m thinking as an alternative to FA Black Fire if you’re one of these people who get charred bell peppers from it instead of hickory smoke. Drier tobaccos that are more nutty/woody work. FLV Red Burley, Kentucky Blend, FA 7Leaves Ultimate, that kind of stuff. Avoid sweet tobaccos, you end up with more of a barbecue sauce flavor, especially if you go overboard on something like FLV Native Tobacco or FLV Connecticut Shade.
Additional notes: Use sparingly, add to taste. Too much and all you’ll pick up is smoky bacon grease. Not a replacement for DNB, but complements it. Plays decent with FA Oak Wood as well.
You should try some fried chicken next
Nah. But we need to convince him to test the OoO Beef. For science, of course.
Grey, could you try the following?
1% OoO bacon
2% FLV Virginia
3% TFA Western
I suspect those tobacco (maybe with .5% FA Perique Black) may stand up to that much. But I'm not gonna track down a bacon flavor...
I have Bacon and FLV Virginia, I’ll have to track some TFA Western down. You’re talking about the mapley OoO Bacon and not OoO Smoky Bacon in that recipe?
Actually, the smoky.
I normally use TFA western as a accent flacor, @.5% or so. 3% is insanely high, but some folk like it up that high. Figured with the smoke and the grassy/leafy Virginia it could work. Hmm. Maple in tobacco? Could work.
I hope the Gata survived the abuse!!
Used to live near a Union Carbide.... I feel your pain! Lol
Does the company not smell or taste these flavors before deciding to sell them to customers. If the beef is really as bad as everyone says, why TF would they even sell it?
Possibly it's used by some of their customers in a blend? Like, 1% beef, 87% cheddar, 12% horseradish. Which then goes through some process to spray on potato chips along with a powdered starch and salt blend to make it seem like a dry flavor powder was applied? Hard to be certain. Maybe when it's diluted it's actually good, but in pure form it's too high a concentration to smell right? Or maybe a disgruntled employee replaced the bottle of whatever ingredient with a bottle of cadaverine. (Smells like the name implies.)
Yup, their main market is food. Their recommendation for Beef, in that context, was 1 drop of flavoring per cup of water, and given how massively pungent that shit was, I believe it.
If that’s the case, you may be able to get away with mixing a small part of the bottle with a gallon of VG. Or proportionally smaller, but given the smell I think the ideal solution would be to dilute as much as possible and immediately throw the rest in the trash.
They’re primarily a food flavoring company, and their stuff is normally meant to be used to flavor processed junk like candy, potato chips, dog treats, or whatever. I’m not sure what the thought process over there was, but at one point they decided to get into selling their flavorings to vapers, and they don’t seem to have put very much effort into evaluating the viability of their flavors for vaping.
My mother used to make these treats that consisted of toast with peanut butter and bacon. I picked up a small bottle of bacon when I placed my first order. My intent was to try that combination. Needless to say, I haven’t opened it as of yet. But maybe the tobacco lovers could use the peanut butter bacon idea? I still may... 😂😂 😳
Considering chocolate dipped bacon ecosts, PB bacon treats don't shock. Hmm... Chocolate covered PB bacon treats....
The regular Bacon is actually a pretty credible breakfast bacon, it just has a bit of a maple note to it that sort of makes it taste the way a strip of bacon does when you dip it in pancake syrup. If you don’t mind that maple note, it’d probably work. For Smoky Bacon, however...I’d start with a decent PBJ recipe, remove the jammy bits, boost the peanut butter a bit, then start adding Smoky Bacon at 1 drop per 5mL until it starts tasting right.
Mmm OoO Beef and VTA Jackfruit, I can already gag from the smell forming in my head.
Cheers for the review, much prefer funky freeform written ones to the bland following of a pattern. Adds character to it!
Honestly I kinda wanna try this with VTA Jackfruit and maybe FA Fuji and FLV Rich Cinnamon for a nice dinner flavour to get the appetite going. But how would smell/flavour of a main dish open appetite for food on the table. Would it work similarly to a starter/appetizer or would it just completely ruin things.
Imagine a future in which you go to a restaurant and they have a vape lounge. You order a vape flavour for a starter, eat your main course and then get a vape dessert. Would open a wide variety of social gatherings to be frank. At the same time it sounds utterly out of this world... Or does it?
Not so farfetched. I don't usually have much of a sweet tooth, but every once in a while I get those cravings for sugary junk. Vaping dessert juices keeps me from stuffing my face with sugary junk, and I've read anecdotes from others who say vaping sweet juices curbs their desire to eat sweets as well.
Appetizer juices would be an interesting experiment!