Noted Ep. 185: DESERT TOBACCO (ft. FomentLife)

(Episode aired 12th January 2021)

(Ranked from worst to first)

INW Arabic: Like drinking cold hot chocolate that has gone sour with ash in it. Has strong and overly sour dairy flavour with creamy, hot cocoa type chocolate. Plus an accent of smokey and slightly ashy tobacco. Spoiled milk note is just nasty. Seems like it contains butiric.

9.38

INW Desert Voyager: Pretty complex. Really heavy honey note right up front that's a little floral. Liquorice behind that honey. More subtle hints of leather and sandlewood. Doesn't really taste like tobacco. But has dry, earthy, slightly nutty body. Weird and a bit of a mess. ID10-T couldn't stand the honey/liquorice combo. May appeal to someone? But would need another tobacco flavour. So complex that it would be hard to find an application it would it into. ID10-T tested at 1%.

12.33

HS Arabic Tobacco: Tastes more like liquorice and fruit than tobacco. Fig/prune/raisin type fruit. Very sweet. Mild tobacco note. Like a light, background flavour of a grassy/hay like tobacco. At 5% the tobacco has an unpleasant artificial quality to it. Tobacco not as as fake at 1.5%, other than that it tastes pretty much the same as it did at 5%. Could be useful/enjoyable to those who like liquorice and raisins? ID10-T tested at 1.5% and 5%.

15.16

FW Desert Llama: Based on the name you'd think it was supposed to be based on a Camel cigarette. But doesn't taste anything like that. Deeply weird. Has the tobacco note FW use in a lot of their flavours. Cardboard-y, like the smell of an actual cigarette packet. Foment got a weird cherry chapstick note. A little waxy-ness. Maybe like they were aiming for almond, but it came out as artificial cherry? ID10-T got a kind of bell pepper juice, celery juice mixed with watered down peppermint tea. Something green and weird. Not minty, but similar to minty. Kind of medicinal. The cherry note Foment got came across as more of a fruity vanilla. Like FA Tahiti Vanilla.

20.20

INW Pharaoh: Bizarre. Really bright, citrus-y, black tea flavour with a dull, herbal mint-like accent. Mint has no cooling to it. Has something vaguely tobacco-ish about it. But only to the point that tea leaves and tobacco are both similar. Based on description it possibly supposed to be based a Camel cigarette? But doesn't taste remotely like that. Not unpleasant, could be useable in a mix. But not a tobacco.

26.06

INW Pyramid: Loaded with AP. At 2% it was roasted nuttiness, but right on the cusp of going over into corn chips. About as strong as TFA Acytel Pyrazine. Really sweet. Spun sugar top note kind of sweetness. Very dry. INW describe it as 'sweet tobacco with a touch of ash on the end'. ID10-T got literally none of that, besides it being sweet. Got no tobacco, no ash. Just sweet nuttiness. Tastes like it's just AP and EM. Could use it to add sweetness and nuttiness to a tobacco. Could also use in a bakery or anywhere else. Not unpleasant. But like a store brand version of FA Soho. Generally tastes like Soho, but without any of the complexity. ID10-T tested at 2%

28.25

FA Desert Ship: Was the first tobacco ID10-T ever tried. Didn't touch tobaccos again for two years! But in retrospect didn't think it was that bad, but still pretty yucky. Sam didn't think it was terrible. Wasn't super robust at 1.5%. Like a nutty tobacco wrapped in a dried tobacco leaf. Slight sweetness on the exhale and some sort of brighter note. ID10-T thought that brighter note was green bell pepper. That bell pepper note is present in a lot of FA tobaccos to varying degrees. Also got a hint of vanilla. Foment didn't get a strictly bell pepper note, but there was something astringent and borderline fruity. Thought it was very sweet at 2%. Can work successfully in a recipe. But not the best as a SF. Sam an ID10-T tested at 1.5%. Foment tested at 2%.

34.10

INW Arabesque: Very strange and very busy. Supposed to taste like Camel cigarettes? It doesn't. Mostly tastes like INW Pharaoh with a spicy tobacco added to it. Warm, nutmeg-y spice, then some lemon-y citrus, then get somewhat herbal black tea. Underneath that the body is a moist, sweet tobacco. The finish has some cinnamon then it starts to get a little bread-y, like a cinnamon roll. Doesn't taste terrible. There aren't any horrible off notes, unless you consider the whole thing an off note. Tastes like it's supposed to be a one shot. But it's a very odd combination of a lot of flavours. With so much going on it's going to be very hard to mix with. ID10-T tested at 2%.

40.01

INW Desert Ship: Spicy, dry, mild cigarette tobacco. Spice is pretty prominent, but the individual spice notes indistinguishable. Could vaguely pick out a spicy anise- like star anise, some clove and maybe something sort of cinnamon-ish. Tobacco is fairly Turkish-y and light and mild. Fairly similar to the tobacco note in FA Desert Ship, but not as toasty. INW's description mentions a fruitiness. But didn't get any fruit. Did get a little dry, caramel sweetness. Which may have made it too sweet for some people. Not at all ashy.

46.43

FE Desert Ship: ID10-T found it a little harsh, to the point it was unpleasant. Even after two weeks steep. But he is sensitive to harshness. About as harsh as TFA Juicy Peach. Light touch of spice. Anise and cinnamon on top. A roasted, but not ashy cigarette tobacco and a caramel-y, sweet, but dry base. No off notes. Other than the harshness a pretty solid flavour. ID10-T tested at 1.5%

49.08

FLV Arabian Tobacco: A lot more potent than other FLV tobaccos. Can be pretty assertive in a mix if you're not careful. Kind of sweet. Has a little bit of a spicy note. Couldn't identify what spices. But it's warm. Like a generic, warm spice blend. Has a little bit of an aromatic cedar type note. Has just enough smokey-ness. A little ashy, but more smokey than ashy. Very dry. ID10-T tested at 0.25%. Full flavoured. Foment tested at 0.5%.

52.16

Arab Mom's Butter Cookie by Nowar (aka Isuamadog) (ATF) Foment nominated for recipe of the year. Uses the spice notes in FLV Arabian for a cookie.

56.19 and 1.07.12

Autumn Smoke by ChemicalBurnVictim (ATF) Pumpkin spice tobacco

56.45

Ichabod's Crane by SlashaLO (ATF) Uses it to bolster FLV Turkish in a fall, spiced, fruit tobacco.

56.54

Spiced Apple Tobacco by RinVapes (ATF) All FLV. Just Arabian, Cavendish and Apple.

57.05

HS Desert Ship: More friendly and easier to use than FLV Arabian. Would probably have a broader appeal. Really tasty as a SF. Dark fruity sweetness, maybe plum. Mild anise spice note. But not liquorice-y, more like star anise. Other spices are present too. But not the same warm, generic spice note FLV Arabian and a few of the others have. It's different. Even with all the accents it has it's more of a cigarette tobacco than a pipe or cigar tobacco. Only negative for Foment that it's as dry or slightly drier than FA Desert Ship. As he is someone who mixes more dessert style tobaccos couldn't see how it would fit into his personal preferences.

57.49

Just a Touch Of Chocolate by fadedjay1 (ATF)

1.02.04

Shipwreck by Juicefairy (ATF)

1.10.24

Simple Apple Shisha (Hookah) by TBX12 (ELR)

1.15.34

INW Bahraini Apple Gold: Apple with a little bit of a tobacco dirt behind it. A fair amount of anise that carries through it. Anise doesn't overwhelm the apple, but stopping it from taking the forefront.

1.17.13

Coffee in the Shade by thelateoctober (ATF)

1.18.23

Double notes this week! Love reading this ❤️

Congrats on the new job!