FLV Vanilla Tobacco

Review

Setup: mtl STNG 0.7 Ohm 2.0 ID 28/40 clapton 28.5W

nose: Smells a lot like the RY4 (marshmallow cereal) but with a bit of bourbon :shrug:

Description: 2.5% - At 4 days, I started by testing this right after I did my RY4 test without changing the cotton. Already I can tell there's a tobacco note here and they play together well. [mental note to check atf recipes for these combos] I already want to mix this with ry4 and cap sc. The vanilla reminds me of smooth vanilla without the cherry note. It's prominent, musky, and warm without being overpowering of having that cherry off-note that Sm Van has. And here it works perfectly. I can already tell this will be a newbie's dream bacco. It's about 50% of the way to what I imagine people want when they ask for a vanilla cigar. You'd just need some drier bacco body and maybe a mix of Ct Shade and RY4 for whatever those accent notes are that finish off a cigar: leaf, wrapper, coffee, chocolate...

At 8 days, this has steeped into something really lovely. The vanilla has calmed down just a touch and the bacco has risen to the top. The vanilla pulls the bacco down where the Mild Tobacco hovers in balance for a while during the steep. Could just be my imagination, but I get just a little bit more nutty out of this one than the other three offerings. This kinda comes across as Mild tobacco with smooth vanilla so I would probably suggest skipping this if you already have Sm Van or pick it up since it is pretty good overall.

At around 12 days, the vanilla has scaled back enough to taste like this is Mild Tobacco with some vanilla in it. I get the same golden caramel on the inhale with a semi strong tobacco finish with vanilla present throughout slightly masking the other flavors a bit (too much for my taste to drive a recipe imo). If there are major differences here or even if there are just slight differences, I dont really notice them but I'm by no stretch of the imagination a super taster. I'm probably not even an average taster after my years of smoking. I dunno, for me I'm thinking that if you already own INW Shisha Vanilla and FLV Smooth Vanilla, just pass this up for Mild Tobacco to have a more range of choices. That said, this is as lovely flavor as is Mild just with the caveat that you can't take out the vanilla in the one and just need to add it in the other. Thinking some mix of these two favoring Mild would be my choice.

At 17 days, I have lost the vanilla nearly almost entirely. It's weird af because it was really so strong up front. Now I can tell that there really isn't that same caramel flavor from Mild Tobacco underneath. Or, at least, I'm not picking it up like I imagined it before when everything was under a blanket of Vanilla. I'm a little sad to see it go because the flavor underneath is also a very mild tobacco note even here at 2.5% and it's lacking the pizazz of the pairing with the vanilla that came before it. So, idk maybe this is a good thing, right? Like, I know that if i ever want to mix a strong vanilla flavored tobacco that I will vape in the next few days, I'd use this hard, but for a bit longer of a steep, probably would have to figure out how to subtly boost this vanilla note which, frankly, opens up the realm of possibility for its uses since you are not locked into it.

Suggested percent: Solo at 2.5% seems a little high just because the Vanilla is still a little strong for me. That seems to fit with my experience of Mild as well (a little bit of sharpness still at less than a full two week steep). If you love vanilla tobacco, knock yerself out. In a mix, I'm guessing I'd try this 1-1.5 depending on what else was in the mix. Obviously, vanilla would have to be a prominent enough note if used in the first week and vanilla would need to be added if going for the longer steep. What's left here is a really gentle tobacco flavor, mildly sweet, overall not too dark, not too light, kind of a mid or lower mid darkness. No leaf, ash. Extremely inoffensive if, for my tastes, a little too soft. That's good news as I can see using this to bend other, more aggressive flavors. The better news, imo, is that there is a more woodsy vibe here. Maybe not so much present as suggested, I can see adding a little oak to bring that out more, playing off of it and bringing it out.

Pairing ideas: Naturally, i think some kind of mix of this with Mild Tobacco in a 3:2 ratio might just be the new two flavor banger for RY4 lovers who want equal parts Tobacco/Caramel/Vanilla. When I tried Mild, it screamed apple because of that Caramel note, but this one is a bit more subtle. I think some pairing ideas I'd like to try are using this as the missing middle note from Sweet and Smoky, playing its dryness against the RB/Tatanka combo with a little red oak or just oak barrel, or simply this and Mild and soho for a new type of Cardinal styled mix:

Maga

Off the shake it's exactly what I want, deep rich nutty caramel with a hint of vanilla.

| % | Vendor | Flavor | |---|--------|--------| |2|FLV|Mild Tobacco| |5|FA|Soho| |1|FLV|Vanilla Tobacco|

Following up on my idea for a Vanilla Cigar type vape, I mixed this:

vanilla cigar ALL FLV

| % | Vendor | Flavor | |---|--------|--------| |0.3|FLV|Connecticut Shade| |2|FLV|Cured Tobacco| |1|FLV|Red Burley| |1|FLV|RY4| |2.5|FLV|Vanilla Tobacco|

Stats

ATF: 16 DIY Public Recipes / Used in 146 recipes at an average of 1.521%

ELR: Public Recipes: 16 / Average mixing quantity: 1.3% (Median: 1%)

Existing Recipes:

• Maple Nilla Tobacco by u/Mindfloodz. He says this is a 5 day steep for a vanilla fwd with VT at 3.5%. Seems high to me, but I would try this and give it a nice long steep, like 21 days. I bet this would be great.
• Full Count by u/wolfwheeler. Welcome to the weird. I would try this if I could come anywhere near FLV Popcorn without gagging.
• my ry mash up by Flavorah Flav looks like it might be good. I would probably crank up that Mild to closer to 2 (may need to tweak that caramel salted but should be fine at 1.25%), leave that Vanilla Tobacco at 1, but the rest (especially the RY4, oak, and RB accents) looks great with potential to adjust/sub the custards to taste.
• Bacco No7 - Pistachio by u/saspi on ELR and ATF really looks like something I could get down with.

Second Opinions: Flavor of the Quarter ft. Fresh03 | Noted: Ep. 206 u/ID10-T warns the new FLV newer baccos need to be used at 3% for all the notes they present and "greatly benefit" from a steep (with vanilla not as much).

ELR user Frunkster writes:

> Very nice flavour profile this, a true tobacco flavour no doubt but a mild & very mellow one, there is a hint of some other flavours here, they state “caramel & chocolate”, but they are very mild & hard to pick out individually & are very well blended into it's overall profile, even standalone this holds up pretty well even at the percentage tested. > The tobacco itself is quite the pleasant one with a hints of burly & maybe an eastern type like Oriental? I would say, but not quite forward enough to put your finger on, though it is easy to interpret it as tobacco if not quite which type, I could vape this straight TBH & IMO it's overall a very bloody good flavouring, 100% a dessert tobacco though, not one for a big tobacco hit.

u/SessionDrummer writes (as did ELR user ELR user Kei so i just assumed it was SD's review):

> 0.8% Having now tested their RY4, and Mild Tobacco, I was curious to see if this one shared similarities. It did. It had many of the rich, deep, dark almost smoky tobacco as the two aforementioned, but this time, it was layered into a deliciously light vanilla carrier. Simplistically speaking, the Mild Tobacco had a great Caramel carrier, and this one has a great Vanilla Carrier, with the RY4 being the heavy standout, as far as increased smoky notes. This one tasted great @ 0.8%, and didn’t feel like it was hitting the ceiling. It was below mid sweet, and the vanilla layer was very nicely blended in. At times I almost got more of the sweet than the Vanilla, but it was there throughout the vape. While not appearing as complex as the caramel in the Mild this one paired perfectly with the bacco notes, and held it’s own, but didn’t steal the limelight. The darker/smoky bacco notes from the other baccos was present here as well, but like the Mild, were slightly reduced to allow room for the carrier layer. All in, this one could be a GREAT first one for people wanting to delve into the world of baccos, without a slamming, in your face bacco. Finished the entire two testers on this one, and remember, I’m NOT a bacco vaper, hehe, so that should tell you something. Finishing out this series, this one had no real take-offs, except maybe for some linearity of the vanilla in comparison to the more complex caramel in the Mild. Feels, and felt really good @ .

Final Thoughts

This has become a really interesting flavor for the duration of the steep. Early on, I was ready to write it off when Mild Tobacco had developed much more quickly (~7 days it's good enough for me). This one is more of a long term steeper. 2 weeks it's a different story and I'm happy about it. I can low ball the flavor for an easy vanilla add to a bacco mix, or just wind it up for a deep steep making it an excellent choice for maybe some INW for Pipes that require a longer steep to mature as well. All in all, I found this one to deliver as promised. After a full mature steep, it was a nice mellow dryish tobacco with a pleasant and mild vanilla note, nothing fancy, nothing outrageous. As for "essential" status, not sure I'd give it that but, for the patient/long game mixer, I can see this one being a reliable flavor to have in the kit, much like Vanilla for Pipe would be. I'd go so far as to say this is the FLV answer to VfP. It will blend easily, bring a slight woodiness, maybe even offer up some dryness. I wouldnt be surprised if you see this one in the next several months used in varying concentrations as well. I wouldn't be surprised if it lends a host of different accents at higher or lower concentrations, possibly at different wattages as well. Saying that, I'm going with a gut instinct, it just kind of feels like one of those flavors to me.

I rather agree with Frunkster that the tobacco note is subdued to where it is nearly impossible to pinpoint how it's presenting. Additionally, I concur with SD that the vanilla note isn't as knockout as the Caramel is in Mild Tobacco which, as I said before, is both a positive and a negative in my eyes. You can push it up higher for a SnV bacco that is vanilla forward that will mellow out in time to reveal other flavors behind it. Or you can low ball it and boost with your favorite vanilla for greater complexity since the vanilla is a bit one note at times.

A great intro bacco as it would lend itself to dessert type recipes, yet I think the greatest strength here is in how this would play with FLV's other two offerings: Mild and RY4. They're similar and distinct enough that they can be balanced into making your own intro bacco blend that would be perfect for your own tastes. Sorry, but anyone still using TPA RY4D to augment a bacco is foolish with these three on the market. I'm not your daddy but please, just stop, put that RY4D down, and pick these up and see if you can't actually enjoy some decent mixes.