I have had good results mixing my NET's with an equal amount of tobacco absolute, or with one of Hagsen's tobacco essence flavors such as Red USA. They are both derived from tobacco leaves and highly refined. They reduce coil gunk and enhance the flavor as well. Has anyone tried a similar approach?
I often add 2-5% of my reduced ethanol extract to a synthetic based juice like Ahlusion's Caramel Wild Wood to give it a genuine tobacco presence, it's delicious! Nicoticket's ACB, Charlie Noble's Pistachio RY-4 or Tripoli taste better with a little extra genuine tobacco added. I get the same coil/wick performance as when mixing my own flavored NET from scratch, 10-15mls before re-wicking.
If I remember correctly Hangsen uses tobacco absolute in their concentrated tobacco flavorings which could explain why they are considered one of the best manufactures for tobacco flavorings. But first you have to understand what tobacco absolute (TA), really is and how it's made. After performing a hot ethanol extraction, evaporate 98% of the ethanol off and the thick syrup remaining is tobacco absolute. Evaporate all the ethanol and you would have tobacco concrete. Tobacco absolute is nothing more than ultra concentrated tobacco extract. TA can be made using distilled water, ethanol or several hazardous solvents (
that I won't identify), via simple soak solvent extraction methods. Supercritical CO2 and steam distillation extraction methods can also be used with commercial manufacturers preferring steam distillation.
The reason most TA tastes "lackluster" is that vaping/juice vendors purchase it from commercial manufacturers. These commercial manufacturers were making TA -long- before vaping appeared on the scene, the fragrance industry is their primary customer. The tobacco they use to make TA is the cheapest bulk tobacco available, the results suits the fragrance industry but isn't the best for our needs as flavor wasn't a factor or concern when it was made. TA made from premium, flavor oriented, tobacco tastes great. Try reducing a finished, filtered ethanol based tobacco extraction to its absolute form and mix juice using it. You'll wonder why all the vaping vendors peddle that bland stuff.
Personally, I reduce my ethanol extractions down by 50 - 70% after filtering. Nowhere near being TA but concentrated none the less. I normally mix these concentrated extracts between 2 - 7% and easily vape 10-15mls before re-wicking becomes necessary. Even then my coils are no worse than if vaping a flavored synthetic juice (
very little gunk), but the wick seems to become saturated with something from the extract and flavor begins to taper off. I only vape flavored NET and the vanilla, caramel, nut and other concentrated flavorings I use may also contribute toward wick saturation but I suspect the tobacco extract is the main culprit.
Filtering at 1 micron helps somewhat but I believe the freeze purification process (
precipitating out the oils, wax and resin), is the primary reason why my ethanol extracts perform so much better than my PG based ones.
