A NET fan, I've been extracting tobacco for years and have tasted over two hundred different NETs including dozens of "premium" retail offerings, not one of them tasted like a burning cigarette, cigar or pipe. The tobacco flavor is there but the lung pounding harshness of inhaling smoldering tobacco smoke isn't and that significantly alters the overall experience. Personally, I prefer NET over burning/inhaling tobacco because the tobacco flavor isn't shrouded/obstructed by the acrid harshness of smoke and takes center stage. I do like a little peppery bite or "harshness" in my NETs and have learned to obtain it through the type (brand), and amount of liquid nic added when mixing. Your gear, build and inhalation style also play a major role in how a NET tastes. I much prefer an airy sub-ohm, dual coil setup wicked with Japanese cotton and lung inhale rather than mouth to lung, makes a HUGE difference in taste, presentation and satisfaction.
All NETs are coil/wick killers (when compared to synthetics), but some are worse than others. Clay at NET.com is somewhere in the middle of the performance spectrum but even the cleanest retail NETs (like Diane's at MVJ), aren't significantly better performers and oftentimes you end up sacrificing some flavor/intensity to obtain a slightly better performing NET. With most retail NET I rarely go through more than a single tankful (3-4ml), before re-wicking and dry burning but I'm extremely picky when it comes to flavor.
