Interesting thread!
It just so happens that I have a largeish humidor stocked with several cartons' worth of foreign cigarettes that I keep for smoking friends who come to visit. In that humidor are several packs of State Express 555 Gold 85 mm.'s, the Singapore version, which I bought probably two years ago.
When I saw this thread, I cracked open a fresh pack of State Express 555's. While I was at it, I also loaded up a brand-new Boge 3.0 ohm carto with Dekang 24 mg./ml. 555 and screwed it into a MadVapes box-mod with a freshly charged 3.7 volt AW IMR 14500 battery. Time for a comparison.
Please bear in mind that, unlike so many of you, I still genuinely like the smell of decent-quality cigarettes, and this factor bears in the notes following.
STATE EXPRESS: The freshly-opened pack smells like a good Kentucky/burley cigarette with just a faint hint of nuttiness. A roll of the cigarette between the fingers reveals no crackling, so the pack has remained fresh in the humidor. At first light off a BIC lighter (took a while to find one!), the toasty nuttiness of the comes to the fore in the taste. I took a few drags off the cigarette, then left it smoldering in the ashtray while I put the opened pack back in the humidor on the other side of the house. When I returned, the room note from the cigarette was that of nutty, toasted Kentucky/burley. The cigarette had burned down to within half an inch of the filter, so I took a couple of drags, then snuffed the smoke. The last couple of drags were considerably darker in flavor, but the nuttiness remained, though fainter than it was at first.
DEKANG 555: The scent of the e-liquid is of almost total nuttiness. When I punch the button and vape the e-liquid, creamy hazlenut nuttiness is the dominant flavor of Dekang 555, along with a slight undertone of complex flavors vaguely resembling unburnt tobaccos but no real hint of anything combusting. There seem to be undertones of other things in there which I can't identify. I've vaped Dekang 555 ever since I started vaping, and it remains one of my favorites.
Comparison between the two: There can be no direct comparison between a cigarette and an e-liquid, simply because the one presents you with the flavor of combustion products, while the other's flavors reach you via boiling. So I have to consider how close the two are in terms of spirit. Both give you a complex flavor and smell experience. The Dekang 555 is vastly more "nutty" than the 555 cigarette. The Dekang also has different flavors underneath, which add to the complexity of the experience and bring it close to the essence of the 555 cigarette experience.
I don't think the average Marlboro or Camel smoker has the slightest idea what kind of tobacco is inside.
