HHV’s GOLLUM – Initial Impressions
Per HHV description: Gollum is an extracted tobacco that has a deep flavor profile, highlighted by plum and raisin notes with a deep, rich honey tobacco base that combines for a tobacco vaping experience that is a walk on the dark side compared to our other Purity tobacco extracts.
Sampled, 1mL at 70/30 (PG/VG), 18mg nicotine in a Kanger M3 clearomizer (1mL capacity), aprox. 2.0 ohms at 3.7 volts. This juice was shipped 48 hours prior.
Smell: Very little. What I could smell seemed like the raisin coming out. Sight: Significantly darker than most of HHV’s juices including the popular Gandalf. Looks like my Vapin’ Chimp when I received it.
My first quest in trying a juice for the first time is to see if I detect any perfume or floral as these flavors make me want to vomit (sorry for the graphic) and I simply have to put it down because I cannot vape perfume or floral AT ALL!. I am happy to report, Gollum has no hint of either of these. ZERO!
Vape Production: Similar to the other HHV tobaccos. Throat Hit: Similar to the other HHV tobaccos.
H & A’s signature appears to be all over this vape. It has that same mysterious, smooth, robust, weighty flavor that we find in all their tobacco flavors. After the first 15 pulls or so, I thought the flavor was light…not much flavor at all. After my wicks got primed and the steam was rising from my clearo, the flavor started to punch. The tobacco does not come out as the predominant flavor once again. But it’s there as a base flavor to be sure. The flavor that came to the forefront was the raisin. It seems the raisin and tobacco became friends immediately as these two flavors really combine nicely with the raisin taking the lead. I’m not getting much plum, but I suspect that is shaping the flavor in subtle ways that I cannot define…perhaps giving the flavor a bit of life. I’m also not getting the honey flavor, but again, I’m guessing that is knocking out any grassy notes that the extracted tobacco might be providing. My impression is that Heather wants us to know there is raisin in this juice without being obnoxious about it. This is not a particulary sweet flavor but there is enough sweet in it to know this is not earthy, woodsy, or grassy (whatever term you prefer). With regard to sweetness level, ever taste an unsugared raisin or prune? There you go. This raisin, plum, honey, extracted tobacco combination seems made for each other.
So in conclusion, my initial impressions suggest that H & A’s description of Gollum is very close. I very much enjoyed my first experience with Gollum. Absolutely NOTHING offensive about it which tells me the flavor will only grow on me as more steep time and more flavor acquisition takes place. As is, this is easily reordeable as it stands. I will vape this every day or every other day for a week or more to see how the experience evolves. But, Gollum is positioned to be a big winner and an outstanding vape IMHO.