I've been caught up with work and a busy summer schedule, but I wanted to post some thoughts on the Real Extracts, LLC juices that I received in early July and that I've just revisited the last couple of days.
I have to say, these juices have really come together with a couple-week steep, and I'm thoroughly impressed with them. At first taste right out of the mail, they seemed like quality NETs, but I could detect the individual varietals that weren't quite meshing at the time. My, how that has changed. All the ones I've tried have now steeped into harmonious blends that I'm having a hard time putting down. Let me dive in.
CowBoy. At first taste, I definitely got Burley more than the Virginia that's also in it. Now, it has steeped into a perfect analog blend where the two have combined to exceed the sum of their parts. It's extremely smooth and rich. If I had to compare it to other juices, I'd have to say it's most similar to QnJ Analog Red or Big Spirit, but with more smooth tobacco earthiness, if that makes sense. This juice is a solid, tasty analog replacement.
Turkish. This is probably my favorite of the sample pack. At first, I could detect the Virginia, but now the Oriental is really shining through. This is a great Turkish blend with a delicious, toasty, sun-cured flavor. It has surpassed Smug Juice Hump as my go-to Turkish, since it is less sweet, and even rivals (but not quite exceeds) NETcom Sun-Cured Turkish as my favorite Turkish that I've tried so far. This stuff is Turkish bliss.
English. I thought this one might be a throwaway, since I'm not the biggest fan of most English blends, but boy was I wrong. The site describes this one as "a natural tobacco extracted flavor using a Bright Virginia extract. Sweet, mild and tasty." I usually get bored of just Virginia pretty quickly, but I have never had a straight Virginia with as much depth as this one. It definitely has predominantly higher notes compared to CowBoy and Turkish, but it is deeply satisfying in its own way nonetheless.
The only one from the sample pack that I haven't tried at all yet is CowBoy Menthol. I assume this one is going to be a throwaway, but I'm waiting until some of the menthol hopefully steeps off and it might become vapeable. Worst case scenario, I'll save it for an occasional winter vape (the only time I used to have an occasional Newport analog).
All in all, these Real Extract juices are quality, no-nonsense, straight-up tobacco NETs with no added sweeteners or flavors that really do justice to the tobaccos they came from. Good right out of the mail, but with a good steep, they've transformed into glorious blends that I can't put down. They are also surprisingly gentle on coils and appear pretty clear and well-filtered.
My only issue with them is their price. $1/ml retail is too much for me to pay for any juice out of principle. Luckily, I got them during a July sale where you could get all of their juices for $0.50/ml ($0.60/ml if you assume the menthol is a throwaway). Now, I have just two days before the end of July to decide if I want to reorder the July sale sample pack to avoid paying full price in the future. Another thing that I would have called b.s. on is that they previously charged an extra $3/30ml for 24mg nic, which they seem to have since eliminated. Smart move on their part. I would have gotten the 18mg and added a little of my own nic for a tiny fraction of the price.
Real Extracts is quality juice with the potential to be a heavy hitter. I'm a fan already, and these juices have made me very happy the last couple of days. I just wish they would lower their prices.
Dusty, would you mind adding them to the New NET Vendors list on the first page? Thanks.