kevin,
Let me offer a sort of sideways response: Since I started vaping nearly four years ago and, more pointedly, since I began doing my own home-based natural tobacco extractions 16 months ago, I've learned more about tobacco than I did over the entire 40 years that I was addicted to smoking cigarettes. A very significant part of what I've learned is that almost all tobacco that is grown/cured/processed for retail sale contains added sweeteners. Sugar reduces harshness and heat when tobacco is burned and inhaled, so---over the past century---the practice of "casing" has become nearly universal. Casing is a process of spraying a water-based sugar solution on the tobacco leaves that is then absorbed into the cell structures. Casings may be applied at any time---on the living plants in the fields during growing, on whole leaves after harvest or during curing, and---most typically---on cut/chopped leaves during processing that follows curing. I don't know for sure what types of sweeteners are used: sucrose, corn syrup, molasses, etc. I do know that the dilution of the sweetener varies, and that other flavorings---some natural but often synthetic---may be sprayed on as well as part of the casing.
In addition to casing, there is also "toppings." These are alcohol-based solutions of sweeteners or flavorings that are sprayed onto the leaves in the last stages of processing. Being alcohol-based, toppings are not absorbed into the leaf cells. Instead, the alcohol evaporates quickly, leaving the sweeteners and/or flavorings as a coating on the surface of the leaf. Many if not most "aromatic" tobaccos are topped. Beyond that, NET vendors using real tobacco extracts often add even more flavorings during mixing of their NET eliquids, depending on the flavor they're trying to achieve with each particular juice. That's a common practice among the A-List NET vendors we discuss in this thread. As an exception, River Bottom Fog Sauce specifically states that their natural tobacco eliquids contain "no flavor additives of any kind," but that does not imply that the tobaccos used to create the extracts weren't cased or topped. They almost certainly were.
I'd imagine that some uncased/untopped tobacco is probably available, but even so-called "organically-grown" tobacco can be cased, since sugar is considered a "natural" substance. I don't know where one goes to purchase such unadulterated tobacco, but I presume that sources do exist. As I wrote at the beginning, however, if you buy retail tobacco blends or even "varietals" for blending---as many retail NET producers and home extractors do---then it's nearly certain that the tobacco has been cased with sweetener, and perhaps even topped with additional flavorings.
This is just a head's up, really. Finding an NET natural tobacco eliquid completely devoid of added sweeteners and synthetic flavorings may be more challenging than one might assume.
My interpretation of your post is that your concern is not purity, per se, but rather taste. You want your brain to register the flavor of your tobacco eliquid as natural, right? Meaning natural as opposed to synthetic. That moves the discussion into more individual and idiosyncratic territory.
For the record, I share your disdain for the ridiculously elevated prices charged by certain retail NET eliquid vendors, especially some of the newer "boutique" vendors. That's one of the reasons I started making my own natural tobacco extracts and juices.
