Sorry to hear that, man.
I think that (and this is just my opinion) "steeping" is the 'exchange' of flavor from the extract to the actual end product. Sort of how like you'd brew tea, but instead of just drinking it off the bat, you make a super-concentrated tea that you only need to fill the container 25% full to get to taste 100% like tea after addition of water.
Now, what's making juices "reverse steep"; I think this is oxidation, plain and simple.
Every time we open our juice bottles, more oxygen and nitrogen (and who knows what else in the air) get in there. This is bound to change the taste of any liquid; I've heard that fire-cured tobaccos can reverse-steep more quickly than non-fire-cured tobaccos (I don't know whether or not this is the case) but I'll assume that there's an added aroma from the fire-curing process that kinda off-gasses from the juice over time.
Personally, I find that Latakia has lost absolutely no bite or flavor change whatsoever. I'm vaping a lot of Blackberry Burley to see if the same holds true in that department. I'll actually add some FCB (7/20 mixdate on this sampler) to this cigar to see if I can detect it (I know, I know. Good cigar, yes. Good fire-cured Burley, yes. But it's tobacco, it likes to be blended
) over the cigar. Wouldn't be surprised if I could, though.
However, I find all tobacco vapes to be relatively pleasant. I don't think you could come up with a combination that amazes me that often, but there are a
lot of hidden gems out there, I
know that much. I'm somewhere between a NETCom Sun-Cured Turkish and a Fire-cured Latakia in mood, right now. Stressed, but not frizzled enough to jump straight into the bag of punches that is Latakia (that's a lie, I'm just waiting for an excuse to vape some).
EDIT: Forgot to add, I think that something like Raymond mentioned: an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner, would probably be the best way to 'quick-steep' a liquid. But remember, we're making tobacco tea from tobacco tea concentrate here; the rules change.
The longer a liquid is allowed to extract (and I couldn't even tell you how heat factors into the equation, but I will say that too much is
probably a bad thing) the more flavor we're going to see. Proportionally, the more matter that ends up in the final maceration; the more we need to filter. Now, I don't know about you, but I think my coffee tastes pretty well like coffee when it runs through the pot rather than using a Keurig.
Were I to reduce said coffee into an extraction, it would probably gunk the hardiest filters; stain everything it gets on; turn all of my white socks brown; and fail to produce vapeable
anything. If coffee exposed to air affects its flavor, the same is definitely true for tobacco. Anyone who has ever found an analog in a pack they "thought they lost" and found it to be remarkably stale and disgusting might see a similar pattern emerging.
Vacuum filtration might make all of this a lot easier on us, but it's not practical for home use expense-wise.
I think we should honestly approach tobacco extraction the same way as tea, to be honest. Heat the heck out of whatever you're using to extract it to boiling, add tobacco "tea" and agitate the heck out of it until it's cool. I would keep trying to get everything steeping, and then transfer it to a maceration storage vessel once its cooling process was complete. Then, make it sit. It's done nothing wrong, but it's tobacco; like tea, it needs time for all the flavors to transfer over.
Gut instinct tells me to just leave it alone and let it brew. Fill the container as much as you can without spilling or compromising the seal. I think air definitely has something to do with this. There's too many factors at play to discount the most simple and apparent ones.
I'm sure someone has already suggested/used this method or discussed it. Sorry if I'm being redundant and a little out-of-bounds, having not extracted any tobacco myself; I just feel that there are logical reasons for these sometimes illogical things going on with our blends.
Mostly everything I know about macerations and heat-extractions is from this thread, so I figured I would go ahead and pose the question with my statement. Would it make a difference? Has anyone tried this method and had positive results with the end-product's flavor retention/quality? Loss/gained nuances?
Now, since I don't know if it's been done, I am assuming what I suggested is somewhere between a heat-extraction and a cold maceration? How to get the best of both worlds....without compromising the juice....?
I vape everything fresh,
usually. I have had some liquids turn flat with age and/or air exposure. One single flavor will stand out, the rest is 'meh'.
I don't know why all of this got me thinking so much about this.
, because this is probably a long post at this point, I'm wrapping it up here.
