It's interesting you say this.
The 1st time I ordered NETs I had the same experience. They had a mustiness I didn't like and wrote them off. I actuallu hated them.
I stayed with the vapeland flavors I was used to and put them away for a number of months.
I came back to the N-E-T juices I had and found that they no longer had that same flavor to me. not sure what changed, but I wound up really enjoying them.
the one thing I've found is that NETs do smell a bit odd out of the bottle, oily, musty etc... but they don't often taste the same way they smell.
I also found that if I vaped them like a pipe, short puffs and exhaling through my nose as opposed to inhaling them into my lungs, they had a completely different flavor. They were indeed very tobacco-y when exhaled nasally.
I'm still not sure if it's my taste that have changed, if I was overly sensitive since I was still only a few months into vaping ,or what. But after coming back and "learning" what i consider to be the ideal way to taste them, (nasally), I really enjoy them now. When done right, NETs are the closest smoking experince i can find but I do seem to take some getting used to, as well as not vaping them like their fruit or pastry flavors...
I also notice they have a very tobacco-y room odor as well, but a sweet tobacco leaf odor, not the odor of combustion.
Maybe put them down for a few weeks and steep them as well and come back and try the "pipe" style of vaping and see if you get the tobacco experience I now am very happy with...
ALSO: keep those coils clean, or change them often. You get really quick carbon buildup and that will ruin the flavor. I dry burn at least once a day and am digging these a lot now...