I’ve been waiting to post about three of the six new cigar NETs from MyVapeJuice. Now is a good time.
5 Vegas Cask Strength Cigar
Garo Double Habana Cigar
La Gloria Cubana Cigar
I got all three of these in extract form and mixed them at 20% strength at 16mg nic in a 50/50 PG/VG base. I’ve been vaping them a in Bauway CE4 clearo on a Kicked mechanical (at 10 watts) and in 3.7 volt bottom-feeders (a Phidias Woody and a REO Mini 2.1) outfitted with YK1 Mini (Cyclone) RBAs with 1.2 ohm coils and cotton wicks.
Initially, all three juices surprised me with their sweetness, but ten days of steeping has dissipated that, leaving behind---how shall I say?---something very interesting. The word that comes to mind is “clean.”
Taken together, these three cigar juices comprise a sharp departure from anything I’ve experienced previously with NETs, and I’m far from a novice. I’ve been vaping NETs for almost three years, and I’ve had about 130 different retail NET juices, along with six of my own home-brewed NETs. These new cigar extracts from MVJ break the NET mold.
First, they’re transparent. I don’t mean merely that you can see through them---many juices have that kind of transparency. No, I mean that these extracts and the juices made from them are almost clear. The darkest (La Cubana Gloria) has a yellow tint, while the other two (5 Vegas Cask Strength and Garo Double Habana) have a very pale gold hue. Juices made from the extracts are even closer to colorless, since the extract is only 20% of the liquid. The three I ordered were made with PG, so the extracts aren’t particularly thick, but they can be ordered in all-VG, which would be thicker, of course.
Second, the flavor is different than in many NETs. I started out with VapeRite and Want2Vape NETs. W2V NETs are about as intensely flavored as any out there, especially W2V's cigar and pipe tobacco NETs. These new MVJ extracts are completely different. While each of the three carries the distinct tone of the particular cigar from which it was extracted, the flavor is subtle rather than intense.
My immediate reaction when I vaped the juices freshly made was, “Wait, where’s the flavor?” I almost stopped vaping them for that reason. But I kept all three loaded and ready in their respective PVs, and on each successive day found myself picking them up again and vaping a little more, in part out of curiosity, but also because their flavor improved with every additional day of steeping/aging. The flavors continue to improve after ten days. I wonder how they’ll taste after a month?
Some NET vapers could conceivably dismiss these extracts as weak. I’d urge against settling on that conclusion too quickly, however. I’ve grown quite fond of all three after only a ten-day steep. Oh, I still notice that they’re not in-your-face potent, but I no longer care. The accuracy and clarity of the flavors augments their subtlety, which also helps keep my palate from tiring of them. These are authentic, clean-tasting tobacco vapes.
Plus, they offer the significant benefit of being extremely kind to coils. Even after ten days of vaping, I haven’t had to change wicks or dry-burn the coils. Sure, the wicks and coils show signs of use, but at the ten-day mark they are as close to pristine as if I’d been vaping just unflavored nic juice. That’s amazing.
I don’t know what extraction methods or filtering techniques Diane is using at MVJ to produce these NETs. It sure isn’t simple soaks and coffee filters. Whatever it is, however, I hope she continues and expands this new line to eventually include pipe tobacco blends and cigarette tobaccos. For instance, I would love to experience what a Nat Sherman MCD or Gallois juice would be like extracted with these methods. For now, though, I’ll content myself with the three cigar extracts I have and look forward to ordering the remaining three in the line: Nicarao Havana Sun Grown, 5 Vegas Gold, and 5 Vegas Gold Maduro, this time in VG.
One final note: These are nothing like MyVapeJuice’s previous NETs, which, all in all, proved less than we'd all hoped. Those were sometimes muddy tasting, one-dimensional, and the flavor profiles of the blends often just didn’t click for me. But Diane paid attention, did her homework, and has now broken new ground in the marketplace with these cigar NETs.
Two thumbs up.