Bill, speaking of synthetic vs NETs, as mainly a NET vapor who also likes to dab into synthetics I plan on getting the sample pack of epipemods "pipe sauce" once they come back in stock. Have you had any of those? I'm not sure how they'll hold up to the multitude of NETs I have comming in, but hear that they are really good as synthetics.
Jerms,
Last November, Scarf-ace sent me a care package that included a 5ml sample bottle of
ePipeMods Long Bottom Leaf. I just got it out again and atty-dripped a bit to remind myself how it tastes. Not bad, not bad at all (you might add my unwritten-but-half-implied snotty elitist suffix,
"...for a synthetic." LOL). LBL is the only one I've had of the ePipeMods line.
Scarfy also sent me a 15ml bottle of DIY juice made from a MonteCristo cigar NET---her very first maceration experiment. I ended up Frankenjuicing it with an equal amount of a synthetic juice from
GoodLifeVapor called Montecristo, which turned out fantastic. Scarf's NET was deep, dark, and flavorful, but no throat hit. The GLV synthetic Montecristo had a similar, if somewhat more artificial flavor, but it was light, bright, and extremely kicky, with a wonderful TH. Together they are divine. I still have more than half of that FrJ Montecristo blend left---since I vape so many different juices every day, I don't go through any single juice very fast.
I didn't realize you were working on your own maceration. Congrats on the initiative and good luck with the final product! I smoked a coffee-infused Drew Estate Tobak Especial cigar last night and I was thinking how amazing it would work as a NET with it's coffee and chocolate tones, and just maybe I'll get the desire to do my own maceration one day.
You mentioned a Nat Sherman NET and wanted to comment that I picked up a pack of their Classic when getting some cigars from a tobacco shop. Very good cigarette indeed, though still very much still a cigarette and cost much more than I would have paid for on a regular basis as a smoke. As a cig NET though, I can see it having a lot of appeal for someone not wanting the cigar or pipe flavors so common in that group.
I haven't purchased any premium tobacco yet, but I still had a carton in the garage of the Native-American-made cigarettes I used to smoke, called Skydancer. All natural, no additives. I haven't had a cigarette in over two years now---after 40 years of hopeless addiction where I loved/hated smoking more than anything else in my life, including other human beings, I quit smoking cold-turkey on my first day of vaping and haven't looked back since. I kept the 12 cartons of Skydancer I had in my stash, thinking that they might come in handy some day as barter money if the dollar ever collapses. You know, in case I ever need to buy a chicken from a local farmer and don't want to pay with a junk silver coin...
Anyway, since Scarfy has inspired so many of us to dive into making our own NETs, I figured that a cheap way for me to try it out would be to see if I could make a "Skydancer" cigarette-based NET. Yeah, the tobacco is old and dry now, but so what? I extruded the tobacco from 30 cig tubes, made a maceration with 120mls of 50/50 PG/VG, and I'm letting it steep (no heat) for three weeks before filtering. This is week two. I have no expectations about the results one way or another---great, terrible, who knows? We'll see. I am, however, intensely curious to see how this gonzo incubation turns out. If, by some miracle, it's terrific, I'll have enough tobacco on hand to make a lifetime supply of extract. LOL. More likely, it'll go right in the garbage, but that's OK too.
The vast majority of retail vendor NETs---or at least the ones where I know the tobaccos used---seem to be made from cigar or pipe tobacco. I'm interested to see how a good cigarette tobacco NET might taste---like an American Nat Sherman or French Gallois.
