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Over my two years of vaping, I’ve been mostly a tobacco guy. Yes, I also vape coffees, sweets, and fruits, but tobacco has been my mainstay, in all its variations from straight tobaccos through the myriad blends with sweeter ingredients added (RY4s and the like).
Although I’ve had some darn tasty juices made with synthetic tobacco flavorings, I prefer naturally extracted tobaccos and have followed their development with great interest. By and large, NETs taste better, in my experience. It’s that simple. In some ways, they actually get closer to fulfilling the carrot-and-donkey promise of great flavor that smoking tobacco was supposed to provide but never really delivered. Or did so with horrible downsides. The very best NETs are utterly wonderful vapes if one likes the flavor of real tobacco, and the availability of new and even better NETs is growing by leaps and bounds with each passing season.
I’m fortunate to have vaped many (a majority I’d imagine) of the NET tobacco juices in the retail marketplace. The list of good ones is far too long to detail here. Many of this thread’s denizens already know them all. My most recent favorites are two Frankenjuice blends---different NETs by the same vendor mixed together. Both are 50/50 mixes. The first is Natural Perique/Organic Tobacco #1 from GoodEJuice (christened Symphonie Fantastique by our cohort scarf-ace), while the second is Tobacco Haze/Conspiracy from Mom&PopVaporShop (recommended by the hangdude). They’re terrific.
Well, Smooth Criminal and Blue Grass Burley are at least on a par with those two, and just about any other NETs I have in my stash. For my particular palate, they might even be a bit superior. And that’s saying something, given how good Symphonie Fantastique is.
Smooth Criminal is certainly what the first half of its name states---a smooth, relatively light blend of tobacco varietals with just enough natural sweetness, but seemingly unadulterated by any wayward flavors. There may be non-tobacco concentrates used in the recipe profile (I don’t actually know), but they’re so well-blended that they don’t call out their names, instead performing quietly in the supporting background roles for which they were intended here. Great stuff.
As good as Smooth Criminal is, however, Blue Grass Burley is even better. I’ve had numerous Burley-based vapes along the way, and I have to admit that Burley is not at the top of my list of favorite varietal tobacco flavors (I’m a Turkish lover, and you can keep your Virginian). That said, Blue Grass Burley is downright amazing. Even though the core flavor is not technically one I love, the presentation here is astonishing and wins me over completely. The overall taste is ripe, round, and complex, and the natural sweetness shines through deliciously. BGB is the hands-down winner of the Burley Sweepstakes.
I’m undecided yet as to whether I’ll order a larger bottle of Smooth Criminal. I currently have nine liters of juice on hand, and I’m also knee-deep into DIY juice-making---I just created a Sesame Cake that's to die for... Basically, I need to buy more retail juice like I need another hole in my wallet. Even so, Blue Grass Burley is definitely at the top of my brand-spanking-new and already too-large Ahlusion Wish List. Given how good BGB is, I’m a goner for a sizable order that will have to include Devil Dog!, among numerous others.
If I end up bankrupt and living in a carboard box down by the bridge, I'll blame you, Mr.Mann. Thanks again!
