Inawera Kent

Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.

Testing: INW Kent, 1.5 and 3%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 23 days.

Flavor Description: Caramel forward pipe tobacco with a black licorice finish. Caramel is pretty intense, more of a softer caramel chew or sauce flavor rather than a dry hard caramel. Tobacco here isn't dry and nuttier like I'd expect from more of a cigarette or shag flavor, more of a deep, slightly moist pipe tobacco with some earthy notes. Finish is interesting, with those earthy green notes from the tobacco shifting more into a black licorice. Caramel sweetness and body carries through the entire vape putting this firmly into a candy black licorice as opposed to thinner, brighter anise. Picks up some roasted coffee on the very tail end but I'm thinking that might be the coil gore catching up a bit. No ash in here, and a little light on recognizable tobacco. Use is going to be interesting, I pretty much just want to fill this out a bit with a drier, nutty shag would help to lighten this up and bump up the tobacco character a bit. I'd use at 2.5% solo, and maybe 1.25-1.75% in a blend depending on how much sweetness you'd like out of the finished product.

Inhale is pretty heavily sweet and dense with that soft caramel right up front. Sweeter base flavor, not really fruity but with a deep vegetal note. Exhale is complex. Caramel up front, still soft, still intensely sweet. Actual tobacco starts to come through on the back half of the exhale. Tobacco itself tastes more like the moister, dark flavors I associate with pipe tobacco. Slightly green flavor on the tobacco, but a really dark green. Almost tastes herbal, like a syrupy green tea. Black licorice and roasted coffee on the tail end of the exhale. Not a strong anise character, but almost a molasses based black licorice candy. Roasted coffee seems to be a mixture of coil gore and the tail end of those green tobacco notes.

Off-flavors: I have no clue what a "kent" tobacco is supposed to taste like, but nothing unpleasant.

Throat Hit: Light, nothing major.

Uses & Pairings: It's a really interesting concentrate and really not that bad as a solo vape. If you like your tobacco sweet and you don't mind that black licorice on the back end, you could definitely do worse.

I'm still on the new side to actually pairing tobaccos, but this seems pretty wide open in terms of pairing other tobaccos to bring out whatever characteristics. I'd definitely stay away from anything sweet, because this feels almost oversweet by itself.

There's some greeness to this that may be exacerbated (in a good or bad way, depending on your preference) when mixed with something like a Cavendish or Black for Pipe. Seems like it would take some spice notes pretty well if you want to get more aromatic.

I'd personally go with a dryer, nutty, or even slightly ashy tobacco to fill this out. Using a more neutral tobacco as a base is going to help keep this from getting cloying. If you want any kind of ash in here, I'd stick with blending with another tobacco with an ash note.

Notes: Concentration testing with a longer steeping tobacco is a bit tricky. I will say this feels a little thin at 1.5%. I'm still getting some raw base flavor. At 3%, this feels a lot more full, but it's getting cloyingly sweet and sticky. I'd probably suggest using this around 2.5%.

Very dark concentrate and a bit thick and sticky. I'm noticing a bit of coil gore, and it's definitely a bit hard on the wicks. I'd anticipate having to rewick a bit more than usual.

Steeping, seems to come together around 2 weeks. All that sweetness is there early, but that earthy tobacco note starts to develop about a week out. I didn't notice a huge difference between this at 2 and 3 weeks.

I'm also not 100% sure on availability for this. I can't find it on Inawera's website, but their website is a bit of a dumpster fire. It's part of the Wera Garden line, and it's at least still available on Chef's.

Second Opinions:

Review on Planet of the Vapes from user "RedV", in summary: "First test and it was a very strong! Huge liquorice flavour with hint of malt and caramel. No real discernible tobacco. My mix was quite strong but really satisfying, you could up the concentrate levels to get more of the liquorice flavour through, As after a few days rest the liquorice is only very slight. It now has a very creamy/malty caramel taste with a liquorice undertone."

Youtube review, mostly noting the caramel and licorice. It's an... interesting... watch.

As stated, I can't find this on the Inawera site. I got it from chef's. Their description is: "Tobacco Flavour. It has a caramel, toffee twist in the taste." They suggest a steep, and using 1-3%.

DIY_eJuice Flavor Reviews

Big shout out to /u/kotsoss for the suggestion to review this, and an apology for the wait. Turns out my initial estimate of late march was waaaaaaaaaaay off.