Liquid Barn Tobacco
ConcreteRiver
Disclaimer: I didn't pay for these, they were sent to me by Liquid Barn. Shout out to Liquid Barn
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Liquid Barn Tobacco, 5 and 9% @ 1g/ml, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 31 days.
Flavor Description: Liquid Barn describes this as "A southern blend of Old World Tobacco infused with the pleasant, nutty aroma of clove and the lingering hint of ripe berries." I get a whole lot of clove, some herbal-ish tobacco, and just the slightest hint of anything fruity.
"Infused" seems to be underselling the clove quite a bit. There is quite a bit of clove in here. It's a dry, spicy tobacco clove. This doesn't exactly taste like a clove cigarette, but it's definitely the type of clove you'd find in a cigarette. This doesn't really have the sweetness behind it to come across as a bakery clove. Clove flavors tend to burn out my palate really quickly. I feel like the clove flavors that work well just fade to a less intense version of themselves, like FLV Clove. The cloves that work a bit less well turn kind of sour and thin. The clove here seems to more from the former category. It definitely starts to mute out with extended vaping, but nothing weird happens to it as it fades. It maybe picks up a bit of chalkiness and a bit more of an anise type note, but it doesn't have any of the odd sourness I get with TPA or FA Clove.
The tobacco here seems to be working as a base for the clove more than anything else. Fairly dark, herbal and a bit aromatic. Tastes like a bit of anise or sassafras style of dark herbal notes, but it's hard to pull that apart from the more overwhelming clove. No leather, smoke, or ash to it.
If I didn't read "ripe berries" in the description, I probably wouldn't have picked them out. Very subtle light fruitiness in here. Some tannic, dark berry skin more than anything distinctly fruity. Reminds me a bit of some of the muskier notes from FA Bilberry. No real sweetness to the fruit.
Off-flavors: Just based on the description of the flavor, I'd say there's too much clove, not enough tobacco, and the berries are barely there. Nothing that tastes out-of-place or chemical. The clove gets a little bit chalky with extended vaping.
Throat Hit: Moderate. That clove has quite a bit of bite, but not out of line for a tobacco-ish flavor.
Percentage testing: At 5% this is still fairly clove forward, but those herbal tobacco note show through a bit more. While that clove packs a punch, the tobacco underneath feels a bit thin. Very light fruit.
At 9%, the clove is pretty intense and dominates the vape. Tobacco underneath feels a bit lost, but it provides a thicker, more solid base. Fruit is almost completely lost.
Liquid Barn suggests mixing this at 9%. I think the flavor works well up there, but you have to really dig cloves. This should work well as an accent for adding clove to other tobaccos at 3-4%, although there are more versatile and much more potent options out there for that.
Uses & Pairings: This is surprisingly solid as a solo flavor if you dig clove. It could use a bit of non-aromatic but still fairly dark tobacco backup like FLV Kentucky Blend or FLV Native.
Could make an interesting add-in for a sweeter desert tobacco base, especially as an accent in a caramel heavy RY4.
Darker fruits like figs, blackberries, or realistic blueberries would play well the very light fruitiness here. Adding something sweeter up again that clove is going to taste fairly medicinal, although if that's your thing the strength of the clove will help mask some of the weirder off-notes from cherries.
Second Opinions:
Here's the ELR Page. User "JoJo" writes: "6% (SnV - bit of an anise note, sweet, else nothing. 1 week - same. Still kinda tastes a bit like sweet anise or root beer. 2 weeks - still kinda tastes like root beer. 3 weeks - still an anise/root beer taste. Not getting tobacco at all unless it’s an anise tobacco. Might make a nice clove cigarette vape. 4 weeks - same. Wish I had a decent clove I could use with it.)" User "Amy***" writes: "I get a nice smooth tobacco with hints of the clove far off, at first I thought it was Anise it isn't overly done nice touch."