Super Concentrated Havana Dry

Super Concentrates/Flavor Express (SC/FE) Havana Dry

Setup: mtl STNG 0.74 Ohm 2.0 ID 28/40 clapton ss316L 28.5W

Nose: chocolate but not as strong as SC/FE Cigar

2.5% - At 4 days, there's a serious underlying (overlying?) coffee note. It's dark and gritty and maybe a little burnt, like cowboy coffee style mud. If this were a coffee flavor, I would be mad at it. At least it isn't offensive. I'm sincerely hoping this steeps down and not up. I don't mind how prominent it is, yet clearly this is going to be a supporting flavor for me if it does get stronger. The sour acrid coffee note found in some early coffee flavors is the type I get here. No burnt popcorn mtl, and I'm not trying to guinea pig this DTL at higher percents to see what it does, however it's close. No, thank you. I guess Cuba is as famous for their coffee as for their tobacco? Well done, SC! Regardless, there's enough sweet to offset it and some dark richness from the bacco to make it more like 50/50 coffee/tobacco. At 16 days, I finally got up the nerve to try this again). That weird coffee note has thankfully steeped down to tolerable levels. Overall, it's not coming across as anything I would relate to a cigar. I dont really know how to describe the taste, honestly. Like some bastard version of coffee mixed with some of their signature chocolate tobacco darkness... I feel like it's kind of a RY4 version of a cigar in the way that RY4 is a crap shoot roulette mix of flavors that are supposed to be a caramel vanilla tobacco. It's missing the cigar -- the leaf, the body, the ash -- what it does have is some musk and some coffee notes at the exhale and some relatively dark base that is both nondescript and forgettable. At this point, I'm writing this one off. It's not to my taste or providing anything unique that literally any other flavor could provide for me. While I didn't have high hopes since all the cigar flavors I've tasted outside FM Tobacco Bastards Cohiba have tasted like cheap fake cigar trash, this one is at least mostly cheap coffee mud made from the sediment of some crappy cigar someone put their stub out in.

Suggested percent: 0 - 0.0% main note. 0.00% as an accent

Pairing ideas: I'd like to pair this with maybe my money back or the bin.

Second Opinions ELR user Kinnikinnick writes:

Pleasantly smokey, smooth, aged tobacco leaves with a slight mint note on the back end. This will pair well with Turkish tobaccos and absolutes. No real ash content.
Tested at 5% 40p/60v; very nice, but will mix at lower %.
Preferred single flavor mix: 4.0%

T.Mace Review

• non-aromatic
• mellow
• earthy
• fairly dry
• slight sweetness on the exhale (when I say slight, I mean it though, it's not going to hit you as a sweet tobacco)
• woodsy
• light nutty note
• almost undetectable chocolate note on the back end

Mouth Feel: light density

Off Flavors:

• none

Position In A Recipe:

• background
• use it to add ambiance
• that touch of sweetness can be used to soften up a mix

Suggested Percentage:

• 2-4%, it's not overpowering

Pairings:

• cigar blends mostly
• wild card would be a tart raspberry

Conclusion:

• I like this, it's not a standalone but is worth having in the toolbox.
• It's sort of a way dialed back version of SC Black Mile. Less on the chocolate note and less of that cigar wrapper taste.

Final Thoughts:

I'm being kind of harsh here, but the proof is in the pudding. For the prior flavors I tested, I mixed a 30 mL of each and finished them AND tried to mix them with other stuff. And finished that too. This one I have about 15 mL left in my tester and I've probably poured out 60% of the 15 that I did try to power through. And I cant wait to pour out the rest of this. Flavor is subjective and yadda yadda yadda. This simply wasn't for me.