Stixx Mixx Black Cavendish

isuamadog

Introduction

Please see Part I: Stixx Mixx First Impressions for more flavor reviews. Spoiler: I maybe thought that overall those were better flavors. Perhaps that’s because they were my first go round and so I had zero expectations? I don’t know, but these things matter. This time, I tried a small handful of flavors and it still took me forever to review them! Anyway, I usually vape them mtl but for the purposes of the review, all were tested in a c4 dtl for focusing on the flavors. Mtl, they do function a bit differently in my experience and can lose some of the subtlety that makes them rather interesting to vape. All flavors were steeped 3 weeks in 70/30 vg/pg solution for dtl vaping. A reminder that these are NETs (Naturally Extracted Tobaccos) and require frequent rewicking should you choose to take the plunge. Enjoy!

Flavors

Butter Rum Cavendish (Tested at 10%)

SM: This delicious flavor is expertly blended with Golden Virginia and mellow White Burley. The Cavendish style blend is then topped with a subtle mixture of Buttered New England and Jamaican Rums that produce a bite-free taste.Use @ 6-10% *NETs are pre-steeped use as any other flavoring*

Me: Definitely smooth all around. It’s not really striking me as overly bacco or booze. It’s definitely modestly both, in a way. Frankly, I’m not sure I’m appreciating the buttery rum flavor as it plays with the bright bacco back finish. I definitely lean more towards bolder tobacco flavors and this one is much much milder than I prefer. The Virginia here does have a bit of sweet which blends into the rum. Had this after a few sips of coffee and wow the butter rum came out. Im positive that this would pair well with coffee and, dare I say ice cream? Maybe not my favorite SM flavor to date, but otherwise an interesting milder flavorful mix and it grew on me asI vaped it. With a few hints or accents I could see this making a unique adv with its lighter flavor and cavendish sweetness on the palate, although I’m not sure what that could be without being overpowering this subtle flavor, maybe some oak accents?

Sweet Brightleaf (tested at 10%)

SM: Exactly that,…a light, bright, loose leaf shag with earthy notes. Layer with other light-medium shags for a nice full bodied taste. Could be used when a light woodsy note is needed. Also use combined with other earthy flavors to create a great tea. Use @ 4-6% – 10% Standalone.

The dog: I was expecting something that wouldn’t stand alone from the description of it layering, but it does the shag moniker justice. And it doesn’t strike me as sweet in the way that FLV sweet cigarette does, this has a brightness and for sure a lovely earthy woody note. At first I felt it was ashy, but that was that prominent woody note coming through clearly. Layered in, I don’t see this as a neutral filler at all, and I could easily see this maybe mixing with something a little sweeter to balance out that earthy depth. I’m pretty sure I will eventually add some DNB to this one and vape it solo again. I think the name is a little misleading and I almost expected it to be like those golden nutty rolling tobaccos I used to buy. This one does have the capacity to stand on its own as a bright medium with sweet and complex earthy musky notes and I’m sure could be bent lighter or darker. As I keep vaping this I really do get a different flavors making this a kind of unpredictable surprise and potentially difficult to mix with, luckily it seems have been able to stand alone quite fine.

Honduran Liguero (tested at 10% - often used in my adv at 5%)

SM: A great, smooth shag flavor. Lightly sweet, and very very smooth. Excellent standalone, or with dark berries. Use @ 5-10% *NETs are pre-steeped use as any other flavoring*

The dawg: While not my first rodeo with this flavor, I decided to include it in this roundup and test it again at max like I did all the other flavors. I almost dont recognize it as I’ve been vaping it at 4 or 5 % with 1% flv acai for damn near three months. At the low end of 5ish percent, it’s modest and can hang with acai quite nicely. Acai slips in and does its weird bold berry without the funky off notes. I love it and it’s light enough to be a 3 month (literally) dedicated tank so I’m going to go ahead and pre thumb up this one. But, again, at 10, it’s a totally different vape than I’m used to. Great mouthfeel, like really round and full. That must be what they meant by “smooth”, but it really comes across as full for me. While it is flavorful enough at 5, at 10 it delivers. It delivers sweetness that is never overpowering (and often just perfect) and some darker complexity in the smoke. I’ve tried a few darker berries with it at 5 and they overpowered the delicate nuances of the bacco easily so I think this will have to be tried again with Liguero at 10 because I see this shining. I think when I mixed that, I was trying to make my 10ml sample of this flavor last because I liked it so much, keep my rewicking to a minimum and costs down. All that is out the window now. I would say this is a great stand alone with potential to receive more popular fruit flavors for the fruit heads that want to dabble. Be warned it’s dark medium blend but it’s really darned good.

Turkish Oriental (tested at 8%)

SM: A perfect dry shag, on its own or mixed with your favorite flavors! Use @ 4-8% *NETs are pre-steeped use as any other flavoring*

Doggo: yes, dry. Not in a bad way at all but like a pack of cigarettes that has been open for a week and all that raisin smell is gone, it’s just like 3 ciggies left in the pack and they’ve had the room to air out. There’s a hint of spice but it’s really super light compared to say, FLV turkish. It kind of reminds me of a more complex version of some of HS’s drier tobaccos like Ry1 or No5. Also, there’s a sweetness here that isn’t exactly evident at first but it is rather sweet when I focus on it. I kind of like how it’s got that sweet and dry thing going on, but also I’ve been on a crazy kick of ry4’s and sweet cig style vapes. I don’t know, I can’t tell you how authentic this is to an aromatic turkish oriental tobacco, but my tongue is saying this could be used as a less neutral body filler to dry up a bit of another concentrate. Maybe pair it with Sweet Brightleaf and get that spicy woody a little dried up? Like in a 1:2 SBL : TO?

Black Cavendish (Tested at 10%)

SM: Similar to a black and mild, without the really darker notes. At 6% it’s a light version of your grandpa’s pipe. Very smooth, lots of flavor without the burnt taste. At 10% much more bold, with earthy back notes. Add some dark fire cured for that authentic pipe.

Isuwasadog: After spending the last 3 weeks on various FLV Cavendish recipes (holy gunking -- like NET level!) not sure what I was expecting here. FLV is really sweet and syrupy pipe for me and this one was advertised as a Black and Mild which is a cigar, yeah? And so I was thinking, I don’t know, cheap cigar. I’m now curious about the 6% (I never knew my Grandpa or that he smoked a pipe) at 10% it’s pretty dark, maybe even a little too dark for me even. It feels kind of one note which is partly why I suspect they added that tip to add dark fired cured for some authenticity. Makes me wonder what DFC does to the mix. I got some SM from nomnomz that is labeled SM Dark Fire and there’s only one Dark Fire no Dark Fire Cured. I think there is a Latakia Dark Fire as well but I’m guessing that’s not it. I think I’m gonna put this on hold and squirt a little bit of Dark fire in there and review it again on the next round. For now, this shows promise, especially if it really does hold the flavor at 6% because that would mean that it’s one of the more cost effective concentrates they have.

Nicaraguan Seco (tested at 8%)

SM: The building block of any great cigar always starts here. Mellow and smooth tobacco taste, with some nutty undertones help put this blend right on top in any cigar or pipe blend you can imagine. Use @ 4-8% *NETs are pre-steeped use as any other flavoring*

Me: Honestly, I didnt get a whole lot from this one.I tried it and just felt it lacked flavor. Figured that I was suffering from olfactory fatigue and tried it again in the morning the next day. Tried it again later that day. Tried it again the following day. Trying it again right now. I’m getting a reaaaaaaallly soft tobacco flavor, barely noticeable. I get no nutty notes, barely anything. I know that I lean towards bolder flavors in general and this just may be too subtle for my wrecked palate. Possible but I think the 8% cap is low here. I should probably retest at 10% or more, but I’m not feeling it. With all the other ones available that are excellent, I’m going to say this one is a hard pass. Maybe it does something in a mix, as per the SM notes and, since I already have it I may give it a try, but I wouldn’t recommend picking it up for a purchase.

Canadian Virginian (tested at 10%)

SM: Canadian is a light to medium shag, Generally used as a filler or to tie others together. 4-8% and 10% standalone was very throaty after 2 week steep. Lightly earthy. All in all very satisfying.

Me: I get the filler aspect of this. Low on the sweetness, mostly body, at three weeks didn’t notice some exceptional throat hit. I’d even say barely noticeable to me (but hey I like throat hit). It has that brightness you’d expect from a Virginia but it’s pretty well rooted in some Hobbit leaf Middle Earthy tobacco flavors to round it out a bit.Perhaps I’ve gone a little mad? Maybe not the best stand alone, but I could see this brightening a darker mix slightly or rounding out the mid-range flavors.

Conclusion:

Well, I tried to do this all in one sitting so that I could remember all the impressions I had but that Nicaraguan Seco tripped me up and delayed the whole process. So now I’m really left with just impressions and I’m not wildly impressed by these. The surprise flavors were the Sweet Brightleaf which I had tried before and was not really impressed by at the time, and the Honduran Liguero which I had used prior but for some reason had never pushed to its limit. The unusual one for me was the Butter Rum Cavendish. I was expecting something different and it took me a sec to wrap my head around what I was actually getting rather than what was expected. For a more flavorful blend, I’d stick with the Whiskey Cavendish I reviewed in Part I of these notes. But if you want cavendish lite, with some rather unusual notes, I’d say take a chance on this one. I did end up trying Turkish Oriental at near 14% for shits and giggles and not sure it came through much more clearly since I’d switched to an mtl tank, but it held its own.

In all, I wasn’t as impressed with this bunch as stand alones. Granted these were first impressions, however I think these flavors will require some blending and I look forward to experimenting with them to create blends. I think these are the best uses here and I’ll take that challenge. It’s almost too easy to just get the Supreme, American Virginian, Honduran Liguero, or the Whiskey Cavendish and just have at it as a stand alone. I’d like to see what I can do with this supporting cast and see what vaping 20% of a NET will do to my coils in 2ml. At least, now that I own them.

I think the NET love is still there, but we go in phases. I see this one maybe ending in a while, but next month I have a few others to review so keep your eyes peeled for that. I also just started experimenting with additives to elevate them and make fuller and more well rounded mixes... or you can just go find the recipes by Kopel, Stixx and Bogenshizzle on elr.

Title improvement, apex?

Keep mixin’ kids,

- i

PS Additional Recipe: Acai Bacco Will need to update this one when I try it again at 10% and see if I can’t round out that berry flavor some more. Suggestions?

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