…if I were around during prohibition, I’d have been making “bathtub gin”!
Found this courtesy of /u/SolanaceaeEnthusiast (on Reddit). The study compares regular e-liquid to NETs and tests for “bad stuff”. TLDR: it’s fairly satisfactory reading, as one would presume, NETs not close to as bad as smoking. From the article >> “Nitrates were present almost exclusively in NET liquids. Acetaldehyde was present predominantly in conventional liquids”
Either way, I’m now shopping for leaves They look so perdy.
Anyone into whole leaf NETs? Wondering if they’re better or worse in terms of flavor once extracted.
Found this vendor: https://www.leafonly.com/index.php
Do you extract mostly blends or single variety? As you can probably guess I’m after a bold, rich tobacco flavor with a good punch to it. Not into the flavored stuff like cherry or whatever. Figure, if I get a hankering for fruits, creams, or alcohols, I can always add synthetic flavors in a mix with the NET.
Ya this ^^^^^
I was going to do some Latakia and Perique separately, but the friken cats in the house wound up clawing the bags open and I had to throw it all out. I now keep my tobacco in mason jars until I get around to cooking it.
You should check in with him. If he doesn’t know which one to buy for your needs, nobody does.
Darned cats. Mine learned how to climb up the screen on the window today so he can try to squeeze himself out the gap at the top and out to the great outdoors. I’m all for cats going outside but he’s just a youngin and will have to wait til next summer when he’ll be big enough to fend off the fat cats in my neighborhood.
Somewhere on Solanaceae’s subreddit, iirc, he said he prefers to extract single variety and then mix them like normal flavorings after extraction.
My thinking for buying whole leaf is that (at least on leafonly.com) they don’t add any flavoring so all you get is the real tobacco, no extra stuff. Even tobacco blends that are non-aromatic are apparently sprayed with stuff to add flavor. Seedman is one such company that is used to add flavor to tobacco. But in the end, I figure I’ll just have to try a bunch of different stuff… blend, non blend, whole leaf, processed, cold, hot, PGA, etc, etc, til I find what works for my palate.
Another option I found for single variety (or varietal, dunno what is correct term.)
I would assume this has flavor added but not sure.
Edit: Apparently the flavor I would be referring to here is called “casing” and it does not add a flavor but rather, it enhances the flavor of the tobacco itself (somehow).
I’ve referenced that site before, but never hit that section yet! Nice find! That is a little bit less than what I pay for mine at the local tobacconist shop; better selection online though.
After looking over the Pipes&Cigars.com offerings and doing a bit of research here and there, a wish list is finally starting to materialize. It’s a tough decision when there are so many tobaccos with so many awesome reviews attached.
If anyone has a “must try” tobacco or cigar, I’d love to know. For now, here’s what on my next maceration list:
C&D ~ Billy Bud
C&D ~ Habana Daydream
D&R ~ Picayune
H&H ~ Louisiana Red
H&H ~ Virginia Spice
P&S (Match) ~ Revelation
Moonshine Pipe ~ XXX Blend
Sutliff ~ Sunset Rum
Sutliff ~ VooDoo Queen
Stokkebye ~ Luxury Bulls Eye
My Groovy Blue’s
I am just starting to go through my recent NET purchases from the unfortunate going out of business sale of Myvapejuice.com and have found a few that I really enjoy.
So far I will add the following but I am sure many more to follow.I must admit it is hard to put down the NET’s!
Gurkha Evil XO Cigar
Spinnaker Pipe Tobacco
Man O War Cigar
Davidoff Scottish Mixture Pipe Tobacco
So, more than a DIY juice review (I’ll get to that eventually), this is a little show and tell on the Aeropress coffee maker used as an extraction tool for NET. I had thought about getting a buchner funnel, hose, Erlenmeyer flask and hand pump….so glad I didn’t. This thing is super easy to use, cleans up quick and it really has no parts to break……unless you are super abusive to inanimate objects or just clumsy.
So, let’s get started!
Here we have our set up: Aeropress, 70mm Grade 5 qualitative filter paper and 1 month steeped tobacco. I will mention, I used the coffee filters which came with the Aeropress for the first run filter process and did a second filtering with the Grade 5 (2.5 micron) qualitative paper.
Close up of the macerated tobacco in PG.
You’ll also need a jar to receive the filtered NET; I just used an old Ball jelly jar. Tobacco is dumped in the Aeropress.
Used a spoon to get all of the tobacco and PG out of the cook jar.
Applied the plunger (a bit of PG was rubbed on the inside of the Aeropress to help keep the plunger from being sticky)
With a bit of downward pressure…the NET starts flowing. The plunger will come to a full stop eventually. That’s when you walk away and go do the dishes, watch TV or screw off on the ELR forum. Come back in a bit, push down on the plunger…walk away. It doesn’t take long to complete the process with the regular coffee filters (20 micron or less). It’s the NET passing through the Grade 5 (2.5 micron) filters that will take a while…perhaps, overnight.
First run complete!
Remove the bottom of the Areopress and discard the spent tobacco.
UPDATE NOTE: I’ve started using a stainless steel “ricer” to squeeze the solvent from the tobacco; much faster process and you don’t leave behind so much solvent in the tobacco using the ricer.
Transfer NET into clean jar, 'cause we’re getting ready to do the process again with a Grade 5 filter.
The 70mm, Grade 5, 2.5 micron filters will be slightly larger than the filter cap; no worries…just press the 70mm filter down inside the cap and install on Areopress as usual. No leaking will occur.
NET is poured into the Aeropress and same procedure is followed as in filtering round #1.
This time, we’re going to set the project in a safe (overnight) place, press the plunger and walk away. Maybe press the plunger every hour or so, go to bed, go to work, cook dinner or again, screw off on the ELR forum. Within 24 hours, the process should be complete.
Note: This process is typical for 75 to 150ml of NET maceration. I would suggest filtering in small batches, so as not to overload the filter paper with gunk from the tobacco.
Warning: Once you install the plunger…don’t stop the pushing process or pull the plunger out of the Aeropress; you will suck the filter out of the filter cap and back inside the Aeropress. Bad situation! NET juice everywhere! Bad! Bad! Bad!
Review of the maceration (as promised):
The end product is awesome. The tobacco was a local tobacconists pipe tobacco blend of Virginia, Perique and Latakia (kinda heavy on the Latakia……smokey!) called Pynes Pleasure. If you don’t like a hearty, smoky, campfire quality to your vape, buy tobacco which has little or no Latakia in the mix; there’s plenty of other loose tobaccos or cigars from which to choose, believe me.
However, that is exactly the nature of the NET which was produced from this local blend; it has a hearty, wood-smoke flavored aroma, yet there is sweentess from the Virginia and sweet/sour fruitiness from the Perique. It’s all there in one NET concentrate because it’s there in the tobacco blend.
The best couple of parts about NET is the true tobacco flavor you get from the juice and it’s very inexpensive to produce. There is the initial startup cost of the Aeropress and filters (roughly $45) and the PG base ($??? your choice). Bulk tobacco usually runs around $3.50 per oz… You can make roughly +/- 1500ml of vapable end product with 150ml of NET concentrate from that 1 oz. of tobacco, assuming you use +/- 10% NET concentrate in the mix. Very inexpensive!
So, there you go…the Aeropress as a NET tool! Kinnikinnick tried, tested and approved!
Great review! I always wondered how the Aeropress worked. I’ve heard good things, but never a step by step. Thanks! Sure looks easier than my compressor / vacuum pump set up.
So, regular run-o-the-mill coffee filter for the first pass, then switch to the boxed, 2.5 micron filter for the 2nd pass?
I have to admit, the Buchner funnel, hoses, vac pump was kind of a pain. My problem was trying to keep the liquid from being pulled around the edge of the filter, by the vacuum. If I remember correctly, my filters are 1.5 micron.
Yup! Your 1.5 microns will just filter a bit slower but better!
It is a simple, easy and low pressure (time wise) way of filtering you NET. Push the plunger…walk away…
Now, if one gets too gorilla like on the plunger, you can force the NET past the filter…but seriously, you’d have to be putting 75 to 100lbs of pressure on the plunger. It’s not designed for that, so a song as folks use good sense, everything works like a charm.
LOVE the aeropress. I miss using mine. I keep thinking I should get it out and make a good old fashioned normal cup of coffee.
I wonder if you could put a heavyish book or something on top of it. Just enough to keep a little pressure on it so it keeps pressing down?
Ok…I admit it! Damnit! I did use a 60lb stage weight from work when I was did the first filter run!
Disclaimer: Use weight on the plunger at your own risk!
Hahaha I knew you weren’t gonna babysit that thing all night. 60lbs?? That’s a lot of weight. I was thinking like…5. LOL.
I found out eventually, the backpressure on the plunger is enough to get the job done without adding weight. I did have a bit of leakage around the edges of the filter cap when I used the 60lb weight; so, yeah, perhaps something a bit lighter would be best practice.