New to this - ex smoker as of April 2026!

E-liquids Beginners
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Hello. I thought I’d introduce myself. I quit smoking a couple of months ago and took to Vaping as a substitute obviously! I have been searching for the right stuff to fully replace my 50 year pack a day habit. I still am searching… for an authentic cigarette flavor/feel. Juul was/is the best thing I have found so far but I have migrated to refillable pod devices and am going through likely candidates, and finding very little. I was directed to NET. I found it utterly UNlike cigarettes. The stuff I tried - Black Note, Drakes, and Vaporificio Riserva, all had a distinct tobacco flavor, but not burnt tobacco. They all completely lacked the Maillard reaction—the thermal degradation, pyrolytic heat, toast, and melanoidin structural compounds that occur only when organic material is actually subjected to a flame. So anyway I am dabbling in Flavourarts and looking to see if I can create something closer to actual smoking. So far I am not particularly liking sweet, that may change as my palate is after a couple of cigarette free months. For now though I am only looking at tobacco flavors and contemplating DIY. So that’s me. I look forward to reading through posts and learning!

Heve in Edinburgh/Florida

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Welcome to ELR @Heve,
I’m not a bacco lover myself but if your looking for good tobacco concentrates I would recommend looking at the Flavorah flavors, which could be what Juul uses (from what I hear)

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What you most likely want is INW Dirty Neutral Base (or INW DNB). It’s available at Nomz and DIY eJuice. And FYI there are many flavor profiles that lean away from sweet - like Tea and Coffee. Over time your taste will probably change so don’t count out sweet flavors completely.

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Yes, thanks! I actually did sneak/fall into the rabbit hole and found out a bit about the combustion component that seems to be missing in the NET liquids and others and found DNB as one possible solution. Not knowing ANYTHING (!) I have a batch steeping that has (flavourart) Dark Vapure, Oak wood, Bitter Wizard, as well as DNB and TFA Acetyl Pyrazine. I’m sort of wondering if any other ex smokers are finding, like me, that while Vaping replaces the ritual, it seems super hard to replace the taste of burning tobacco? I am very new to this so I apologize if this is a too much repeated quest.

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That Inawera DNB gives you that ashy taste.

35 year pack a day, and when I think back when I was a smoker I remember no flavor just burning ash.

Good luck in finding a combination you like.

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Yes after 43 years smoking cigarettes the first thing I tried was tobacco flavors and didn’t like any, because I quit smoking cold turkey I was determined to make it work and quickly moved on to fruity flavors and never looked back at tobacco myself

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35 years! It is hard to pin point flavor in a cigarette I think, but I definitely had preferences that changed over the years. That being said if I ran out and had to bum one I wasn’t particular! May as well show you what I did, this is with the help of AI btw:

  • AP: ~0.98%

  • DNB: ~0.88%

  • Bitter Wizard: ~0.22%

  • Oak Wood: ~0.32%

  • Dark Vapure: ~0.76%

    TOTAL FLAVOR %: ~3.16%

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Haven’t tried it myself, but hear this one is a good vape:

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I have tried fruit and desert liquids. Can’t seem to migrate my palate to those, yet. My fundamental need at this point is not to smoke ever again. I am warming up to a couple of commercial liquids, sort of, enough to keep me from buying a pack. I have a supply of 5% USA Juul tobacco for emergency situations like when a mate goes outside the pub for a cigarette and I join!

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That’s what probably brought us all to this place and I wish you success!

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When I first switched from smoke to vape I always kept two mods loaded. One had a non-sweet tobacco flavor with higher nic (9-12 mg/ml freebase). The other was a sweeter fruity/dessert flavor with a lower nic (3mg/ml). I’d try to stick with the sweeter mix - but when I “needed a fix” I’d puff on the higher nic juice. It doesn’t hurt if the non-sweet mix is a bit harsh/non-tasty because it will help your mind adjust to desire the tastier low-nic juice more.

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Welcome to ELR @Heve, and congratulations on kicking the cigs. There are far better bacco’ers here than me to help out with your bacco needs.

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Most smokers who just quit have a tendency to mix tobacco flavors. The problem getting into the tobacco flavors is the flavor manufacturers make their products with a fresh leaf taste. To overcome that fresh leaf taste your going to have to dirty up their tobacco flavors. One has already been suggested to to you with Dirty neutral base (INW). The second one to give you a smoke flavor is Black Fire (FA). Keep the Black Fire low in your recipes and build it up (percentage wise) to taste. It can over take a recipe quickly.
The Winston recipe above is a good non menthol recipe to start with but the creator of the recipe only mixed Flavorah (Paid by Flavorah). You can adjust that recipe by dirtying up with Dirty Neutral Base and/or Black Fire.

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Welcome and glad you joined.

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Back in the day when vaping was becoming a thing, imitating cigarettes and rolling tobacco was where it all started.
The older flavour manufactoring houses may still be around but not tried their tobacco offerings since i started diy but dekang and hangsen were the pioneers back then.

Menthol was introduced around the same time and other flavourings swiftly followed.

Most commercially produced tobaccos are not really tobacco flavoured at all and imo the furthest of the bunch is an RY4.
Id describe RY4 as sweetened soil but in reality its just a combination of toffee/caramel/nutty concoction.

Nut flavourings in a vape is something worth considering as a new vaper as theres something quite familiar in them.

Back to tobacco and as said above dnb is certainly worth your inclusion but its quite a strong distinct addition so you’ll need to find your sweet spot.
Somewhere around 0.25%-0.50% is average.

I tend to vape tobacco primarily and the below Drum recipe is a firm staple as is my Nutty Leaf.

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Did you read the OP?

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oops yea i did
i have terrible insomnia for years got trouble remembering and concentrating

sorry i missed that

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Welcome! There is a wealth of information available here if you take some time to search for it.

I was exactly where you was, but back in 2018. I started out strictly wanting tobacco flavors, eventually moved toward vanilla-tobacco blends, and now I mostly vape candied flavors. My palate changed significantly over time, and I ended up enjoying flavors I never would have expected.

Happy hunting for your perfect flavor profile!

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That one looks good for me. I am sure my palate will shift. It’s already happening actually. I am now enjoying two commercial blends that initially tasted too sweet. Nutty is actually a component I am now picking up as something akin to pyrolytic heat, toast, and melanoidin flavors. This stuff is interesting to me as an ex brewer - similar chemistry problems using ever changing agricultural products, except of course most of this is not agricultural, which makes it perhaps a bit more predictable?

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I wish you luck on finding a suitable tobacco flavor. I’m afraid to get into tobacco flavors because I think it might trigger me to smoke again.

My father-in-law tried quitting and started vaping but would only try tobacco flavors. Eventually he gave up and started smoking again.

If you ever do migrate into other flavors there are many types that aren’t sweet or fruity. Sometimes I get tired of sweet and fruity and I have to switch it up myself.

I highly recommend trying root beer flavors without sweetener or anything else added to it. The dark spice and sassafras with a touch of wintergreen in root beers is quite satisfying for refined pallettes. Cola flavors are great too.

Another good one is black licorice. I don’t enjoy black licorice candy but black licorice vape juice is very refreshing.

I don’t do alcohol flavors because I’m a recovering alcoholic. But I could see a responsible drinker enjoying a good beer or rum or wine vape juice as an alternative to tobacco.

Another good flavor is horehound by The Flavor Apprentice. Horehound has a distinct, polarizing flavor profile that is strongly bittersweet and herbal. It is most commonly described as an earthy mix of root beer, menthol, and black licorice. It was a popular ingredient in the 1800s and it’s quite good.

Black coffee and tea flavors are delicious too.

One more suggestion, there’s plenty of spices, herbs, and floral flavors that you could tinker with. I love using clove, cinnamon, ginger, etc… For floral and herbal there’s rose, honeysuckle, eucalyptus, elderflower, hibiscus and many more.

Bull City Flavors is my suggestion for purchasing flavoring if you’re in the U.S.

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