Right, this issue is exactly what we are taking about. A “seller” wants to capitalize on the current popularity of names like TA, so is “fuzzing the line of truth in naming” and has re-defined what TA actually is. Real TA is a highly specialized liquefaction of a precursor product known as tobacco concrete. Anything else is just not real TA.
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OK, I will let all this go for now, and will wait for your tasting and blending reports with the adventures into TA.
Most of my notes are a little further up. My adventures with TA’s has been going on for about 3 years. I’ve used the INW TA’s quite a bit, which is the main reason I can believe that they are, in fact, unique absolutes. Mostly I’m curious to see if the MF TA is going to taste like the ECX TA, which I suspect is the more generic TA that other places carry.
But I agree that nobody wants a Word War III on a forum 
That wasn’t really my intentention.
@ChemicalBurnVictim … I was able to locate some N Rustica, now that Somara Botane will no longer be stocking that absolute; confirmed in an email to me. However:
https://perfumersupplyhouse.com/product/tobacco-absolute/
…at least in writing, this might be the same stuff. 
Somara Botane said they got their supply of N Rustica from Ventos, as it appears, so do these folks.
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Excellent find! Now I won’t have to worry if I end up making something with it that I can’t live without.
The nice folks at Galen-G have replied to my email:
Dear Mr. [Chem]
I would like to thank you for your e-mail and request!
We are producing concrete and Absolutes from those three varieties of Tobacco- Burley, Oriental, and Virginia (only those varieties are cultivated in Bulgaria). We are the only producer in Bulgaria for this products.
The new production will be available end of October . By that moment we are out of stock for all of them.
Please find attached our product list and specification
I’m looking forward for your feedback!I wish you an excellent day!
Best regards
So it looks like there are three different absolutes and concretes that are produced in Bulgaria.
The emails with Inawera have been a little less informative:
INW:
Hello
Each of then is diffrent tobacco absolut, all are pure absoluts.
Regards
Jacek
Me:
Thank you for the reply. Do you have SDS’s for the 4 Absolutes you sell?
INW:
Hello
Yes, we have. But we send them only to maufacturers. What you need to
know?Regards
Jacek
Me:
I was just curious what different tobacco leaves were used to produce the absolutes. The Virginia and Oriental should be obvious enough, but the Cuban Cigar and Garuda are a bit vague. Though now that I think about it, the most specific the SDS would probably be is “Nicotiana Tabacum.” Do the “for Pipe” flavors also use Tobacco Absolutes, or are they some other kind of tobacco extract?
INW:
On MSDS is only tobacco extract or nicotine. Becaus its UVCB (substance
with diffrent components ratio) manufacture could put more information
but that happens almost never. Noone want to change msds with new batch
of product.
For pipe has absolut, yes
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Great information ! Thanks for sharing it.
I am still not sure about the INW products, a particular new area of concern for me, that I did not think about before, is the drastic low price of their ‘absolutes’. To reduce the feedstock to concrete, then re-constitute to paste absolute there is a process loss over 100x. This is reflected in the price of the product from ‘known good’ suppliers like Ventos and Galen. The product from INW is only a fraction of the cost of the real pastes. Not sure what is going on there.
Although I understand that historically, for cost savings, the concrete was made from lower quality tobacco, sort of the cutting and tailings that hit the floor, certainly it was never made from the type of quality that finds its way to the rolling tables of the top name cigars. So there is a cost savings there for the producer of absolute. But never the less, there is such a large quantity required for the process, it is hard to understand how INW is selling it at retail for such low prices.
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On the product page for their absolutes they do make note that they are already diluted and ready to use. Sort of the same way that ECX sells theirs as a 50% dilution. The INW Absolutes seem to be a fair bit less concentrated. Straight from the bottle, they can be used up to 3% on the higher end. So my guess is that what they sell is diluted to 10% +/- a few %.
The info from Galen-G has me thinking that they are likely selling the Virginia and Oriental with the original name, and then calling the Burley “Garuda”, though I think I might try to track down some of the Burley TA to compare. This still leaves their Cuban Cigar a bit of a mystery. They’ve either got other sources, or they are making a mixture of TAs and calling it a Cuban Cigar. Based on the lighter color and similar taste, I’d guess that Garuda and Cuban Cigar share something in common. But since they won’t say who their supplier is, this is all conjecture.
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All this ‘name game’ stuff just makes life harder for those of us that are serious about compounding tobacco vapes. Here is as close as I could find to any reference whatsoever to the term ‘Garuda’ - Apparently a common cigarette brand in Indonesia, ??? Clove cigarettes ? ummmm -
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Your Google Fu is stronger than mine, because I couldn’t even find that. Mostly I came up with Coffee or some kind of peanut snack. I will say that it does not taste like coffee, peanuts, or cloves, so I’d guess they just liked the image of the bird thing.
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No, that is not a common cigarette in Indonesia either. However, garuda is our national bird and symbol, so maybe that’s where the name came from.
And yes, almost all of the local cigarette here are clove cigarettes.
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Got the MF Tobacco Absolute in today. Mixed up a 10% w/w dilution with some PGA and mixed that up at 1%.
Based on what I have learned from Galen-G, this is very likely one of their products since MF states that it comes from Bulgaria. If we assume that INW Virginia and Oriental are just rebranded and diluted GALEN-G Oriental and Virginia Tobacco Absolutes, then I believe the MF must be the Burley, and based on my quick test, I believe that is what INW Garuda is. Taste is very similar, and the color is lighter than the others. The .1% Mix I have right now is more intense than Garuda at 1.5%, but the taste is still fairly recognizable I think. Just a really tasty, almost sweet tobacco leaf.
I’ll let it settle for a while and report back with some better tasting notes.
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Thanks for the update. I have the TPA Tobacco Absolute I purchased a long time ago and I dabbled with it in my early mixing days. So I’m not sure exactly how to use it in mixes, but thanks to you and others that posted in this thread I’m getting a better understanding of what Abs are and how to best use them in mixes. I’ll be following this thread closely and I’m looking forward to more updates on the MF Absolute. I’d also like to see some of your recipes with the synth tobaccos and how you incorporate the abs in them… Thanks Again!
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Most of my recipes are on the other recipe website, which I feel might be controversial to post links to here haha. But I do have some on ELR. Brigade 2506 has been my ADV for the last year and a half. I mostly use the INW TA Cuban Cigar to dry things up a bit because no one wants to vape a soggy tobacco. I used the ECX TA in my Boba’s Bounty “don’t call it a clone” recipe. This is how I imagine a lot of eliquid companies use TAs. None of those other “tobacco” flavors really taste much like tobacco, so you throw in a little bit of TA just to get a little bit of that ashy grassiness. You have to have a pretty delicate touch with some of them or else the whole thing just tastes like grash (ashy grass.) I used the ECX one in a similar way with my VCT “maybe it’s a clone” recipe. Nothing about those flavors says “tobacco”, but you throw a pinch of TA in there and now you can put the “T” in the name and list it in your “tobaccos.”
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Noo problem with links here. I’ve posted plenty links with zero issues at all. If you’re still uncomfortable posting links, there’s an option to PM them.
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I’ve added a couple more to ELR 
Casino Night uses TA Garuda to give a little contrast to the darker tobacco notes in the Black for Pipe and Black Jack Tobacco. The goal here was for something like a Black Cavendish/Virginia Mix.
Smoaked uses Garuda in a similar way. There’s a lot going on in the base notes of the recipe because there’s a whole lotta oak, so I wanted a little something to brighten it up.
Unfiltered uses the TA Oriental for some spicy and grassy notes, but it’s not super obvious to pick out in that one. The best thing that came from that recipe was the FLV Red Burley and HS No. 5 combo. The No. 5 adds some toasty nutty notes to the Red Burley, and in my opinion makes it taste a bit more authentic.
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