I’m putting this juice battle together on a Thursday evening. I’m about to head out camping over the long weekend and still want to be able to have this Juice Battle scheduled and ready to drop on Monday, so I busted my ass to carefully evaluate and review 10 unique tobacco flavors for this week’s tobacco themed juice battle. This is now the second tobacco themed juice battle I’ve done, and I have to say I enjoyed it a LOT more than the first one. I had a really interesting field of juices to work with, and gained a new appreciation for several different kinds of tobacco vapes.

Since this is a tobacco specific battle, I just want to take a moment to go over what I’m looking for in a good tobacco vape.

In the last battle, my primary emphasis was whether the juice actually tasted like tobacco. That is still a strong criteria this week, however one of the things I’ve learned this week is that there are some “tobacco” juices out there that really don’t have a strong tobacco flavor, yet they still vape like a tobacco. What I mean by that is, they do a good job of emulating the experience of actually smoking tobacco. Let’s face it, most of us have probably smoked cigarettes before that weren’t exactly bursting with amazing tobacco flavor, yet we still smoked them anyway for the experience of smoking and the way they made us feel.

Vaping tobacco can be similar – if there’s anything I’ve learned this week it’s that you can still get a “tobacco experience” without your juice necessarily tasting like you just plucked a tobacco leaf out of the ground and put it in your mouth.

Really, what I have become more interested in, in terms of tobacco vapes, is that they are accurately described. I’m wearing a little thin on vendors describing their juice as tasting like a Camel when it maybe tastes like a shitty RY4 at best. So one of the primary things I am being mindful of while I evaluate these juices is whether they are accurately described.

It’s also very important to note – even though this is a tobacco themed battle, this is still just a random sampling of 10 different tobacco juices from 10 different vendors. This is in no way going to determine the best overall tobacco vape in existence – rather all I am really doing is rating these 10 individually. I’m sure pretty much anyone who vapes tobacco juices has their own favorites, and just because their favorite wasn’t in this pool doesn’t mean it’s any worse than any of these 10. I basically just selected all 10 of these completely at random based on what I currently have on hand – I’ve got artificial tobaccos, NETs and WTAs in the mix this week. TLDR; Don’t get pissed if you don’t see your favorite here. There’s plenty of time for more juice battles down the road – and at some point once I’ve done enough, I hope I can take all the winners and then pit them against each other in a “best of the best” style competition. For now, we’re just on #2, so there’s still a long way to go.

With all that out of the way, let’s get it on…

#10 Smokecignals – Sophisticated

Coming in dead last this week is Sophisticated by Smokecignals. Here’s what they say about it:

A gentleman’s tobacco blend. If the most interesting man in the world vaped, this would be his flavor of choice.

I’ve had the opportunity to try quite a few juices by Smokecignals, and many of them have done very well in recent Juice Battles, so this is just more proof that I don’t play favorites at all.

This was by far the worst tobacco out of the whole lot this week. First off, I didn’t really think it tasted like tobacco. Now I already mentioned that tasting exactly like tobacco isn’t my only criteria for how I rate these, so that isn’t the entire problem.

What I found with this juice, is that it basically tasted like mothballs. It really was just plain bad. It has a very light flavor overall, and the only 2 things I could taste were the familiar taste of the smokecignals base – pretty much all their juices have their own “smokecignals essence” – it doesn’t particularly taste like anything except very lightly of fabric softener. The second thing I could taste was the mothballs. Up until this week, I’ve never had a juice that tasted anywhere near mothballs before, but this one really does to me. And it’s pretty much the only thing I taste in this juice. If you have ever smelled a mothball before, you will know that it is not a pleasant aroma to vape.

This one was just plain bad, and very deserving of the bottom spot this week.

#9 Good Life Vapor: Deadly Sin

Coming in 9th place this week is Deadly Sin from Good Life Vapor. Here’s what they say about it:

A sweet, bakery tobacco vape. A description will never do this one justice. It’s my all day vape. It’s become the only juice I vape. Some flavors are made for each other and blend perfectly. The throat hit is there, the flavor is outstanding, the blend is a 50/50 unlike the others in the line-up so the vapor is BIG! Will leave your surroundings smelling like fresh baked cookies and cakes! I have been told that this is very similar to a Crispy treat as well as Smores and Cinnamon Buns. Taste is subjective, but it is been decided that this juice is a winner!

I honestly had a really hard time rating this juice so low. Why? Because it’s truly one of the most delicious juices I have ever tasted. It’s super sweet, rich and indulgent. The primary flavor I get is graham cracker, with a nice dose of marshmallow, traces of vanilla, caramel and chocolate, and a slight hint of cinnamon. The flavors are super well balanced and this juice has a lot of character. The more you vape it, the more different flavors come out. As far as rich dessert vapes go, this one is now at the top of my list, it is really an exceptional juice.

The problem I had with it is that it in no way tastes like tobacco at all. Not only does it not taste like tobacco, it really isn’t reminiscent of tobacco in any way. This is just a straight up dessert vape, plain and simple.

While I already said several times that I wasn’t ONLY rating juices on whether they actually taste like tobacco, this one simply crossed the line for me. In my opinion it should be categorized as a dessert vape and not a tobacco because there isn’t a single quality I can find in this juice that makes me thing tobacco.

Had this one not been categorized as a tobacco, I wouldn’t have included it this week, and honestly I could easily see this juice winning a normal juice battle because the flavor is so incredibly good, it vapes great, and it has a ton of unique character.

Unfortunately it is currently categorized as a tobacco which is why I picked it to review this week, and frankly it just does not fit in with the rest of the field at all, so there’s no fair way I could rate it over any real tobacco vapes.

Great juice though!

#8 Johnson’s Creek: Tennessee Cured

Coming in at #8 this week is one from Johnson’s Creek called Tennessee Cured. Here’s what they say about this:

The slightly less sweet cousin of JC Original™, this rich and smoky tobacco flavor will charm you from the first puff with hints of burnt caramel and vanilla that combine with a smooth, mesquite vapor. Great for everyday and a staple for many, Tennessee Cured™ is a signature flavor that is truly like no other Smoke Juice.

When I first caught a whiff of this juice I could not wait to try it. In the bottle, you can really smell the mesquite smoke and it is quite nice. The flavor itself is actually very good too. I get a slight awkward savory note on the very front end of the inhale – the closest thing I can think to compare it to would be soy sauce. It’s not really bad tasting, but does seem slightly out of place. The rest of the vape is smokey, woody and earthy and really tastes a lot like actual tobacco smoke – in fact just on accuracy alone I think this is probably one of the best this week.

The main problem I had with this juice was that it really does not vape well or have a good throat hit. I run into a juice every now and then that just doesn’t seem to burn very well. I don’t know why it is, or how it happens. For whatever reason, vaping this stuff, to me, is like vaping with your airhole badly misaligned. You can’t get a clean hit and it comes through super cloudy and not particularly satisfying.

What’s more, the throat hit is just plain weak on this one. In fact this is the only juice I tried this week that didn’t have a very good throat hit, so I found that to be pretty disappointing.

I absolutely loved the flavor of this one, but the performance was so poor I pretty much always found myself choosing other juices over this one to vape.

#7 Red Tail Vapor: Dark Honey Tobacco

Coming in at #7 this week is Dark Honey Tobacco by Red Tail Vapor. Here’s what they say about it:

Tastebuds explode with this fantastic honey tobacco. Has to be tried to experience the ultimate vaping bliss! Made in the USA and is VG Based for more vapor. 80/20 VG/PG. Infused with WTA!

This was a vendor I had never previously tried, and also a WTA (Whole Tobacco Alkaloid) juice.

From here on out, the competition is really quite stiff, and I will tell you right now – there is absolutely nothing wrong with this juice. It’s really quite tasty and the only problems I did have with it are minor nits at best. Mostly its a testament to the quality of the rest of the field.

Anyway, this is a lighter tasting tobacco. In fact, it doesn’t have a particularly strong tobacco flavor at all. On the inhale I get a sweet, almost vanilla-like flavor on the very front end of the vape. The ensuing flavor is lightly sweet and has a very faint nuttieness to it.

While it really doesn’t taste much like tobacco at all to me, it definitely vapes like a tobacco which is why I like it. Many people say that vaping a WTA brings a familiar experience more close to smoking an actual cigarette than normal ejuices. As far as this juice is concerned, I think it rings true. It really does remind me a lot of actually smoking – and the light flavor is even fairly similar to smoking a light flavored cigarette.

The throat hit is absolutely phenomenal on this juice, and it’s a high VG juice which makes it all the more impressive – PLUS lends an amazing vapor production capability as well.

The one problem with this one I found is that oddly, it has kind of the same mothball-like taste as Sophisticated. The only difference is with this juice it kicks in very lightly on the exhale and really doesn’t interfere too much with the rest of the flavor, so I didn’t find it to be a huge issue.

I should also mention that this is probably one of the best honey tobacco vapes I have ever tried.

#6 Ginger’s E-Juice: Kinda Sorta Shady

Rounding out the bottom half of the countdown this week is Ginger’s e-Juice with Kinda Sorta Shady. Here’s what they say about it:

I named it Kinda Sorta Shady, because it keeps changing as the day goes on. It’s a lighter tobacco flavor, coupled with various different flavor notes. Sometimes you get hints of vanilla, and sometimes hints of caramel, and sometimes hints of coffee, and sometimes hints of something that you LOVE, but you can’t quite describe. I guess you’ll just have to try it and see if you can help describe it better than I can

I really quite liked this juice. This is another one of those that really doesn’t particularly taste like tobacco, but does vape like one. It has an extremely light flavor with a smooth, sweet undertone. On the inhale, I get a nice dose of vanilla – as you vape the juice more and it caramelizes on your coils it does tend to seem more like a caramel. The rest of the vape is just incredibly smooth and light with no real prominent flavor, but a nice underlying sweetness.

All week I have been vaping heavy hitters at 18-24mg, and while 16mg isn’t a huge drop off, I was still impressed at how well this one hit in comparison to the field. Additionally, for a 20% VG juice, I have to say that this one really hits quite well.

While the flavor on this one is super light, and it doesn’t taste strongly of tobacco, I actually kind of enjoyed it for exactly that reason. This is the perfect kind of juice to vape when you just don’t feel like a ton of flavor.

#5 Juice Mafia: Nero Tobacco

Coming in dead center at #5 is Nero Tobacco by Juice Mafia. Here’s what they say about it:

Sometimes the importance of an understated blend, cannot be overstated. Our Black Cigar flavor is a mild, smooth tasting juice, with hints of cocoa and a rich cigar flavor. Its never over bearing and has a great throat hit. This juice is great as an all day vape.

This was my first juice ever from Juice Mafia and I was really impressed. It strongly reminds me of some of my favorites from HHV like Sludge and Shadow, and also one of my favorite juices of all time Indigo Ry.

It’s basically super rich, dark and kind of chocolaty tasting. As far as cigar flavor, I really did not get much, if any cigar flavor at all. That said, this is definitely right in there with that group I mentioned above which also really don’t taste like tobacco, but kind of have a tobacco vibe in terms of the experience you get. It’s kind of like if you could get a black and mild without all the nasty skunky flavor, and it tasted exactly the way it smelled.

The throat hit was really quite good on this juice and the flavor stayed strong all day from the first hit to the last. I wish I could go into more detail on the actual taste, but it honestly tasted like pure chocolate to me – in a good way.

#4 Mountain Oak Vapor: Southern Gentleman

I’m starting to think it would be hard to have a true tobacco battle without a nice gold label NET from MOV. Here’s what they say about Southern Gentleman, this week’s #4:

Southern Gentleman™ starts off with a mix of Virginia, Latika, and Perique tobacco’s that have been blended with an aromatic Amaretto that consists of Black Cavendish and Virginia Ribbon. We finish it off with a Tennessee Ribbon Burley and this blend becomes true to the name. It has a strong, present, and well rounded tobacco flavor that will not leave the enthusiast wanting.

This juice is your basic high quality NET. Love it or hate it, it is absolutely loaded with flavor and has a ton of character.

This one is very similar to Ahlusion’s Bluegrass Burley. The primary difference to me was that this one seemed a little bit more smooth.

It has a very grassy taste, and a prominent sour/bitterness about it. It is also completely dry and has no sweetness at all. As NETs go, this one definitely has a pronounced flavor that isn’t going to be for everyone. In fact, the first time I ever tried Bluegrass Burley, which tastes almost exactly like this, I immediately took the cap off and let it steep for a week because I thought something was wrong with it. After a week, it still tasted pretty much exactly the same.

This is one of those flavors that is a true acquired taste. 17 years of smoking cigarettes did nothing to prepare me for the tobacco flavor that this juice is loaded with.

I’ve had 3-4 juices now with this same strong, sour, grassy profile, and while I started off not really liking them, the flavor has really grown on me.

#3 Aroma Ejuice: Beatle Juice

This week’s second runner-up is Aroma Ejuice with Beatle Juice – another WTA. Here’s what they say about it:

This is our full-bodied and rich flavored tobacco cowboy mix punched up a notch. It is a sweet blend, with sublte tobacco undertones. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE. 70/30 PG/VG. Infused with WTA!

This is another tobacco that I found to be extremely light on flavor. This one has more of a nutty quality than the other light tobaccos this week, and therefore I felt had a little more tobacco personality in terms of taste.

There’s honestly really not a lot to the flavor on this one. It’s just light and nutty. It loosely reminds me of a good quality 555 flavor.

The nice thing about this juice is that it hits extremely well and is very satisfying. While it doesn’t really taste like a cigarette, this one really did help give me the impression that I was actually smoking. Another good thing about it is that since the flavor is so light, it’s hard to ever get sick of it. Just like a cigarette – even when you’re sick or have a stomach ache, usually the flavor of a standard cigarette won’t disgust you. I’ve smoked many-a-cig while sick in the past. It’s kind of the same way with this juice. There’s just never a bad time for it. I’ve had plenty of days where I’ve felt a little under the weather and the thought of a strong flavored tobacco vape, a fruity vape or even a dessert vape just seemed like too much for me and that is exactly the type of situation where this juice shines. It’s not just a rainy day juice either – I could see this one being perfect for an all day vape where you really just want something to give you your nic fix without being bogged down by a ton of extra flavor.

I think this would be a perfect juice for smokers who are trying to make the transition from cigs to vaping and want something that is really going to help curb their cravings without dealing with the bullshit of wading through tons of flavors that can be hit or miss.

It’s simple, it’s high performance, it’s good.

#2 Rocket Fuel Vapes: Calamity Jane

Our second place finisher this week was Calamity Jane from Rocket Fuel Vapes. Here’s what they say about it:

BESTSELLER! Calamity Jane is a blend of sweet, mild tobaccos for a more sophisticated and distinctive tobacco taste.

This was my first juice ever from RFV and I was really interested to see how it would stack up.

Again, this one is not overtly tobacco flavored, despite how they have described it, yet it does have a noticeable tobacco feel to it.

Calamity Jane is a dark, rich and slightly sweet juice that also carries a lot of sourness with it. I feel that the sour aspect is what helps to push it out of the realm of dessert and into the tobacco category.

All that aside, I think it primarily tastes like amaretto, and in a really good way. I’ve always enjoyed the flavor of amaretto and haven’t had any amaretto vape that I can think of. I can tell you now, that it definitely does translate well to an ejuice.

Additionally, this juice hits VERY well at 18mg. Probably the strongest of all the 18mg juices I reviewed this week, which made me very happy.

I mostly just liked this juice because it has a lot of character. The flavor is unique and you will constantly taste new notes the more you vape it. It doesn’t taste similar to anything else I’ve had before. Most importantly it vapes great, and does provide that tobacco kind of feel.

I really thought this juice was exceptional.

#1 The Vapor Co: Jeff Grande Cubano Cigar

Our big winner this week is Jeff Grande Cubano Cigar by the Vapor Co. Here’s what they say about it:

Vape like a “Big Boss” with the Jefe Grande Cubano Cigar Flavor from Shark Juice Premium E-Liquid. If you are truly a cigar lover then I will personally asure you that you will love this flavor.

I’ve been really up and down with these guys since I first ordered with them back in January. I really didn’t like the way they handled their sale, which resulted in a lot of people waiting weeks upon weeks to get their order. They also horribly screwed up my order giving me doubles on a ton of stuff in random nic levels, and leaving out a good portion of what I actually ordered. They have also produced a couple of the worst juices I have ever tasted.

At the same time, they STILL have great pricing, and they also produced one of my favorite juices of all time – Kowrona – even though you can’t currently order it – sadly.

At any rate, I’ve had this juice around for a while. I even tried vaping it a month or two back and I really didn’t think much of it at the time – and really, I mostly threw it in this week as an afterthought.

That said, I am so glad I DID decide to include it because one I tasted it in the context of tobacco week, and pitted against these other tobacco juices, I gained a real appreciation for it and really grew to like it a lot.

Basically, this juice is a straight up Cuban tobacco flavor.

I have tried several Cuban tobaccos, and the primary thing that separates a Cuban tobacco from a normal tobacco is a strong peppery flavor. I find it somewhere between regular old black pepper, and a green pepper.

This juice definitely has the peppery flavor I have come to expect from a Cuban tobacco. It comes through crisp and clear and completely full flavored. It has a very pronounced flavor that might take you a while to warm up to, but once you get used to it you will almost surely appreciate it.

I really liked this juice because it basically is exactly what it says it is. Most of the time with tobacco vapes, you never really know what you’re going to get but with this juice there is absolutely no doubt what you’re getting. A bold Cuban tobacco with no extra fluff or unwanted flavor. In fact, the flavor is so good and so accurate on this juice, I could see it easily being mistaken for a NET, because it really does have that NET quality.

If you’ve been curious about vaping Cuban tobacco, this is definitely the one to get. Amazingly you can still get a 10ml bottle of it for $2, and I can guarantee that it’s worth every penny if you give it a chance.

This is a very pronounced flavor, so not everyone is going to like it – at least at first, but I found that it has grown on me pretty easily, and it isn’t as overtly strong and bitter as many NETs – particularly of the Southern Gentleman ilk.

All around this is a great juice – totally accurate tobacco flavor, amazing throat hit, great vapor, great price. You just can’t go wrong with it.

The Bottom Line

The more tobacco juices I vape, the more I see how they kind of fit into different categories. You have your NETs which are usually strong, dry and lack sweetness, but are very full flavored and sometimes take some warming up to. Then you have your “light” tobaccos that don’t really taste much like tobacco at all, but do kind of give you that cigarette feel. Then you’ve got your crappy artificial tobaccos that are hit or miss and can sometimes fit into the “light” tobacco realm. On top of that you’ve got your rich and indulgent tobaccos like Juice Mafia’s Nero that are kind of chocolatey and have other deep notes like coffee, brown sugar, burnt caramel, etc. Beyond that, you run into an artificial tobacco every now and then like Jeff Grande that is remarkably accurate, and you’ve got your juices that are listed as tobaccos like Deadly Sin, but don’t have any tobacco quality to them at all.

Out of all the types of ejuices, tobaccos are probably the hardest to pin down because you really just never know what you’re going to get until you try it – and often different people trying the same tobacco vape will taste different things. So out of all the types of flavors, I really enjoy reviewing tobaccos because there is a lot of diversity.

This week the field was really excellent. There was only 1 juice I didn’t like at all, and the rest of them are pretty much all coming camping with me to be vaped for the next 4 days.

In other news, I put out a really important tutorial on how I twist kanthal. It is super easy to do, and doesn’t really require any extra time or investment if you are already wrapping your own coils, and I STRONGLY urge you to give it a try as soon as possible. I knew about twisted kanthal for months before I bothered to try because I was already fairly happy with my regular microcoils, but man, now that I have started doing twisted kanthal and parallel coil builds, it’s hard to imagine ever going back and I certainly wish I hadn’t waited so long.

I also kicked out a review of the V7 mini dripper which I use as one of my primary atties for tasting liquids. This is a great little piece that is easy to build on, provides amazing flavor and only costs $4.50. It also just happens to fit perfectly on a Vaporshark. In addition to that, I also reviewed the Stingray mech mod – another mod I hold in really high regard, and the massive Seven 22 APV that runs on 26650 batteries and has variable wattage up to 22 watts.

It was a super busy week and now that I’m done with this juice battle I’m more than ready to take a couple of days off, but I will be right back at it again next week…