Strength: 18 mg
Size: 10 ml (15 ml also available for $15.00)
Options: PG/VG mix
I’ve never really understood why some people have such a thing for RY4 e-liquids. One of the original Chinese tobacco e-liquids, RY4 tastes like some combination of caramel, vanilla, sugar and butter but it doesnt taste like tobacco in any form.
People buy it anyway, though. Maybe it’s because new e-smokers who have just given up tobacco feel nice when they use an e-liquid that targets their sweet receptors, or maybe they simply taste something in RY4 that I don’t.
Highbrow Vapor is a small family-owned e-liquid company, founded in October of 2011. They manufacture all of their e-liquids here in the United States, and they’ve quickly begun to attract publicity around the e-smoking community.
I wrote to ask if they wouldn’t mind sending a few review samples, and within a few days, I had a small batch of new e-liquids to try. I gave fair warning that I tend not to think too highly of RY4 e-liquids, but when I opened the package, staring back at me was a bottle of Highbrow Vapor Highbrowbacco RY4 and no other tobacco or menthol flavors.
Well, I thought, perhaps Highbrow Vapor would be the company that changes my mind about RY4. Unfortunately, that hasn’t turned out to be the case.
As I exhaled my first puff of Highbrowbacco RY4, my wife looked over at me and said wow, that smells very Chinese. And it does; there’s something about the taste and smell of this e-liquid that strongly comes across as Chinese tobacco.
This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as I’ve felt plenty of tobacco e-liquids from China that weren’t half bad. It’s just that the American e-liquid industry is going off in some exciting new directions these days, and that’s what excites me.
Highbrowbacco RY4 creates some serious vapor clouds, and as I continued using it, I began to pick up on a different flavor note that I explicitly identify as tobacco.
This must be the base that Highbrow Vapor uses for all of its Highbrowbacco e-liquids, and I have a feeling that it might be delicious indeed with the right complimentary flavors
I think it’s the addition of the caramel and butter flavors that make me identify the overall flavor profile of Highbrowbacco RY4 as Chinese.
Ultimately, I believe that caramel, butter, and tobacco are three characters that just don’t fit together. I also don’t think that real tobacco ever tastes more than just slightly sweet.
Those are the reasons why I’ve never liked RY4 e-liquids, and Highbrow Vapors Highbrowbacco RY4 hasn’t changed my mind. It has given me some encouragement to try the other Highbrowbacco e-liquids, though, as the base tobacco flavor seems promising. If you’re an RY4 lover, give Highbrowbacco RY4 a try, but only after you’ve tried Halo Tribeca, which I believe is superior.
