Highbrow Vapor Highbrowbacco RY4

Highbrow Vapor Highbrowbacco RY4

Click the link above to view this product at the manufacturer’s website.

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 generally tastes like some combination of caramel, vanilla, sugar and butter — but it definitely doesn’t 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 around 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 tasted 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 interesting 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 clearly 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 very tasty 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 think that caramel, butter and tobacco are three flavors 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 Vapor’s 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 definitely 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.