Magistra v3 (with mixman)

The idea here was to make a series of mixes that were mostly RY4ish inspired a la Cardinal to showcase the many different ways you could get Tobacco, Caramel, Vanilla in a mix, all pronounced. This was the first one. I had done this intricate matrix of flavors with the formula of Bacco, Bacco Accent, Caramel, Vanilla. So, I started with using my favorites out of each of those:

Bacco - HS RY1 is an excellent flavor that is now hard to source. It is a workhorse of a flavor that plays nice with nearly everything. If you can find it (and you like tobaccos), do get yourself a decent sized bottle. I can guarantee you that you will like it. It has just enough bacco and hint of vanilla to carry the bulk of any recipe from 1-3% needing only about 7 days to get 'there'. Until then, it's a bit dull and listless, so do give it a week. Here we accent it with...

Bacco Accent - FLV Arabian is a fantastic flavor and does a sick job of accenting whatever it touches. It brings a sharp 'zing' that is a mix of spiciness and ash, but don't let that fool you. I've used it in Arab Mom's Butter Cookie as an accent and it's marvelous. I used it to add some zing to Bacco Blend No. 1. Here it is very striking with nothing else to really compete with it and accents the HS RY1 turning it from a mellow tobacco to a curiously strong one.

Caramel - FM Caramel is very hard to find if you weren't lucky enough to have snagged it from Nic River before it went wholesale. I'm sure this one is subbable, I just haven't settled on a sub for it. FM Caramel is like a golden caramel so whatever you prefer I think could work here. I wanted something 'lighter and brighter' than the regular dark fares I choose. I'd probably say that FA Caramel at 1.5% could stand in if you don't have a preference.

Vanilla - FLV Smooth Vanilla is arguably the king of all bacco vanillas for me. Some folks might not light it. It does carry a cherry note and requires a 3 day steep before you can taste anything else in a mix underneath it, for me. That cherry note will either steep out or fade when mixed with properly in my experience. Here it adds a great mouthfeel that is more musky than creamy which was why I chose it over INW Shisha Vanilla (a likely suitable sub). If you sub this and get a dry mix, maybe add 0.1 FLV Lovage to make up for it.

Obviously if you sub, I can't guarantee you'll like it, but I can't do that anyway. Adapt, not adopt. SFT your flavors and get to know them. Try new things and share what you know/do.

PS This mix is titled w/ @mixman because he tried it and encouraged me to give it a fair shot. At first, it really wasn't what I had envisioned. I had to come back to it after a long time to accept it was almost as good as he said it was. I really did find myself enjoying it and haven't figured out a way to improve upon it, or the need to, in all this time.