Many have tried. All have failed. I just really wanted to be part of the long history of failures.

HS Magic Mix: This is my raisin note. At first I didn’t really taste it with the real thing. I thought everyone was crazy. But after a few months of forgetting about it after my first round of frantic clone attempts, I licked some off the back of my hand, and there she was. I’ll be damned, it has a raisin note.

FE Tobacco Absolute: Many have claimed that there had to be an NET in there, but I am throwing my hat in to say I think it’s a TA. I would assume that the TA was the ingredient that was no longer available and that’s why it went for its little vacation. I also believe that when AVE claims to use 40% flavoring, it is because they are making a super weak concentration of the Tobacco Absolute and using it at like 30%. I’m going to make sure the foil doesn’t fall off my head here, but I also have a hunch that they are diluting their TA in PG. They can consider it a “flavor” and still get away with saying they have no “added” PG. I mixed this up max VG and it just wasn’t quite right. 60/40 was much better. There was also the GCMS that Bobbysavage had done on some Boba’s, and it came out pretty much 60/40. I don’t think I trust any of the other results of that sample, but I’d think that the VG/PG ratio would be easier to determine. Just pure speculation, really. Just wanted to throw some of my own conspiracy theories out there to build the lore ;)

CAP Graham Cracker: It’s rich and has a hint of cinnamon. I think a lot of the flavor bending and confusing notes comes from the way all the tobaccos blend with this graham cracker.

The real pain in the ass part of trying to do a true clone was finding out what flavors were available at the time it was created in 2009. ECX was around back then, but I used the way back machine to look at the site in 2009, and the only DIY stuff it seemed like they had was PG, VG, and menthol crystals. The flavors that ECX sells as FE and everyone else sells as Super Concentrates I believe come from the Chinese company Xi’an Taima, and the only post on ECF asking about them was from 2010, so for the sake of just being done with this shit finally, I’m going to say they were probably available if you were creative back then. I did find a LinkedIn profile for the company that stated that they were founded in November of 2008, so there’s that. If everyone else uses Black Mile or Black Mile Plus, then I think I’ll be ok throwing out my own ideas on some FE tobaccos to use.

FE Captain: Not only does this flavor give me some of the same vibes that Boba’s does, it’s also pretty complex on its own. There’s so many things happening with it that others seem to pick out of Boba’s that I think I’d be stupid not to use it. Is there caramel? Vanilla? Coconut? Pipe tobacco? Chocolate? All depends on what your tongue wants to taste that day.

FE Desert Ship: When I first tested this I thought it was just begging to be thrown in a Boba’s clone. It’s got a pretty generic FE tobacco base with maybe a hint of some spices.

So the Captain takes care of those Base note subtleties, and the Desert Ship does the top note spices. The graham cracker blends them together, and also brings the raisin in to more of a bakery type of raisin, if that makes sense. And the Tobacco Absolute provides the real tobacco taste with a hint of ash.

And now I can rest easy knowing that I have thrown my name in to the bottomless pit of failed Boba’s Bounty cloners.

Note on the steeping: 7 days is the point that the Captain started to fall in to place a little more and the whole thing started to taste closer to Boba’s. It’s going to keep changing after that, but the 7 days is the point you should start saying, “Chem has lost his mind, this isn’t close at all.”