My preference has been Native Wicks for DIY liquids, and KoGenDo for other. Don't ask me why, it just seemed like that was the best preference for taste.
Although i've just opened a bag of Bacon V2 for the first time and tried it last night with my DIY stuff, seems to be coping very well, and flavour is seemingly spot on too.
Vapour Royalty Cotton is worth trying out as well, but I haven't used this or cotton bacon since I got a bag of Cotton Labour Puff Japanese cotton pads from Amazon. Think they were about £3.50 delivered from Japan for 200 of them and will last ages, plus dead easy to work with.
No noticeable flavour difference between any of them really that I've noticed.
I started using cotton bacon v2 but then was given a sample of Celtic cotton and I've never looked back since. It's a really good cotton, no taste, easy to wick and I've never had a dry hit with it, you can taste straight away when your work has gone dry
i spent a lot of time on testing different cotton and for me Ive found that out of all the money I spent and bags I got actually Co-operative Fairtrade baby double faced cotton wool non gm certified pads work and tase the best .
Plus side is that only about a £1.00 for 50 large pads picked them up on a whim and was very very suprised .
They also have little ribs 1mm appart too so easier still to size and wick
Some things in life you come across by chance but now in any of my rebuild tanks I use nothing else , worth a shot for £1 for about 5 years supply lol if you are in uk with a co-op supermarket close