The El Toro Grande kits from house of liquid

[Mark]

DISCLAIMER: I bought these kits myself and the opinions expressed are mine and mine only..unless you happen to share them

Some of you may already be familiar with the El Toro range of eliquids from house of liquids. I am a huge fan of the cigarillos and the puros. There are lots of reviews of both not least by Romastino and I won't be reviewing them here. However if you like authentic tobacco flavours they are superb IMO

This thread is about a new 'kit' sold by HoL which has a DIY slant on it. This isnt a review of a juice more a heads up as to how it works.

A good start would be to have a look see at Romastinos take on it available in the juice reviews thread here on POTV though, as he says, its a kind of mini blog on his experiences.

http://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?1359-El-Toro-Grande-Review-by-Romastino

When I ordered there were two 'flavours' to choose from, the flavours equating to the particular uncut tobacco leaves that come with the kit. There is the Virginia Prime, which I am guessing will be similar to the milder, cigarette type flavour of cigarillos. There is the Guavera, which is likely to equate to the more cigar type flavour of the Puros.

Available here at just under 30 Euros per kit http://www.houseofliquid.com/product-p/eltoro4.htm

Romastino received his bottle of tobacco leaves already filled with 40mls 50/50 base 18mg liquid. He got a second 50ml bottle of base liquid with which to top it up giving something like 90mls over all.

In each of my two sets I got a bottle of dry tobacco leaves and two 50mls bottles of the base liquid seemngly giving me a little more. Potentially 100mls of ejuice for the price and the quality I expect is pretty good! The site suggests that you may get less overall as the steeping of the leaves in the base liquid for longer periods will mean the leaves, which obviously stay in the bottle, soak up more of the juice and would be lost in the leaves.

Here are some photos to help see what comes with each kit. There is a shot of the complete two sets of kit, a pic of one empty bottle with filter gauze and funnel, a pic of the base 50/50 liquid and a picture showing the two bottles containing the repsective uncut tobacco leaves

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Romastino was able to start vaping on his video as HoL had already filled the bottle with the leaves with some base liquid. In my case that wiView attachment 733ll be the first step.

Tonight I will be doing just that. As Romastino did the Virginia Prime I will do the Guevera first and report back on this thread

I will try to leave it for a couple of days before sampling. That will require,as Romastino demonstrated, use of the filter paper so I dont get any solids or other contaminants from the leaves into my finished juice

 

[Mark]

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I should add that as usual with this great vendor he included a wee sample of another flavour..in this case two small bottles (one freebie per kit) of 'Silverberry' which sounds intriguing..

 

[Mark]

I've just checked the bottle having filled the bottle of leaves with the base liquid yesterday afternoon. After only 19 hours or so the liquid is beginning to darken in the bottle and take on the aroma of the uncut tobacco. I may have to drip a couple of drops on an attire to check out the flavour so far. Impatient or what?
I know from Romastinos experience with the milder Virginia that the flavour was plentiful after only 3 days and a little too strong for his tastes thereafter so I don't want to overdo this stage with the Guevera. I can always try a stronger mix later.
Plus the juice will steep and continue to develop its flavours after decanting.

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

Would shaking the bottle help loosen up the leaves and release any more flavour?

 

[Mark]

Would shaking the bottle help loosen up the leaves and release any more flavour?

The leaves are pretty well packed in there but I have seen small air pockets so yeah I've been giving it an occasional maracas shake

 

[ZT]

GOtta admit this does look an interesting project

After ive tried the cigarillos and the sample you are sending I may give this a shot

 

[Mark]

Ok well the first bottle of Guevera leaves have been soaking up the 50/50 El Toro base mix for 48 + hours. I am mindful that this is the stronger tasting of the two kits and recall Romastino saying that the lighter Virginia Prime became too strong for his tastes after 3 days. And so after two full days I decided to try a few drops on a 306/ego combo, extracting a small amount at first (see below).

I should not have been surprised at the full flavour and overall depth that lies in everyone of these juices. For those that have tried Cigarillos and Puros, this, so far, lies between the two for me. I would say it is like a lighter version of the Puros. The nuttiness is there but milder. The mouth fills with natural tobacco flavour which is extremely pleasant on the palette. The vapour production is what you would expect from a 50/50 mix and the throathit is full on without being harsh. So far as a standalone juice it is easily on a par with the ready mades from HoL and possibly even better if that is possible. It is exactly what I want out of a tobacco juice. It is very satisfying.

So how did I use the gear provided?

Here is a reminder of how the filled bottle looks after two days

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Here is Sheihk Guevera with the filter gauze held on by the rubber band provided next to the empty bottle and funnel

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Now on Romastinos video he shows you how to tip the bottle up so the liquid can fall through the filter paper and into the empty bottle. Hmm. Tried that. Nothing happening. So I gave the bottle a bit of a squonk and noticed straight away the filter paper darken and a few drops emerged. Thinking I had set off the process and having other things to do rather than stand and hold this I stood it upright

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That wasn't really very stable looking and so I improvised with a toilet roll tube and some boxes i had laying around.

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I left it like that for an hour or more. Sadly no more juice had made it past the condom. Hmm what to do
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Major squonking! Yes this was the only way I could get the liquid, which is a pretty thick mixture after all, to feed down into the bottle. The bottle is not made of the easy squeeze type plastic and its best to be cautious and not too heavy handed with the semi rigid bottle. It felt a bit like milking a cow but after several controlled squonks I had gathered about 25mls.

Now I had thought to stop there and let the rest develop further in the leaves. Having second thoughts i decided to decant the remainder. It will steep further in the bottle too.

 

[Mark]

Here is a pic showing the difference in colour from the base liquid

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Having squeezed as much out of the first 'soak' as I could I then refilled it and as you can see I still have a good deal of base liquid to use up which really adds to the value of these kits in my opinion. I am certainly going to see how much flavour and juice I can get out of these leaves


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This second batch I intend to leave for several days to note the difference though much of the flavour must I guess have ended up in batch 1. Its an interesting journey so far

 

[Mark]

STOP PRESS, eBaron , head man at House of Liquid, is joining us here on the Planet

 

[Mark]

Check out Romastinos latest review, this time of the Guevera, in the Juice Reviews section