Molinberry is new to me, so figured I’d better change that. Place holding for now, finalizing percentages shortly.
Big Watermelon {Molinberry) 6% (1-26-20) – Mmmm, this one’s a great Watermelon. Right out of the gate, on the first vape I knew it. At 6% this was very nice and full, middle level sweet, with a very intelligent mix of the red and white parts. Mid-low, mid, and high notes were all present. Very watermelon-ey. It actually leaned quite heavily to natural as opposed to artificial, and just NOT sweet enough as to be a candied WM. This actually might be a close 2nd to MF WM, and that IS saying something. It’s natural leaning pushes out LA’s WM IMO. Can’t stop vaping this one, and it could be a solo at this percentage, or easily tossed into a myriad of mixes including Dragon’s Bloods. 9.9/10, small take off for no rind.
Butter My Biscuit (Molinberry) 6% (1-26-20) – FIRST Molinberry out of the gate, and what the HELL is this one ?? !! Do I have your attention LOL ?? OK, the moment you vape this, you get literally SMACKED by the Butter. Not a smidge, a dab, a bit, literally right between the eyes. Wow, didn’t see that coming from a “non-triangle” formulation. Once you get past the shockingly good butter, the biscuit starts to reveal itself. This is not an INW Biscuit which is more like an American Bisquik, but more like Jungle Flavors biscuit which is more of a European biscuit. It has some sweetness, but lower in the scale, with a convincing bakery finish, which has a subtle note, perhaps a slight almond maybe ?? Now I’m quite sure not many of you, just go out and single flavor test a biscuit, but that’s why you’re reading this LOL. As a SF it is an interesting one, and even with the slight sweetness and probably almond-ish undertone, the overwhelming buttery nature of it, will lead to a LOT of uses for this one. For a buttery biscuit, or a really buttery biscuit, Molinberry nailed this one. Easily 9.5/10.
C’mon Cina’Bun {Molinberry) 6% (2-2-20) – Getting near the bottom of the deck on this group, and henceforth C’mon Cina’Bun will be known as CC. Alright, at one level, testing this at 6% MIGHT have been risky, because you never know with the Cinna. At this percentage, it was actually surprisingly light. It’s closest brother would be CAP’s CDS. Now, they’re not identical, but that’s the ballpark. Nice, somewhat laid back cinnamon, and some bakery thrown in for good measure. I would have preferred a stronger overall vape (duh dummy, up the percentage). I may re-test later, just to see if it goes past it’s upper limit, or gets stronger/fuller. As it is, it’s not terrible, but just fairly laid back. Could easily be a back baser to firm up a base, BUT, if this is being marketed as a “one shot”, your mileage will vary. As it stands, nothing off-putting, def. not overpowered at this %, and the bakery elements sat nicely in with the cinna. Leaving this one at 6.5/10.
Cookie Bite {Molinberry) 6% (1-28-20) – Alright, I’ve had THIS taste in my mouth before LOL. OK, FIRST things first, my review for the Butter My Biscuit, because THAT is in HERE !!! Now before you go running screaming “Recycle”, hear me out. OK, clearly it’s the same as the BMB, BUT, Molinberry was slick enough to reinvent it so to speak. The almond (I think) that I got in the BMB is stronger now, with a slight-somewhat reduction in the butter (but it’s still IN there), and maybe ticked the sweetness up a tick or two, and now you have, … Cookie Bite. I’m pretty damned good at picking up on all order of chocolates, and I’m not getting that here, so as far as a cookie goes, I would have to say NOT a chocolate chip at all, more like a buttery, almondy, bakery cookie type. Now I’m still trying to really make sure it’s almondy, it might even be a lighter pecan, but either way, you get the picture. Is it good, or is it just a recycle of another flavor ? It’s a surprisingly GOOD recycle, how about that. Had I tried THIS one first, I would have then said IT was in the Butter My Biscuit, so you get the drift. Fairly full with hints of being rich, buttery, almondy/pecany undertones, with a nice bakery finish, and that about sums it up. It’s pretty convincing as a unique (to me) cookie, and for that it gets a lot of points. ADV ?? Maybe. Would choco hurt or help ? I think it depends on which one(s). As it stands, MB has a nice lil’ buttery cookie here, and I feel good leaving it at 8.5/10.
Legendary Custard {Molinberry) 6% (1-27-20) – Legendary, ehhh ?? We’ll see about that. It takes some stones to call something Legendary, and not expect people to review it as such. Alrighty, another cus-tard. I hate testing (when publicly posted) custards, because everyone has a different like/dislike. European Custard, American Custard, ehh. For my preference, I like a less eggy, more pudding-like custard. Perhaps that’s a pudding and not a custard, but who’s to say. Alright, what DID Molinberry do with this one. This one didn’t beat me about the face with an egg hammer, so that was a plus for me. It honestly (first impression) reminded me of 70% vanilla pudding, and 30% INW Custard. The INW was fairly egg forward to me, so this one had some in there, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The Vanilla and Pudding-ish elements lead the egg. At 6% it was actually lower, to mid-low on the sweetness, and fairly full. Overall this one WAS to my tastes on “Custard”, with maybe even still a smidge too much egg (I know, I know, there’s EGGS in da custard). I have problems vaping too egg heavy custards, but this one I could work with. Vape, vape, vaping it revealed nothing new, but every once in a while, I got an extra pudding-like boost poking through. The Vanilla element was brighter and non-spicy, which worked towards leaning pudding. Legendary ?? Maybe not. Good damn Custard that didn’t lean too much to the egg ?? Yes. If you favor custards with less egg, and more of a pudding element like I do, you should try this one out. On the exhale, I was getting a wispy note of something, that was not off-putting, and actually worked here, and am struggling to identify it. At first I thought it was a whisper of wintergreen, but that’s misleading. Milkshake element perhaps, but only just barely there. Dammit, I think that throws this one into the category of “complex”. With that, I think we can leave this very firmly at a 9/10.
Nut Banana {Molinberry) 6% (1-28-20) – I can’t confess to mixing up many Nut Nana’s so beyond my experience with TPA’s Banana Nut Bread, I don’t have much to compare this to, even though it’s not a “bread” flavor. Now Banana’s I have a LOT of experience with, so MB better watch out in that regard. Ok, as a mix in total, I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. Not that it’s terrible, I mean the banana was fair, the Nut was fairly low if non-existent, and I did get some twinges of almost an artificial sweetener on the exhale at times, but it wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t really stellar to me. So so banana, with not much nut, just kind of bleh. Now, everyone’s different so you are encouraged to form your own opinions, but for me, this was one that I could probably skip. With that said, for a so-so flavor, 6.5/10 feels about right. Next …
Red Cherry {Molinberry) 6% (1-26-20) – Cherries, plain SCARE me, as I’ve had either way too strong, or way too medicinal for my tastes, so I’m always reluctant to test them. Having never used this, researched quite a bit to try and settle on a 6% testing weight for it. At 6%, it was actually a very good cherry. Medium sweetness, red cherry, with just enough sweet and tart to convince you it’s a cherry. Now, I DID get some off notes on the finish at this percentage, after 2 weeks steeping, so I think I will RE-test it lower at 3.5-4.0% before giving a final rating. I do remember teetering back and forth between going with 4-6, but 6 might be pushing it too far. Even with the off note on the finish, the nice red cherry can be had throughout which leaves a lot of hope for this one. I could see it pairing very well with INW Cherries, ratio to be determined. For a good red cherry mixer/baser this one will work, but I would advise going below 6%. Stay tuned for the lower tester update.
*** RE-TEST *** Red Cherry (Molinberry) 3% (2-2-20) – OK, I don’t do many re-tests, but I sure love cherries, and I need to add more of them to my go to stash. First things first, SUCCESS !!! By cutting this one in half to 3% ALL offending/off notes have LEFT the building. Let’s re-evaluate this one. This one sits right in the middle of the cherry darkness scale, not super bright, or dark, but in the middle, and it DOES impart a nice red cherry. Even cut in half, this one still has a perfect amount of sweetness, and was actually pretty full at this reduced rate. Had some tart undertones to help move it along, and finished exactly like it started. Super pleased to see reducing this removed the off-note finish I had been getting at 6%. While chain vaping this one, I did keep thinking that pairing this with INW Cherries would be a perfect one two punch. Throw in some CAP Silverline’s Rainbow Candy to kick it up a notch (thank you @AlfredPudding), with maybe a pinch of sour if needed, and there you go. I wish I always had time to re-test when flavors went off the rails, but I don’t. This one worked out GREAT, and now we can finally lay this to rest @ 3%. Too good to not go high on this one. 9/10.
Shape Up Pear {Molinberry) 6% (1-29-20) – Getting near the end of the first batch, and a Pear’s on deck. Smelled great in the bottle, and vaped great too. This one was an easy one to vape, and it portrayed a good pear @ 6%. Mid level sweetness, somewhat artificial, but not in an offputting way. Having just finished my Medicine Flower tests, this one wasn’t able to super accurately taste like you were eating a pear, like MF, but it was still plenty good. Covered the spectrum of the pear notes nicely, and it was hard to find fault with it. In direct comparison to MF’s this one seemed less natural, slightly less accurate, but a good Pear none the less. 8/10.
Series II Mixing Now …
Classic Belgian Waffle (Molinberry) 4.5%
Classic Sponge Cake (Molinberry) 4% (2-14-21) – This presented as a lighter flavor than many of the other MB’s so I had to invest in a second tankful to make sure to get a read on it. Def. got a lighter cake from it, with above level sweetness, and no icing, which was perfect. @ 4% it was a relaxed flavor, so pairing with it would require some restraint as to not overwhelm it. As it stood, a very nice, lighter cake with just enough sweet and bakery to sell it. Try as I did, I couldn’t really nail down any direction for the cake, i.e. Vanilla, etc., as it was fairly neutral. I did slightly get some of MB’s tried and true BMB bakery in here, at a very low level, but I could detect it. Somewhat in the same ballpark as Flavor West’s Yellow Cake, and Jungle Flavor’s, but more delicate, and more neutral. There were some light buttery elements in there, but I wouldn’t call it rich. Surprisingly, even after 2 tankers, I wasn’t fatigued, so that’s always a good sign. A fairly neutral, sweetened cake, that was somewhat relaxed, with no icing, this one did what is was supposed to. 8.75/10.
Lemon Tart (Molinberry) 3% (2-15-21) – It appears as if Lemon Tarts are becoming the rage now, and I wanted to make sure to test this one as well. Smelled really good and accurate in the tank, and vaping it, it seemed to loose some focus, and almost went 2 dimensional. Not bad by any means, and the two main elements were present, Lemon and Bakery, and they were mated well. Continued vaping revealed to my tastes, this one would be a solid “baser” and could be pushed/pulled as needed. It’s hard to explain the 2 dimensional aspects here, but it was like some of the high end (lemon punch), and low end (bakery/crust) had been culled, and the middle section was left. Again, not terrible, but for my tastes, would need to be boosted. Sweetness was about mid level, and nothing off-putting could be found, and the lemon while somewhat laid back appeared to be half natural, half artificial. Perhaps re-testing at a higher rate, might firm it up, and if so, I will update this review. Generally a good one, but just lackluster. 7.0/10.
Milkshake (Molinberry) 5% (2-13-21) – This one was a WOW right out of the gate. A clean milkshake with hints of Vanilla, and a delicious creamy mouthfeel that rode all the way through the vape. No off-putting notes in this one, and the texture and mouthfeel were very present and worked almost flavwlessly here. No sour notes, no BA, and the cream notes danced between a milk and then a cream. Quite an interesting vape. Completely convincing to its namesake, and might just be the best Milkshake I’ve tried. Slight, almost malted notes at the very end of the vape, but the entire vape up to that point was clean, sweet, and creamy. Worked through two tanks figuring something would rear it’s ugly head, but nothing did. If you want a great lightly vanilla-d milkshake with plenty of cream and milk, with good mouthfeel, this one WILL do it for you. The texture, and mouthfeel def. help sell it, and they sell it good. Will review my other notes, as there’s a lot of them, but this may just be the best MS yet. 10/10.
Soft Baked Cookie (Molinberry) 4% (2-13-21) – Squeaking in a few of these as I have time. This one turned out to be exactly what they said it was, a smooth cookie base, nothing more, nothing less. Many cookies are nudged one direction or another, which can limit their uses, but this one was absolutely neutral, and no choco, almond, or any other clear elements added, which left it dead, spot on, in the base camp. It wasn’t a terrible SFT, nor a terribly exciting one, hehe, but such is the nature of testing. At times it leaned almost towards a Toll House (but without any choco chips), and others it leaned slightly darker. @ 4%, it was actually somewhat lighter than expected, with mid level sweetness. It had some similarities to MB’s “Butter My Biscuit”, but with a much more relaxed bakery, and reduced butter. If you have the BMB, and like it, think of this one as a reducted version of that. With it’s clean neutralness, a baser is exactly where and how you would use this one, tempering it to whichever direction you needed to go. All in, pretty convincing, and although SFT’ing isn’t always exciting with “one-shot”-ish flavors, it’s the pieces and parts that make the recipe. Placing this at a nice 8.75/10.
Strawberry Milk (Molinberry) 4.5% (2-7-21) – Firing up for some more Molinberry’s with this Strawberry Milk. Out of the gate, I would say this is a one-shot, meaning it’s good to go as is, and no need to tweak it at all.
Yeah, it’s that simple, and that good. Now you could push the dairy if you wanted, or sharpen up the SB as well, but if you didn’t, you wouldn’t mind a bit. The SB was more artificial than real, but it suited this mix, with a nice smooth dairy, which really gave the impression of milk. Nothing malted, or forceful in it, but just a nice, clean dairy note, that was paired perfectly with the SB. This one was soo good that I had almost finished off the second tank before I remembered to review it, and that’s always a good sign. 4.5% felt really good, nothing off-putting, with a bump above mid-level sweetness. For a seemingly simple 2 element flavor, it was a very nice vape, and kept me interested. Easily a 9.8/10.
