Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.17 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Flavor Monks Mango @ 4%, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 17 days.
Flavor Description: Ripe, fairly realistic mango. Flavor is a bit top heavy and dry. Really nice perfumey ripe mango notes without enough juicyness or flesh underneath.
Nothing much on the inhale, light sweetness. Flavor is mostly on the exhale. Relatively thin, and not quite sweet enough. Good balance of fruit and peel. Fruit tastes ripe-ish and the peel notes aren't overbearing or artificial. Mouthfeel has a bit of lingering stickiness. Some interesting buttery notes as the wick dries out.
Off-flavors: Top notes can get just a bit bitter with extended use.
Throat Hit: 0/10. A bit perfumey but not especially bright or harsh.
Uses: So frustratingly close to a single flavor mango. I'd use this with FLV Mango to make a fuller, sweeter, juicy mango. Good candidate for mixing with juicier fruits.
Pairings: Deeper juicy mango like CAP or FLV. Tropical fruits. Creams. May be a good mango for rich bakeries. Dark chocolate. Distinct perfume notes, so I'd avoid any other perfumey fruits.
Notes: At 2%, I'm getting even less of the ripe mango flavor, and just a muted perfume. 4% seems like a good starting point for mixing with other flavors, but it doesn't seem quite saturated. I'd feel comfortable taking that up farther to about 8% as a main note. This came to me as a premixed sample at 4%, so that's just an educated guess. Flavormonks recommends 10%, and that might be closer to the mark. The actual mango here seems pretty linear, and the perfume bitterness isn't scaling up as fast.
As a 'murican, this definitely isn't something I'd order specifically from europe. If you already have business on chef's flavours and are interested, it's probably worth checking out, although mixing at 10% would get expensive pretty fast.
Shoutout to /u/apexified for the sample.
Second Opinions:
Pretty damn sparse.
This review calls it bland, but then dumps a bunch of sweetener in and takes it up to 20%
One review on their belgian site, calling it realistic without off-flavors
Flavormonks is from my area! I've been using them for quite a while, switched over to TPA/FLAVORAH/CAPELLA now though. Would you be interested in some flavour reviews?
I'm not the guy in charge of the flavor reviews, but I'd say go for it. The sub has a pretty heavy bias toward flavors available in the US and I'd be great to see some diversity. Have you tried their gin? I saw it while I was doing my research and I'm definitely intrigued.
Their Gin & Mix series is wonderful, very true to their drinkable counterparts and can be considered as concentrates (single flavor mixes), so I suspect their "pure gin" is nice as well and could be great as a gin component in your own mix.
From the Divine series I adore "Monks in Love" which I'm using as a concentrate/single flavor mix, it's a take on "parfait d'amour", with orange and violet notes.
Wish I could answer you, but I detest booze liquids. So I stay away from whiskey/bourbon/gin etc. I can tell you however that their vanilla custard (G's custard) is amazing and better than Capella v1 imo. Monks in love is amazing as well, as griene_tsiis said. I stopped using flavormonks for the price. It costs €6,50 for 10ml (around 7$) and with a ratio of 1:10 it gets expensive very fast.
Got any experience with their Grenadine? I'm looking for a good one.
I tried FM when I heard about them, being Belgian and all I had to give them a try but I was really disappointed. Lots of harsh flavors, some of them tasting really bad on top of that... Speculoos is nice but doesn't taste like a Speculoos at all. Cuberdon is spot on but a little dry and I can only taste it for a few puffs and then it fades away.
Their flavors with citrus (Monks in Love, Gin in Paris) won't stay mixed at all, there's always oils that separate. Same for the Pistachio and another one, Amaretto or Marzipan, I can't remember. And those 3 all tasted terrible.
The banana and the custards are nice. The Speculoos as well, it's not authentic but it's useful in mixes. I didn't really care for /u/NotCharlesManson's Strawberry Shortcake Bar but loved it after I added a little FM Speculoos.
So it seems like it is good
> So frustratingly close to a single flavor mango
But not amazing?
> As a 'murican, this definitely isn't something I'd order specifically from europe
Am I understanding that right? Either way, thanks for the great notes on a mango that isn't from The Big 5 - especially since testing a mango can be a gamble (a overly ripe, sickly sweet gamble sometimes).
Fair assessment. Good but not great, I'm not going to pay international shipping for it solo, especially If I'm supposed to mixing at 10% to get a strong flavor.
Thanks for reviewing this one. I'm always happy to not have to buy yet another mango.
Yeah, I mean I wouldn't kick it out of bed but I'm not making breakfast for it either.
One day someone will make a decent spot-on mango. The heavens will open and there will be peace on earth for 1000 years. Until then, I really am enjoying your mango blend.