The Big Manabush Review - Part 1

In part one of this review, I’ll be taking a look at Waxahachie, Powow Sauce, Nanabozho and Ixcacao...

by Toby Kilroy
Feb 19, 2015

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A firm favourite of vapers worldwide, Manabush continues to go from strength to strength, so I decided it was time to bite the bullet and review the complete Manabush range!

There are currently 8 flavours available so I have decided to break this review into two parts and review four at a time. Manabush have kindly sent me through the complete range for review and we will be putting a competition up to win the entire range for yourself once the second part is complete.

About Manabush

Manabush as an e-liquid range was started by Martyn (ZT) in 2013 when he began sending out samples to forum members on Planet of the Vapes. Bolstered by the excellent feedback, he soon found himself catering to a much larger and rapidly expanding audience and not long after, set himself up an official website. The quick rise to fame must have been a busy time but a quick 2 years later and there aren’t many worldwide that haven’t heard of these unique and moreish e-liquids.

Manabush gives the following advice to get the most from your Manabush liquids:

“We have found the Manabush range tastes best with a silica or cotton wick at not too high a temperature - to us the sweet spot seems to be just on the cusp of being warm. We find it best to use a rebuildable silica Atomiser such as a Kayfun or GP Spheroid or similar (we have recently been having great results with the Naturevapes mini and midi tanks and outstanding results with the GP Heron) again these are just recommendations - the juice flavour changes quite dramatically at different temperatures so feel free to experiment. We have found an Ohms of 1.4 - 1.6 on A Mech mod to be ideal.”

Following their sage advice, I cleaned out the Kayfun, coiled (to 1.4 ohms), added the wick (Muji cotton) and prepared to enter the dark and steamy world of Manabush.

The Range

Based around a deep tobacco flavour, each liquid has a very particular style which is well summed up with their excellent native american branding. At the current rate of growth, we’re getting a new flavour every quarter!

All flavours come in a 50% PG:50% VG ratio and produce an amazing amount of vapour!

The branding gives a great level of uniqueness to each and every flavour and the native american names (although sometimes hard to pronounce) add a great level of fun and style to each bottle as well as (in most cases) carrying a meaning that is related to the particular flavour.

In part one of this review, I’ll be taking a look at Waxahachie, Powow Sauce, Nanabozho and Ixcacao... Did I say that right?

Waxahachie

Waxahache is a city in Texas, just south of the southern suburbs of Dallas, which is affectionately referred to as “The Gingerbread City” after the city's annual Gingerbread Trail Festival which features tours of many of the Gingerbread homes.

Can you guess what flavour this one is? If you like ginger/gingerbread, this liquid will have you smiling all day long. Upon opening the bottle you’re greeted by the amazing smell of ginger cake. Not one of these mass produced things but a full-on sticky, rich cake that will set your taste buds tingling in anticipation. Just smelling the bottle left me in no doubt that this had to go in the first review as there was no way the bottle would keep until I started the second!

If the smell is that good, the flavour is even better! I took this with me in my Kayfun as I walked down to the local shop (a good mile each way down ‘ere by Land’s End!) and this little beauty kept me warm and happy even with the icy cold wind biting at my skin. This is a real winter warmer! The taste is like biting into a ginger cake carefully constructed from a recipe perfected by generations of old ladies with a penchant for baking. If this doesn’t satisfy your hidden cake monster (we all have one) then nothing will!

Obviously, all this tasty cake goodness means nothing if you don’t like ginger, but if you do, or if you aren’t sure, you’re bound to love it’s luscious and inviting aroma and taste.

Powwow Sauce

“A pow-wow (also powwow, pow wow, pauwau or pau wau) is a gathering of some of North America's Native people. The word derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning ‘spiritual leader’.”

Spiritual leader and gathering? That sounds about right! This liquid has proven to be one of the most popular liquids from the Manabush range and certainly brings people together in their appreciation for this splendid juice.

The smell of Powwow Sauce has kind of a custardy, creamy, tobaccoey, sweet smell. As you can probably tell, not an easy one to explain but definitely one to admire. As a dessert lover this penetrates to my very soul, begging to be vaped.

The taste is also difficult to explain but equally scrumptious as a light but enjoyable sweet tobacco inhale turns to a deep and lingering dessert based exhale. It’s not custard per se but it’s like custard with depth. Whether this is from the sweet, subtle tobacco or from another secret ingredient is hard to say but Powwow will certainly keep you guessing and coming back for more, as this pleasant, enjoyable liquid quickly disappears in large clouds of satisfaction.

Nanabozho

Nanabozho is the Ojibwe trickster figure and culture hero. Nanabozho is apparently the impersonation of life, the active quickening power of life - of life manifested and embodied in the myriad forms of sentient and physical nature.

Not too sure of the link here but as the flavouring here is banana, I expect the Nana(bozho) signifies that :)

The smell of this one is of ripe banana with a hint of cake and custard. The smell is perhaps slightly heavier than the previous two but not unpleasantly so. There is almost an edge of banana milkshake that promises good things to come!

The taste of Nanabozho is definitely banana! A sweet almost Powwow flavour on the inhale gives way to a smooth, ripe banana sweetness on the exhale. The tobacco in this one I found to be very subtle, only picking it up after a few minutes of vaping. The thing this juice reminded me of most is banana bread. There is a slight maltiness to this liquid that serves to underline this observation for me and the liquid itself has almost a stickiness on the palate that suits the banana bread analogy perfectly.

If you like banana, and more specifically banana bread. Get it! Get it now!

Ixcacao

I have saved my favourite for last here as this liquid really rocks my boat!

Ixcacao is the Mayan Goddess of Chocolate/Cocoa. She was an ancient fertility goddess, an earth goddess in a matriarchal society where gathering crops and seeing to it that everyone was fed was woman's work. - Really!? A goddess of chocolate? I need to go to Mexico ASAP!!

The smell of Ixcacao is chocolate, chocolate and chocolate with a hint of nutty chocolate, very, very nice... As soon as you open the bottle and the luscious smell hits you, you know that you’re in for a treat. I’m still not quite sure how Manabush have managed to squeeze that much chocolate smell into a bottle, it’s just amazing!

Now, the taste… give me a minute I need to make sure I get this just right….

one more minute…

[5 minutes pass]

This stuff is heavenly!

[5 minutes pass]

Right, this liquid is in danger of becoming a seriously moreish all-day-vape for me. I think I may need to drop nic level so I can vape more of it before the nicotine brain ache kicks in!

A smooth dark and milk chocolate flavour is enhanced by the deep natural nuttiness of the Manabush base until it becomes a devilish explosion of chocolate and nut goodness. There are elements of Ferrero Rocher and Nutella in here that set taste buds alight and promise to be a chocoholics wet dream.

Perhaps if a Snickers (Marathon if you’re old like me), a KitKat and a Malteaser had a steamy “Ménage à trois” on a dark and stormy night, rolling around on the beaches of the Riviera Maya, this would be the offspring from that illicit union.

If you like chocolate, with a hint of nutty tobacco this will blow your mind and the rest of you will surely follow.

Final Thoughts

Now I believe the hype! What Manabush have created here well deserves the adoration of it’s growing number of followers. These four flavours can all see their way to being an all-day-vape and for many, they already are.

The stars here have to be Powwow Sauce and of course the amazing Ixcacao. These two flavours really caught my attention and are now permanent fixtures in my vaping line-up. In fact I’m off to buy 30mls of each so they arrive before I finish these bottles!

The Manabush range is available from a number of retailers and direct from the Manabush website. Available in 10ml, 30ml, 50ml and 100ml, make sure you get enough to keep you going! Prices start at £4.99 which is an excellent price from such premium liquids, whilst the complete set (which includes an awesome little dreamcatcher as well as 8x 10ml bottles) will set you back only £30.99.

Don’t forget to keep a look out for part 2 of the Manabush review, where I’ll be reviewing Mojave Dessert, Chiricahua Sun, Coyote Coconut and Nokomis. Coming soon to a monitor near you! :)

Update: Click here for the second part of the review.

Toby Kilroy

Reviewer at POTV

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Toby has been vaping since early 2012 and has used an array of devices and kit in that time. He sometimes writes up reviews but is often found with his head stuck in pages of code with a confused smile on his face. Toby also helps run his wife's site gethistory.co.uk and has two children. He sometimes fondly remembers having free time and occasionally manages to sneak away to put his head into a good book!