I just received a box of Fantasia tobacco courtesy of Fantasia Tobacco.
These tobaccos smell unbelievable. My whole kitchen and living smells like it since I got in mail (without even smoking it). The first flavor I tried was the Pink Lemonade. It has a candy/lemon smell to it. [click to continue…]
This is a bit of an experiment that I ahve been wanting to run for a while. I finally got my hands on some Charcos charcoal and I wanted to see if it could be used for hookah. First, a little background.
This brand of charcoal is designed for grilling but I was curious to see if it could be used for hookah as well. I contacted the company and discovered that they make a version of this charcoal for hookah but they don’t distribute it in the US. I was assured that the recipe was practically the same between the two lines and that the grilling charcoal would work fine for hookah and that it wouldn’t cause any health issues. So, I ordered 10 kilos of charcoal. That is a lot of charcoal, but I figured if it didn’t work for hookah I could still use it in my grill.
The coals themselves are very large. They are about three times the size of a Coconara flat. They are, understandably, about three times heavier as well. This makes sense considering that they are designed for grilling. You are going to want larger pieces of charcoal than you would with hookah. This had me worried about overheating my bowl so I decided to go with my Tangiers Small Funnel because it is so large.
I lit a good number of these coals in the traditional way, with a charcoal chimney. I also lit a Coconara on the pile of red hot charcoal and the Charcos took about three times as long to light. That’s not surprising in the least.
Taking a single Charcos and the one Coconara, I placed both pieces of charcoal on my bowl. I was very careful about balancing the Charcos on the edge of the bowl so as to not overheat my tobacco. Once the bowl fully warmed up I actually got decent clouds and didn’t experience any kind of charcoal flavor. I never got any headaches or other symptoms associated with bad charcoal and carbon monoxide poisoning.
The big problem is their durability. Once they are lit, these coals are very fragile. The first time I ashed the Charcos it broke into three pieces. Two of those three pieces shattered when I tried to move them a little later and became useless piles of charcoal dust. I’m glad that I smoke outside.
2 out of 10. The final conclusion is not a positive one. There was no flavor or toxic fumes coming off these coals, which I will be happy to use when grilling. But the fragility of the charcoal makes them pointless for hookah smoking. If you are really scrapped for money then I could see using these outside but never inside your home. The price would be amazing if these were better for hookah smoking, but they aren’t so don’t bother.
I’ve been severely lacking in any kind of double apple in my life recently and I have been feeling those familiar cravings. To satisfy this I broke my usual trend of only buying hookah tobacco online and decided to visit a local shop. the only shop I could find with some DA was a little place that wasn’t really a hookah shop or smoke shop, but just a kind of convenience store that stocked some tobacco. The only option I had was Al Fakher 2, which is a double apple flavor.
This blend was released to compete with the wildly popular Nakhla Double Apple, which is one of the most commonly smoked tobaccos in the world. It’s also considered the gold standard for double apple, or two apple flavors. [click to continue…]
There are three piece n a hookah that are the hardest to clean. The vase, the hose port and the purge. With a little finesse you can clean them pretty easily and tonight I am going to tell you how I get my vases looking s good as the day I bought them.
We’ve all had a vase that forms a ring of residue around the waterline. It’s a combination of molasses that has dripped down the stem, smoke particles, nicotine and other gross stuff from the smoke. Hookah smoking isn’t healthy. Stop kidding yourself. So what do we do to remove this?
Of course, you can use a vase brush but they usually don’t reach the shoulders of the vases and you can’t quite get the angle right to clean every nook and cranny. There are some vases that are almost impossible to fully clean with just a vase because of their design. Vases with sloping sides are the easiest but anything with a square shape or other angles are a pain. [click to continue…]
Brass and copper are more and more commonly used in hookahs and I’m not complaining. I love the trimetal style and the traditional Syrian hookahs and Turkish hookahs that were made with brass exclusively. There is only one problem that some people find with brass. It tarnishes. Personally, I like the look of a well aged piece of brass but I do love how it shines when properly polished. So, how do we get that shine when we really want it?
Never-Dull
It’s safe for all kinds of metals and they say that it can be used on both brass and copper with optimal results. It’s similar to Brasso but it’s made by another company. This product only comes in the form of wadding, which is a soft fiber impregnated with the polishing compound. With polish wadding you don’t need to worry about what cloth to use but should wear gloves to protect your hands. [click to continue…]
What do you call a hookah with no flavor? Pointless.
It’s not a joke. (Not a good one anyway) It can happen and it can happen to you or someone you love. While blowing clouds and doing smoke tricks is fun, hookah is supposed to be about flavor. If you have carefully set up your hookah only to be greeted by smoke that tastes like nothing but air I have some possible solutions for you. [click to continue…]
Last time in this series we went over the most common reasons you might not be getting smoke from your hookah. Now that you have learned the basics for getting your hookah smoking you may find that the smoke is a little harsh. If you are really screwing something up it may feel like you are breathing hot gravel. Let’s do something about that.
Too Much Heat!
The most common problem I have found with harsh sessions is an over abundance of heat, which means you’re scorching your tobacco. There are a few different factors to consider here. [click to continue…]
“Are you, by chance, new at this?” [click to continue…]
