Premium Tobacco In the U.K ??

[Dawgster]

Hey all,

As a newbie to the site i first have to say that it's great to see a
good collection of people who appreciate and take pride in having a
great smoke session with a shisha.

I've finally got round to getting my own pipe ( Egyptian 4 pipe ) and
am already planning some quality sessions mellowing out with some
friends and a smoke.

Anyway onto the heart of the matter. I've found it a BIG problem trying
to find quality tobacco in the U.K. As i have been constantly reading
the quality post's from many of you i've come to realise that the
Golden/Al Fakher - Al Qemah range seems to be a quality and very
popular range. However trying to find some in the U.K has been a time
consuming and fruitless search.

The only place i've managed to find any of this is via Shisha Pipe UK :

" [url="http://www.shisha.co.uk/shopcart/home.php?cat=290&sort=o"]http://www.shisha.co.uk/shopcart/home.php?...?cat=290&sort=o[/url] rderby&sort_direction=0&page=1 "

But can you believe that they are charging £30, roughly $53 for a 250g
pack of standard Al Fakher. Daylight Robbery!! I've yet to travel upto
the London Shisha hotspot ( EdgeWare Road ), but if any of you (
Especially U.K Bod's ) know of any suppliers ( Online or Not ), please
help out.

Peace .... Dawg

[yashman19]

Try sending a PM to King Mo if you don't get much of a response in
here. He's the only other UKer that I can think of on these boards.

Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. Good luck though

[cypress]

I believe he gets most of his stuff from hookah-shisha.com

[brother812]

yea from reading alot of the old topics i remember King Mo saying he got allmost all his tobacco from stores in the states. if you get a few friends who smoke and all place an order at the same time to spread the shipping costs around.

[Laher]

Im from UK myself! And i pmd king mo on the matter. He gave me links to southsmoke.com and and hookahcompany.com.

I ordered:

#1 [#Fa26] Strawberry Al Fakher Shisha[Select Size:=50
Grams : $2.95]1 x $2.95 = $2.95#2 [#Fa10] Double Apple Al Fakher
Shisha[Select Size:=50 Grams : $2.95]1 x $2.95 = $2.95#3
[#Wa34] Peach Al Waha Shisha[Select Size:=50 Grams : $1.99]1 x $1.99 =
$1.99#4 [#Qe02] Grape Al Qemah Shisha[Select Size:=250
Grams : $14.95]1 x $14.95 = $14.95

And as i spent more than $40 (when including the shipping). They gave
me a free tub of al-waha lemon, which i was quite chuffed about.

Shipped cost $30 (USPS international), making the grand total $52.84

For $52.84 its not that bad in my opinion (as opposed to £30 for a 250g of al fakher!!).
For $52.84 i got 650 grams....

Now just waiting it to arrive, i will post back details on how shipping went. (Ordered on 3rd of august)

[Laher]

Ordered from hookahcompany.com by the way, and the free tub of al-waha was 250 grams if anyone was wordering

[HookahCulture]

Here in the states, Al Waha tubs are $5.00 (about 3 pounds) at my local store.
Al Qema is quite delicious, I think you'll like that.
I didn't know Al Waha was available in 50g packs though! $1.99 is
usually the price for Nakhla 50g packs, double that for Al Fakher
Golden Seal WHEN the store has them.

On a side note, most ma'asell is good for 2 years after date of manufacture.
Someone was asking that on another thread.

Also, yeah Edgeware and Queensway has the shops!
I hung out with King Mo in London a few weeks ago for a day.
You want to find the indoor discount malls where there are lots of little stands.
Their overhead is much lower unlike the actual stores, so I'm sure they
have some lower priced product. Hookah prices are reasonable as well
but INSPECT CAREFULLY as they're not always perfect.

[HookahCulture]

Premium brands to look for are Al Fakher and Al Qema. Al Amir is OK too.
There were other brands I saw as well that I didn't know about, and I also saw Havana, a NON-PREMIUM brand, so avoid that.

However if you find a 50g pack of Havana Eskandrani I'd appreciate a review!
Especially if you can compare it to the AFGS type.
That goes for anyone, thanks!

[Dawgster]

Hi guy's. Thanks for the replies and advice.

Laher. I'd definately like to know when you receive you're package.  Be interesting to know how long they take to deliver.

Peace ... Dawg

[Laher]

Hey recieved the package this morning. Took 9 days to be precise !
I was quite saddened that george at hookah company forgot to post me the free al-waha lemon 250g box. I have emailed him on this matter, as it clearly said i would be recieving some when i checked out (i have to choose one tub between two flavours).
But apart from that blunder, the package arrived safe and sound and there was no interference by customs (which happens alot to me lol)

[Dawgster]

Hi Laher.

Well. Being the impatient person that i am, i decided to go up to
Edgeware Road on Thursday to have a look and see if i could pick myself
up some Al Fakher. Surprising it was a little hard to find a place that
actually sold the tobacco. Premium anyway.

I eventually found one place which had Al Fakher ( in various flavours
), so i decided to pick up a box of 250g Cherry. This worked out at £10.

Finally tried it out yesterday and wasn't overly impressed. Anyway this
morning my package from the U.S arrived with a few lovely goodies in it.

1 x 250g Al Fakher Strawberry
1 x 250g Al Fakher Apple
1 x 250g Al Fakher Mixed Fruit
1 x 250g Golden Al Fakher Black Grape ( This one i'm looking forward to ).

Managed to get this off of an Ebay Al Fakher shop. The whole lot for
about £29/£30 ( including the P&P ). Pretty good deal i think.

The odd thing is that if i compare the packaging on the Al Fakher stuff
that arrived this morning to the one i bought from Edgeware Road, they
are different?

Firstly, on the Edgeware Road pack  the outer cardboard box is
different, and secondly the inner plastic container is also different
as well? One thing that did stand out was on the plastic container it
said " El Fakher ", not " Al Fakher ".

Do any of you think this is a dodgy fake or some company trying to pass their baccy off as Al Fakher?

Aside from this i'm looking forward to trying out the geninue stuff
today. Will let you know my ( hopefully good ) next impressions on Al
Fakher.

Peace ... Dawg

[Laher]

Well by the looks things you got a much better deal than i did. I emailed george and he said that the al-waha tub was only given on a subtotal of more than $40. (My subtotal was around the 20 mark, but 30 dollars shipping)
That ebay shop looks promising, how much was shipping?? And how long did it take?
And the maasell you bought from edgeware road, may too well be fake, if it is i would advise you to go for a refund .
Awaiting your replies on the shipping, as im very interested, whenever ill order some more lol

[Dawgster]

Hi Laher.

Well firstly the P&P cost me around £15. He sent the package on
Wednesday and it arrived yesterday morning. Not bad for 3 days eh.

Will post a link to the store shortly.

[wyteboy]

hey dawgster, AF Cherry is one of my favorite flavors, I find it a very sweet, almost sugary smoke - I know Cypress and I agree it tastes kind of like grenadine cherry syrup sort of...did yours taste like this or much different? Maybe you got a bad batch or maybe it's just not your cup of tea
I have looked many times for AF on Ebay as I am an avid Ebay user and I have never been able to find it...can you PM me the name of the ebay store or the link to the store, either way, would be much appreciated, thanks!

[wyteboy]

also dawgster I found in the very beginning when I first tried to perfect bowls at home, I got impressions of flavors that once I finally learned how to pack and get a GREAT  bowl going, my impressions really changed of the first few flavors I tried as I was learning so I recommend once you feel comfortable with your routine and you are consistenetly getting great hookah sessions to go back and resmoke the AF Cherry and any other flavor you try the first few times....just a thought cause I know that worked well for me.  good luck!

[King Mo]

i'd be careful of the cheap fakher going around edgware road. I should know as I live practically there. Some places selling cheap fakher but dodgy looking ,the expensive places have the legit stuff, but at such a ridiculous price that I don't want to even give the names of their rip-off shop.
 
Also, if you wanted your free tub of al waha, I made a big order and got a free al waha lemon.
 
trust me, it's a blessing you haven't received such a tub. Al waha lemon is absolute torture.
 

[Guest LondonShisha]

I bought one of those 'fake' al-fakher tubs - absolutely tasteless and not worth the money at all. You can obviously tell the difference with the internal packaging as most Al-Fakher (250g) comes in a foil wrapped vacuum packed bag, whereas the fake stuff comes in a clear bag (non vacuum packed).I ordered my stuff from the states as well - are there any local guys who also sell genuine Al-Fakher?

[Donkeema]

so where excatly are those ' inshops ' near edgware road. ill have to go fishing for some of them !!

[Umair777]

Hey there guys...
I have recently been introduced to this forum and i must say its proper rocking stuff here....I am from UK as well and I have exactly the same problems as some of the issues bein disscussed here.
I was wondering if anyone know whats likely to happen if customs get hold of the parcel of mollases from US? Whats the Duty? and how likely is it to get caught...?
So therefore which website would one suggest if anyone in UK has ordered stufff from US ...
 
hope to hear a reply soon.
thanks
 

[Monil]

[quote name='LondonShisha']I bought one of those 'fake' al-fakher tubs - absolutely tasteless and not worth the money at all. You can obviously tell the difference with the internal packaging as most Al-Fakher (250g) comes in a foil wrapped vacuum packed bag, whereas the fake stuff comes in a clear bag (non vacuum packed).I ordered my stuff from the states as well - are there any local guys who also sell genuine Al-Fakher?[/quote]f**k, this means I have about 4-5 tubs of FAKE af in my cupboard...ffs.

[Monil]

Sorry to be dig up an old post but can anyone tell me about a REAL 250g box of AF?I have a green box which says Al Fakher on it, with a tub type thing inside it. It says El Fakher on it and the tobacco is in a CLEAR bag within this tub. Is my stuff fake?

[THEDONSP]

Sorry to be dig up an old post but can anyone tell me about a REAL 250g box of AF?I have a green box which says Al Fakher on it, with a tub type thing inside it. It says El Fakher on it and the tobacco is in a CLEAR bag within this tub. Is my stuff fake?

Hi, im new to this forum so i havent had time to look around to see if any1 has covered this topic yet.
sorry to say ur stuff is fake.
if theres a typeo on the tubs its the 3rd sign that shows its a fake.
the first and second are obvious, 1st the Al Fakher logo must be present on the box and on the tub. 2nd the genuine Al Fakher seal.
On the 250g tub boxes theres a plastic wrapping with a seal, firstly if u dont see this put it back 'its fake and will taste shit'. theres also a seal on each tub sealing the lid.
each tub is also airtight foil sealed.
ontop of that each bag of tobacco is sealed in the new airtight vaccumed Al fakher strong resealable bags.
Now noone making fakes will go that far to sell products on the cheap.
And of course the best way to tell a fake from the original is by looking at the tobacco its self. As soon as u break the seal and open the bag u will notice the strong smell, by simply looking and feeling the tobacco, u know this is the real stuff. the final test is the smoke. when u smoke Al fakher, you just know its money well spent.

I havent really seen any good value for money Al Fakher in the UK, so i pay a reasonable amount for it.
ive just ordered from 2 different places to test them out.
ive order 1Kg each of Mint, White grape, and Strawberry. the first place posted the item and i received it the next day. ive just got the mint and ill be dieing till tuesday for this bank holiday weekend to be over for the post when ill receive the grape and strawberry. i tell u know the mint is original.
I ordered online from
http://www.theshishashop.com/shop/tobacco-...da4288c20e4c4cb

there price is £40 for 1Kg. i now thats alot but i couldnt wait


secondly

http://www.theshishahouse.co.uk/

these guys do 1KG for £32, u see these guys at the london park mela's


Both places charge postage at standard Royal mail 1st class : £5 per kg. (not sure how much for overseas)


if u want to know if the white grape and strawberry are genuine from the shisha house, just ask, ill find out in 4 days.



After all of this can any1 let me know where they can get cheaper genuine Al fakher less then £32 per Kg in the uk.
I dont like buying the smaller tubs cus its always cheaper to buy the big tubs.

P.S. my first experience of shisha was at edgwer road London, when i went to by some myself i noticed the side shops there only sale fake Al fakher unless theres a store that i missed.


Forgot to add the golden Al fakher crest symbol is present all over the place in the originals. Edited August 25, 2007 by THEDONSP

[Muhammad]

I'm from UK and still awaiting my delivery from alfakheronline.com I will keep you posted on when it arrives hopefully without any problems.