alen’s samples review thread!

[ioannisds]

I think it would be great if we could use this thread to review the
samples alen sent out to a few of us.  I will be a bit slow to
post my reviews, just because I don't smoke everyday, although I did
try one of them out last night.

The first ma'assell of alen's I tried was the Serbetti Cappuccino,
simply because alen said he liked it quite a bit and I thought it would
be good to start of with something (hopefully) good.  Well, let me
say that it was in fact great!  The tobacco is cut super-fine, and
is a very dark color, almost black.  It is super gooey, with the
consistency of, I don't know, hummus?  You can't exactly
"sprinkle" it into the bowl like is always recommended.  What I
did was just take some lumps and worked them into the bowl until it was
evenly covered.  Then I poked through the ma'assell to the holes
in the bowl to get a good flow of air.  The ma'assell smells good,
very sweet, almost TOO sweet I would say.  Like coffee
candy.  This worried me a bit, as I thought the smoke would be
very sweet as well.  I like sweet (honey is my favorite flavor so
far), but sometimes it gets taken a bit too far.

At this point I lit up, and got the bowl going pretty quickly compared
to the other brands I have smoked, and I am assuming this is because of
the consistency of the ma'assell.  The smoke was very, very
thick.  As sweet of a smell as the ma'assell had before smoking,
it was not overly sweet at all when lit.  The Serbetti has a very
strong tobacco flavor, similar to Cavendish for those of you who have
smoked pipe tobacco.  There is a hint of coffee mixed in, but not
at all what I expected considering the aroma that came off the stuff at
first.  As the smoke went on, it seemed to just get thicker and
more flavorful.  The bowl actually lasted an hour, and I probably
could have gone another 15 minutes or so if I threw another coal
on.  Let me say that this ma'assell is nothing at all like the
normal AF/Nakhla/Romman fare that is out there, especially considering
the strong tobacco flavor with a hint of coffee (where most others are
a strong [insert flavor choice here] with a hint of tobacco.  In
the end, I can say that I loved it, and would smoke it again in a
heartbeat, mostly because of how DIFFERENT it is from the everyday
stuff.  So, before this becomse a thesis, I will summarize using a
five point system (because ten point systems are dumb ):

Smell: 3 (just 'cause of the super-sweet thing)

Smoke thickness: 4.5

Taste: 4

Length of smoke: 5

Overall, a winner in my book.  Thanks alen!

[cypress]

I am assuming that the ratining is 5/5. At first when I looked at it
w/o reading it thought the ratings were low. I am smoking the bananna
now and will be writing a review shortly.

[alen]

glad you liked it

[afrdzak]

dammit, I wanna try!!!! 
I actually got a hold of contact info of the company, but they never got back to me after the 2nd email! 
I asked my local supplier to try to get a hold of them, so hopefully he'll have better luck.

[alen]

turkish avayollarim siliamdamdam-im not so good at turkish but i really think that it would help-im gonna ask my boss nephew if he could help making somekind of contact he is turkish

[uselessdreamer1]

if he does i may get some alen! it smells outrageous

[ioannisds]

[quote name='cypress']I am assuming that the ratining is 5/5. At first when I looked at it
w/o reading it thought the ratings were low. I am smoking the bananna
now and will be writing a review shortly.[/quote]

Yeah, it's 5/5.  I too am hoping someone can find this in the States somewhere, as I would buy it again.

[alen]

the day you put your first coal on your hookah-just kidding-but dont you have a real big collection by now?-btw i think hookahcompany will have this brand in the future if i know them right

[ioannisds]

Last night a buddy and I tried out the Serbetti mint flavor I got from
alen.  Actually, I had a bit of the cappuccino left, so I mixed
some of the mint in with that, as it sounded like it might be pretty
good. 

While the Serbetti cappuccino was a great smoke, the mix/mint was not
that good at all.  The mint smelled ok, but even mixed in with the
coffee flavor, the mint was totally overpowering and tasted like
menthol (kinda like smoking Vick's Vapo-rub). I cannot for
the life of me imagine smoking this stuff straight.  On the plus
side, the coolness  of the smoke was actually very refreshing, but
that's about it.  Smoke was not nearly as thick as the cappuccino
either, and you really can't taste much of the tobacco at all (unlike
the cappuccino, where it was predominant).  It did not last very
long either.  I will try and mix it with other flavors, and if I
come up with anything good, I will let ya all know.  I don't think
you need to send me any more of this alen (thanks again though for your
generosity).


Smell: 2

Thickness: 2

Taste: 2

Length of smoke: 2

If anyone want's what I have left before I start experimenting, PM me
and I'll pop it in the mail.  You never know, you might like it.