tjt486 Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 Well Ive had a chance to try several of Tangiers flavors. I want to start out by saying I was impressed from the start. He went out of his way sending me samples but then went the extra mile writing some tips for me to get best results and even sent me one of his "small" bowls.As you all have probably read the other reviews, this stuff is different from what you are used to. The cut is much chunkier. Its not very wet, and its very dark. From a distance it almost looks like raisins. It took some time to tweak it, and to be fair Im still learning. I wanted to post some of my notes before long, though, and Ill come back here later when I feel like Ive got a better feel for the tobacco and try to give a finalized review.My first bowl was pretty much what was reccomended, a simple watermellon flavor, packed the bowl full, only used 1 golden coal to start. The flavor was great, reminded me a bit of HH watermelon but I felt it was better. It was pretty harsh, however and I did cough a bit. Watermelon is thusfar my favorite flavor.Second up was passionfruit. I used slightly less tobacco this time, I dont usually have long sessions anyway. Again, pretty harsh. Attribute a lot of this harshness to user error for now. Was not sure what to expect, maybe I should go buy a passionfruit. I was slightly reminded of a sweet grapefruit, my girlfriend said it reminded her a bit of al amir cherry. In any case, Ill get back to this one later.Peach was next. I put more water in the vase and threw in some ice, this made a world of difference. I really liked this flavor as well, it wasnt as strong as the watermelon but thats probably because of more water.Blue Gum Ball sounded pretty interesting, so I had to give it a whirl. This might be my 2nd favorite sofar. I dont know if it perfectly hit gumball flavor, but I could see the resembelance. It was a lighter flavor than the others, kind of a nice break. I just got done with apricot. Its been a while since I had apricot, but I had a great mix at my local lounge which had apricot and peach in it, so I wanted to pick up these flavors. Had a couple friends over, everyone enjoyed it.Someone said this tobacco might not be for the metro sexual smokers? I agree, its been strong stuff for me but if you can handle it and want to spend some time learning a new product, its worth it. I think this this brand will have me wondering why I wasted money on all that other stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjt486 Posted December 29, 2005 Author Share Posted December 29, 2005 Bump.Cmon I know these arent overly in depth (they are intended to be initial reactions while I refine the smoking process to work best with tangiers) but were they really THAT bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookahDuck Posted December 29, 2005 Share Posted December 29, 2005 Everytime I read a Tangiers review I immidiatly want to buy some(Especially that Kashmir stuff). But then I go look at the 1500g's of ma'assel that I'll never even get close to smoking the end of, and its hard for me to buy more.But good reviews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjt486 Posted December 29, 2005 Author Share Posted December 29, 2005 I know what you mean, Ive gotten that way with the rest of his line (especially kashmir series) but Ive got so much around here already.I dont think Im so much addicted to the nicotine, moreso addicted to trying new flavors and the challenge of finishing what I already have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soup Posted December 29, 2005 Share Posted December 29, 2005 [quote name='HookahDuck']Everytime I read a Tangiers review I immidiatly want to buy some(Especially that Kashmir stuff). But then I go look at the 1500g's of ma'assel that I'll never even get close to smoking the end of, and its hard for me to buy more. [/quote] I have 1850g and I'm worried about going through it too fast. tjt, good breif reviews. More and more, I'm wanting to try this stuff out. But that will have to wait for another time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted December 30, 2005 Share Posted December 30, 2005 Hi.Your friendly neighborhood cancer merchant here...saying "keep smoking!"Once you get the hang of it, it'll be like second nature...the biggest trick is to keep other brand's foundation residues away...they're very strong and my tobacco is surprisingly light as far as flavor goes (not in the intensity) and solvent heavy, so it will clean the old flavor, including the residue from the other brands. If I was feeling more generous, I would have sent a small hookah out to make sure the results were fantastic.I thought your reviews were great...bravo! Author! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjt486 Posted January 1, 2006 Author Share Posted January 1, 2006 Some more reviews...RaspberryOnce we all sat down I realized I was not really sure what a raspberry tasted like. Did not matter, as I loved this smoke. I put some ice in the vase this time and I cant say for sure if that made the difference or not, but i was getting some really thick white smoke, and the flavor/lung hit was VERY light. Had some family in town for the new years, my uncle guessed the raspberry on the 2nd guess (said cherry first..). I think it was his first hit from a hookah and he seemed to enjoy it. After that my girlfriend and I smoked the bowl for over an hour, taking some pauses to regain our bearings. Tangiers definately gives the strongest buzz without the headaches from a nakhla.BlueberryIm going to have to get back to this one...I only smoked for a few minutes. Reminded me of a blueberry muffin. Was not feeling well/in the hookah mood at the time but I wanted to try a new flavor.Watermelon (2nd impression)Quite a bit smoother this time around. I think this is the strongest Tangiers flavor I have yet. This one seems really heavy with flavor, where a lot of other ones are subdued. Maybe Im setting up inconsistently, and input Tangiers?Blue Gum BallStill a great flavor, one of my favorites. Light, unique flavor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Not only is the foundation suceptible to changes in humidity (as are all brands) but flavors are too (as are all brands). I'm sure double apple afficianados will tell you sometimes you cantaste the rose oil...sometimes it tastes very licorice-y, sometimes the apple is far more prevalent. I used to think, before I studied the issue in depth, it was due to inconsistencies in the tobacco or flavor. Nothing could be further from the truth! More or less humidity tends to "dissolve" (avoiding chemistry descriptions for the under 18 crowd ) the more water-soluble components and they are more likely to get stucks in the water. Stable strawberry (Flavor #3) has a smell and a flavor reminiscent of strawberry jam. When in humidity shock, strawberry has the smell of strawberry stems and is almost devoid of strawberry aroma! Watermelon will vary somewhat, but it is fairly stable. Blueberry is more stable, but raspberry is only somewhat stable (in my company literature, I rate things from a 1 to a 5, one being the least and 5 being the most). I don't remember the actual test results, but my guesses would be watermelon is a 3, blueberry a 4 and raspberry is 2-3. Blue gumball is a 2-3 also. The flavor will seem stronger or weaker (usually weaker) when in humidity shock. You may actually be setting it up inconsistently, but it has to do with humidity (which you probably don't have much control over) and temperature to a lesser degree. As a related side story, when I was first developing tobacco, several years ago, the dew point shot up 30+ points in one day and it was up to 70F(!!!) really tropical and humid. My friend and I were watching football and I packed a bowl...the flavor was strangely weak and crappy...it sputtered for about five minutes and the flavor just absolutely died. I tried again with a different flavor, same results. I became frantic, I was worried that was something really very wrong with my tobacco...so we packed a bowl of Nahkla Double Apple. Wow! Same results! Each time you reseal that tub, bag, whatever, you seal air with a particular humidity in with the tobacco. If the outside air changes, the tobacco (which was used to old humidity level) is now running to change, once you reopen it. It the weather changes drastically, and you are that concerned with a perfect smoke, open it a couple of hours before you smoke EACH time you are about to smoke it. Does this help at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzzzT Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 I am a big double apple fan and I have also noticed how the flavor can fluctuate. I also wonder what role the temperature of the water in the vase plays. I was smoking some AF golden bahraini apple yesterday. I was getting good flavor but I decided for fun to take the bowl off and add cold water and ice to the vase. I came back and started puffing the hookah back up. The anise flavor was much more accentuated to my pleasant surprise. I wonder if warmer water diffuses more flavor because it is closer in temperature to the warmer smoke, and colder water lets more flavor through. I imagine there is some kind of thermal coefficient for diffusion of the smoke resulting in loss or gain on flavor, or specific flavor profiles becoming stronger or weaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjt486 Posted January 2, 2006 Author Share Posted January 2, 2006 Ill try to get in the habit of opening the container a couple hours early. Does this put me at risk of "drying out" the tobacco? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 tjt486. No. The tobacco contains mainly components that have a negligible vapor-pressure at room temperature (they don't evaporate). Companies that use silly, older flavoring/tobacco formulas that use water do dry out. For Tangiers, just stir the whole mixture up and you're ready to go (after leaving it open). Most of my flavors have a shelf life of 5+ years. Lemon-lime, Lime, Orange, Blackthorn, marigold and pineapple have lesser shelf-lives. (6 months)Zzzzt (Is that the right number of Zs?). A general rule in chemistry/physics:Warm substances can solvate (dissolve) more solute (what is being dissolved) than the same substance can cold. Warm air holds more moisture (logarthimically), warm water holds more chemicals. If a substance is not completely miscible (thats where our flavors come from), a larger or smaller removal from the vapor can be achieved by increasing or decreasing the water temperature. The smoke is actually "cool". In industry, they use cooling towers to cool water. They operate by evaporating a tiny fraction of water from the warm water stream. The reason our tobacco doesn't burn is that the vaporizing glycerine/flavor mixture keeps the temperature of the tobacco below its combustion temperature. As a side science quiz:(At sea level)If you take 2345g of water and bring it to a boil, after 10242 sec., you reasonably calculate there are only 175g of water left in the pan, what is its temperature?212F, 100C or 373K.If a phase change is occurring, the temperature of the substance being heated cannot increase beyond the temperature of the phase change (or decrease, in the case of ice) until it is ALL gone. As long as there is some water in the pan, the pan cannot heat itself above 212F!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookahDuck Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 (Struggles to think back 2 years ago to Chem. I Honors...)I've always thought this- scientifically at least. However I have heard from many people that warm water will increase the flavor. Perhaps that is because warmer water will disolve more of the nictotine/other chemicals in the vapor and a "purer" smoke is produced from the hose? I would think this would affect the total ammount of flavor in the same sense though.I've never done a side by side experiment... perhaps I'll give that a try both of my hookahs at the same time- one with ice water(control), and the other very warm(~150 degrees F). I'll post the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 Warm water can dissolve more salt, more oxygen, more chlorine, more sediment (and look clear like in tropical waters). Unless there is an inversion in the solubility chart, warm water absorbs more everything than colder water. Oddly, nicotine has an inversion around 60C (its solubility starts going down), I believe (140F), so around 135F should be the maximum point of solvency for nicotine...can you do the test at 135 rather than 150? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzzzT Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Tangiers that is some really good info. I am going to try some warmer water in the bowl and see what happens. I like experimenting with my hookah, I normally use tap water. I really feel that letting the tobacco sit out to acclimate does help the flavor. It is really strange how flavors seems to fluctuate with humidity shifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookahDuck Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 I'll throw a small thermometer in the base and write down the temperature and note how it tastes through out the session. I'll probably do it this weekend some time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakemonster Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Tangiers.... is there a particular humidity level that is best to let the shisha breathe at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speeder Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 I've tried 2 Tangiers flavors so far, and i'll keep it short Watermelon - as described above, very flavorful, but easy to burn, so can be harsh if not cared for when smoking. Tastes like jolley rancher watermelon Kashmier Peach - smells like fanta / orange soda concentrate when raw. Then it starts smelling like Earl Grey (tea) and tastes sort of like it too. Very strong and somewhat nauseating flavor, couldn't smoke it for too long. Again, easy to burn, and must be cared for when smoking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 4, 2006 Share Posted January 4, 2006 Zzzzt: I've found that actually putting water in the bowl is bad news, things smoke poorly then. I usually put all my water in the jar. Hookah Duck...its not brain surgery, most people's hot water from their water tank is onloy aroung 130-140 anyways. I think the point is that warm water (until you get around boiling) will dissolve more flavor and nicotine. Well...get your thermometer....but be careful!!!Lake Monster: Yes, but invariably the maasel will smoke better if acclimated to the humidity that it will be smoked in. It will smoke better, if acclimated, in the dewpoint range of approximately 55-65F, but if its acclimated to a higher or lower dewpoint it will still smoke less well. Mmmpfft. So, open it wherever you are going to smoke it...Speeder: I'm sorry you didn't like KP, its not for everybody. From your description, it almost sounds if you had smoked orande or double orange. KP definitely smells more like peaches than orange soda...did you get thee wrong stuff sent to you? My tobacco is designed to use less charcoal than other brands...perhaps thats why you had trouble with the watermelon and KP burning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speeder Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 I threw out the paper and the baggie I think, but the number was either 38 or 34 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 38 would be Kashmir Peach...I hope you read the very important info on it...smoking's dangerous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 Sorry to go slightly off topic here... How is everyone loading their bowls when using Tangiers tobacco? For weeks now I've just been taking it out of the bags and stuffing a bowl full. Then I realized something ...the larger pieces unravel into a leaflike shape. I took some of the unrolled pieces and layed them in the bowl. Smoked MUCH better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 I don't think it matters, I think it might be catching up to the humidity. In San Diego, the weather during the Spring and Summer are really constant, the humidity changes little and slowly. Wintertime, everything's going up and down, maybe its that way where you live too...open the packages for an entire day and see if that doesn't help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 Ahh, I thought I had it figured out! The weather here has been at around 80 Degrees F for about a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[LB] Posted January 5, 2006 Share Posted January 5, 2006 [quote name='tjt486']Someone said this tobacco might not be for the metro sexual smokers?[/quote] twas i, and yeah i agree it is a little harsh takes getting used to, great review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 New tobacco blend coming soon, much better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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