coals/taste

[the Dahaka]

Hi
everybody,


 


This
is my first post here and not a very cheerful one, I’m afraid. I got myself a
shisha while on holiday in Egypt
as sort of a Christmas gift to myself for a great price. This allowed me to
stock up on maassell (funnily enough all the vendors there call that “shisha”
as well) and coals. I got eight rolls of Starcoal, an Egyptian brand which
sparks quite a lot and doesn’t smell very nice when lit, but lasts quite long
and doesn’t seem to affect the taste much (then again, that’s only one of two
brands I ever tried, so I don’t have a lot of reference to go by). After a fair
bit of sharing/showing off I ran out of coals and got a few new rolls from a
tobacco shop in town. Not surprisingly, it’s the native Three Kings brand. This
is sold by nearly every online hookah shop I’ve visited and is reputed not to
affect the taste at all. However, shortly after lighting up, it quickly started
to taste worse and worse to the point where I actually started retching.


I
tried a different kind of tobacco, to no avail, and even put the coals right on
top of the maassell like they seem to do in Eypt quite a lot. I noticed these
coals burned a lot hotter, or at least reached a high temperature faster than
the Starcoals kind and figured that it was maybe burning the foil (which really
seems like a silly thought in hindsight…oh well, live and learn)…turned out it
wasn’t that either. After a very thorough cleaning and even being forced to
*gasp* rinse my hose with water I tried again and got the same, terrible, disgusting,
indescribably vulgar taste…


Surely
this can’t be the supposed king of coals? Has anyone else had a similar
experience? What caused this and how did you solve it? Any help would be
greatly appreciated.


 


Thanks
in advance!


 

[NERV]

Can you describe this taste? Like does it taste chemical, burnt, ashy?
Also, describe in detail the process that you use to set up your hookah.

[HookahDuck]

Just making sure- Are you letting the coals become completly grey before starting to smoke? The black powder on the outside of the coal helps it to light and can give off a nasty taste.

[the Dahaka]

Hi Nerv,

Thanks for the quick reply. Despite being a newb, I'm actually quite
confident that the setup is okay with all the tutorials I've been
reading. But anyway, here goes:

I bought a two-hoser (or is that "double-hoser") which isn't used to
it's full potential nearly as often as I'd like since one of the hoses
doesn't seem to function properly. So far passing around the single
hose has worked fine. I seal off the other end with a ball of oil and
some more foil to top it off for lack of a proper plug. This has worked
fine so far. Otherwise, everything is sealed with washers. I use a clay
bowl with punctured foil. Let me know if you need any more details.

Put bluntly, the taste reminds me a lot of a few organs from my lower
torso. Other than that, it tastes and smells sort of rubbery. In fact,
now that I mention it, the top bit of the washer used to seal off the
clay bowl looks a bit burned. I thought it was just you regular dark
residue at first, but it's actually a bit burnt. No idea how that
could've happened though.

I did notice how even the maassell had the same smell to it after only a few minutes...

Hope this helps, thanks again!

[the Dahaka]

Thanks to you too, Duck. Didn't see your reply before I started typing mine down.

I usually just wait for my coals to stop sizzling and sparking and
overly smoking before using them, I don't let them go completely grey.
It's worth a try, but I seriously doubt the effect of not doing so
would be THAT strong...

[CH4OS]

[quote name='the Dahaka']I got myself a
shisha while on holiday in Egypt[...]
maassell (funnily enough all the vendors there call that “shisha”
as well)[/quote]
hey, you're right, that they call maassell SHISHA, but that thing you smoke with they don't call shisha. they call it HOOKAH!

i'm from germany and you're from netherlands. so we here call it
shisha, but in english-speaking regions they don't. they often use
instead the word hookah or nargileh!

best regards,
cH4os

[the Dahaka]

From what I've read and know from experience, both the waterpipe and
the tobacco are called "shisha" in Egypt. I'm just trying to be
faithful to my smoking roots, so to speak, but I need to distinguish
the tobacco from the actual pipe...

Anyway, I am smoking right now after having let my coal gone completely
almost completely grey and it's still the same foul taste, only a bit
less strong. I can't even taste a hint of the flavor I put in...

Funny thing is, just the smoke coming off the top of it has smells a
bit like it. I was afraid my hose might've been ruined, but it seems
like the coals themselves are the problem. I don't know what the big
deal is about Three Kings or maybe all the kings I bought are retarded,
but I'm taking them back and looking for a new brand tomorrow.

That makes me a very saaad panda...

[HookahDuck]

allowing the coal to "grey over" is actually very important. Perhaps you have a bad roll of 3 kings? I've never heard of such a thing, but crack open another roll- light it, let it ash over, and see if things are different for you.I use Golden coals which IMO carry less taste than kings, althought they take a little longer to light.

[NERV]

is your tobacco touching the foil or is it extremely close to it?

[the Dahaka]

I think it's probably very close indeed. The bowl really isn't that
high, probably not even an full half circle. I also got a bigger bowl
as an extra that rolls inward at the top which I thought would be great
for group sessions, but produces next to zero smoke.

Still, as bad as half-burnt coals or fried tobacco may taste, so far
the burnt washer seems most likely to produce a taste and smell as bad
as this. I mean, this is like performing oral sex on the devil
himself...

[dizzing]

haha , i've had the rubber/latex/vinyl/whatever grommets melt on me, never noticed any ill effects however..

[the Dahaka]

Well, it's solved.

I took it to a shop downtown where they sells hookahs (there, now you
got me saying it, too) where they assembled and disassembled it.
Neither of us could figure out what the problem was, but we did a
little test run and whatever caused it, it's gone...*Twilight Zone
theme*

Thanks for the suggestions, anyway! Happy smoking!

[the Dahaka]

(...dear Lord above,  that was gross...)

[nihilocrat]

[quote name='the Dahaka']I
tried a different kind of tobacco, to no avail, and even put the coals right on
top of the maassell like they seem to do in Eypt quite a lot.Thanks
in advance![/quote]

Um... am I missing something, or do you not
have a layer of foil in between the coals and the tobacco? The point is
to roast it, not burn it, which might be what your problem is.

Also, letting the coals burn-through is
important, ESPECIALLY for quick-lights like Three Kings. I've had no
trouble at all with Three Kings so long as I let all of the sparkly
gunpowdery stuff burn off before I set it on top of the bowl.

[Sonthert]

[quote name='the Dahaka']From what I've read and know from experience, both the waterpipe and
the tobacco are called "shisha" in Egypt. I'm just trying to be
faithful to my smoking roots, so to speak, but I need to distinguish
the tobacco from the actual pipe...[/quote]Its like pointing a cup of coffee and going "coffee". Is the glass/ceramic thing coffee? No whats inside it is. That might be the confusion.

[[LB]]

o dag. problem solved eh? i was gonna say your burning your maassell-
or you have too much airation between foil and shisha, and you suck in
the ash of the coal are
you staying on the forum- or did you just come to ask that question. if
you are- then welcome! im happy your problem is fixed,

usually i hear that star coals are sh*t.... i guess not in your
opinion. I think alot of the time its about what your first hookah
session is with. my first box of coals was golden, and then i got three
kings. I like golden a little better- they seem to last longer.

[the Dahaka]

I do plan to on sticking around, in fact. I'm pleasantly surprised by
the lack of idiocy that a lot of forums seem to be plagued by nowadays.

I got a hint of that same taste again when I tried El Nakhla Banana.
Maybe there was a bit of residue of that burning up when I tried the
other tobacco. I guess that and Three Kings make for a combination so
awful it should be made illegal.

Again, thanks for the help, everyone!

[King Mo]

haven't posted on here in a while (just on cos i got a random pm)
Just wish to say that everything from egypt generally is poor quality
a belated happy new year to all.
 
 

[Sonthert]

[quote name='the Dahaka']Well, it's solved.

I took it to a shop downtown where they sells hookahs (there, now you
got me saying it, too) where they assembled and disassembled it.
Neither of us could figure out what the problem was, but we did a
little test run and whatever caused it, it's gone...*Twilight Zone
theme*

Thanks for the suggestions, anyway! Happy smoking![/quote]I know I havn't been in the most constructive mood recently, sohere's my comments. Charcoal, tobacco, everything in our setup is sensitive to two separate things. Humidity and temperature. We can't practically regulate both all the time, so the whole setup will change, perhaps drastically, each time we use it! I had an occasion, other people have heard this same stupid story, so bear with me, where I was smoking my developmental tobacco. We would lit it up and it smoked for about 10 minutes while the flavor was very weak and then just died, badly. Since I was in a big learning phase, I thought something was wrong with the batch, so I tried another batch and another flavor, with the same results. I then became frustrated and we decided to smoke Nahkla Double Apple. Unfortunately, it did the same thing, even faster! I started to figure that it was the humidity (it was very humid). Now I've come to believe that its changes in humidity. The tobacco takes some time to acclimate itself to the humidity in the air. It sounds like this may be your problem, except with dryness, not dampness.