The Dude Abides Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 So I stopped by my local hookah bar which is about 200 feet from the front door of my apartment, and was in search of some melon ma'assel. I just wanted a 50 gram box to try out, but all they offered was Layalina (which I don't like at all because of flavor deficit), and their "premium" brand which is Havana. I've never smoked Havana nor have I heard much about it. I bought it anyways and will give it a try this evening, but I was wondering if anybody had an opinion of this brand. I'm a fan of AF, AM, and AW, and I was about to order some AF melon online, but I had an itch for melon tonight that I didn't want to wait 6 days for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pavlakos_politakos Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 i smoke HAVANA all the time.ive only tried double apple,and some premixed 50g sample.that one was rose.....and two other flavors.it reminds me of AF.the cut,the wetness,and its sweet,thick clouds of snow white smoke.mmmmmm...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizzing Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 i have some havana esk . apple... it's truly horrible. the mere smell of it makes me want to gag, and when i smoked it out of my hookah, it took me like 6 sessions to get the taste out of the hoses.. gah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pavlakos_politakos Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 never seen havana esk.maybe it bootleg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 Wow I just opened it up and smelled it. I only detect a tiny bit of melon, but for the most part it smells like the sweetest, sugary Kool-ade fruit punch I've ever come accross. I'm interested to see how it tastes when smoked. I hope the cantelope flavor comes through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aronparsons Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I've had their regular apple and their orange and liked both. Good, long-lasting, thick, flavoral smoke. I might purchase more in the future, but there are so many other brands to try as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laher Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 i think alotta people under-rate havana on this board...ive had some excellent smokes with the brand... The new shisha bar opening up in our area is exclusively havana (and they are using all mya's).... As they are my friends, we had a preview on the smokes...smoking out of brand new myas!! Beautiful stuff indeed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 When the crap went down a few months ago, one of the things it was over was Havana. I spoke with someone at one of the hookah sites we use around here about it and he said it was a new brand that was still having some issues with consistency in their quality. He said give it 6 to 12 months and there should be marked improvements. So, it's possible that it is indeed improving, atleast with some flavours, and others may improve in the future... But hey, lets face it, every brand has their dogs... $.02 (having said this I personally have never tried it and likely never will.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mopower84 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Ahh yes, the ever contoversial Havana brand maa'ssel. I have unfortunatly not yet tried a large selection of brands and flavors however I have smoked the Havana Esk. apple, special grapes, and cherry.The cut is thick, a lot like Nakhla but with less stems. The Havana is also much, much wetter. All three of the flavors I have tried smoked pretty much the same. When its cooking properly it has a very thick, rich, smoke; it also is fairly forgiving with the heat management. I find it much better then Nakhla in these fields. The one real problem that I have found with it, has also been mentioned before here, is that the flavor tends to drop off rather dramatically after the first 25-30 minutes of the smoking session. Hovever I have found that the flavor intensity in he first part of the session is quite strong, in a good way.Now for the individual flavors:Esk. Apple: This was actually the first flavor I tried when I first finished building my hookah. I really enjoyed the flavor although I would like to compare it to other esk. apple brands. It did have alot of floral overtones with the flavor so if you are a big fan of esk. apple with other brands you may or may not like it. Cherry: Good strong cherry flavor, a little mix of the sweet and the sour type flavors. It does have some generic fruity-candy overtones. All in all I enjoyed it.Special Grapes: Very strong grape flavor, much more to the sour side though. I think it would be much like a wine grape flavor as opposed to like a Kool Aid grape flavor. I didn't really like it that much as I tend to lean alot more toward the sweet side.Other things to note:*I think the Havanna brand got a bit of a bad rep. as when it first came out, one Internet retailer was selling it for about $22.00 USD for a 250g. tub. My local Smoker Friendly store sells it for $9.99 USD for a 250g. tub. It is in NO WAY worth $22.00 a tub.*I purchased the 50g. sampler packs for $3.00 each locally.*I purchased them about 6 months ago when it was brand new on the market so I am pretty certain I got the one first batchs of the stuff in country. The problems with flavor may have been sorted out by now, I just don't know. Also the stuff that has been sitting around for the last few months has had time to age and may have improved itself.*I smoked all 3 of these flavors in my homemade hookah so others may have different results. It is 20in. tall and I would describe it as having a medium size base.*All 3 were smoked using AL. Kemma brand natural wood coals.* Havana brand Maa'ssel is made in United Arab Emirates by Ajman Daw Al Qamar Tabacco Trading Co.*I personally feel once they get there act together it will be a darn good Tabacco maybe even a premium. Time will tell on that one.I hope this was informative, and sorry, I tend to get a little long winded at times.Oh and Mushrat, one of these days when we get together for another smoke I'll have to bring some of the Havana with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laher Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 lol, well the stuff my friends have been gettin are the 1kilogram buckets, freshly imported from Dubai!! You won't believe it, but they fly over and bring the buckets back in suitcases lool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizzing Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 lol, dubai eh..that explains the controversy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Abides Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 Wow, mopower's description of the experience with Havana is pretty much exactly on target with what happened to me. I tried the melon last night, and had mixed reactions. It did indeed look really similar to AF, but with an extroardinarily strong candy scent. I was excited to see what would happen. It went like this: First 15 minutes: Really thick and smooth smoke filled with rich melon flavor. Every draw was great and could almost have declared it to be one of the best experiences I've had smoking shisha. 15 minutes +: Extreme loss of flavor. Almost instantaneous. The smoke was still thick and not harsh, but the cantelope flavor simply dropped off the map. Thus, I stopped smoking it at the 20 minute mark. I was disappointed, but glad that I had only bought a 50 gram box. I will say, however, that the flavor in the first 15 minutes was so good that I just loaded two more fresh bowls and smoked them till the flavor was gone and then put the new one on. There went the whole pack... Live and learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pavlakos_politakos Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 im hurt. i never had an experience like that.maybe you got a bad batch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizzing Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 hm, i just opened up my havana esk. apple again just to smell it and see if i could keep from vomiting, and it actually smelled good. i think it might be growing on me; i may try a session tonight and post my results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 I have heard anecdotally that companies have been adding suspicious chemicals to their tobacco so that they need to add less flavor. The end result being...extreme flavor loss? You can't cheat chemistry, my friends. P.S. Antifreeze doesn't improve the quality of wine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennmon Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 ps : lots of things are anti-freeze agents. the propylene glycol in some shisha isnt toixc or harmful in anyway. its sued in cosmetics etc, as a humectant. but also serves as food anti-freeze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 True, it was a joke, about the antifreeze. Propylene glycol is used as an anti-freeze in breweries and dairies. The antifreeze reference was an obscure reference to the Simpsons where Bart goes to France. PG has an LD50, but its up, so high, probably even higher than plain, old water. So we can't say that its completely safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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