$20 Shisha

[king_lunchb0x]

[quote name='Hippo_Master' timestamp='1238589572' post='354910']
I think the main idea with Starbuzz, Fantasia, etc. are the flavors that you won't find in the brands that have been around longer. The ones named after drinks or exotic fruits or deserts or candy or odd mixes.

When people buy blue mist, even though it deosn't taste like actual blueberries, it's a sweet and syrupy and minty experience, and it provides clouds. People love candy flavors and clouds and SB is definitely good at that.

So is $20 shisha worth it? You are the only one that can judge that. Can you justify spending 20 - now 22 - bucks on a can of shisha? How long will it last you? Do you notice the chemical flavors? Is the aluminum tin it comes in worth the extra $ you shell out for soemthing most people just throw away (hopefully in the recylcing bin...)? Is it the only brand that has the particular flavor?

There's a reason some flavors from SB don't have descriptions of what flavors they really are. They don't want you to be able to make your own mix of the flavor - and they want you to buy into the Mystique of the "new SB flavor!" when they do coem out.
[/quote]

i was thinking about why would some people pay 20$ for shisha...and i think this is about what i came up with. Unique combination of flavors to make blue mist or a pirate cove and such... Brands like nak are straight forward fruit shishas...the traditional stuff ( at least i think its been around a while)

[thatonethere]

Wow, Thread necro!

But anyway, I don't care for the $20.00 shisha's. Here are my reasons:

The flavours don't last long at all. If I'm paying that much for some shisha, the flavour better last throughout the entire bowl, and not get gross. (starbuzz and Fantasia do this)
No Buzz. Not getting more bang for the buck kind of sucks.
I always get a headache from these brands for some reason
The shop keepers always try to fool me into thinking it's a designer shisha. Most of the time, the shop keeper doesn't know anything at all about hookah.

I smoke Nak, and Tang for the following reasons:
Long lasting flavour
Buzz
Clouds

Tang is great because I like to mix it with Lucid, just to even it out. I don't need a lot of Noir either, just a couple of pinches to a full bowl of Lucid (more like 2/3 lucid, 1/3 Noir) , and I'm set.

[ukhookah]

I disagree. Its all about your pallet. I used to lave nakhla, but now kinda sick of it, mainly cos its stinks my room the day after, and just dosent smell very good when cleaning the hookah. Al fakher, hate the excessive juices thins thing has and its inconsistancy.
I think there expensive shishas do the job for those who have issues with cheaper brands.

[ih303]

[quote]The [b]value[/b] of a product is the mental estimation a consumer makes of it. Formally it may be conceptualized as the relationship between the consumer's perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits. It is often expressed as the equation :

Value = Benefits / Cost Value is thus subjective (i.e., a function of consumers' estimation) and relational (i.e., both benefits and cost must be positive values).[/quote]

You'll notice the word "quality" is used in that definition exactly ZERO TIMES. But of course that's a subjective term as well and it's too early in the morning to think about relativity.

My theory is this: Starbuzz is such a huge success simply because they understand that good marketing is way more important than good product. Really, what they did was genius. They stepped into a relatively new market at a time when there really was no standard for hookah tobacco on the main-stream market, and they CREATED a new standard. Not only that, but they tailor fitted this new standard to the American audience by making high-priced, overly-sweet, technicolor tobacco with carefully selected names, ads featuring sexy ladies, and fancy metal tins that made consumers KNOW that what they were getting was top of the line. In essence, SB successfully "AMERICANIZED" hookah tobacco much to the shagrin of traditional smokers who most likely considered what they were doing sacrilege.

Look, I'm all about capitalism and trying to make a buck, but I've always had a hard time with companies who make that their ONLY priority. I see the folks at SB just like I see the people who open up hookah lounges not because they love hookah and want to share their experience with those around them, but because they know they can exploit a trend and make off like bandits. Interestingly enough, there's another company out there with the same initials "SB" who have been accused of destroying coffee culture with their low-quality, high-priced products. But once companies like them get power, they TELL consumers what they're going to like and how much they'll pay for it. It's scary when you think about the power that some of these companies have, really.

In all fairness, I must admit that I do have eight select flavors of SB on the menu at my lounge. I tend to recommend it to first-timers who are apprehensive about smoking because it tastes like candy and the smoke is not as dense making it a little easier for them to handle. I also think their Pineapple is a pretty damn good flavor. So when it comes down to it, SB has its place. Will you ever hear me recommend it in cases other than what I just mentioned? Unlikely. I say if you want to spend $20 on baccy, go Romman. Way better product all around, IMO.

[ih303]

I would like to be perfectly clear here that I have nothing against those who like SB. As many of us have mentioned over and over in the past, smoking is all about personal preference. You should smoke what you like. As I eluded to in my post, I don't have as much of a problem with SB the tobacco as I do with SB the company, i.e. the culture I see behind their products and business practices. Are any of my claims substantiated? Nah... just my opinions. I could be dead wrong and SB could be the best thing to ever happen to the industry. But I don't think I am.

Anyway, if you like SB and don't mind spending the extra dinero for all the fluff, good for you. That's your choice and yours alone.

In the immortal words of Ali G...

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