Every Bowl I Pack...the Outcome Just Disapoints Me

[FamiliarJoe]

I have been smoking hookah for about 2 years now, and I feel in love with it from the first day I took a drag of Al Fakher bubblegum. I have always packed great bowls and had great sessions. My friends look at me as the hookah guru, and come to me for any questions or advice regarding hookah on a daily basis. (just as im sure all of you are in your group of friends)

I wanted to try Tangiers because of all the hype about it on these boards, it really seemed like something amazing to me even though I never tried it. I wanted to pack a bowl and enjoy the Tangiers goodness along with everyone that seems to enjoy it so much. It's been about a 2 months for me attempting to smoke nothing but Tangiers until I got it right. Every day after work I sit in my chair looking at my hookah wondering why I can't get this shit to smoke right, and honestly it has bugged the shit out of me. Tonight I thought I had everything right. I went out and bought a roll of heavy duty foil because I never use it, but I thought that may be the missing link to my terrible tangiers sessions. I have done EVERYTHING, tried every bowl packing method. Acclimated correctly, made sure my dewpoint in my climate region was adequate to what Eric would say is good enough for Tangiers to smoke properly. Every method of heat management known to man; different coals, breaking my coals in half, making sure they were fully lit, right amount of shisha, etc. I have tried poking my holes with a kabob stick, corn on the cob holder, toothpick, thumbtack, knife, pen, mechanical pencil, poking holes all the way through my shisha or halfway.


NOTHING HAS WORKED FOR ME I have NEVER had a good session of OG Tangiers, and I think it's the last straw for me.


Ive been driven to pack a bowl of Tangiers the right way, but the outcome of every session has never been nothing but a harsh bowl or no taste in the shisha when I finally get good clouds and no harshness .


Summarized version of this thread:

Ive tried everything and I can't get Tangiers to smoke right. It's time to go back to smoking good ol' Nakhla and Al fakher so I don't lose my love for hookah. It's a sad day in Familiar Joe's hookah career.

Tangiers 1
Familiar Joe 0

[chromecarz00]

One thing i didnt see is stirring while packing .That made a huge diff for me.
Also, some humidities just dont work well.
Cheers.

[FamiliarJoe]

One thing i didnt see is stirring while packing .That made a huge diff for me.
Also, some humidities just dont work well.
Cheers.

Stirring while packing?

I keep my tangiers stirred while it was being acclimated and also right before I pack a bowl so it is all equally juicy.



I think Eric would disagree, but im starting to think it's just the weather here all around. Humid FL at it's best.

[delSol_si]

Well, I am in the same boat with hookah in general. Have had 2 sessions this summer and they both sucked balls. Kinda wish I could go back to and start over before I was hookah savvy. I was getting better sessions when I first started than I am now.


hookah:2
me:0

[FamiliarJoe]

Eric I know you read this thread and didn't reply.


I just want you to know, it's nothing personal friend =] I just have the worst luck with this brand I guess. I know it's not the shisha that's bad, just something is messed up my whole situation I guess.

[DrunK]

try lucid

[Sonthert]

Reading threads like this just depresses me, so...

Its not the weather, if its acclimated. There's still something your doing that needs to change slightly, is my theory. If it isn't acclimating, thats a different story. Generally people having recurrent problems who come to Tangiers, when I show them how to pack a bowl go "Oh, you put that much in...I have been doing it wrong." Occasionally you find people who are overpacking it, but 95% of the time its underpacking.

[FamiliarJoe]

Reading threads like this just depresses me, so...

Writing it made me depressed. I just don't know what else to try!!

[FamiliarJoe]

try lucid

I have and ive had some success but the flavor problem was still there. I did have 1 great bowl of lucid 1 night. It was the remnints of what was left in my tub of I.L.T.O.B.C.

Very tasty, but I bought 750g of OG last order. Ive gone through 2 kilo's all together trying to get it right.

Maybe if I just keep what I have left until a different season comes along. Who knows.

Reading threads like this just depresses me, so...

Its not the weather, if its acclimated. There's still something your doing that needs to change slightly, is my theory. If it isn't acclimating, thats a different story. Generally people having recurrent problems who come to Tangiers, when I show them how to pack a bowl go "Oh, you put that much in...I have been doing it wrong." Occasionally you find people who are overpacking it, but [b]95% of the time its underpacking[/b].

I have heard you say this before, but I will take it into a bit more consideration tomorrow when im packing my next bowl. Edited June 20, 2009 by FamiliarJoe

[Sonthert]

More holes, more tobacco. Try what seems like a ridiculous amount of tobacco in there. If you aren't having success with Lucid either, it might be charcoal or some other factor non-Tangiers related. Have you tried smoking something else recently?

Why do you have to go and make a big post about how Tangiers is a failure? If you say it doesn't work, so it doesn't work. You got to make some big drama post about how you've pronounced Tangiers a failure. You say you don't mean anything personal by it, thats fine, but you have to go off and be all intensive about it...you then call me out that I read this post, like I don;t read most of the posts on HF. I spent over an hour on the phone with you, its not like I'm not trying to make it work, too. Its your right to do so though, man. Hope the Tangiers works for you.

[delSol_si]

Oh, just to clarify, my sessions were Layalina, not Tangiers...thought I should point that out.

[FamiliarJoe]

More holes, more tobacco. Try what seems like a ridiculous amount of tobacco in there. If you aren't having success with Lucid either, it might be charcoal or some other factor non-Tangiers related. Have you tried smoking something else recently?

Why do you have to go and make a big post about how Tangiers is a failure? If you say it doesn't work, so it doesn;t work. I spent over an hour on the phone with you, its not like I'm not trying to make it work, too...

Yes I smoked AF double apple just a few days ago out of my same rig and it was a great session. I made this post to put everything I have tried out on the table and yet I personally have still failed to get it to smoke right. Like I said before I believe that Tangiers is a great shisha even though I personally have never really had a good session with the Original line. Let me say again, I DON'T blame the product.

This is in no way an attack against this brand. I just can't figure out to save my life what im doing wrong! In the morning I will have the urge to attempt again as always so it's not the end of me trying. I was thinking today how you use Japanese style coals rather than coco's, and coco's put off a lot more heat (I think) than the coals you use. So maybe that is my issue. Then I realized, everyone uses coco's and has good sessions. So that can't be it...



EDIT: I think with all the free time I seem to have I will take pictures of every step that could potentially hinder my smoking experience and I will post them in this thread so we can get to the bottom of this. I will start tomorrow.




I didn't mean to offend you if I did. I WILL get a good session out of this last batch I bought. It just need to figure out what im doing wrong :| All I do is read on these boards and search . I haven't found the solution to my problem yet. Edited June 20, 2009 by FamiliarJoe

[Sonthert]

Yeah, I know.

Its cool.

Don't look to other things that are wrong, foil, coal, whatever. What's wrong is right in front of you...we just don't see it yet.

[Bulldog_916]

More holes, more tobacco. Try what seems like a ridiculous amount of tobacco in there. If you aren't having success with Lucid either, it might be charcoal or some other factor non-Tangiers related. Have you tried smoking something else recently?

Why do you have to go and make a big post about how Tangiers is a failure? If you say it doesn't work, so it doesn;t work. I spent over an hour on the phone with you, its not like I'm not trying to make it work, too...

Yes I smoked AF double apple just a few days ago out of my same rig and it was a great session. I made this post to put everything I have tried out on the table and yet I personally have still failed to get it to smoke right. Like I said before I believe that Tangiers is a great shisha even though I personally have never really had a good session with the Original line. Let me say again, I DON'T blame the product.

This is in no way an attack against this brand. I just can't figure out to save my life what im doing wrong! In the morning I will have the urge to attempt again as always so it's not the end of me trying. I was thinking today how you use Japanese style coals rather than coco's, and coco's put off a lot more heat (I think) than the coals you use. So maybe that is my issue. Then I realized, everyone uses coco's and has good sessions. So that can't be it...



EDIT: I think with all the free time I seem to have I will take pictures of every step that could potentially hinder my smoking experience and I will post them in this thread so we can get to the bottom of this. I will start tomorrow.




I didn't mean to offend you if I did. I WILL get a good session out of this last batch I bought. It just need to figure out what im doing wrong :| All I do is read on these boards and search . I haven't found the solution to my problem yet.

You gotta realize man, just because "everybody" uses coconut coals and has some success with them does not mean automatically that you will. They put off a lot of heat. I've used the gambit of coconut coal and ALL of them put off more heat than any other coal I've used. I've used a shit ton of coal in my 2+ years smoking hookah. I dont use coconut coals all the time simply because I smoke Tangiers. If I do use coconut coals, i cut them or break them to make them smaller. Less heat is your key man, I'm telling you. When I used Exotica coals I assumed quarters of a coal were small enough. I was wrong, reduced it to sixths of a stick and had amazing sessions again. It takes adjustment in your techniques and thinking to smoke something like Tangiers, an extremely heat-sensitive shisha. Try some other kind of coal, like Exotica or easy lites or Golden Canaries. I like exoticas personally because I can customize the size of the coal. You cant do that easily with coconut coals. You can cut them but its a pain in the ass.

This is just my personal opinion having smoked Tangiers for about 2 years now.

[ilikemyusername]

sounds like you're is in about the same boat as me, living only a few counties away. Sorry about your luck, but i think Eric is working on something for us folks that just cant get it right.

[mattarios2]

I have been smoking hookah for about 2 years now, and I feel in love with it from the first day I took a drag of Al Fakher bubblegum. I have always packed great bowls and had great sessions. My friends look at me as the hookah guru, and come to me for any questions or advice regarding hookah on a daily basis. (just as im sure all of you are in your group of friends)

I wanted to try Tangiers because of all the hype about it on these boards, it really seemed like something amazing to me even though I never tried it. I wanted to pack a bowl and enjoy the Tangiers goodness along with everyone that seems to enjoy it so much. It's been about a 2 months for me attempting to smoke nothing but Tangiers until I got it right. Every day after work I sit in my chair looking at my hookah wondering why I can't get this shit to smoke right, and honestly it has bugged the shit out of me. Tonight I thought I had everything right. I went out and bought a roll of heavy duty foil because I never use it, but I thought that may be the missing link to my terrible tangiers sessions. I have done EVERYTHING, tried every bowl packing method. Acclimated correctly, made sure my dewpoint in my climate region was adequate to what Eric would say is good enough for Tangiers to smoke properly. Every method of heat management known to man; different coals, breaking my coals in half, making sure they were fully lit, right amount of shisha, etc. I have tried poking my holes with a kabob stick, corn on the cob holder, toothpick, thumbtack, knife, pen, mechanical pencil, poking holes all the way through my shisha or halfway.


NOTHING HAS WORKED FOR ME I have NEVER had a good session of OG Tangiers, and I think it's the last straw for me.


Ive been driven to pack a bowl of Tangiers the right way, but the outcome of every session has never been nothing but a harsh bowl or no taste in the shisha when I finally get good clouds and no harshness .


Summarized version of this thread:

Ive tried everything and I can't get Tangiers to smoke right. It's time to go back to smoking good ol' Nakhla and Al fakher so I don't lose my love for hookah. It's a sad day in Familiar Joe's hookah career.

Tangiers 1
Familiar Joe 0

since it acclimated correctly for you ... in my experiences when i got tang to acclimate, what you need to do is watch bulldogs video of packing tang on youtube, (you are gonna need to brighten your monitor because the video is a tad too dark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH-gdqxEpPA

This way you can actually see HOW MUCH you actually need, it is a shit ton more than you are packing i'm thinking. (not to discredit you and imply you aren' following the videos) ... just for reinforcement :-)

and as others have stated, use the tiniest bit of heat. many people are tricked because they use 1 coco and say, dude its only 1 coco and its harsh. the key is to separate the heat, not use a little heat but have it concentrated.

if you use cocos i'd say you'd have to cut it in 4 pieces and separate that across a small phunnel, yes 1 coal total, broken in 4, but since its hard to crack cocos in 4 and you sometimes end up with dust and a little rock as your coal, go with GC.

If none of that works ... i'd say take photos of the bowl with the shisha in it, take side shots of the bowl so everyone can see how high it is packed, show your holes, and amount of coal.

[FamiliarJoe]

since it acclimated correctly for you ... in my experiences when i got tang to acclimate, what you need to do is watch bulldogs video of packing tang on youtube, (you are gonna need to brighten your monitor because the video is a tad too dark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH-gdqxEpPA

This way you can actually see HOW MUCH you actually need, it is a shit ton more than you are packing i'm thinking. (not to discredit you and imply you aren' following the videos) ... just for reinforcement :-)

and as others have stated, use the tiniest bit of heat. many people are tricked because they use 1 coco and say, dude its only 1 coco and its harsh. the key is to separate the heat, not use a little heat but have it concentrated.

if you use cocos i'd say you'd have to cut it in 4 pieces and separate that across a small phunnel, yes 1 coal total, broken in 4, but since its hard to crack cocos in 4 and you sometimes end up with dust and a little rock as your coal, go with GC.

If none of that works ... i'd say take photos of the bowl with the shisha in it, take side shots of the bowl so everyone can see how high it is packed, show your holes, and amount of coal.

I will do that. I have watched bulldogs video numerous times but maybe I didn't see how much shisha I really need to put in. I already pack over the bowl lip a decent amount . You guys have more experience with this shisha than I do so I believe ya hah.

You gotta realize man, just because "everybody" uses coconut coals and has some success with them does not mean automatically that you will. They put off a lot of heat. I've used the gambit of coconut coal and ALL of them put off more heat than any other coal I've used. I've used a shit ton of coal in my 2+ years smoking hookah. I dont use coconut coals all the time simply because I smoke Tangiers. If I do use coconut coals, i cut them or break them to make them smaller. Less heat is your key man, I'm telling you. When I used Exotica coals I assumed quarters of a coal were small enough. I was wrong, reduced it to sixths of a stick and had amazing sessions again. It takes adjustment in your techniques and thinking to smoke something like Tangiers, an extremely heat-sensitive shisha. Try some other kind of coal, like Exotica or easy lites or Golden Canaries. I like exoticas personally because I can customize the size of the coal. You cant do that easily with coconut coals. You can cut them but its a pain in the ass.

This is just my personal opinion having smoked Tangiers for about 2 years now.

I am considering picking up some canary's and golden QL's (goldens used to be my go to coals). Just so I can handle my heat better, and keep the rest of my coco's for other brands. I have been breaking my coco's in half before I light them with scissors, and play with the heat management that way.

Maybe im getting closer to achieving a good session, I sure hope so. Thanks guys for all the good advice. I will post back with my results!

[freeOS]

If you think it's a heat management issue, you could always try the glass screen at MNH. That's supposed to be one of the big advantages of that product.

[Hookie The Hookah]

What exactly is the problem with the smoke? Is it harsh? No flavor? No clouds?

[FamiliarJoe]

What exactly is the problem with the smoke? Is it harsh? No flavor? No clouds?

It's always 2 of the 3 things you said in a different combination.

Harsh with no clouds

Harsh with no flavor

Clouds for 2 minutes and no flavor at all





When I pack a bowl I place the shisha after mixing it in my bowl and don't compact it. When I am done filling up the bowl it is about 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch above the rim. I slap the foil on, press down with my palm in a circle motion. Poke as many holes as possible all the way down with a toothpick, throw 4 pieces of coco's on my grill. Let them sit on my bowl for 3 or so minutes after they are red hot .

Ive tried that method, and changed it up a bit every session trying to get a good session. Like Eric said, im guessing my problem is right in front of me I just haven't figured it out yet. When I do I will most likely feel like an idiot.

[Hooka_bears]

Same problem here, I've watched almost all the videos, overpacked (i think?) the shisha in the bowl and its just harsh. Even with 1 1/2 CH instant lights :-\ I must not be packing enough.

Maybe Ill have to give Eric a call and learn it from the man himself.

[joytron]

what do your friends think of all this tom foolery?

[Voski]

How many cocos are you using and on what size bowl? Do you have a oyster fork? I can make a video of how I pack it if you want.

[shalowlow]

Joe, you should have seen my post before, but I guess you missed it...this is what I do...


1. Mix like crazy and make sure the tobacco is nice and coated.

2. I use my fingers (i tried the fork thing but I just feel more comfortable getting down and dirty) and I take a pinch, put it in the bowl. Then I take another pinch and put it in...after a few more pinches....I slide the tobacco around the bowl making it tight without actually pushing down. I don't push down to make tight, I push together if that makes any sense.

3. Once the bowl is nice and full, I grab my foil put it on top of the bowl and palm it down and secure.

4. Poke a bunch of holes ALL OVER but NOT ALL THE WAY DOWN you don't need to do it (thanks Eric) and it just makes a mess and dries the tobacco too fast while smoking.

5. Put 3 or four coals in the MIDDLE OF THE PHUNNEL, you only need one broken up small quicklight...or japanese cuz they're small and do the trick and because I don't really like the size and heat of coconut coals.

6. Take a hit but don't try to suck the water out....this is important because you will probably get more smoke taking the right type of hit. Almost like throwing a baseball, its not about how hard, but how efficient. Take a long draw without inhaling like crazy.

7. Leave the coals alone as much as possible....just change them with equal sized coals when needed.

8. Smoke for as long as your heart's content!

Then again, I smoke Kashmir Peach out of an egyptiant with no real problems...maybe you just need to take it like a man! lol....just kidding.

[FamiliarJoe]

How many cocos are you using and on what size bowl? Do you have a oyster fork? I can make a video of how I pack it if you want.

Yeah I actually do have an oyster fork I use to scoop the shisha in to the bowl. My camera decided to take a dump so I can't take any pictures of how I pack my bowls :|

I have tried 2 coco's usually, that never seems to work out. I have been trying halves of coco's and that worked a little better but it wasn't much better at all.

Sometimes if I have 2 halves it will be good clouds with little to no flavor for maybe 2 minutes. Then I get the tickle in the back of my throat from the harshness.

Ive watched your video's before voski and they helped me a bit for sure. Maybe another one would help me haha I don't know.

Joe, you should have seen my post before, but I guess you missed it...this is what I do...


1. Mix like crazy and make sure the tobacco is nice and coated.

2. I use my fingers (i tried the fork thing but I just feel more comfortable getting down and dirty) and I take a pinch, put it in the bowl. Then I take another pinch and put it in...after a few more pinches....I slide the tobacco around the bowl making it tight without actually pushing down. I don't push down to make tight, I push together if that makes any sense.

3. Once the bowl is nice and full, I grab my foil put it on top of the bowl and palm it down and secure.

4. Poke a bunch of holes ALL OVER but NOT ALL THE WAY DOWN you don't need to do it (thanks Eric) and it just makes a mess and dries the tobacco too fast while smoking.

5. Put 3 or four coals in the MIDDLE OF THE PHUNNEL, you only need one broken up small quicklight...or japanese cuz they're small and do the trick and because I don't really like the size and heat of coconut coals.

6. Take a hit but don't try to suck the water out....this is important because you will probably get more smoke taking the right type of hit. Almost like throwing a baseball, its not about how hard, but how efficient. Take a long draw without inhaling like crazy.

7. Leave the coals alone as much as possible....just change them with equal sized coals when needed.

8. Smoke for as long as your heart's content!

Then again, I smoke Kashmir Peach out of an egyptiant with no real problems...maybe you just need to take it like a man! lol....just kidding.

Thanks man, that's content


I will try the sliding technique, I know exactly what you mean so hopefully I won't mess that up . Sadly all I have are coco's to work with at the moment. I am considering taking a trip down to my local smoke shop 45 minutes away to get some golden coals or maybe canarys. You say put the coals in the middle of the phunnel, for some reason it almost makes sense. It seems like that would work because it is giving off less heat DIRECTLY to the shisha because it's farther away and over the actual hole.


I will try it out and let you all know how it works out for me . Edited June 20, 2009 by FamiliarJoe