Starbuzz Review!

[Catalyst Paintball]

Ok, after some tips, I got my hookah to smoke very nicely.I ordered the (5) 100gr Starbuzz pack, and have currently gone through 3 of them throughly.Heres the setup:Social Smoke Gemini II (2 Hose)MYA HoseLarge Ceramic Bowl1.5 3 Kings 33mm CoalsIce water in baseFoilFirst, Strawberry:Smell: Does not really smell like strawberries. It has more of a general chemical berries smell. If you didn't know you were smoking Strawberry Shisha, this could have been mistaken for a mixed berries or mixed fruit.  I was kinda let down with first impressions... 6/10Cut: The majority is nice leaves. Farily nice. I picked out something like 2 stems out of 2 large bowls. My shisha was packed very tight, so I did have to take the time and pull pretty much 90% of it out to get it fluffy. I'm more then willing to bet that this is because I purchased the 100gr bags, which have no protection. 9/10Smoke Density:Produces a nice, fairly thick smoke. I've been reading that Starbuzz is one of the more forgiving shishas out there, but I am going to disagree. It does take work to heat everything up nicely, no setting coals ontop of bowls and not having to worry about them, you will need to tend to your coals. I used 3 halves of 3 Kings Coals to get everything nice. As soon as the bowl and shisha come to temp, smoke density is fairly thick. I found that using (1) 3 Kings was not enough, and did not bring out the smoke nor flavor. Placing (2) 3 Kings was too much. Of course, smoke density increased, but everything turned very harsh. 8/10Flavor: This was not a clear cut Strawberry. VERY subtle hints of a berry, you could not even really make out a strawberry. I was very dissapointed with this. 2 Bowls and 2 sittings with 2 different people and we had the same results. I adjusted coals, temperature, and even made sure my Hookah and Hose were very clean. I just could not pull a distinguishable. Again, you can barely tell it is a berry, but even so, it is far from natural tasting. Very chemical like flavor to match the smell. I did get a light buzz, gone in 5-10 minutes though. 4-5/10Total: 6.8/10Second:Wild BerrySmell:What does Wild Berry actually smell like? I dont really know. Do you? Heres what I got from it though. Raspberry with overpowering floral accents. Kinda has the same chemical smell like strawberry, but the floral smell does a good job at overpowering it. ?6/10?Cut:Same as I stated above. Nice, but compact. 9/10Smoke Density:This smoke, in general, was a little thinner then Strawberry. Again, 2 bowls, 2 sittings, 2 people. Both times, I played around with the settings, and it was a thinner smoke. Don't get me wrong, its not like a cigarette smoke, it does have density, but not to the extent where if you take a mouthful and try to talk, you have a hard time. I kinda want to reference this to a moderatly foggy day.  7/10Flavor:Again, what in the world is a Wild Berry suppose to taste like? Between my friend and I, we found it had thin flavor and was VERY sweet. Flavor was on the line of a LIGHT strawberry and LIGHT raspberry with floral. Unlike the smell, the floral is not overpowering in the smoke. In this case, it is the sweetness. This was candy/sugar sweet. The pure sugar-like taste took me back to 8 years old, eating all of those weird 100% sugar candies. No buzz. 6.5/10Total: 7/10Third:Raspberry:Smell:While it does has the smell of raspberries, it has a lingering smell of something almost menthol like. Yet another hint of chemical. So this is a raspberry + menthol/Scope mouthwash-ish + floral. Floral takes a back seat, as the smell of raspberry is fairly strong. 7/10Cut:Again, this must be typical Starbuzz cut. I had like 3 stems out of 2 bowls. 9/10Smoke Density:Raspberry produces a NICE thick smoke. I achieved milky white smoke with my normal 3 pieces of (1.5) 3 Kings coals. Again, very dense, gives you that frothy feeling in your mouth. 9/10Flavor:This is bar none, the best out of the 3 reviewed. Strong raspberry flavor. No crouching tiger, hidden flavor bullsh*t. The dominant flavor in this smoke IS raspberry. Very light floral as suggested by the smell. Almost no menthol taste. This was the most enjoyable smoke out of 6 sessions. Fresh raspberries are on your mind as you smoke this shisha. This did give us a buzz both times. Again, only lasting a few minutes, but it was existant. 9/10Total: 8.5/10Like I said, just to make sure I didn't have any fluke smokes, each flavor was smoked twice with 2 different people. Just hope I can contribute to the forums!I have Peach and Melon Starbuzz still to try as well as Mint and Melon Havana. (I've taken a teaser of Havana, and yuck!)I do plan on trading some of this stuff, so if anyone is interested in doing so, let me know!(Oh how I would love to get my hands on some Tangiers, but 250gr is too much to sample...)*Hint* *Hint* Tangiers!!! *Hint* *Hint* Thats all for now,Andy

[Yoner]

Excellent reviews.

[Catalyst Paintball]

Thanks!

[Sonthert]

Is that a hint? Like 100g packages? The same ones that are available at www.hookahkings.com?

[ghostofdavid]

Thanks for the review, I really like the way that you set it up. I'll have to try some of the raspberry!