Tobacco-Saving Bowls...

[magick777]

Fairly soon, I'm going to be placing an order for some more flavour-retaining bowls of one sort or another. Currently I have a Vortex and am fairly pleased with it, but seldom does the tobacco get smoked to the full. This may be because the bowl is too deep in relation to its width, or it may be because I can seldom be bothered to fetch a second batch of charcoal. I have an obvious choice in mind to replace the Vortex, which is a Saphire Power Bowl. However, this is a large bowl that will hold at least as much tobacco as a Vortex, if not more.

And I live in a country where the availability of the tobacco based molasses I choose to smoke is limited and prices are highly variable. My local seller has kindly got in Nakhla Mint at my request, so I feel obligated to buy some, but he was only able to get the 50g packs so it comes in at double the price I'm used to paying on 250g. Maybe I should just grin and bear it, and keep packing 25g bowls, I don't know. But a combination of factors has got me thinking about tobacco-saving bowls, such as the Saphire Hot Shot, which claims to smoke well for 30-45 minutes on 6g of shisha. As a starting point, I dislike the whole idea. More tobacco over more surface area would equal more smoke and more flavour, you would think, so I have my doubts about whether these bowls would provide a satisfying smoke (though they do have good reviews).

But, if the claims are true, it makes the difference between eight bowls out of a £4 pack of tobacco and two bowls out of the same. I also like the idea of the bowl being spent before I have to decide whether I can be bothered to replace the charcoal; I can better afford to waste charcoal than I can afford to waste tobacco. And I like the idea that with long-lasting coals and two such bowls, there might be the option to smoke two bowls in a session without using huge amounts of tobacco only to waste half of it. In theory, they sound great, but I could spend £20 on a couple of those bowls, or I could spend it on 5 slightly more expensive packs of Nakhla Mint and put up with using a standard clay bowl for it, which would do just fine for a few months.

I doubt many will have tried the particular bowl in question, but I'd welcome opinions on

1) what you think of the idea of tobacco-saving bowls in principle, and why
2) what sort of weight of shisha you might smoke yourself in a session
3) what sort of weight of shisha you might allow per person in sizing a bowl to a number of smokers
4) for a given weight of shisha that a bowl holds, do you favour more depth (Vortex) or more surface area (Phunnel / oversize Super Chief) - and why?

I have a feeling that curiosity will eventually get the better of me and when money allows, I may well think about trying out one of these bowls, but I wondered if anyone has any words of wisdom...

[Hassouni]

My standard Leb bowls are quite small and for smoking solo they're fine. Given that:
1. Suits me! If I can save tobacco, I save money in the long run
2. Said Leb bowls probably use 15g. Anything else doesn't last very long.
3. Not sure if I understand the Q but I'd add about 10g per additional person up to 35-40g, at which point - 3 people I guess, any more than that is too much for one nargile
4. I prefer surface area, a wider surface lets me put more coals without it burning, which roasts more tobacco giving more smoke (though maybe I'm imagining things)

[kmccoy90]

You're definitely right about surface area. Tobacco will cook more evenly when it's spread wide and shallow. Phunnels are an exception to this, obviously.

[Chreees]

Yeah phunnels need to be a certain width/depth ratio to smoke properly. I think that's why the Crown Micro phunnel I just received smokes better than the Alien phunnel (IMO).

1) what you think of the idea of tobacco-saving bowls in principle, and why

[color="#ff0000"]I love it, because most of us don't have tons of money to blow on this hobby, and saving tobacco means saving money. [/color]

2) what sort of weight of shisha you might smoke yourself in a session

[color="#ff0000"]I've smoked from 15g to I'd say 40g by myself. Obviously I smoked for about 7 hours when I smoked the 40g by myself. I prefer smaller amounts (such as 15g) because it's never very often I smoke for 7 hours.[/color]

3) what sort of weight of shisha you might allow per person in sizing a bowl to a number of smokers

[color="#ff0000"]I really wouldn't feel right answering this, as I very rarely smoke with others. [/color]

4) for a given weight of shisha that a bowl holds, do you favour more depth (Vortex) or more surface area (Phunnel / oversize Super Chief) - and why?

[color="#ff0000"]As I first said in this post, BOTH are important I believe. A bowl having the correct ratio of depth to width will smoke the best. [/color]

[Skoozle]

In your situation, I would suggest trying the tobacco saving bowls. Like what was said above, you would save money and lots of it being in the UK. If you dont like the bowl, you can sell it to someone who wants to try it. You will have a hard time selling that un used tobacco in the bottom of your bowl.

I am in the opposite situation, I don't smoke that often and tobacco is pretty cheap here, so I usually load up a large egyptian, throw coals at it and smoke till it's time to pack it up. I usually waste a lot of tobacco, but for me it is better than getting to the bottom of the bowl before I am ready to quit smoking.

[dizzbizz]

A basic Mini Egyptian bowl holds about 15g of shisha. I get about 2 hours of smoking out of it before I cache it, and thats AF.

[magick777]

That is a good point about the economics... the bowl in question is German made, and the only UK seller charges £20 apiece when he has them. I'm looking at buying one or two of them from Germany, at just over £9 apiece, on an order I'll be making anyway, the incremental cost of shipping is nil, so if I don't like them, I could eBay them for possibly as much as I paid. I hadn't thought of that, I guess it's a good argument for trying the bowls however sceptical I am. Which means I'm still spending too much on hookah, but I guess it will hit a plateau soon. :-) Thinking about it, if I'm using a Vortex for preference and my preferred tobacco doubles in price, I'd only need to smoke nine bowls of it before I spent the cost of two "hot shot" bowls, so I guess it's got to be worth a try.