Pharaoh's Natural Coconut Coals

[roadie]

Pharaoh's Charcoal







***These are pretty much the only coals I've ever used, and can't really compare them to anything else. I've tried a few QL's and can't stand them after using these. I got spoiled on these first.

Smell:Hardly any smell at all. Very little smoke, no sparking. The few QL's I've tried sparked and smoked enough to have to turn on my kitchen fan. These were great in comparison to QL's.

Ease of Lighting - Takes about 5 minutes on a gas stove. I always use my ifan as seen above to get the coals red hot and lit all the way through also, this takes only an additional 30 seconds or so.

Heat - Great heat, but really have nothing to compare them to.

Flavor There is a slight taste ONLY if the coal is not fully lit, which is what you would expect. No taste imparted whatsoever when fully lit.

Ash - Ashed really well. Light to medium ash.

Long lasting - About 45 minutes.

Price - 48 pieces in a box for $8.99 at my local shop. I did a search and can't find these at any vendor online or any other shop. Judging by looks I would say these are comparable to the square Exoticas, but I've never tried those. Box says Made in China, and First Class Quality Charcoal, and nothing else.


Bottom Line - Again, don't really have much to compare them to. My local shop carries Exoticas, may get a box just to do a comparo and see how they stack up. Overall I'd give these a 10/10 compared to the few QL's I've tried, but as far as how they would compare to other naturals, I can't say.

***UPDATE***
I finally had a chance to compare these to the Exotica square coals. These are IDENTICAL in every way, from time to light, ash, heat, burn time, etc. The ONLY difference is that the Pharaoh's are precut into easy to use squares. They are about twice the price of Exoticas, so you are basically paying for the convenience of not having to break them apart. BUT, they are uniform in size, and will provide the exact same heat per coal. Edited August 27, 2008 by roadie

[thevoiceofzeke]

Pharaoh's Hookah Coals



I have to assume these can be categorized under "Japanese Style," since they remind me a lot of my Easy-Lites (which I loved).

These were an experiment for me...and I have 40 more of them to experiment with...but my initial tries have had terrible results.

The first thing you notice is they're thick as hell. They're easily twice as tall as an Easy-Lite while taking up the same amount of space on the bowl. At first I thought the reason for this was to make long-lasting coals, and I was hopeful.

A few minutes on the stove and they seemed to light well, again similar to my Easy-Lites. This is where the similarities end, though. Once they were nice and hot I went to pick them up with my tongs, and the first two coals I tried immediately crumbled into tiny unrecoverable pieces. I tried again with just one coal after that, and had it on the stove for a shorter time so that only the bottom half of it was red hot. This time I was able to successfully pick it up and put it on the bowl.

The damn thing burned for 10 minutes before crumbling, again, into tiny little fiery pieces that burned my shisha and ruined the experience.

These are by far the worst coals I've ever used. I'm going to give them a few more chances though, in the hopes that it's user error and I didn't waste $10 on 46 of these pieces of shit.

1/10