Diamante Natural Finger Coals

[lazria]

Diamante Charcoal

Cost: very good, picked up bag (1 kilo) for $4.99

Appearence: Long black sticks, roughly the DIA of my finger, about 6-8" long. SOILD!

Smell/Taste: None - before or after lighting.

Ease of Lighting/Method: Requires STOVE or torch, hot plate. Took 5-7 min till red hot.

Ash: Light powder, fine ash. Doesn't ash too much/often.

Heat/Duration: Good heat - broke into 2-2.5" section. After burning for 45-50 min, started second piece. Total length of time = 2.5 hours w/ windcover.

Recommend: YES! These are very good coals. Take a bit to light them, but no taste, ashes well and lasts a long time. They even out do Japanese tabs in my book! Edited July 18, 2007 by lazria

[JillyIsJustKidding]

Diamante Charcoal

Cost: Cheap. A bag was only $4.99

Appearence: Long black sticks. About 6 inches or so and they were SOLID!

Smell/Taste: . Slight chemical smell when lighting, but you don't really notice it. you CAN taste it!
It's pretty nasty and I tried everything because I thought it was "harsh" when really, it was actually the charcoal itself.

Ease of Lighting/Method: I used a stove to light one. It took maybe 5 mins. or so.

Ash: Very fine ash and you don't need to ash them too much

Foil used: Two layers of Reynolds wrap

Heat/Duration: BADDD! Two one inched pieces BURNED my whole bowl of tobacco! I didn't think it was burned (at the time) so I took one off and it kind of helped, but it just tasted NASTY and it was way too harsh! I took the charcoal off and looked inside and the the top of the tobacco was burned.

Overall (?/10) 2/10 I liked how they ashed finely but they tasted horrible and it burned the tobacco.

Recommend? Ha no. Stay away from these! I think I'll stick to my quicklights instead of these.

EDIT: I have found out the reason why these coals are bad: The factory changed its coal recipe some time ago and that's why these coals aren't as "great" as I've been hearing Edited January 2, 2008 by JillyIsJustKidding

[Plain Old Me]

Diamente Fingers

Ease of lighting: These take a few minutes on the stove or with a torch lighter. Be sure to flip em over on the stove though and get them white on both sides or else you will have black spots throughout the session.
Taste: No effect on taste. Its a natural coal, and I cannot sense any charcoal taste at all.
Ash: Ashes very finely- one of the best ashing coals I have used. Sometimes the coals will split in half lengthwise, but usually they are solid throughout the session.
Longetivity: Lasts fairly long, around 45 minutes-1.5 hours depending on how much you are smoking.
Heat: Some of the hotter coals I have used. Usually I put on 2 1.5" sticks on to begin with, but once it gets going it only needs 1 of the coals.
Overall: 8.5/10

[leadpipecinch21]

diamante fingers

these are my first adventure with natural coals, and i gotta say they're a hell of a lot better than quick lights...no more nausea after smoking for too long, and much better heat from a smaller piece...plus they're cheap as hell.


ease of lighting-i've got a walgreens coil heat...toss em on there for a couple minutes, flipping when they're half lit, take a bit of time, but less than 10 minutes to get them fully red hot
taste-none of the chemical tastes i get from quick lights(yay!), just pure, unadultered shisha.
ash- ash ise the one drawback i've found with these coals. they ash like crazy! The ash creates a barrier between the coals and shisha as well, so you need to take them off every 15 or 20 minutes and knock the ash off. not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.
longevity- i'm using with a mya standard bowl, and the shisha's always dead before the ashes die, so they last quite a while.
heat- very hot. i use 2 pieces about 3/4 an inch long for my standard mya bowl. the bowl gets hot and smoking quick and always does a great job of giving me plumes of smoke and flavor.

overall is an 8/10

i really don't like the way they ash, and sometimes they just get too darned hot, but they're a quality coal for cheap, and since i've used em 10 times or so i've gotten the heat management down.