Bombay Pan Masala

[hookah_hoop]

Soex Bombay Pan Masala

Setup: 18" hookah with ceramic bowl, metal screen, ice water, 2 1" Al-Adjad finger coals

Appearance and texture: Fairly wet, sort of oily.

Smell: In the package it smells like lime with some floral overtones. When smoked it smells like a weak floral incense and the lime scent is very weak.

Taste: It takes about five minutes to develop any flavor at all. Upon contact with the tongue the smoke is very sweet and sugary. The flavor then rounds out a bit into lime and floral hints that border on perfume. Rose perhaps? Inhales leave a floral perfume type of taste. I found the flavor to be very odd but not terrible. These floral flavors tend to overpower the lime a bit. The floral aspect of the smoke will probably keep this from becoming a favorite of mine, it was just sort of strange tasting, but the sweetness and the lime hints were very nice.

Smoke: Thick white plumes.

Buzz: Somewhat of one from time to time but obviously its not a nicotine buzz, perhaps it is just due to lack of oxygen. I don't really enjoy inhaling Soex products into my lungs because the "herbal shisha" movement is so new and undocumented. I usually prefer short "cigar style" puffs and blowing smoke rings.

Add ons: (edit) Initially I scored this flavor pretty low because the floral aspect was too strange. In an effort to enhance the citrus flavors of the lime I added some lemon juice to the water in my vase and it really made for a nice smoke! The lemon juice bumped this up from barely tolerable to really quite tasty! I would like to give this a lemon juice add on score of 7 out of 10. I'll definately be enjoying that combination again!

Score: I'll give it 4 points just for being unique and different and 1 point for the subdued, sweet lime hints. However, the floral taste keeps this one from being a favorite and it comes in at a midrange 5 out of 10. Not highly recommended but far from terrible. Edited February 4, 2008 by hookah_hoop