Discussion Of The Less Popular "traditional" Mu'assel Brands

[twoapplesplease]

Thought it would be nice to start a thread about what some of these brands are like. I personally like the more traditional brands and will go through some of my favorites here.I'll add a new post for each brand If anyone want to add anything please do.

starting with Afzal, Nakhla will be used as a basic comparison. (everyone pretty much knows nakhla well)

Afzal- An unwashed brand from India. It has a finer cut then Nakhla with few stems and most flavors have no glycerin and are not dyed.( apple and DA tend to always be dyed). The cut is also really sticky. The brand uses a slightly darker richer molasses base then nakhla and you can taste it. The brand also has a lot of unique spice and herb flavors not typically found in the west.

Afzal has a reputation for having really bad fruit flavors,But the non fruit flavors in my experiance are fantastic. It also has a stronger tobacco background then nakhla and also takes heat better then nakhla but you can burn it. it is really comparable to nakhla though.

A few of my recomended flavors that I've tried.

silverfox
golden amber
vanillia
mintos
double apple
chocomint
bombbay pan
pan rasna
roohafzah
pan masala

[Hassouni]

Could you mention packing and other details for these various brands?

PS, Afzal mango is the single worst thing I've ever smoked. Imagine smoke a crayon, and that's exactly what it was like.

[twoapplesplease]

Salloum & Cleopatra

I am putting these two together because they are made by the same company and are very very close to the same with cleopatra having slightly stronger tobacco flavor and nicotine content.

These brands are made in Egypt and are not a whole lot different then Nakhla. More tobacco flavor and besides apple flavors they are not dyed. the cut and texture of these are a little finer then nakhla but bigger then Afzal. With a few stems and very sticky. These brands use a very rich dark molasses.And that flavor is very noticable in some of the flavors more so then others.A stronger molasses then used in afzal.

The tobacco flavor is slightly stronger then nakhla's but not by a whole lot. its more the flavorings are tamed down and very natural providing a mellow smoking experiance. They take heat very well about on par with nakhla in this respect. These brands also have very good packaging and often come very moist and fresh, compared to the occasional "dry box of nak"

I have not had all of the flavors from these brands but from what I have had I would not hesitate to try others
My tried recomendations(this is all the ones I've tried and they were all really good)

cleopatra

double apple
coconut

salloum

bahryne apple
mint
plain( moassel salloum)

[Chreees]

FINALLY, NEW CONTENT!!!!!!!

What is golden amber like? Pan rasna? I've heard a lot about it, but not sure what it's like exactly. Intrigues me a bit...

Great info, man.

[Hassouni]

Paan, FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paan

[twoapplesplease]

OK now onto Desi Murli

Desi Murli -Another brand from India. now this stuff is not like anything else out there. And probly more like Jurak or somewhere inbetween jurak and mu'assel. It is not dyed and uses strong tobacco , and the flavors are secondary to that tobacco flavor save a few stronger flavors. this brand has been around for 150-170 years.

Very finly chopped with some stems and bits. the cut is almost like snuff. not really sticky but moist and messy. Takes Heat very well and it is hard to burn,but can take a few minn to get a bowl going so its best to let the bowl warm a bit before taking the first puff.

As with Afzal being from India there a lot of neat unusal spice and herb flavors we don't have here in the west.The nicotine content is huge so be prepared for a solid dose of it.

Also this brand is shiped to distributers not prepaired and then is meant to be prepaired by the customer or the shop/lounge that sells it...it is meant to be mixed with honey ,and glycerin if you choose...Hookah1 now prepares it before shipping it to customers with a bit of honey and glycerin added. (and IMO he has gotten pretty good at it) ..texas hookah is the only other place I know that has desi murli and I think they sell the not prepaired version.( I am not sure) but thats cool to..But hookah1 is the importer of it...And just FYI it will come from H1 in ziplock bags freshly prepaired

Anyway Desi Murli is so different then everything else that it is something to be experianced. I have had A lot of the flavors and I have not had a bad one. The ones that don't stick out as great just have a sort of "genaric desi murli flavor" with some differances. and the base product is really good so you can't really lose.

My flavor recomendations are that I have tried

Bombbay pan
clove
silver fox
aniseseed
sweet melon
strawberry milk shake
kewra
roohafzah
chocomint
cardomom
mint
pan
pan rasna

[twoapplesplease]

[quote name='Chreees' timestamp='1359070107' post='569532']
FINALLY, NEW CONTENT!!!!!!!

What is golden amber like? Pan rasna? I've heard a lot about it, but not sure what it's like exactly. Intrigues me a bit...

Great info, man.
[/quote]

Golden amber is a gold/green apple with menthol/mint type flavor...you will see apple in the background of the box of it..

Pan is a spice not unlike the spice in tangiers kashmir flavors. and rasna is some kind of mintyness or menthol cooling flavor

[twoapplesplease]

Add chai latte to that list of Desi Murli it is fantastic and can not be left out

Chai Latte!

[twoapplesplease]

Now what about Al Waha?

this is a unwashed brand from Jordan and really not much different then nakhla. the cut is similar and its kinda inbetween classic nak and mizo moisture content and molasses base.Takes heat like Nak. And also has about the same nicotine content.Most of Al waha I belive is dyed but I could be wrong

Al Waha however is more hit and miss as far as good and bad flavors go.And more differance in opinions on what are good and bad flavors.

I have not had a whole lot of Al waha flavors but A few I've had are pretty good, And I look forward to trying a few others...there is also a new "gold line" al waha and I tried the DA it was OK. This new gold line is a lot like MIZO nak IMO

The classic Al waha two apples is fantastic but some of the other ones that get a lot of notice are

after nine
california dream
bounty
baharani apple
turkish nights

[Skoozle]

[quote name='Hassouni' timestamp='1359069873' post='569530']
Could you mention packing and other details for these various brands?

PS, Afzal mango is the single worst thing I've ever smoked. Imagine smoke a crayon, and that's exactly what it was like.
[/quote]

Yes, please.

I'd like some info on preparing and packing DM. I ended up with some but haven't gotten into it because it's different.

[Hassouni]

Al Waha Double Apple (not Bahraini), in the can at least, is UNDYED! And is a very worthy substitute if Nakhla DA in the can is unavailable.

Also, I'm in possession of something I picked up in Kuwait, which came from a bucket with an Al-Waha label (not counterfeit looking but who knows), called, in Arabic and English, "Shirazi Grape". It is hands down the most unbelievable grape flavor I've had since the good old days 8 years ago of Golden Al-Fakher Grape, which is now shit. It may even be better. A search on Al-Waha's site reveals nothing, nor does googling in Arabic or English. I must find out what the deal is....

[twoapplesplease]

[quote name='Skoozle' timestamp='1359074402' post='569552']
[quote name='Hassouni' timestamp='1359069873' post='569530']
Could you mention packing and other details for these various brands?

PS, Afzal mango is the single worst thing I've ever smoked. Imagine smoke a crayon, and that's exactly what it was like.
[/quote]

Yes, please.

I'd like some info on preparing and packing DM. I ended up with some but haven't gotten into it because it's different.
[/quote]

desi murli is packed medium dense to the rim of the bowl maybe slightly over so that the foil presses it down...you will need a good bit of heat..maybe start with 1 more coal then you would for nak or just windcover it the whole time...its pretty fool proof stuff...it would take some serious overkill heat to burn

[Hassouni]

What about Afzal and Salloum?

[twoapplesplease]

Afzal and salloum are treat as it were nakhla basically...I recomend medium dense slightly over the rim so the foil presses it down. and heat as you would nak

[Skoozle]

[quote name='twoapplesplease' timestamp='1359075610' post='569556']
[quote name='Skoozle' timestamp='1359074402' post='569552']
[quote name='Hassouni' timestamp='1359069873' post='569530']
Could you mention packing and other details for these various brands?

PS, Afzal mango is the single worst thing I've ever smoked. Imagine smoke a crayon, and that's exactly what it was like.
[/quote]

Yes, please.

I'd like some info on preparing and packing DM. I ended up with some but haven't gotten into it because it's different.
[/quote]

desi murli is packed medium dense to the rim of the bowl maybe slightly over so that the foil presses it down...you will need a good bit of heat..maybe start with 1 more coal then you would for nak or just windcover it the whole time...its pretty fool proof stuff...it would take some serious overkill heat to burn
[/quote]

Thank you, Sir. The DM I have appears to be pretty dry and is in a DM package. I'm guessing I need to add some glycerin and honey. Any recommendations on how much glycerin and honey to add? It's mango flavored so I'm not expecting it to be the best.

[twoapplesplease]

I would start with a tablespoon of each honey and glycerin and go from there. its not supposed to be overly moist something like a classic nakhla feel but its different because of the cut.

and the fruit flavors of DM might suprise you...the ones I have had like sweet melon you would'nt expect to be good in a DM flavor but that was not the case I had with DM sweet melon..a very good mild natural sweet melon flavor that went suprisingly well with the tobacco flavor.

[CO_hookah]

Very cool! I'll have to look out for some of this stuff

[twoapplesplease]

OK I mentioned jurak earlier and should go into what that is a little bit.

Jurak is like mu'assel and comes mainly from India and is heavily smoked in India and the gulf region. It is tobacco and molasses with real dried fruit,herbs,spices,roots and natural essences. it is most like some of the mu'assels like zaghloul,khan el khalili and moassel salloum. but Jurak tends to ground into a fine paste and is very heat tolerant and needs practice to pack it the right way. It is very sticky and if you pack it to dense there will be no air flow...So being from india it has some neat spice flavors, but it is mostly a tobacco flavor.

Not much jurak has come to the US market. there has been a few here and there..There are 3 classic flavors for jurak and they come in a colored tin and each brand that makes these 3 classic colored tin juraks have the same basic flavor for that color..there are also other juraks not in the colored tins, but the tin ones are very common and popular...

here is a basic description of what the different color tins taste like [url="http://www.ahmadjurak.com/products.html"]http://www.ahmadjurak.com/products.html[/url]

Kamal just got in some classic jurak tins in the 3 colors and I can't wait to try them.

[twoapplesplease]

Bahrain tobacco factory ( gold seal )

This is the stuff I started smoking back in the day. I've only smoked the apple flavor but there are several of the classic flavors available. It is unwashed and packs a buzz like that of DM. the cut is like nakhla with a few bigger leaf chunks and less stems and really juicy like mizo.

The flavors are great but not overpowering and not super sweet.It is ultra smooth and makes GIANT clouds. Has a real nice tobacco background flavor not unlike some of the homemade stuff I made with turkish tobacco.And a bit of a fig taste to it

This is the real original apple bahraini flavor all the other tobacco companies try to copy..At first it won't blow you away with its flavor, but if you have it in your stash you will soon find your self reaching for this stuff everytime you go to smoke. I love it, My all time favorite apple flavor or mu'assel for that matter.

if you happen across this stuff I highly recomend it

[Hassouni]

To think the half-assed Persian grocery store here used to carry it years back and I always passed it by because of how nondescript it looked...Anybody still sell it?

[twoapplesplease]

No one really carries it that I know..Bassem got some last winter and I got a jar and it was just as amazing as I rember. might be a random mid-east shop that has it because some family member brought a bunch over but thats about it I think...When I used to buy it at my local shop you had to know the owner.(they kept it in back,all the nak and AF were out on shelfs) Since I came in all the time with my egyptian friends (who were very close with the owners) I was able to buy it. I also bout my first 3 hookahs from the shop which I'm sure helped. me and my friend were there on a weekly buying spree of all kinds of stuff.

I rember when el basha grape came out ,we got it in jars back then and it was much better back then I rember

[Hassouni]

[b]ROSANNA[/b]

Made by the Smyrna Tobacco Company in İzmir (hometown of Elmas), and Branded as "Elmas Tobacco" sometimes, Rosanna is generally considered the best Turkish mu'assal out there. I don't know about their tobacco leaf, or their molasses or other ingredients, but the stuff is definitely washed, as it gives no buzz at all, and most flavors are dyed (mostly red, with some exceptions). The appearance is like Mizo, with AF wetness - thin, longish strands of tobacco dripping in syrup. For the most part flavors are very light and clean - no muddled flavors, and no sick-from-the-dye feeling that I get sometimes with AF. All produce pretty big clouds due to how wet they are.

All the flavors I've tried are at least decent, though not all are truly accurate to the flavor they're billed as. Some of the flavors, however, are absolute knockouts, 11/10 kind of thing.

Here's what I've had:

Strawberry - 10/10 best strawberry I've ever had (and this is actually a flavor AF does very well, but I think Rosanna is better)
Grape - 8/10 - very light taste, but good. If it were stronger it'd be a 9 or 10
Caramel - 11/10. Unbelievable. Maybe the best mu'assal flavor in existence. Like smoking toffee or honest to god caramel sauce. Staggeringly good, and though sweet, not the kind you get sick of after a while
Bahraini Apple - 10/10. This rivals Nakhla DA in the can for classic status - it's a sweetish, un-anised apple with some VERY subtle background sweet spices. Very very good stuff.

The rest I've tried range from a 6-8, not because they're bad, but because the flavors are either light or not at all accurate:

Pomegranate (oddly enough, reminded me of Tangiers Static Starlight)
Sour Cherry ([i]Vişne)[/i]- Not actually sour cherry, but not bad. Kind of disappoint though, as I love sour cherry juice, jam, etc.
Watermelon - a very solid but mysterious sweet fruit flavor - not watermelon at all, but quite nice whatever it is. I actually really like this one.

TwoApples has tried some flavors I haven't so he can chime in

[Hassouni]

I should add that Rosanna is hands down the best of the "sweeter/candylike" brands I've had. Though they make maybe 20 flavors and I've only had 7, all were enjoyable and some sensational, and I never got sick of them like I do from other sweeter mu'assals. I basically have no reason to ever buy Al-Fakher again

[twoapplesplease]

Rosanna is damn fine stuff.. I would have to agree that its probably the best "modern style" mu'assel

since Hass rated a few flavs with discriptions I should do the same for the other flavs I tried not listed

Mint- the best mint I have had,not overpowering like most mints,with the flavor of all three mint types well balanced ( fresh mint-peppermint-spearmint)

cappicino- very good coffee flavor , more coffee then cappicino but very good non the less (think inbetween nak coffee and el basha cappicino)

Gum- a spermint flavor very close to mizo gum but less sweet and less sticky smoke feeling and just better.

multifruits- the best multi-fruit period. tastes just like hawaian punch

orange- its a great orange flavor kinda like nak manderin but with the quality of rosanna

lemon- a good lemon but not amazing, I put the nak mizo lemon above it actually

[twoapplesplease]

El Hennawy

Another egypritan brand unwashed and very much like nakhla and salloum for the most part. Almost as moist as nak mizo with a longer strand cut then the other egyptian brands so it does pack up really nice. A bit stronger nicotine level the nakhla. easy to heat mang and produces jumbo clouds. mostly undyed except apple flavors

A few flavors of this brand went around ,something like 6 flavors, but the brand has more then that.. I really liked the ones I tried. El hennawy is less flavored then nakhla and has a really nice toasted tobacco like flavor note to it,which goes better with some flavors then others.

I wish this brand was more available I would love to try more flavors.they have 4 kinds of black leaf and mostly the classic flavs...but here is there website. supposedly there is a distributer in the USA and it has been seen at local shops from time to time.
this place used to carry it on there site and I'm guessing they are the distributer. [url="http://www.ziyad.com/"]http://www.ziyad.com/[/url] they used to have a lot of the flavors listed. I have not contacted them to see if they still carry it or know where to get it. but I might soon

[url="http://www.hennawy.com/products.htm"]http://www.hennawy.com/products.htm[/url]

I'll give a quik list of the ones I tried and a quik thought about it

bahraini apple - this is one of the better bahraini apples I would love to buy this again
cappicino - I liked it, not really a coffee or cappicino flav it was kinda like a white chocolate hazelnut
orange - the Orange was great and many who tried it loved , some would argue its the best orange. it was damn good
vanillia - this was a weird one , I liked it. not really vanillia. it has been described like a buttery popcorn and IDK thats not far off.
peach - It was an OK peach