My Super Mega Og Experience

[Hassouni]

Some of you may have seen a hint of this on El Bookface, but here's the whole story.

 

A site that shall not be named is super big on unflavored tobaccos, and apparently the granddaddy is a brand called Khansar, from Syria, which is named after a famous tobacco producing town of the same name in Iran, near Esfahan (source of the famous Esfahan Tonbak). Iranian (AKA 'ajami) tobacco is famous throughout the Middle East, and is about as close to the original product as you can get.

 

I was with my friend at a secret invite-only hookah lounge in a posh part of London. I realized the manager was Persian, and I piped up and asked:

 

"hey man do you have any Iranian stuff?"

 

"wot, you mean Khoonsar?" (colloquial persian pronunciation of khaansaar (خوانسار)

 

"Yeah! you got any of that?"

 

"Yeah man we got a bit...you like that stuff?"

 

"Can we switch bowls [from Nakhla DA to that]?"

 

"Man, I dunno, I can't even smoke it, and I'm a cigar guy. And we tried setting it up one time in here and made the place smell awful, I don't think we can give you a bowl..."

 

"Well can I buy some off you?"

 

"Of course!"

 

So out I walk with this:

 

 

 

Not even a box. Just stuff wrapped up in paper. With a VERY strong cigar-like smell. On to France, back to London, then off to Beirut before returning home.

 

Two weeks later, stateside, I open the package, and find, rather than the large shreds or pieces or even whole leaves I've seen served as 'Ajami in Lebanon, this:

 

 

Itty bitty specks, some shreds, and a lot of twiggy bits. Well what the fuck do we do with this?

 

Clearly, soak, squeeze, and serve, but the last part caused me confusion. This is not the stuff for wrapping around those vertical heads, nor is it suitable for stacking on the slightly wider flat heads.

 

Remembering all the Iranian pipes I've seen, the obvious way to do it revealed itself as pile a bit into my deepest bowl, and place the coals on top, inside the bowl, much as is done in the Persian tradition.

 

So here we have it, a pinch of khoonsar, soaked till soft, wrung out, and packed tightly in a VERY deep, wide Lebanese bowl I have (which i've never even used for anything else)

 

(Not sure why it looks green, it was a uniform brown)

 

Coals right on:

 

 

And gettin' the cherry goin'

 

 

So now I know what they do in Iran. 

 

Thoughts: you thought Tangiers was an ass-kicker? Khan al Khalili/Zaghloul/Salloum? My friends, say hello to tanbaak-e-Khoonsar. Never ever have I been hit so hard by the nicotine.

 

But on another note, the flavor was pretty awesome. It was MUCH better than the couple times I've ordered 'Ajami in Lebanon. Almost like a delicate yet rich cigar, without much harshness. Because of the soaking process, if you take small short puffs, the tobacco doesn't burn much or too quickly, and the taste is very soft. Blow on the coals, or inhale frequently to get the heat going (as seen in the last picture), and you can actually get clouds comparable if not larger than a decent cigar, with a surprisingly pleasant prickle in the throat and a very cigar-like taste, but with the very noticeable affect of the water cooling down and smoothing the smoke. 

 

I didn't pack very much tobacco - it went only about half an hour before getting totally torched, but frankly I wouldn't have been able to do more than that. I guess if you didn't want the stronger smoke and went at it very lightly, it would last longer. There's no doubt that lemonwood coals were meant for this - hot and fast burn is exactly what's needed.

 

Also, while I rather enjoyed it, don't think this is something I'll be doing too often. 1. Outdoors ONLY 2. Nicotine upside the head 3. Direct combustion, which is unquestionably far worse from a health perspective than our usual "baking"

 

[Nerdy]

Wow, that is very nice. I'm glad you got to experience this. It looks to be fun times.

[hookah hippie]

Mush has a vid of him packing up tombac if you are curious about the soaking method.  Never tried it myself tho, one day i will.

[Hassouni]

the stuff he has is totally different, it's the variety in larger pieces and long strips

[Coyote]

AWESOME. Save a bit for me :)

[Stuie]

Awesome!!!!!! Now I want some!!!!!!!!! haven't had a buzz in years.

[Hassouni]

Stuie I could probably send you a small pinch. They gave me 100g but since it's all dry, a little goes a LONG way

[mustang67n]

thats awesome!

[mattarios2]

good stuff Hass!

[Bawhee]

that looks like a pretty intensive experience, hope I can try something like that once

[Nerdy]

BOLD FONT!!!!!!

 

:ph34r:​ 

[Pavo21]

like i was telling you hass, to bad i dont live closer i'd be there with you on those types of adventures.