Hookah tastes horrible, please help! !!

[viiziionz33]

What's up guys,  made an account just to ask this question

 

So this is my set up,  I have a KM hookah, heba diffuser,  using those big ceramic bowls that are common on km hookahs,  using Starbuzz black peach and I have two hoses, the stock km hose and a washable rubberish "turbohose". I'm using coco mazaya coals so I'm pretty sure I have quality stuff.  I'm also pretty sure I'm packing it correctly,  not touching the foil and sprinkled into the bowl instead of packing it tight. For some reason my hookah tastes horrible,  not burnt but just very nasty and it always starts tasting this way the first session. It used to  only go bad if I put new coals on without changing the bowl. It used to taste amazing.  For the life of me I can't figure it out.  I tried switching the hoses within the session and it still tastes horrible so my only two culprits are:

 

1) I may be punching too many holes.  I use a staple (very ghetto) to make the holes and they come out very tiny but I do make a lot of holes on the foil

2) dirty hookah.  I clean it literally every time BEFORE a session.  I never clean it after because I always have a hookah session late at night and don't wanna clean it immediately after.  I used lemon juice, water and baking soda to clean everything yesterday hoping it would help but nothing

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated cause it tastes so disgusting

[Coleman]

im not a master here, but you could just have gotten a bad flavor, or even possibly a bad batch. the one thing i will say though is it sounds like you're under packing. the underpacking could be causing the flavor issue, when you pack a bowl you want it to sit just above the rim of the bowl so when you put the foil on it pushes it down just the slightest amount.

[viiziionz33]

im not a master here, but you could just have gotten a bad flavor, or even possibly a bad batch. the one thing i will say though is it sounds like you're under packing. the underpacking could be causing the flavor issue, when you pack a bowl you want it to sit just above the rim of the bowl so when you put the foil on it pushes it down just the slightest amount.

I hear that the shisha should NOT reach the rim of the bowl,  because if it does it will come in contact with the foil and thus burn quite quickly

 

So I don't know wwhat would be the right thing,  either pack it so it reaches the top or just below the rim so it does not come in contact with the foil, which I have been doing 

[Coleman]

im not a master here, but you could just have gotten a bad flavor, or even possibly a bad batch. the one thing i will say though is it sounds like you're under packing. the underpacking could be causing the flavor issue, when you pack a bowl you want it to sit just above the rim of the bowl so when you put the foil on it pushes it down just the slightest amount.

I hear that the shisha should NOT reach the rim of the bowl,  because if it does it will come in contact with the foil and thus burn quite quickly

 

So I don't know wwhat would be the right thing,  either pack it so it reaches the top or just below the rim so it does not come in contact with the foil, which I have been doing 

no you want it to touch the foil, you just need to make sure to pay attention to the bowl and work with heat maintenance a little bit.

[viiziionz33]

im not a master here, but you could just have gotten a bad flavor, or even possibly a bad batch. the one thing i will say though is it sounds like you're under packing. the underpacking could be causing the flavor issue, when you pack a bowl you want it to sit just above the rim of the bowl so when you put the foil on it pushes it down just the slightest amount.

I hear that the shisha should NOT reach the rim of the bowl,  because if it does it will come in contact with the foil and thus burn quite quickly

 

So I don't know wwhat would be the right thing,  either pack it so it reaches the top or just below the rim so it does not come in contact with the foil, which I have been doing 

no you want it to touch the foil, you just need to make sure to pay attention to the bowl and work with heat maintenance a little bit.

II'll try that out then.  Another thing that I noticed is that this started happening after I opened a new bag of coals. The coals I use come in a big box with 4 bags of coals. I just started on my third bag and I noticed one of the goals had a brown spot on it.  Is it possible this bag is a bad batch of coal? 

[Coleman]

im not a master here, but you could just have gotten a bad flavor, or even possibly a bad batch. the one thing i will say though is it sounds like you're under packing. the underpacking could be causing the flavor issue, when you pack a bowl you want it to sit just above the rim of the bowl so when you put the foil on it pushes it down just the slightest amount.

I hear that the shisha should NOT reach the rim of the bowl,  because if it does it will come in contact with the foil and thus burn quite quickly

 

So I don't know wwhat would be the right thing,  either pack it so it reaches the top or just below the rim so it does not come in contact with the foil, which I have been doing 

no you want it to touch the foil, you just need to make sure to pay attention to the bowl and work with heat maintenance a little bit.

II'll try that out then.  Another thing that I noticed is that this started happening after I opened a new bag of coals. The coals I use come in a big box with 4 bags of coals. I just started on my third bag and I noticed one of the goals had a brown spot on it.  Is it possible this bag is a bad batch of coal? 

that is definitely a possibility, never had it myself but its possible

[Bawhee]

Cole answered all you really needed to know, first try packing the bowl a bit better, just in case. But normally if you find yourself in a situation where you changed one variable and it all went to hell, it's probably that one thing. Are you making sure your coals are well and fully lit before putting them on?

[viiziionz33]

Cole answered all you really needed to know, first try packing the bowl a bit better, just in case. But normally if you find yourself in a situation where you changed one variable and it all went to hell, it's probably that one thing. Are you making sure your coals are well and fully lit before putting them on?

I have been taking the coals off the burner more quickly lately, I will try to leave them on longer. 

 

Another Thing I noticed is that the hookah tastes bad when I pull without a bowl on as well.  I'm pretty sure it's not the hose since it is fairly new and I have washed it twice with lemon juice (it is washable). Maybe I'm not cleaning the stem good enough which I can't believe since I clean it with the brush every session.  I will try keeping the coals on the burner longer and also I will let the vase sit in lemon juice water and baking soda and see if that helps

[Bawhee]

The flavor could have ghosted in your hose and pipe, or the problem is in the pie/hose themselves. First off try pulling through the hoses on their own, see what that gets you. A gunked up hose can be a problem, though not frequent with washables, it can happen!

[viiziionz33]

Hey guys I think it was my vase or bowl.  I let both sit in lemon juice water and baking soda for a couple hours and I don't get the bad taste anymore.  I dont get a good taste either but that's probably because my shisha batch is almost done so it isn't as fresh as it first was.  Gonna get some Starbuzz Spearmint next.   Any good fruity/minty flavors you guys recommend? 

[Coleman]

well thats good it tastes better, but unless your shisha is stored poorly it shouldnt be an issue of the age

[Bawhee]

Truth, you'd need to have it stored literally opened up and airing out all day erry day for it to lose flavor in any short-ish amount of time. Generally a few months opened is still the same as day one. Could have been a shitty batch of tobacco though, maybe.