Caravansarai Hookahs

Hey, folks, it's been a while since I had time to do any posting to the blog, and I'm really sorry for that. Lots of things have been going on since my last post, so here's a quick recap:

• Because California's budget sucks right now, I took a REALLY early retirement from teaching. It was getting too stressful having to worry about whether or not my contract would be honored and if I'd lose my health insurance. When you've got a serious brain issue or having seizures like I do, you just can't afford to be without health care coverage. So to guarantee that I keep it, I had to retire. Maybe now I'll have time to post more regularly!


• We've got an air cargo container of Khalil Mamoon (KM) pipes coming to us in the next couple of weeks. It should have 10 of each style they make, so that's kind of exciting. Keep your eye out here for the announcement of their arrival and sale.


• The response to Saalaam Herbal Shisha surpassed anything we could have imagined. We know that some people prefer the buzz that comes along with using the tobacco brands, but we are thrilled to be supplying two local hookah lounges that serve Saalaam exclusively! It has also gone international, with representatives now in Russia and Latvia, and and negotiations on-going with reps in the Netherlands (Holland), Germany, the UK, Canada, and Australia. It's hard to imagine that back a couple of summers ago, when we recruited some of our regular customers to be samplers for us, that we'd see the success that we have. Thanks again, guys -- you know who you are!

We're working on a summer contest for one of those KM pipes I mentioned and as soon as we get the details all worked out with the legal peeps, I'll post it here. In the meantime, look for more regular posting from me as I branch out into areas that are related to hookahs without spending all my time talking just about the pipes. You'll soon find recipes for Egyptian food, photos of people and places to see in Egypt, virtual vacations to the Land of the Pharoahs, and lots more. I hope that you'll hang around and join in the fun!

Most hookah fans have heard of 3 Kings charcoal, even if they haven't used it. In the wonderful world of hookahs, the 3 Kings brand is known as the best of the best as far as instant lighting charcoal goes. I like to call it the Rolls Royce of hookah coals.



Ali, the amazing Egyptian dude and our resident hookah master, didn't like to use the instant light type of coals. Ok, so he's a bit old-fashioned because he prefers the natural wood type coal that is used in Egypt. But with so many customers stopping by our shop for a chat and a hit, it became necessary for him to find a coal that he could start and use fairly quickly. Enter 3 Kings -- no, not the guys riding on camels through the desert night! I'm talking about the charcoal brand. 3 Kings comes from Holland, where it was originally made for burning incense. Ease of lighting and lack of aftertaste soon made the 3 Kings brand a popular choice among hookah users, too.



3 Kings comes in two sizes: 33mm tablets and 40mm tablets. For the 32" tall hookahs that we use at the shop, Ali uses the smaller size most of the time because it fits so nicely in the center of our charcoal screens. No matter which size tablet you prefer, both of them come in a box with 10 foil-wrapped rolls with 10 tablets in each roll.



The coal can be started easily with a torch type cigarette lighter, but Ali gets them going by putting them on the coils of an electric hotplate so that he can do other things while they heat up. These coals don't smell, burn evenly and consistently, produce a smooth ash that isn't super messy, and leave no aftertaste in the shisha. A single 33mm tablet will last 25-30 minutes; one 40mm tablet lasts about 45 minutes to an hour.




Ratings:
Quality = 10/10
Price = 8/10

With temps running in the 90+ range in the OC, how could I not think of this funky song?! We topped out at 100 degrees in Fullerton yesterday, and today promises to be every bit as summery. The middle of May isn't normally so hot, but the recent rising barometer got me thinking about summer shisha flavors ahead of schedule. Here's my list for great summer smokes:

Apricot
These juicy little fruits make their appearance in the early summer months, so I'll start the list with them. A variety of shisha companies have Apricot flavor, with some tasting better than others. I recommend Layalina for the tobacco smokers and Soex for the herbal smokers.

Blackberry
One of my favorite things to do during the summer was to wander through the fields in my Mom's hometown hamlet of Freeman, New York, and pick wild blackberries. Between me, my sisters, and my cousin, we rarely brought back a full bucket because we ate more of the berries than we collected for cobbler! I recommend Fusion for the tobacco smokers and Soex for the herbal smokers.

Cantalope
Nothing beats the sweet and juicy summer melons, if you ask me! The cantalope from Starbuzz is a good choice for tobacco smokers and the Sweet Melon flavor from Soex for the herbal smokers.

Cola
I was raised on Coca-Cola Classic and believe me, I can definitely taste and smell a significant difference between Coke and Pepsi! So, for those of you who prefer Coca-Cola Classic, I can't recommend Starbuzz highly enough -- it has a true Coke taste. If you like Pepsi instead, then El-Nakhla is what you'll want.

Strawberry
Memorial Day weekend is the time for the Strawberry Festival in the city where I live. Not only was the area known for its strawberry fields (sadly, only one of them remains and the land on which the strawberries are grown is likely to be usurped by Disney soon), but for its annual festival in their honor. For the best strawberry shisha flavors, I recommend Layalina Kiwi Strawberry, Fusion Strawberry Daquiri, Nakhla Strawberry for tobacco smokers. For the herbal smokers, High-Life Herbal Smoke is a good choice.

Watermelon
No fruit says summer better than watermelon! Al-Fakher is the best choice among the tobacco brands, and Soex has the best herbal selection.

As I mentioned before, non-tobacco shisha is the wave of the future. The anti-tobacco and smoking bandwagon just keeps growing, so those of us who enjoy hookah need to check our options and alternatives. To this end, I recently tried some High-Life Smoke in the peach flavor.

My set up consisted of a 32" tall traditional Egyptian hookah with a single hose and a traditional Egyptian bowl made from clay. I'm not a fan of the Chinese porcelain bowls because they are too fragile and have the tendency to get way too hot. The only "modern" part of my set up was a charcoal screen that I used instead of foil. Basically, my set up is the same that you find in cafes all over Egypt.

High-Life comes in a sealed plastic bag inside a lightweight cardboard box. I couldn't smell much through the box before opening it but once it was open, a strong scent of peaches greeted me. The shisha looks like Soex except that the High-Life was a little more moist and softer to the touch. With the brightly colored and funky packaging, I expected to find a similar contemporary look in the shisha; however, in terms of color, it's just plain old reddish brown.

A group of friends shared the hookah with me, and we all came to the same conclusion -- High-Life is a decent product. The shisha maintained its flavor throughout our smoking session, which is a definite plus. It was a smooth smoke from start to finish with the shisha never becoming harsh. The only real complaint that we all had about it is that no matter how big our hits, we couldn't achieve the thick white clouds of smoke that we get with traditional shisha or with Soex.

Ratings:
Taste = 9/10
Smoke = 7/10
Cost = 8/10

If you've been searching for the perfect hookah charcoal and haven't found it yet, let me recommend Exotica Finger Style Charcoal to you!

At long last, 3 Kings has met a true competitor for its market share of natural wood charcoal made for the hookah. 3 Kings, long considered the premier hookah charcoal, has a couple of factors working against it in the US market. First, it is cost prohibitive. 3 Kings is made in Holland and must be imported to the US. To make it worthwhile to bring 3 Kings from Europe, anyone who imports it and wants to make a profit on its sale must bring a large quantity. But the costs associated with importing a large quantity of 3 Kings puts off most importers. This, in turn, leads to the second problem with 3 Kings -- availability. The product is not as readily available as some other hookah coal brands are. And when you're lucky enough to find them, expect to pay through the nose for them. Enter Exotica!

Exotica, the newest finger style hookah charcoal on the market, boasts some unique changes that are sure to improve the hookah experience for all! Exotica's superior quality coal not only offers a revolutionary square shape to prevent to coal from rolling off the head, but it also promises

• NO odor
• NO taste
• NO smoke
• LESS messy ash
• NO breakage when heated
• NO rolling around the bowl
• LONG LASTING -- each finger lasts at least 1 hour!

At approximately half the price of a box of 3 Kings, we were really excited about trying Exotica and possibly adding it to our line of products. We weren't disappointed with our experience using it; we found it to be everything the manufacturer said it would be. It's not a quick-lighting charcoal, so you will need a constant heat source like a stove and some patience while you wait for it to get start, but your patience will be well rewarded with one of the best smoking sessions you've ever had!

From the first time we used it, we knew that the manufacturer of Exotica had a 5-Star product on his hands. Like all natural coals, it takes a little while to get started. But in the process, there was no stinky sulphur smell like the quick-lights give off, no popping or embers flying around. We did not have to worry about someone bumping into the hookah or moving the coal around the head and causing pieces to fall onto the carpet, tile, or table because Exotica's unique square shape keeps it right where it belongs at all times! There is zero taste interference, no smoke even when it's red hot, and so little ash from the dense fingers that we needed to ash the coals just a couple of times during our 1 1/2 hour smoking session!

Exotica is definitely a coal worth keeping around. It comes in a 1 kilo box -- that's 2.2 pounds, folks! -- and costs approximately $8. When you consider the quantity, length of burn time per coal, and the cost, Exotica wins over 3 Kings every time as the better bang for the buck.