REVIEW: SHISHA-LITE APPLE SCENTED CHARCOALS
(33 mm, 40 mm, and Japanese Style)
I will be examining this product under 4 categories on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 being poor and 5 being great।
- Appearance: Do they have notable quality?
- Ignition: How instantaneous are they, really?
- Scent: Do they actually taste or smell like apples?
- Endurance: How long will they burn? How well do they smoke?
I just got my hands on a new interesting product. This product is brand new to the market. I have yet to find these on the shelves, or online for that matter. As of today they are unavailable to the general public. I am officially claiming to be the first to review these products! These charcoals are similar to regular instant light ones, except they are "SCENTED" or "FLAVORED". The 3 products being examined are made by the Shisha-Lite Brand based out of China.
Charcoals in wrappers (We just so happen to have a table cloth with apples on it.)
We used 3 different Hookahs to compare each type of charcoal.
#1. Appearance/Properties:
33 mm
40 mm
Japanese Style (Broken into 3 pieces)
(4.6/5) Appearance
#2. Ignition: How Instant? How Safe? How Much Ignition Smoke?
How instant are they? Some instant light charcoals take diligent lighting from all sides. Other charcoals will spew fireworks or even spray fiery shards across the room! As I light the 33 mm and 40 mm I notice that they need no assistance and they burn PERFECTLY. No gaps between sparks. From left to right these charcoals are truly instant.
40 mm after 10 minutes
33 mm after 10 minutes.
As for ignition smoke there was a good amount of smoke but no more than any other instant light charcoals. The smoke did have the apple scent expected. The smoke seemed to disappear quicker than most which was nice.
The Japanese style charcoals didn't take off or anything, as I found out, they apparently are not instant. I lit each corner and waited about 10 minutes. This seemed to do the trick.
This was taken after about 20 minutes.
(4.4/5) Ignition
#3. Scent: Apples?
The next thing we should compare is the smell of the actual product once already lit and "ready". They are ready when they have a nice coating of light gray on the outside rim while advancing towards the middle of the charcoal. Waiting this long is important as at this point all of the fuels used to make instant light charcoals instant has been oxidized
Do they smell like apples, as labeled, and do they actually add apple flavor to the flavored tobacco? I have chosen to use a milder flavor of shisha today as too see if we could pick out apple in the flavor. The flavor used was Layalina, Pear flavored tobacco, a very, mildly, sweet flavored tobacco, subtle but still good nevertheless.
Opening the package I noticed a delightful apple scent, not the usual stench of other instant light charcoals.
After the first few puffs I could taste it. They actually do have a have an appley sent. The smell/scent/taste isn't terribly strong but it is evident.
Picture shows all 3 lit for about 30 minutes
(5/5) Scent
#4. Endurance
Because smoking is an enduring processing we will also compare the burns of each charcoal
The production of this product is quite exact. These charcoals burn perfectly symmetrical and evenly.
Shisha-Lite 33 mm Apple Scented:
Has what is expected from an instant light coal, lasting about 25-30 minutes. At this point one could have added another coal to maintain the experience.
Shisha-Lite 40 mm Apple Scented:
Lasted about 50 minutes without any problems. Smoke was excellent and viscous from start to finish.
Shisha-Lite, Japanese Style, Apple Scented, Finger Charcoals:
Last surprisingly past an hour and a half! These finger style coals put off an amazing amount of heat. I used 1 full bar and broke it into 3 pieces however you could probably use 1-2 pieces and get plenty of heat.
(Remember, the amount of flavored tobacco and bowl used, both affect the heat distribution. 15g, as used in this test, is generally the appropriate portion for a session.)
(4.5/5) Endurance
No, the house is NOT on fire. This was from a drag I took.
Overall Satisfaction:
All three smell exactly like apple right out of the pack, before even lighting them! Using the pear flavored shisha I got a nice nicotine buzz fairly quickly. The apple scent adds a nice hint of flavor. This would be excellent to use with cinnamon flavor, or blueberry muffin flavored tobacco (Yes that is a real flavor).
I am very pleased with the quality of these instant lights. These are so much better than my first impression hinted me to assume. I was assuming these were going to be like the majority of instant lights, tasting of petroleum and harsh chemicals. What I got was a fragrant, EXTREMELY fast lighting heat source. I would recommend these over most other instant lights.
I look forward to this product to be available to the general public.
If I had to choose which one of these three I would buy the 33mm. The 33 mm size is just enough heat for the amounts of tobacco and the thickness I desire of my smoke. If you use a larger head I would suggest the 40 mm charcoals.
Overall Score: (18.5/20)
stove has been my number one mobile heat source. The initial investment is pretty low cost and the gas canisters last quite a while. Each canister lasts about 2 hours straight! Considering you only really need it on for 5 to 10 minutes, it can be seen why this is a great choice. Cans of butane gas (the fuel) can be purchased for about $2-$4 a can. The stove itself is between $20-$50... Not bad at all.
t they got hot enough, however I was wrong. An electric stove works pretty good. It's certainly not portable, unless you bring an arsenal of car batteries and a hell of an AC/DC transformer. But the consistency of lighting is phenomenal! From one corner to the next, the light is perfect. This is not so with the open flame style lighting techniques, which can very greatly due to the "wandering flame".
