Tag Archives: fumari

Feb 28 2013

Fumari Spiced Chai Hookah Review

It’s high time for another hookah shisha review! Both Josh and myself love Fumari, and we no longer bother smoking anything else (aside from our beloved cigars that is). Fumari’s mint chocolate chill has been my preferred flavor for quite some time, but it’s possible spiced chai has knocked it off the block. Upon opening the baggie of chai, your nose is assaulted with vanilla and spice. I often find myself tempted to lick my fingers when preparing a bowl of Fumari shisha, that’s how good they smell. Fumari is characterized by a preponderance of glycerol, so you never have to worry about the shisha drying out. One small issue with this though is that you may get a severe amount of glycerol dripping down your hookah if you don’t have a vortex bowl (you should own a vortex bowl anyway, but that’s neither here nor there).

Smoking spiced chai is a dream. The flavors are extremely smooth, with vanilla and spice dominating.  Oddly enough, exhaling smoke through your nose will leave you smelling cinnamon, which isn’t evident on the palate. The burn is very clean, and I rarely if ever experience harshness of the smoke. There aren’t too many flavors I can smoke back to back, but spiced chai could go for hours no problem. Josh and I even experimented with altering the water we put in the base. To accent the spices in the shisha, we boiled nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, cooled it down, then filled the base. Spices became very prominent through the nose, with a small bit of tingling on the tongue from the cloves. Most of the smooth vanilla flavor present in the smoke before was eradicated by the spices, though.

 

Nov 28 2012

Fumari: Ambrosia Hookah Review

Long, long ago, there was a time when I loved to smoke Starbuzz brand shisha (not to hate on Starbuzz fans). However, those days have long gone. Many of the flavors are overpowering. The tobacco is prone to burning due to lack of glycerin and moisture in general. Also from what I’ve heard, Starbuzz sprays perfume into their cans of shisha, often advertising misleading scents to the inexperienced buyer. Many of the flavors are hit and miss. There are those that are pretty good, and those that are absolutely terrible. One is inclined to stick with what he or she knows, and is discouraged from experimentation.

Enter Fumari, a diamond in the rough, a rose among thorns, and my personal favorite flavor, Ambrosia. In Greek mythology, Ambrosia is the nectar of the Gods, which grants immortality to any mortal who can get his hands on it. This, my fellow smokers, is an extremely bold name for a flavor of shisha.

I first learned about Fumari online, while on my quest for milky white clouds without the harshness. I also learned that Fumari was a local brand, mixed and packaged here in beautiful, sunny San Diego. I visited the Fumari lounge and feasted my eyes and nose on a myriad of sample flavors. Ambrosia instantly caught my eye, and it was the first Fumari brand shisha I have smoked.

As cliche as this may sound, it was love at first puff. Lovely, milky-white clouds of smoke that can cover your friend’s face, and an absolutely decadent (but nowhere near overpowering) melon and cantaloupe flavor on the palate. Truth be told, I did not even know what flavor I was smoking until I visited the Fumari website. I was shocked to learn what flavor I was smoking, as I am not very fond of melon. Fumari shisha, as you may have read in my buddy Kyle’s shisha review, is very moist and chock-full of molasses, glycerin (the reagent that creates the smoke), and flavor. Sure, you can buy glycerin at your local supermarket in the baking section and drown your shisha in it for heavy smoke (trust me, I’ve done it), but the flavor becomes extremely soapy and disgusting, as glycerin is a component of soap. But Fumari provides massive clouds of thick smoke and light but pronounced flavors that are not overpowering even if they DO linger on your palate. There are not many flavors of Fumari I have smoked that I thought was less than great, and absolutely none that I thought were terrible.

For those who are looking for the perfect bowl of hookah: the thickest clouds you will ever see and great flavor, your search ends here! With the combination of a Sahara Vortex bowl, the right packing technique, the right hole-punching pattern, a frozen hookah stem, an ice-filled base, ice hoses, and a diffuser, you WILL be smoking the best hookah in your life. This I can say with confidence, because all of the people from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Dubai who I have ever smoked out, have told me this. (Those who wish to learn or challenge my hookah setup technique, feel free to let me know in the comments section.)

But there you have it folks, Ambrosia, my number one favorite shisha ever, and if I may be so bold, the shisha of the Gods.

Nov 26 2012

Fumari Apple Mint Hookah Review

Hello all, and welcome to Mr. Aficianado! I’m proud to be writing the first of many smoking reviews for our new site. First up on the docket is a brand of shisha (or hookah tobacco) I’ve come to love called Fumari. I’ve smoke plenty of shisha. Actually, a LOT of shisha. The prime brand that comes to everyone’s mind is always Starbuzz. While I do love Starbuzz (you can’t skip out on the classics), I was introduced to Fumari several months ago and it has really changed my hookah experience. Fumari comes in attractive, black, satinized baggies (as opposed to Starbuzz’s well known tins), which are resealable. I prefer the bags to the old Starbuzz tins for a few reasons. First, they simply take up less space. Doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but when you’ve got 3+ flavors at a time like myself, those tins start to add up. Second, the resealable nature of the Fumari bags seems to keep the tobacco fresher, longer. The first thing that strikes me when opening the bag is the overwhelming aroma. Fumari’s flavors are tantalizing, and I often have to resist the urge to lick my fingers when preparing a fresh bowl of Fumari. Apple mint, true to it’s name, smells very strongly of apple (Granny Smiths come to mind, though not as sour). The mint is very light, and actually balances the apple quite well. I had been worried the mint would simply overpower the apple flavor, but this would prove not to be the case later.

My first drag on the hookah was simply divine. The thing I’ve really come to love about Fumari is that their flavors are very distinctive, but light. One of the problems I often have with Starbuzz is that, though their flavors might be quite tasty, often they are very strong. This strength tends to make me feel sick after too long; an hour long bowl is perfectly fine, but smoking a 250g tin of one flavor can get old before you’ve used it all. I’ve yet to have such a problem with Fumari, and I am consistently sorry to see each empty bag in the trash can. As I was saying, the apple is very light on the palate, consistent with a green apple without the sour bite. The mint serves mostly to cool down the back of my throat rather than alter the flavor, helping to keep each puff smooth and cold (I often say there isn’t much worse than warm hookah smoke). It seems to me that Fumari shisha is juicier than most brands and the added juices not only help to provide thick smoke, but it also keeps the tobacco moist, preventing burning (and subsequently harsh smoke). If  I had my way, I’d smoke nothing but Fumari from here on out. Their flavors consistently beat out my favorites from other reputable shisha companies, and often you can find good deals online for them. The Fumari lounge itself is located in San Diego, and I hope to go sometime soon.