Nammor Egyptian Hose Review

A Must Have Hookah Perfection

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

    The Nammor hose is the favorite of many hookah forum sites and hookah efficianados. After a year of owning one personally I can see why. The Nammor hose is well built and will last forever. Every single piece from the hose connector to the fuzzy little "globe trotter" balls adorning the hose to the leather wrapped handle screem quality. When you hold the handle you feel like you could beat a small animal or a straying hand reaching for your hookah while you enjoy your favorite flavor.

    The hose is an extreemly wide gauge. One of the widest on the market. This in turn is one of the biggest advantages of using one of these hoses. The wide gauge allows for a free and easy pull. Every single puff off of your hookah seems almost effortless. The gauge also helps with purging allowing for a quick and easy purge of the leftover smoke. I can not relate how much of a perk this gauge helps while smoking.

Multiple Colors

    Another huge advantage of these hoses is the material they are made of. The rubber of the inside and outside nature of this allows it to be washable. Most hoses are either made out of leather or "pleather" wrapped around a metal coil that runs throughout the hose. The metal coil or leather will either rust or rot over time where as the rubber material of the Nammor will not degrade. This is very handy because the hose can be washed heavily each time between smoke sessions and allow for a clean flavor for every hookah. For somebody that enjoys multiple different flavors from ultimate different brands this makes a HUGE difference.

Custom Glass Piece

    The last cool thing that should be mentioned is the removable mouth tip. The removable mouth tip at first glance does not seem like an advantage. In fact the removable tip makes it easy to clean thouraly after a "questionable" person may have been in your smoke session. Also the removable tip allows for a lot of cool add ons from glass pieces to ice tips that cool the smoke heavily so a person can truely customize their hose. This hose from tip to hose port allows a smoker to really express their creativity and uniqueness.

     I have always wanted to carry these hoses in the lounge but no one would offer them to us. Thankfully the kind folks at Social Smoke have started to offer these magnificant hoses to their retailers. They are well built, customizable and smoke like a dream. They really are a must have for anyone that is looking to really make a difference in their smoke session. Blue Midnight will be carrying these hoses sparatically as they are hard to come by so if you get a chance to buy these hoses they are well worth their $25 price.

Final Puff

10/10

+Hits like breathing in normally

+Well Built

+Washable

-Globe trotter looking balls

-$25 a hose but still well worth it!

Social Smoke Chai Latte Review

Social Smoke's Take on Starbucks

Social Smoke: Chai Latte - 8/10

Flavor Profile: Brisk Black Tea, swept with Cardamom and other Exotic Spices form an exquisite flavor.

    Chai Latte is a flavor for people that don't want something fruity but would love something with a little bit of spice. The tobacco itself is a little bit darker in color than some of the other flavors from social smoke suggesting a mix of spices that may give this flavor it's unique taste. If you have ever had anything chai the framiliar taste of cardamom will be very prevelant from the first puff to the last. The flavor reminds me of a delicious chai latte from the local Biggby or Starbucks or maybe even a very spiced homemade pumpkin pie. The one thing I do believe is missing from the flavor profile from social smoke is the dark deepness of the latte flavor.

    Being a tobacco from Social Smoke the flavor lites easily and lasts for a long, enjoyable, smoke session. While writting the review the smoke session out of a Khalil Mamoon hookah with a nammor hose lasted 50 minutes with 3 coconara coals. The clouds were thick and playful and could have lasted longer if I chose to light more coals. This flavor, in paticular, smokes exceptionally well which is a big compliment to the flavor considering the quality of smoke the brand carries.

If you are looking for a flavor that differs from fruit flavors, or are just looking for something new, Chai Latte from Social Smoke is a no brainer.

Cheers!

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Social Smoke Simply Apple Review

An Apple Above the Rest

Social Smoke: Simply Apple - 9/10

Flavor Profile: This fusion of juicy Apple flavor with the taste of crisp Apple skin is simply delicious!

I LOVE Social Smoke’s natural fruit flavors. Their richness and purity to the actual fruit flavor are hard to find in other tobacco companies. Simply Apple is simply put; delicious. The apple flavor is almost exactly like biting into a Red Delicious apple. You can almost taste that bit of skin in each puff. On top of the awesome flavor, the smoke quality is more than adequate with large billowing clouds. The flavor lasts almost ridiculously long. Last time I partook in this delicious flavor, smoking at a medium pace, the flavor lasted easily an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half holding its flavor perfectly. There was almost no difference from the first 2 or 3 puffs to the last. In fact the only reason I stopped smoking the bowl was because I had ran out of coals in the house! If you like Social Smoke and you like apples this is a flavor you must try.

If you haven't had Social Smoke yet check out my brand review in the notes section.

Cheers!

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Mya Breeze with Freeze Review

Is the Freeze A Need?

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Hose Packages

     We just got our hands on a Mya Freeze hose. The hoses are a thick gauge hose very similar to a thick mya other than a couple "cool" things. The hose features a detatchable top that screws off. When you unscrew the piece you can put a piece that acts as an ice cube. The package comes with two of these ice cubes that will keep the smoke coming through the hose cool for a while. 

     

The smoke being cool is either supposed to take place of ice in the base or advance the chill of the smoke coming through. I have to say that the chilling or freeze effect does work very well. Even without switching to the second cube in the freezer the chilling effect lasted for a good 30-45 minutes. The big handle helps to also be a very easy hold while you are enjoying your favorite cooled flavor. The hose is decent lenght and long enough to be enjoyed from a feet or two away from you hookah easily.

  

   I do have a couple of concerns about the hose if I was completly honest.One concern I have about the hose is that the handle is a screw on/off configuration and does not have any kind gromit to help the hose stay air sealed. In the package I recieved some of the grooves where warn down and even after appling some plummers tape to help keep it sealed there was still a small leak. After 10 or 15 smoke sessions I can see one of these hoses possibly becoming very leaky especially if you unscrew and screw together the piece multiple times. I don't know why a rubber gromit between the two pieces was not added when it would only add a couple of cents and make the hose a much better construction.

Nammor Ice Piece

     The other concern I have is that the ice cube piece actually sits in the middle of the handle. After removing the ice cube piece the hose actually smoked with a cleaner draw. The ice piece in the middle forces the air to go slower through the hose then with it gone. This seems like not the best option when there are really nice ice handles for hoses like for the nammor which feature a wider gauge and an easier smoke draw. That being said the whole ice package from Mya retials at $15 while the Nammor Hose alone with no ice piece cost anywhere from $20-$25 online. On a side note during the school year Blue Midnight will be featuring a Nammor Hose for $25 and there is no shipping charges!

     

     Everything being account for I do believe these hoses are good. They offer a good smoke session with a cool niche hitch that will give you the "look at this value" when your friends come over. Plus if you don't like the little bit of restricted flow through the hose you can still smoke without the ice cube and get a nice thick draw that you would through a thick Mya. We have not decided wether to carry the Mya Freeze or not so if you guys would like to see this project in the lounge or for sale please comment and like the review.

Final Puff

6.5/10

+ Great Ice Cooling Action

- Craftsmanship

Cheers!

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

What's a good hookah?

Getting to Know Quality
Ryan "Midnight" McBride


A lot of people come through the lounge and ask me why a Kahlil Mamoon (KM) or a Magdy Zidan (MZ) hookah costs $100-$150 for a medium sized hight while other brands may be half that price or twice as tall for the same price. This article is a break down of what separates a KM and a MZ from a lot of brands out there which a lot of the time are manufactured in China.

STEM
The stems of a KM or a MZ are made to be one piece. Some of them are solid molds and some are welded together but these hand crafted stems will put any Mya or Sahara to shame. Many brands out there use Chinese makers to craft their hookahs and what they get are cookie cutter trash (most of the time, there are some exceptions). These stems can be miss-matched any which way and have multiple places where pieces are threaded on. These threads over a short time of being twisted on and off will start to break down and easily create leaks.

CHAMBER
With multiple pieces also usually comes a modern or Chinese chamber. These chambers are made so that pieces screw into them, be it the stem, hose ports and purges or plugs so air flows through all of these areas freely. This makes it so more air is needed to pull on the hookah or purge old smoke out of the chamber. KM and MZ hookahs pull much more freely and allow for much easier purging. Often these stem pieces alone are most of the expense when purchasing a KM or a MZ because they are so well made. I wish I could stress the importance of a traditional chamber when looking for a hookah that will last a long time and smoke the best.

BOWLS
There are many bowls out on the market but most of the time when I go to head shops I see weired three flavor section bowls or Mya mod bowls or some kind of Chinese mod in general. When looking for a bowl, make sure to keep in mind what kind of tobacco you will be smoking out of it. Many of the traditional tobaccos are much better smoked out of a traditional egyption bowl which will come when you purchase a KM or a MZ. If you are into the more modern tobaccos like Social Smoke, Starbuzz, Al Fakher, Fantasia or others like these you should probably look for a vortex bowl. These bowls allow for the maximum amount of flavor in each session. They hold the tobacco juices better in the bowl so it lasts longer. If you do use these bowls for tobaccos like Nakhla though be careful. I have only heard bad stories about doing this.

BASE
KM bases are probably the prettiest bases on the market. Many of them adorn the name around the top rim with pretty designs all throughout the base. The only problem with KM bases is that I have found that the design will sometimes wash away quite early in the hookah's life. For the most sturdy and reliable base I have found MZ's to last a little longer. Some of them in the lounge have lasted 3-4 years being used every night.

HOSE
What type of hose you have on your hookah can make quite a difference. Washable is the key word when it comes to hoses for me. A hose being washable or not can dictate how long the hose will last and how tasty your flavors can be. If your the type of person that only smokes one or two flavors then this really isn't a factor but there is nothing more disappointing then lighting up a new and exciting flavor and only being able to taste the last flavor you smoked. My personal favorite hose is the Nammor. A very wide gauge with a mouth tip that can be replaced or upgraded. These hoses pull amazingly free. With an interchangeable tip they also will also last you a long time.

Egyptian hookahs have been at the top of their class for centuries. The heritage, prestige and quality of an Egyptian hookah is something that can be described but the experienced really must be done by yourself. I can write all day long about the brilliance but the experience should be your own. You should take the time to stop by Blue Midnight in East Lansing, MI or save up to buy one for yourself. You don't have to take me for my word. Check other websites and message boards. Any hookah enthusiast will tell you there is nothing better than Egyptian!

Till next time, smoke happy,
Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Social Smoke Cinnamon Spice Review

Social Smoke: Cinnamon Spice 9/10

Flavor Profile: Indulgent blend of Cinnamon with other Exotic Spices

Big red anyone? Any social smoke flavor smokes smooth and long but cinnamon spice has come out to be one of my favorites. Cinnamon spice is a nice change in flavor in the market full of fruity nastiness. After a couple of nights at the hookah lounge starting up strawberry's and blueberry's a spicy cinnamon is a beautiful thing. The Cinnamon is a deep flavor that tastes very similar to big red gum but not quite as pungent. I could see a lot of potential if you wanted to mix cinnamon spice with other flavors to make a nice dessert like flavor. Peaches and cinnamon? Apple Cinnamon (which already is a flavor from social smoke but oh well)? If your looking for a change in your usual smoke session give cinnamon spice a try!

Cheers!

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Social Smoke Passion Fruit Review

Social Smoke: Passion Fruit - 8.5/10

Flavor Profile: Succulent Passion Fruit ripened to perfection in the vines of South America

This flavor personifies everything that I love about Social Smoke tobacco. A lot of the modern style hookah tobacco companies put out some form of a passion fruit flavor, but social smoke has done it right. To many times when I have light up a fruit flavor I have had to choke down some candy, syrupy, sloppy flavor from another company. This flavor from the moment you light it up has a deep flavor that tastes like a real fruit and not a piece of candy. The deep flavor of a passion fruit will be plenty enough to keep the flavor enjoyable for at least a 100g can. If you like social smoke tobacco and haven't tried passion fruit then you are missing out on a key gem of the brand.

I give the flavor an 8.5/10 not because I think anything is flawed, only because I prefer some other flavors from the brand. The quality of the clouds, cut of tobacco, and length of smoke session is up to the standards of the Social Smoke brand.

If you haven't had Social Smoke yet check out my brand review. Social Smoke Brand Review

Cheers!

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Social Smoke Tobacco

I have to start off by saying that I can not be completely objective when it comes to this topic. Ever since I have been working at Blue Midnight we have been using Social Smoke for a lot of our supplies. The company has been good to us over the years so when I heard the tobacco was out for sale I was very excited. We have been selling the tobacco in the lounge for a while now with great success with many of our modern tobacco focusing customers as well as a surprising following from the people that like more of the traditional tobaccos. That being said I have tried to only report things that a consumer would look at.

A relatively new brand of tobacco in the hookah industry. Social smoke has taken many years developing the tobacco and flavors and it really does show. Almost every flavor is unique and unlike any other brand, which is not only refreshing but hard to say about other companies when most of them are more focused on making them taste exactly like a popular brand. They have really taken a minute and thought about what the hookah community in America is looking for. Every piece of the tobacco making process is done here in America as far as I know. The shop based out of Texas imports the tobacco not from overseas but from West Virginia which is one of the biggest states in tobacco growth in the US.

It only really gets better from there. The tobacco is not overly washed or diluted like some of the modern day hookah tobacco brands. Along with that none of the tobacco is dyed any specific color. I don't know how many times I have pulled out some tobacco from Starbuzz, Al Fakher, Fantasia and other such brands and just thought to myself ... WHY?.. Why did they chose to dye the tobacco so much?! More importantly what kind of effect does this have on the taste and quality of smoke? I don't know if the dye really makes a difference either way but why add more things to a product then has to be there when you can just do the things that need to be done right like the tobacco and flavor.

You can see the attention to detail in the tobacco from the moment you open it up. The cut is a very nice cut. Not to small or thin so that things are falling through the holes of most bowls and not to big that it is unable to work with. Also the appearance of stems in the mix is always little to none. The little bit of stems that are in there are very usable and easy to move around in the bowl.

The flavors speak for themselves. They took years trying to mix these flavors and they have found balances in almost every single one of them. There is no single flavor in the batch that I would call "bad". Some are not to my liking but as far as for the hookah smokers out there on the market I can see their place. Some of my personal favorites:

Mojito: A very nice mix of lime, mint, and even a light bite of rum.
Absolute Zero: A mint, almost peppermint, that is very cooling on the throat when you are smoking.
Chai Latte: A very complex flavor of chai and coffee. Very good when you are getting sick of some of the fruitier flavors
Orange: A big surprise to me but a very nice orange flavor. Very natural tasting, not candy like, not to sweet. Almost like they took flavoring from an orange peal.
Lemon Chill: I guess you would call it a lemon mint flavor but the presence of mint is only there in a cooling effect. Takes on a very nice lemon head taste without being to tart.

Some of my least favorites:

Blush: A flavor that is like a light breeze of flowers. Not a very strong flavor either. Enough said...
Dulce De Leche: Milky caramel flavor. Just didn't really do it for me. Had good flavor just didn't particularly like it.
Wild Berry: And this goes for any of the Wild Berries (chill) and the grapes (chill). Unfortunately these flavors were kind of a miss for me. They weren't able to capture the flavors quite as well as some of the others and they taste a little fake. These wild berry and grape flavors will go over well with some people but they are just a little to artificial for me.

Flavors aside the whole brand smokes extremely well. Every once and a while there will be a couple of flavors in a brand that for some reason just don't smoke as well as others but this brand has hit it's mark. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of preservatives and the something to do with how they prepare everything but almost every single bowl smokes amazingly. Even if you accidentally under or over pack a bowl, screw up the holes in the foil, or mess anything up somehow this brand always seems to smoke amazingly. A medium size bowl is sure to last at least an hour or so.

With all these things put together the brand gets a huge two thumbs up from me. I have never smoked a brand that is so easy to load, gets as thick of clouds, and tastes quite as good as social smoke. If you are a hookah smoker and haven't tried social smoke please take the time and do. Find a local vender, and if you can't you can always order from socialsmoke.com. It's good to see an American brand deliver such a good product in the middle of a foreign market item.

Cheers Social Smoke,
Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Pink Floyd Night

Last Night...

Last night was Pink Floyd night at the Blue Midnight Hookah Lounge. When we do a classic band like Pink Floyd it makes me feel almost reminiscent about when I first was hired three years ago at Blue Midnight. When I first started working at Blue Midnight it was so, not to sound corny, mysterious. I came into work every day not knowing what was going to happen and what crazy new flavor I would get to try. I also would find out something new about hookah tobacco, hookahs, and hoses almost every day that I came in.

Pink Floyd itself too also brought back some great nights. These tribute nights always brought in all of our regular customers. They were nights that were less like working and more like hanging out with friends and if a hookah needed coals or another bowl needed to be made so be it. They almost always ended with a hot tube trip or a quick beer after work to celebrate. As I sat there smoking the mix Comfortably Numb I remembered these nights with a grin.

If anyone is curious about the mix Comfortably Numb it is a great flavor that we mix in the lounge. We originally made it for the first Pink Floyd tribute night and has stuck around for quite a while. It is a mix of Starbuzz's White Peach, Sweet Mellon, and Mint. It is a very nice balance of fruity and minty that can be enjoyed for a whole bowl easily, most of the time longing for more.

But i have digressed. The night had airs of the days I remembered from the past with all of the positive twists of the new additions that have come to Blue Midnight. The house was still full of regulars, some from the days before, and some from the new batch of people. It is always good to see the house full of good people that enjoy hookah and I look forward to the next tribute night.

Cheers,

Ryan "Midnight" McBride

If I Only Had One

If I had to chose one flavor...


Double Apple is a flavor that is made by almost every brand of hookah tobacco out there. It is one of the original flavors that is featured all across the globe. It is a complex flavor mixed with a nice taste of apple and liquorish. A lot of the time, especially in America, a new smoker will not like a flavor as complex as double apple. I see it almost every day in the lounge that people would much rather pick a flavor that they have seen on a swisher sweet box then try to venture onto a flavor that does not fit a regular "fruit" flavor. If you have not tried double apple and you are reading this ask yourself why not?! Step away from the chocolates, apple, strawberry, kiwi, orange, and other fruits and try something more complex. I guarantee you will find a new flavor that will be your new favorite.

Another quick note. Sorry it is a little off topic but every once and a while people shy away from mint flavors. I would say 7 out of the 10 times people don't even try mint flavors because they normally don't like mints or gum. When it comes to hookah tobacco don't shy away from a flavor just because you don't normally like a food with that flavor. I don't particularly like mints, or mint flavored gum, but one thing I do love is mint flavored tobacco. Especially in mixes mint can be a great addition to a flavor.


To get back to the subject, if I had to chose only one flavor to smoke for the rest of my life it would be Double Apple, but which brand would be a hard decision. Al Fakher gives a sweet double apple liquorish taste. It gives a flavor that is nice that almost anybody can smoke. Being a modern tobacco made with lots of glycerin it also gives off a huge cloud of smoke. On the other hand Nakhla's Double Apple is traditionally delicious. The buzz from a Nakhla flavor can be matched by other traditional tobaccos, but Nakhla is my favorite traidional type hookah tobacco by far. Nakhla unlike Al Fakher doesn't give of huge clouds of smoke, but gives a decent amount of smoke for the traditional type tobacco.

So which would I choose? Al Fakher. It's easier to smoke. Maybe it's just because on a given work night I could light up 10-30 hookahs. Maybe it's because I have been smoking for a while and my body needs something easier. I don't know what it is but Al Fakher Double Apple is my flavor and worth a try for anybody that has not

Cheers!
Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Review: Social Smoke Gumball

Social Smoke Gum ball


Tried this flavor out a while ago when I made a string of hookah tobacco reviews on the website hookahpro.com. The website is a great place for many things hookah and I hope that people will check it out. The flavor itself was not bad. The light hints of a gum ball taste would make great if you wanted to give a light sweet hint to any mix but that being said by itself was not very impressive. I wouldn't recommend buying this flavor in particular. If your looking for something with a light flavor that you can smoke for a while then maybe this flavor is for you.

Here's to the first video review!
Cheers,
Ryan "Midnight" McBride

First Post

Great Idea!

I had a great idea to start a hookah blog for Blue Midnight. Hopefully soon we can start making a video/audio podcast (dream big baby!). These are all great big dreams that may pan out into nothing, like half of our great ideas, but at least there is a start. From here I will start writing personal reviews of hookah tobacco, accessories, and other hookah hardware. Hopefully over time we can have a contribution from our customers and staff to make a one stop shop place for hookah information.

Here's to a new beginning,

Ryan "Midnight" McBride