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