Social Smoke Closeout Egyptian Clay Bowl

Are more people smoking modern style tobaccos today?
By: Ryan "Midnight" McBride

Close Out symbol from
Social Smoke

While I was looking over Social Smoke's website I recognized a familiar symbol over the medium, large and extra large clay bowls listed under the bowls available section. When I called Social Smoke to ask about the Egyptian bowls I was told that the hemi bowls are ordered much more often and are more suitable bowl for the brand. This makes sense to me for people that smoke Social Smoke tobacco because it is a somewhat moist brand that has much to gain from a deeper bowl type.

Egyptian style bowls have been used for literally centuries to smoke very traditional styles of tobacco. Drier dark leaf tobaccos need a lot of heat directly at the source to make sure that good flavor and smoke quantity is released. The Egyptian style bowl is shallower then many other styles of bowls and allow for the heat to be right on top of the tobacco.

Vortex bowl from
Sahara Smoke

It seems to me that people are more often then not moving towards modern tobacco bowls and modern tobacco styles. The is an ever increasing popularity among many of the smoking communities to switch to funnel bowls or vortex bowls. These bowls do a couple of things very well. With the "trench" style of the bowl it allows for people to enjoy long smoke sessions that hold juices wonderfully. When the juices are held, the flavor is also enhanced giving your smoke session with better flavor.

So what is the bad thing from switching from traditional bowls like Egyptian clay bowls to vortex's and funnels? With the switch I just hope that there is not a loss in interest in the traditional, dark leaf, tobaccos. These tobaccos have been around for a long time because they offer a specific style of smoke session that is enjoyable. Hopefully we do not lose the culture that floats around in some websites that praise these old style tobaccos. Any loss in the culture would be sad in my book.

Tell me what you think! What kind of bowls do you use and for what types of tobacco? Do you like modern  tobaccos over traditional? Do you want to see traditional tobaccos go out of business to make way for new and inventive brands?