honey

[ahwahoo2006]

Ive heard that adding honey to the bowl can have some interesting effects on sweetness and smoke density.  Has anyone tried this or is able to provide any further insight?

[mushrat]

Well, I've never added honey. But I've smoked Ma'asells that use honey instead of molasses.
To be honest I didn't notice any difference in smoke density, But the Sara 2 apple, which is honey based, IS a really really good smoke.
Doesn't really answer your question directly, but no one else was saying anything....

[ahwahoo2006]

Thanks Mushrat.  I went ahead and tried it on my own, just to see
what would happen, and was actually pleasantly surprised with the
results.  Adding about a teaspoon of honey directly on top of the
bowl made a noticable increase in smoke volume, as well as (obviously)
making the smoke sweeter.  I will try a few more times to see if
this is a verifiable trend.

[uselessdreamer1]

sounds good. Ive head of people doing this and liking it. I may try this...

[mushrat]

hmm...more smoke MAY be from the additional simple sugars in the honey carbonizing? Any of you science wizzes wanna take a crack?

[Sean]

yeah the more smoke is from the honey.  I dunno if I will try it.  have you ever tasted burnt honey.  yuck.  but as long as you keep the coals moving and dont burn it go for it.  but man could that be a birtch to clean if it dries in your stem.

[aktaech]

I have tried it and found it to work great - not so much in producing thicker smoke, but making the pulling much more smoother.  To avoid the coal burning the honey and getting a gross taste, mix the honey with the ma'assal and that should make it ok.

[Mr Schmidt]

I`m gonna try this tonight, My nakhla peach was a bit dry so I went and
bought some liquid honey(the clear honey that looks like syrup) and
blended a couple og spoons into the tobacco. I`ll let you know how it
turned out.

[Mr Schmidt]

Man this SUCKED, no smoke and tasted like crap.

[John Deere]

well, Nakhla peach sucks to begin with

[uselessdreamer1]

I like naklha peach....

[John Deere]

maybe I got a bad batch then, because it was very dry, and artificial smelling with hardly any taste.

[jmexx]

I tried this once but lined the bottom of the bowl with honey. I didn't find it worth the hassle but maybe I should try just mixing a bit with the tobacco instead. It was a bit of a mess to clean later on. You want a bit of a sweeter/thicker and longer lasting smoke? Cut both ends of a pear, not too much (depending on the pear and the hookah), carve out the inside of the pear, leaving about half an inch of fruit on the sides, make a decent sized hole underneath, slowly put the pear ontop of the hookah and make sure there's a couple small holes going to the pipe. Fill that ish with ma'assel and cut a large piece of aluminum foil. I say large because there's not much for the aluminum foil to grasp on. you can even try taping the foil to the pear but it should be fine with just a large piece. I've done this with a couple of Al Amir flavour and found it to work like a charm! I should try the honey thing again though! Good luck and happy smoking!Jon

[ZAP]

I've used honey before to moisten tobacco but not so much as 1 teaspoon
per bowl.  I just put like a small blob for 50g.  I might try
adding some more later.