Epic Smoke (formerly Zona) Review

[mushrat]

Post your reviews below for Epic Smoke (Formerly Zona). Questions and comments should be posted in seperate threads. Non-review posts or parts of posts deemed not part of the review will be edited out by Mods. For each new improvement I'll start another thread so we can watch the improvemnts.

For ease of using the search engine, each review should start with: Epic (flavour)

[MrMoodz]

Setup: Medium KM. Mya metal tipped hose. Nour coals

Appearance: Long, moist strands.

Smell: Tea-like. Didn't really pick up a berry scent.

Smoke: Super thick. I was pleasantly surprised. The room I was smoking in was hazy after a few minutes.

Flavor: Tastes like unflavored shisha. Like thick air. On the exhale, I did pick up a fruity undertone.

Overall: Everything was great about this shisha except for the the lack of flavor. Questions, if you can get this to have some good flavor, you have yourself a winner.

[Snoopy1966]

I will add my comment here now for Zona also because I wanted to add more but I had to attend to some business, as I first posted before:

Set-up Sahara Smoke Cyclone modified with a new stem I bought. Cold water in vase. standard hose..rest to follow

I have been smoking mine now for about 45 min. I like the smoke, very thick, easy to get going.
The cut was different but welcoming. I packed the whole sample in a Mod bowl. I have used 1 coal also so far second on its way now. I do like the coals, no taste, but very fragile coal to break, seem very solid after you light them. I do not get much flavor of blueberry, there is a hint of something. I like the overall taste of it though. I would be very interested to try more. No buzz either for me.

Smoked the 2 coals worth that came with the sample. Pretty much cooked up all the tobacco too. I must say I was getting more of a flavor at the end. Kinda reminded me of IHOP blueberry syrup, very faint taste. The coals also are fragile when lite, but they do not give any taste, smell a little strange while lighting, but I think that is expected of any natural. I really liked the flavor of the tobacco, very nice.

The mixture was very different to all other tobacco I have tried. It was not juicy, but more than enough for a good smoke. I like the no color added into the tobacco. I do not like my fingers to look like I just killed someone being all red or something, so this is nice to see another tobacco without color. Also after I packed the bowl my fingers seemed to have maybe glycerin on them?? Clear color and slippery.

Right now I would give it a 6.5 and a 7 would be a good product. Great start for this line, and I am looking forward to more of this. Looks like this will be a promising line of tobacco.

[PhishPhood]

Mush, If you would be so kind to edit my review in the place of this post. Thanks

[JD - Do it your bloody self next time ]

Setup:
22" MZ hookah
Razan Hose
Medium Phunnel bowl

Tobacco:

Color: Very light brown, nice color which I havent seen in shisha before.

Cut: Very long rough cut

Smell unburned: Smelled more like Tea to me rather than the Blueberry

Wetness: Overall a pretty dry looking shisha, but the tobacco itself was very fresh and moist.

Included natural coal: Formed into a ring disc type tying. I broke it up and lit it with a butane lighter and a quicklight coal which got it going really well. The coals had a nice duration ~45 mins for the chunks I used but they ashed like crazy.


Now for the smoked quality:

Smoke: Very thick great smoke. Not harsh at all. I threw alot of heat on to see what it could take an no burning what so ever.

Flavor: The flavor unfortunatly was very underlying. If it got toned up alot I think it would be a great shisha. A friend said he tasted it a small amount although I did not.

Duration: I smoked for a bit over an hour and this bowl EASILY had 2 more hours in it. Almost no charing at all, looked almost the same as when I packed it.



My only suggestion would be up the flavor content of this flavor. It was very nice overall except for the lack of flavor... I prob would buy what I smoked for the fact that the smoke was of great quality.

Nice job guys, I hope I can test for you again. I really enjoyed it.


[JD - And you can upload the pictures yourself] Edited February 27, 2008 by Johnny_D

[iamscott06]

Zona Blueberry

Setup: KM Amer, Phunnel Bowl

Coals: The ones he gave us, broke in half and used 3 halfs..

Appearance: Never seen shisha like this before. Not juicy but looked okay.

Smell: Nothing.. But I know the batch wasnt mixed properly so..

Smoke: Thick and not Harsh! I would have thought it would have been a little harsh with all the coal I put on there but it was goood.

Flavor: Tastes like unflavored shisha.

Overall: Really would have liked to taste the blueberry's.. Once he gets the flavoring down this stuff should kick ass

[Yamin]

Brand and Flavor: Zona Blueberry

Shisha Cut: Very Odd, and Stringy Looking.

Hookah Type: Czech Metal

Duration: Quick 20 minutes (used about a third of a bowl)

Bowl: Clay

Foil / Screen: 1 Reynolds

Coal / Amount: 3 naturals

Smoke: Very sexy and pleasing.

Buzz: Existed on the large inhales.

Smell / Flavor: General Tobacco smell with a small hint of blueberry.

Rating (1 to 10): Well if it were intended to be a non flavored tobacco, I'd give it an 8.5/9, but as it was intended to be flavored I'll have to give it the score of a 7.

It was enjoyable regardless and I will be looking forward to testing other stuff. Thanks Question!

[spoolinspoon]

Setup: MZ Oasis, Medium phunnel bowl

Coals: Supplied with tobacco

Appearance: Large cut, moist, looks fresh

Smell: Like Tea. Could smell some berry if I was searching for the smell

Smoke: thick, white clouds. good smoke density

Buzz: None

Flavor: Couldn't taste the berry flavor. Unflavored. Needs more flavor.

Overall: I thick the tobacco should be cut a bit more. wetness should be increased at least 10%. Lacks flavor. Other then that the tobacco quality is pretty good. Just need some minor adjustments.

[ZenSilk]

Zona Jungle Juice

Set-up: KM Mash'al, Phunnel/Mod, 3 CocoNara

Appearance: Medium Cut, Moisture was thin and watery, Rubbery looking, like used tea leaves

Smell: Very Light smell,. fruity, like steeping tea

Smoke: Thickest I've ever had. Mad. MAD props on the smoke quality. Never went harsh.

Buzz: 0

Taste: Nothing unfortunately.

Over-all: Amazing smoke. But that's not enough. The flavor would have been great if it had been there. The liquid was watery and thin. It needs to be thicker so it can stick to the leaves.

** I will hold back grading it and just leave a non-graded review up.

[Voski]

Zona - Peppermint

Smell: Smells just like those red and white peppermint candies
Cut: It was an interesting cut it sort of had some big chunks here and there and it reminded me of seaweed. It was good though
Juiciness: This thing is like a tobacco soup theres so much juice. It is hands down the juiciest tobacco I have ever seen.
Taste: Just like a peppermint. I enjoyed it a lot, it was actually my first mint flavor too. Out of no where it sort of started tasting like tobacco for a few hits and then it went back to tasting like peppermint.
Smoke: Thick and fluffy. Excellent
Duration: I had two sets of 3 coco-naras and a wind cover on my small phunnel and it still seemed like it was no where near being finished. I actually left the coals in the same spot and didn't have to move them once and it tasted and smoked great.
Overall: There were 5 people total and we all liked it. I'm gonna give it a 10/10. It tasted and smoked great what more can I ask for. It didn't give me a buzz but I don't seem to get buzzes any more.

It took a while to get the hookah going. The smoke wasn't that good with just 3 coals but when I threw the wind cover on it got thicker instantly. Plus the flavor became a lot stronger.

[ZenSilk]

Zona Blueberry

Set-up: KM Mash'al, Phunnel/Mod, 3 CocoNara, Windcover

Appearance: Medium Cut, Moisture was thin and watery, Rubbery looking, like used tea leaves

Smell: Prominent Blueberry Aroma, very realistic

Smoke: Thickest of any tobacco. Lead to the production of Massive O's.

Buzz: 0

Taste: Sweet Blueberry flavor. Very realistic. Very sweet on the tip of the tongue. Not ever over-powering.

Over-all: Zona is going to have a smoke reputation. The blueberry flavor was exquisite.

10/10

[mushrat]

Zona Peppermint

Mya QT, belgian natural disks, foil.
Good clean pepermint taste, not overly sweet or overpowering. Unlike many mints i didn't feel like the flavour was burning its way through my sinuses and smoke would shortly be coming out of my eyes. That said It could actually be a tad stronger without being too strong. Would probably mix well with a spearmint or a lemon or even a tea flavour.

A great work in progress that's already worth smoking.

[Victim026]

Zona Limon

Cut: Reminded me of Tangiers in a way, long and stringy and very very dry. Although I would contibute some of the dryness to the fact that the container leaked in the mail a bit.

Smell: I really couldn't smell anything that resembled a flavor, it was like chemicals and that's it. My G/F and I sat there for and tried to think of what it reminded us of but could never quite put our fingers on it. Either way this needs to change, as it really was just disgusting chemical smell....

Smoke: Whoa, this company knows how to pack the clouds in. I mean seriously they were easily the largest I've ever seen and we had no problem hazing up the whole living room even with the overhead fan on.

Taste: The taste was very very very subtle and was just a hint of lemon. If they could pack flavor in this brand they would totally have a winner. The smoke is more then there, the flavor is really non-existant.


Overall 6/10

I love clouds, really I do, but they need to have flavor. After smoking the first bowl of straight Limon we've been rationing out the rest in bowls of AF which gets the AF flavor with the Zona clouds. I would be willing to order some of this stuff if it was cheaper just as a mixin for bowls to get the huge clouds. If they get the flavors hittin then it would be a big seller and would easily find it's way into my big stock of tobacco.

[austinthecity]

Brand and Flavor: Zona Limon

Shisha Cut: very long and wide pieces of tobacco, no stems

Hookah Type: 28" blue marble KM

Duration: hour or so

Bowl: small funnel

Foil / Screen: reynolds HD foil

Coal / Amount: 4 coconaras

Smoke: very thick smoke, lasted a long time

Buzz: no buzz

Smell / Flavor: very subtle flavor, didn't really like it that much either. for the limon, i would rather have the flavor to be sweeter or more sour. also, it should be a lot stronger.

Rating (1 to 10): 6/10

One problem I think you have with the flavor is packaging. While I do appreciate you putting as much shisha in the jar as you can, it was very very very compressed. That jar should hold 25g max. When you compress the shisha that much, the juice it can hold won't be enough. You're compressing the tobacco, not the tobacco and juice.

As stated, the smoke quality of this tobacco is great, huge thick clouds. However, I would not buy it because I base most of my opinion of flavor, and some on buzz.

Thank you for allowing me to be a tester though!

[ZenSilk]

Zona Mint Chocolate Chip

Set-up: Mya Acryilc, Sm. Phunnel + Mod, 3 CocoNara, WindCover

Appearance: Medium, mostly long Cut, Moisture was thin and watery, easy to mix around

Smell: Mint Chocolate, very well represented

Smoke: Thickest still, lingers, easy O's.

Buzz: 0

Taste: Not Strong Mint, mellow but very recognizable, slightly cooling. Chocolate was a darker cocoa flavor, mellow but tasty.

Over-all: Zona tobacco is pretty much my all-around and go-to smoke. Everyone loves it.

9/10 Edited April 25, 2008 by ZenSilk

[ZenSilk]

Zona Sour Green Apple

Set-up: Mya Acryilc, Sm. Phunnel + Mod, 3 CocoNara, WindCover

Appearance: Medium, mostly long Cut, Moisture was thin and watery, easy to mix around

Smell: Like a weaker jolly rancher flavor.

Smoke: Thickest still, lingers, easy O's.

Buzz: 0

Taste:Very pronounced sweet apple taste, sweet but not candyish which was suprising. The sour was there as well.
A good change from the stronger apples.

Over-all: Fantastic.

9/10

[lancer]

pink lemonade

Setup: bohemian MYA, med phunnel bowl, razan hose, 3 kings coals

Appearance: Long, moist strands.

Smell: just like pink lemonade

Smoke: thick. nice clouds

Flavor: very much like pink lemonade

Overall: great shisha. I see myself ordering more in the near future

[NUBBS]

ZONA - STRAWBERRY WATERMELON

Smell: Smells like a mix between honeydew and cantelope! I think just melons.

Cut: Small pieces strips. Light Brown which I like because not a lot of brands do that anymore. Seems like original shisha. Very runny and moist. Little stems in it, and tiny pieces if you find em.

Smoke: Decent big clouds. Its wierd, it doesnt seem like smoke at all its light and disipates quickly. I think its kinda like liquid fog!! Amazing smoke rings. I like the smoke a lot.

Flavor: Great flavor. Taste like it smells but much better. I have an entire golden 40mm QL because I heard to use more heat for better flavor. Its been going for about 30 mins now and the flavor is kinda going away. Now it kinda tastes like Chow Main [chinese food].

Buzz: Not so much really

Duration: I couldnt smoke any more than an hour, it didnt taste good anymore. The shisha looked hardly touched, too.

OVERALL: I liked the flavor while it lasted. Next time I will try differennt heat managment. The only part I didnt like was the loss of flavor. And the shisha was way too runny.

6 outa 10 Edited June 6, 2008 by NUBBS

[Anxiety]

setup mya vortex Mnh small glass bowl

2x coco naras, namor hose

Pepperment

AMAZING i must say this is the best mint ive ever had, tastes like your eating a diner mint, and the after tastes is just amazing 10/10


Blueberry

once again an amazing flavor, it tastes so sweet and exactly llike blueberry candy. 9/10

I must say zona/epic tobacco is really really good, the smoke is ridic and the containers are just awesome. will be definatly buying alot more

[NUBBS]

ZONA - BLUEBERRY/GUMBALL

Smell: Smells like Children Tylonol. Maybe cherry and orange.

Cut: Small pieces. Light Brown, which I like because not a lot of brands do that anymore. Seems like original shisha. Very runny and moist. Little stems in it, and tiny pieces if you find em.

Smoke: Decent big clouds. Its wierd, it doesnt seem like smoke at all its light and disipates quickly. I think its kinda like liquid fog!! Amazing smoke rings. I like the smoke a lot. (What can I say, it was the same smoke.)

Flavor: Not so much flavor. I taste little bit of blueberry and orange? The little flavor lasted a long while, but not strong enough. Then when it started to burn it was like the last one I had, taste like Chow Main [chinese food].

Buzz: Not so much really

Duration: It lasted a good 90 mins in a small mod bowl [about 10-15g].

OVERALL: I liked the flavor, what little I got. I tried differennt heat managment this time with 2 jap coals. I just wish the flavor was a lot stronger. And the shisha is way too runny.

5 outa 10 Edited June 17, 2008 by NUBBS

[bjelder]

ZONA - "C"

Smell: Watermelon and cherry?

Cut: Fairly small cut, light brown almost green-ish in color. Very runny.

Smoke: AWESOME clouds. Blacked out almost my entire macbook monitor. Weird though once the smoke is out for a second or two it almost vaporizes and disappears. Weird. But awesome clouds.

Flavor: Really nice flavor. Can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but its fruity on the inhale and almost a smooth, cool minty feeling on the exhale. VERY pleasant and relaxing.

Buzz: Nothing really.

Duration: About an hour when I ended voluntarily (bedtime)

Overall: Loved the flavor, loved the clouds. Perfect shisha. Order some now!!!!

10 out of 10

[r1v3th3ad]

Zona Blueberry(first run with it)

Setup - My Mitsuba two hose with a mod bowl, two 33mm swiftlight coals broken into pieces, room temp water

Initial - The cut I loved...it was kinda shredded, yet thicker. IMO the perfect cut. I loved the gooeyness. The first wiff made me think of blueberry that they used for snowcones, but then after a second, I thought blueberry pancakes.

Taste: Great, amazing! Initially, it was an orgy in my mouth. Like a combo of blueberry pancakes, but then again, really really sweet like blueberry bubbalicious.
However, the flavor died on me after about 35 minutes or so...it started to taste like chicken. But in the meantime, all the molasses/honey ran down my stem and also into my ashtray. So this could have just been the way I had set it up.

Smoke: Beautiful clouds after about two minutes that lasted the entire time. Loaded with flavor, great white-outs.

Buzz: Relaxed, not overwhelming.

Overall: This was a great smoke. This was my first try with it and I only had around 40 minutes of flavor, but I may have not done it right. So, I'm not gonna judge it by duration. I'm gonna give it a second run with the remaining bit, but this time I'm gonna try acclimating it for a while. Overall, with smoke, buzz, and flavor on my first run I give it a 9/10...The minus 1 is just because I'm a fan of more buzz.

I will get round two up next time I get to smoke...I'm busy over the next week with work.

[Victim026]

Zona Blueberry Cherry Bubblegum

Cut: Still Tangier's like with the cut, nice and wet this time although it was a very watery wet and didn't stick very well to the tobacco.

Smell: Smelled very very sweet and the cherry stood out easily. No chemical smells this time which is wonderful.

Smoke: Great clouds just like the Limon I had the first time, still some of the biggest clouds I've ever had as well.

Taste: The cherry comes and kicks ya right in the mouth out of the gate and stayed with us throughout most of our 2 hour session, although it was way less pronunced in the last 30 minutes or so. The only issue here was that it seemed every 15 minutes or so we would get 2 or 3 hits that would taste like you were eating soap. I talked with Arnold about this and he said it's happened to him as well and he's attributing it to something going on with the glycerin but he's unsure what as of right now. I couldn't really tell there was bubblegum and blueberry in it though...


Overall 8/10

Great clouds with decent flavor, this flavor might be worth picking up but I'm not convinced that every flavor is as good as this one. This also isn't for sale yet by my understanding... It's just a sample flavor labeled as "A" as of right now.

[Victim026]

Zona Pink Lemonade

Cut: Still Tangier's like with the cut, nice and wet this time although it was a very watery wet and didn't stick very well to the tobacco.

Smell: Smelled like fresh lemon zest.

Smoke: Great clouds although a bit smaller then the Cherry Blueberry Bubblegum.

Taste: Very Very Very VERY light lemon taste for the first 10 minutes, after that.... Nothing... Just like the Limon I had originally.


Overall 5/10

Decent clouds with no flavor so I tried to do what I did last time with the limon and ration it out in other bowls to get some better smoke. Didn't work this time and seemed to just ruin whatever I would mix it with. I was really dissapointed and was hoping this would be a suitable replacement for the expensive ass Fantasia Pink Lemonade.

[Tom1]

Setup: Horas C, razan hose

Coals: Exoticas, 2 1/3 peices on a mod bowl

Appearance: Long cut, soaked with glycerine (all of them)

Smell: Most smell decent, but theres seems to be a weird added smell from the glycerine used

Smoke: Very Thick, very heat friendly tobacco

Taste: As mentioned in the "smell" each flavor seems to give off a weird glycerine aftertaste. Sometimes its not as noticable, but usually after the bowl has been going for 45 mins or so it becomes noticable

Flavors:

Peppermint: This is a very solid flavor, tastes just like candy, 9/10

Pink Lemonade: The best flavor ive tried so far, very similair to fantasia PL, 9.5/10

Limon: very light lime flavor, 5/10

Mint Chocolate chip: only a slight mint flavor, 6/10

Chocolate bananna: This was suprisingly good, nice chocolate flavor with a bananna aftertaste. 8.5/10

More to come when i get a chance to smoke them.

[zareh]

guys,i dont know where and how you get the zona or epic tobacco,whenever i click on theyre site,i get a porn site.