Chreees's Guide to Tangiers Success

[Floataround]

[quote name='Skoozle' timestamp='1327003507' post='536097']
[quote name='Floataround' timestamp='1326930630' post='536008']
Well...it was a flop. Strangly enough there was more flavor, but the clouds were not as big, and it got really harsh after 20 minutes. I added some more to the bowl in the video, made sure to make the foil as flat as possible, used 2 coco m's.

[b]Windcover on from the start, two coals hanging off the bowl. 5 minutes in I moved the coals in a tiny bit to the edge of the bowl, left the windcover on for another 15 and started smoking. About 2 or 3 minutes after taking the windcover off..it was awful and rough.[/b]

I might use my alien on the next try so I am not wasting so much tobacco..
[/quote]

If you had coal on the bowl for 20 min before your first puff, you overheated the bowl. Go ahead and puff away as the bowl heats up, This will also give you some insight into what is happening with the tobacco in terms of heat management.

In fact, if you are going to step away from the bowl for a while take a coal off to prevent over heating the bowl.
[/quote]

I waited about 5 minutes.

[quote name='king_lunchb0x' timestamp='1327002324' post='536092']
[quote name='Floataround' timestamp='1326930630' post='536008']
Well...it was a flop. Strangly enough there was more flavor, but the clouds were not as big, and it got really harsh after 20 minutes. I added some more to the bowl in the video, made sure to make the foil as flat as possible, used 2 coco m's.

Windcover on from the start, two coals hanging off the bowl. 5 minutes in I moved the coals in a tiny bit to the edge of the bowl, left the windcover on for another 15 and started smoking. About 2 or 3 minutes after taking the windcover off..it was awful and rough.

I might use my alien on the next try so I am not wasting so much tobacco..
[/quote]

im my experiences with my alien I had to overpack the hell out of it to get a good enough Coal to tobacco Ratio. Maybe I missed the post but are you using Noir or lucid?
[/quote]

Lucid Orange Soda. The more I read about it the more I read it has a bite to it so I am going to order some M Cherry and give that a go on my next order.

[Chreees]

Not everyone waits for their bowl to heat up. It's just something I've gotten in the habit of doing. Not necessary by any means. Ashley made a good point that if you puff away right from the start, you'll get a good feel for how the bowl is heating up, etc.

[Skoozle]

Cactus Fruit seems to be especially smooth. Some of the folks I smoke with cough very easily no matter how gently I heat the bowl, but they always comment on how smooth Cactus Fruit is.

[king_lunchb0x]

I actually have both flavors in the stash now, lucid seems to have a lot more of that bite, even after re acclimation. Cactuis fruit is very good too. Not really as harsh but it is really sweet. Im not sure what else u could be doing wrong. a strong tangle may indicate you need more acclimation, i noticed it yesterday with my lucid Orng soda. On your alien try a little overpacking it not much to start with and try splitting your coals, for easier heat management. place 3 halfs more towards the center and once the bowl gets going you may have to remove and then add one piece every now and again. Cant think of much else for an alien.

[Floataround]

I would not say I have an easy cough, so I think it might be that bite we are talking about. I was debating between m Chrry, ILTOBC, and Peach iced tea. Are all of those smoother flavors?

[Afortunado]

So as a long time lurker here, let me just say that I appreciate the guides you all have posted on the boards here a lot. They've been of inestimable value to me in my hookah endeavors, and several I would probably not have bought into were it not for the reviews on forums like this. Part of the explosion in hookah popularity over the last few years I attribute to in part to all the people that take the time to ensure the best possible smoke every bowl, every time.

That being said, I feel like Tangiers is my 'Elanor,' unicorn, pot of gold, whatever. I've been trying for years (and I do mean years) off and on to get it just right, and have failed so many times. To be fair, I've moved out of state (Oklahoma), back into state, off to college, back home, rented apartments, moved for work, and now own a house a long way from where it all started. Ergo acclimation is never something I have gotten just right. All too frequently I'm sure I leave it out too long (or not long enough), fail to mix it often enough, or watch the temperature. I've been known to use a refrigerator from time to time lol.

The point is, Tangiers F-Line flavor Red Tea knocked me on my ass when I got it right years ago. It was wonderful. I started my hookah sessions with Nahkla and Al Amir and such. Later I upgraded to Al Fahker and Starbuzz. Now I usually smoke Romman or Social Smoke brands but I keep buying Tangiers every so often in hopes of recreating that session. I'm sure by now Nostalgia (that fickle mistress) has in my mind made the memory something grander that what in reality it was, but I know I've never even come close sense.

Most of my Tangiers sessions are accompanied by a harshness that I could only describe as filling. It is not an acrid harshness from too much coal, and there is little in the way of smoke to comment on. At times I manage to achieve medium smoke but find no flavor. Where, oh where did I offend the universe to leave me so? Any help would be greatly appreciated. For my setups see below.

tl;dr: I use a KM hookah or a smaller Mya or a older Egyptian or a.... Yeah you get it. I own 8 of them by now but the KM is my fav. I have a medium Tangiers phunnel (the small one broke a long time ago) and I seem to have lost my only remaining scalli mod (I've even talked to local glassblowers FML). So no tealights for me. I also have a vortex and a CH glass mini phunnel. Normally I use 3 Kings but I have some Exoticas and some silver japs.

What do I need to do to make my Tangiers blow me away?

[Chreees]

Keys to getting the best session from your Tangiers:

1) Using the proper bowl- legit Tangiers phunnel, whatever size.
2) Proper packing. It's all about how dense you pack it, and how high. Noir and F-Line is more finicky about getting it just right to yield those perfect results; Lucid and Birquq are more forgiving.
3) Heat management. This involves using good coals (a good brand of coconut coals such as Coconara, or a good brand of silver Japs such as Golden Canary, are best) and knowing where/how to place them on the bowl, appropriate time to ash them, appropriate time to add or remove the windcover, etc.

Sounds like you already know a good bit, but hopefully some of the info in this thread can help you further, and help you find your "Eleanor." Whatever you did that one time with Red Tea, you did it right. You just have to figure it out and replicate that one epic session. I'll admit, I STILL don't always get Noir right when smoking it. In fact, it's one of the reasons I primarily smoke Lucid, as it's just easier to work with in general for me. Noir is all about making sure you get every little thing right. If something is off, it's all fucked, haha. Just keep working at it and you WILL get it, and you will be so happy when you do.

As for the refrigeration of Tangiers, I strongly advise against it. It's only going to give you more trouble as it will mess with the tobacco more than just having it set out in room temperature.

But yeah, usually it's just a case of adding more tobacco, or changing up your heat management... Maybe give us some more details of how you are doing it? How densely are you packing it and how high, what kind of foil are you using and how many and how big of holes are you poking in it, and what kind/how many coals are you using?

We will get you another epic session, good sir!

[Afortunado]

I'll take some pics when I get home off the bowl. That way you'll have a decent idea of what it looks like. As for how it feels? It feels about like a Medium-Well to Well-Done steak when you push on it. Does that make sense?

Honestly I'm a huge fan of 3 kings coals, though I already ordered some Nara's after reading this thread earlier so they'll be here next week I imagine. I know I've got the tub smelling like it should. That BBQ/Soy Sauce/Nastiness is gone and it smells like it should. I usually assume its acclimated at that point.

I then pack and poke 4 circles without a hole in the center and use 3 halves of 3 kings and rotate them at around 20 minutes. I'll cross my fingers but I assume I'll be back to a bowl of Social Smoke when I fail lol.

[vendetta_revived]

I've never had steak!!!

And yes, pictures would help a lot.

[Chreees]

Cool, pics will help us help you.

That's good that it's smelling like it should. Make sure to let it air out for about 30 minutes or so before you pack, even if it smells good. For density, I pack it about the same density as it came in the package before I opened up the shitbrick and put it in my tub. So pretty tight. Your hole pattern sounds good. Do you use a toothpick to poke? I haven't used 3K's in forever so I can't really comment on if that's too much coalage or not, but I'm thinking it may be too much. That depends on the size of your bowl though. Small or Medium Tangiers phunnel?

[Skoozle]

I've been playing with packing density and by that, I mean actual density... do you have a scale at home?

If you do, measure your Tangiers Phunnel dry and then again with as much water as it will hold. Yeah, water. This will tell you the volume of your bowl. 1 gram of water is 1ml of water.

Now that you have the volume, you can know the exact density that you are packing at.

I have a 30ml bowl and 24g of tangiers smokes pretty well in it. I pack it up to the level of the inner spire so for me the same as the water level and therefore .8g/ml density.

This density will get you in the ballpark, you may need to adjust by a few grams one way or the other. Cane Mint can be packed a little looser, Seville Orange can be packed a little tighter in my experience.

Acclimation, in the future, let the package rest after you receive it in the mail. Trucks rides and cargo plains stress the tobacco out and it needs a few days to relax before you open it. I live in VA and have not had an acclimation problem yet.

Three halves of 3Kings sounds like too much. I would go with two halves or three thirds.

Check the Tangiers packaging for the Tangiers website. It is actually another forum and is full of detailed expert advice for smoking Tangiers. There is a discussion on "The Packing Scale" which would ne very valuable for helping you dial in your packing density.

[Pavo21]

ashley, i saw this post on tangiers site and i thought it was crazy u doing te water thing to figure out how much u put in a bowl, i just pack it in there make it feel right with my finger and bam hours of hours and hours of smoking with no crazyness or loss of falvor, depending on the flavor. some are very feint compared to others but yah. its cool you figured all that out for the crazy people out there.

[Skoozle]

Yeah, I figured out how to pack by feel before I started actually measuring, but when I actually got Tang smoking right, it wasn't nearly as tight as how everyone described it. You definitely don't pack it as tight as possible but I see that advice all the time.

When you put an actual number on something, nothing is lost in translation.

[mustang67n]

awesome, ashley! I love it when people go the extra mile to describe something in an irrefutable way!

[Chreees]

[img]http://i52.tinypic.com/2cen29j.jpg[/img]

[headhunter]

gunna necro here a little but today i smoked two bowls of tang noir, Cane Mint and Static Starlight. Starlight was harshish and odd and would randomly have great clouds, the mint was wayyyy overpowering and actually kinda burned. Now im going to smoke again tomorrow using cocoa and imma pack it tighter and lower to see if that will help but any input you guys could give me would be nice. Oh and also i used Erics foil method to test the bowl and it seemed alright but i could be seeing the foil wrong. Ill try to take pic's tomorrow but i have always had issues with uploading them to this site. Thanks Tangiers Wizards.

[Skeletor]

Thanks a lot! For all of you. This topic has helped me a lot since I'm still trying to figure the "strange case of Tangiers tobacco". Btw. I'm glad you guys have no idea how much I have to pay just to get the damn brand imported here

[Pavo21]

i think this thread is poop stains on my unders, didn't help me at all chris....WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!! all i wanna do is be like you!

[Chreees]

[quote name='Pavo21' timestamp='1347177089' post='556026']
i think this thread is poop stains on my unders, didn't help me at all chris....WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!! all i wanna do is be like you!
[/quote]

Pfffft. If you didn't know how to do Tangiers properly, you wouldn't have any business in your lounge!

[djnick]

bump for this awesome thread

[djnick]

bump for this awesome thread

[Chreees]

Haha, glad it helped you out man.

[Chreees]

Tweaked this a bit to add newer information, and to add some stuff I do now that I didn't used to. I hope it can still help some folks who are just starting out on Tangiers.