Smiley's Snack - Orange Review

Smiley Snack - Orange

Shisha Cut: courser than old Smiley’s, similar to AW in cut and stemage. Not as drippy as before but still moist.

Hookah Type: 17” Modern

Duration: 1 hour

Bowl: clay standard

Foil / Screen: foil

Coal / Amount: started w/ 1.5” Dynamite finger, added 2 JST – removed 1 piece after 15-20 minutes.

Smoke: thick

Buzz: at first (25-30 min) was good and buzzing. Then stopped completely, even with massive drags – nothing.

Smell / Flavor: Smell was fresh oranges, not candish or sweet. Very tasty smelling and made my mouth water. Taste: at first, (25-35) mins it was nice mellow true Orange tasting. After that point the taste slowly went down hill, acquiring a bitter taste. After 45min it reminded me of Nahkla Orange, but still got even more bitter. Taste started going “burnt” about 55-60 mins, where I stopped.

Rating (1 to 10): 4.5-5 for taste, 8.5 for smoke

When I received the sample, I checked out the packaging. Plastic over-wrap, cardboard inner, with a “seal-a-meal” bag inside of shisha. No leaks. Has standard smoking warning inside with weight and Tar/Nic amounts.

Outside of Bag/Box

Inside of Bag/Box

Also states: Don’t be Sqaure, Be Smiley! Smiley’s is the ONLY American Based Shisha! The Legend of Smiley Begins TODAY!

Weighed the bag before and after opening - .5oz of shisha (Google says .529oz is 15g), so it true to the amount. Sliced open bag and was greeted by fresh squeezed Orange smell. Nice – not candy, true fruit.

Shisha itself

Shisha cut was different than previous shisha – rougher, similar to Al Waha, with med to light amount of stems. Wasn’t nearly as drippy as before – was moist & slightly sticky. Wet moist, but not as bad as Hookah-Hookah.

Bowl Packed

Packed bowl and used foil – 3 rings of holes. Started with a 1.5” of natural wood finger (Dynamite) but after 5 min, lit 2 Japanese Silver tabs to add to bowl. Took 11 min w/ windcover to produce smoke, taste started 1 min after.

Taste was that of a fresh Orange, true fruit not over sweet. Very nice.

Video of me starting

After 25-35 mins, shisha picked up a bitter taste, no amount of moving the coals would alter the bitterness. Removing a coal didn’t help either, but did decrease the amount of smoke slightly.

Continued on till about 45 min in, started getting “off” taste similar to Nakhla Orange taste, but very more bitter and was rapidly losing it’s “true” orange taste. About 55-60 min in the shisha lost all Orange taste and was just “burnt”. Stopped smoking.

¾’ers of the bowl was burnt black – very bottom was still moist.

All in all, the taste in my opinion hasn’t improved. It does have taste now, but it it lost serious points due to the bitter turn of the taste which then disappeared. It lost its “smokablity” somewhat fast in my book. I’m used to not losing taste till 90-100 min has passed.

The loss of the buzz as the flavor changed was also disappointing. For those who don’t like a buzz, you’d like it – clouds of smoke w/ no buzz. I’ll give it points for the clouds – they rocked.

As to my purchasing this shisha – No. I can enjoy more taste, longer, for less. I will state that it is an improvement over my first batch of Smiley’s (purchased about 4 months ago from the man himself), but it hasn’t proven to me yet that it has become as it claims. It may continue to improve over time and I am willing to try perhaps a few months down the line, but it isn’t up to my level of “par” as it currently is.