Today I’m bringing you a review of Al Fakher brand chocolate flavor hookah shisha. I’ve mentioned before how Starbuzz is my favorite brand, but venturing out into other brands can lead to an unexpectedly delicious flavor or provide a financial solution to maintaining your hookah smoking habits. A 250g tin of Al Fakher shisha ($11.95) is cheaper than a 250g tin of Starbuzz shisha ($19.99).
In this case, I wanted to choose a flavor not offered by Starbuzz. A few stuck out initially, but my sweet tooth really kicked in when I saw that Al Fakher sold a chocolate flavored shisha. I grabbed it off the shelf and took it home with me.
I loaded a bowl of this new chocolate shisha, and waited for the coals to reach a satisfying burn level (I judge my natural coals by when they are red all the way through). Al Fakher shisha comes in a zip-lock pouch, which can be very convenient, especially for travel. However one thing to note about this shisha is that it tends to be much wetter than other brands. By the time you reach the end of your Al Fakher shisha, you might consider pulling out the remaining pieces with something other than your hands, especially if you have an aversion to getting them dirty.
After about 10 minutes, I loaded the coals onto my Vortex bowl filled with chocolate shisha (I chose a Vortex bowl for this occasion because I’m not too sure of Al Fakher's ability to preserve flavor). As the shisha began to warm up, I couldn’t taste much at first. It tasted vaguely sweet with only a hint of chocolate. As the smoke began to come thick and white from the hose, the shisha took on its full flavor. To me, it didn’t taste quite right. The taste of chocolate was indeed there, but sort of in a toned down, artificial sense (Although to give credit to Al Fakher, how much can you really expect from flavored tobacco?).
A few minutes into my smoking session, I became frustrated with the way this shisha tasted. It was simply too bland for my liking, so I decided to add some Starbuzz Raspberry shisha to the bowl. To do this, I took off the coals and removed the top layer of tin foil. I replaced half of the shisha inside the bowl with the Starbuzz brand and mixed it around before replacing the foil top. I found a much more enjoyable combination of flavors after this small adjustment. The sweetness of the raspberry shisha complimented the chocolate in a balanced way that eliminated any hint of an artificial taste, yet retained the chocolate flavor they were trying to nail.
Overall, I would recommend this shisha as a flavor enhancer, and should be smoked alongside other favorites. Some may like this chocolate flavor solo, but I will mix mine with other fruity flavors in the future in an attempt to replicate the success I found with my chocolate raspberry bowl.
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