My name is Matt and today I will try to answer a question that I have seen many people been answering on any hookah-related groups in the Internet:
Although the title points to Fortuna, please note that this guide is also applicable regarding packing all your Olla Bowls.
So, why Fortuna?
I will keep it simple – because it is a perfect all-arounder on which you can smoke both blonde and dark tobaccos, releasing a huge amount of taste due to its incredible thermal capacity.
Before we go further, there are three major factors that affect your smoking on any bowl you use:
As for the tobacco, I personally prefer to pack my Fortuna with brands that offer a fine cut, as it is easier to distribute it in the phunnel bowls in general.
Now, moving on to the pack, I will not tell you how to pack every possible tobacco there is. What I can do, is to give you a general method of how do I pack my Fortuna to enjoy every single hookah session.
Before we start, I will present you what the general rules are:
As some theory has been introduced, it is time to put it into practice. The setup I will be using is:
Hookah: VZ Custom Mini
Bowl: Ollabowls Bacco Antico Faenza;
HMD: Kaloud Lotus 1+ / OllaBowls HMDv2 prototype
Coals: BuCoCo by Oduman (26mm cubes)
Poker and Phunnel plug by OllaBowls
Firstly, take your bowl and get a phunnel plug – it will significantly ease your packing, making it cleaner and allowing for more precise pack.
Secondly, put the tobacco in. Take a small amount of preferred tobacco into your hand and start distributing it equally, thoroughly spreading the tobacco with your fingers in a way you sprinkle salt or pepper.
Make sure there are no chunks of tobacco stuck together in the bowl.
Here is an example of a pre-cleaned pack:
Thirdly, take your foil poker and start re-distributing your tobacco. Keep in mind that unless you are not aiming for a dense pack, you should not press it down with the poker. Instead, just keep gently moving the tobacco sideways until it looks like this:
What is important here, is that you make sure that the tobacco is distributed equally, with no holes in the pack (I do not mean no space between the leafs but equal surface at the top and the tobacco sticking nicely to the walls of the bowl).
If you have any doubts if your pack is equal, just look at the bowl from the angle like presented on the photo above, and rotate it 360 degrees to check if there are some tobacco leafs sticking out.
The last thing to do is to take up a piece of a paper towel and clean up the lip where the HMD will be placed.
When using the Kaloud, my preferred pack is up to 1-2mm below the lip where the HMD sits. Only the Kaloud’s bottom tabs should touch the tobacco slightly.
This way the heat is distributed properly, preventing the tobacco from overheating from above and making it bake from the bottom, releasing maximum amount of flavor in the process.
If you pack it too low, meaning the tobacco will not touch the bulges on the bottom of the Kaloud, there will not be enough heat to give you a proper smoke.
If you pack it too high (tobacco touching the whole bottom of Kaloud), you may burn the tobacco too quick, making your session shorter, and/or having a harsh, burned taste.
Now, the easy part is over. Let’s move to managing the heat.
I usually start with 3 (26mm) cubes of good quality coconut charcoals. Make sure they are fully heated from each side. Unevenly burned coals will distrupt the heat management and are not good for your health.
At the start, I put two inside the kaloud and one on the side like this:
Then, I wait. In this method it takes around 10 minutes to heat the Fortuna.
You can check if it is heated properly by touching the bowl at the bottom and slowly moving your finger up until you reach the point where the bottom of tobacco den should be. If it is warm, you can start smoking.
At the beginning, draw two or three times and check the smoke.
If it fits you, take one charcoal off and put it on the tray - we will be using it later.
The whole point of putting three coals initially is to make Fortuna absorb the heat and then just keep retaining it with two coals. This way you will get a nice smoke without burning your tobacco. Fortuna’s insane thermal capacity is a thing to consider – if you overheat the bowl, it is difficult to cool it down quickly, so keeping three coals inside the whole time can lead to harsh, burned taste which we want to avoid at all costs.
Now, you are good to go. This setup should last for about 30-40 minutes.
The moment you feel the smoke fading down a bit, it is time to use this third coal we left before. At this point in time the other two should be at about two-thirds of what they were initially, so you can put all three inside and extend your session.
Of course, have in mind that different tobacco brands have different tendencies for overheating and it may turn out that your tobacco will taste perfect with having three coals on all the time, but generally it is better to start with thinner smoke and be able to thicken it, instead of burning it too quickly and having all the tobacco go to waste, therefore I highly encourage you to start it slow.
When using the OllaBowls HMD, your packing method should be exactly like described before, but the tobacco should not be touching the HMD.
The most important difference is however the heat-management part.
Prepare three 26mm cubes and put them inside. Spread them out as close to the walls as possible, yet make sure they don’t touch the walls as we want the wall-side of the charcoal to burn.
If you put them too closely to the walls, there is a risk that one side will go black, reducing the temperature.
Here is an example how it should be done:
The important thing is not to put the charcoals in a middle.
If you do so, more heat will go down vertically to the bottom of the HMD, making a risk of burning the part of the tobacco that is closer to the phunnel hole and underheating the part that sticks to the walls of the bowl. Instead, you should aim to heat the walls of the bowl, that is why spreading the coals is so important. Obviously, each tobacco has a different heat resistance, that is why some of them may not overheat even with three coals in the middle. Me personally, I always spread them out, no matter which tobacco I use.
As for the lid, do not close it at first. It is meant to be a heat retainer when your smoke starts fading a bit so you can close it and increase the temperature inside the HMD in order to get some extra minutes of a dense smoke.
That is all for today, I hope that this guide will help you maximize the potential of your Fortuna. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I will answer them.
OllaBowls Team wishes you a nice smoke!
-Matt @CoveredInCloudz
]]>its Matt @coveredincloudz, today I will discuss a topic that I noticed to be a really common issue during the time I spent on various hookah community groups – smoking Tangiers.
I saw a lot of Tangiers’ amateurs getting frustrated after the first try, so together with Olla Bowls Team we decided to do something about it, so here we go:
When a person who never tried Tangiers asks about it at any Internet Hookah Group it usually starts like that:
‘Hello, I just bought my first Tangiers, how do I smoke it, any tips on the setup?’
And about an hour later there goes another post from the same person:
‘I want to sell 235g’s of my Tangiers, any buyers?’
Clearly, the session did not go so well if someone gives up after an hour.
So, is it unsmokable because so many people give up after the first try?
No!
It is just a tobacco that requires you to forget anything that you know about hookah setup, because with Tangiers, everything is different.
Before we proceed to the actual knowledge, I would like to note that it is an intermediate-level guide.
Tangiers can be a beast when it comes to the buzz, especially if overheated or with a wrong setup.
If you never smoked any dark/burley-type tobacco, I do not recommend taking Tangiers for your first try.
There are lots of other dark tobaccos that will not kick as strong and will be better for anyone who wants to try burleys – for example:
- Starbuzz Vintage – low-strength;
- Darkside – Medium-strength;
- MustHave – Medium+
If you are familiar to those above and you actually enjoy them, you should be able to try smoking Tangiers.
Here are the key features of Tangiers that make it different than other tobaccos:
I will start from the last point as it is crucial – you need to have the setup to enjoy Tangiers:
1) BOWL
2) Heavy-duty foil
3) Provost
4) COALS
It must be a phunnel bowl as Tangiers is supposed to have a limited airflow between the leafs and release the flavour through evaporating the smoke from the bottom of the bowl.
Phunnels also reduce the buzz and that is exactly what you should aim for.
To give you some comparison, Virginia-based tobaccos are more like beer, light and refreshing.
Tangiers can be anything between sipping whisky to chugging it straight from the bottle, so, just for the responsibility and enjoyment, it needs to be managed properly.
My favourite bowls for Tangiers is the new Olla ‘Ade’ or Olla Nero.
I have tried many others before but this one gives me the densest smoke and a full flavour.
It allows you to reflect some of the heat from the coals which fits the low-heating well.
For Tangiers you will need to make a lot of holes in the foil so thick one is recommended as it will not break that easily.
I personally use foil that is 40 microns thick.
Probably the only HMD that fits the tangiers setup.
Allows you to have increased control over applied heat and if smoked without the lid, creates additional space between the tobacco and the coals – exactly what you need for low-heating.
If you do not have it, you can use Batcha instead, but provost just fits better as it allows you to increase the temperature when the coals are fading, just by putting the lid on.
Here things go tricky.
Tangiers is made mostly for US market, where lots of people use so-called ‘flats’ coals.
In Europe we use cubes, so not everyone has flats on a daily basis.
Flats are the preferable coals for Tangiers, as the cubes tend to overheat some areas.
The lower the caloric value of the coal, the better it is for Tangiers, as it will produce less heat.
Hookah: Alpha Hookah X;
Bowl: Olla Nero
Foil: Smokaz 40 microns hookah foil;
HMD: AOT Provost v2;
Coals: Black Cocos Rects (26x26x22mm flats.
The moment you decide that this is Tangiers day is the point where you should already have forgotten about how do you usually make your pack.
None of the usual rules will apply.
First of all, take a phunnel plug and place it in the bowl.
It will make the packing easier.
Then, stir the tobacco nicely in the container and start putting Tangiers into the bowl.
Lots of it.
<caption – half-compressed bowl>
Take a fork or use your finger and start compressing it by simply pressing it down the bowl.
You will probably end up with a half of the bowl full so add some more Tangiers and compress it again.
Remember, you are aiming for a dense pack.
There should be no empty space between the leafs.
You should compress it to the point that it is still ‘spongy’.
Just as the manufacturer says on the label – it should be compressed to a density that you get in the unopened package of Tangiers.
I usually leave around 1mm of space between the top of the bowl and the tobacco surface just to get the proper airflow.
<caption – fully compressed bowl, I had to add the double the amount of tobacco I put in initially>
Take out the phunnel plug and use your fork to compress the tobacco that is closer to the phunnel hole in a way that it is a bit higher on the sides of the bowl and lower closer to the hole.
This way the airflow will be better.
After all this, the pack should look more or less like that.
You can see that the tobacco gets lower the closer it gets to the hole.
Now, put on a square piece of foil and stretch it.
Then, keep the pressure on the foil with your hand, take your poker and start making holes, punching it through the foil and through the tobacco, to the very bottom of the bowl.
Each time you make holes you should touch the bottom of the bowl.
This way you are making airflow canals that the flavor will be released through.
The holes need to be made densly.
Depending on what you are using, fork or poker, you will need 3 or 4 lines of holes.
Finally, correct your foil once again. Watch out as the foil breaks here very easily, so here is a method how to do it properly:
In the photo above, my right hand holds about two-thirds of the bowl firmly (pushing it to the sides of the bowl and a bit to the bottom) and with my left hand I am grabbing the remaining part and pulling it down.
When pulling the foil down, do not use just your fingers – try to grab it with your palm.
If you did a good job, you should be able to do this:
Now, test the airflow by putting your lips to the bottom of the bowl and making an inhale through the bowl.
If the airflow is uninterrupted, you did a good job and the bowl is ready.
If the airflow is even slightly restricted, you will have to take some tobacco out, take a new piece of foil, stretch it, punch the holes etc.
Remember that when you put the provost and coals, the foil might get about 1mm lower while inhaling, so if airflow is already restricted before this, you might kill your session with such a pack.
It is always better to make any corrects to the pack before you put the coals on.
When the bowl is ready, it is time to put on provost and some coals but do not use the lid yet.
Prepare 3 flat coals and put them Stonehedge-like on the outer part of the provost.
It is important to put them on the thinner part of the coal as less heat will reach the tobacco when you are not drawing.
When the coals are in, wait around 3-5 minutes and you can start smoking.
Now it is time to control the heat.
As tangiers responds to overheat very easily, it is important to move the coals quite often.
Initially, put them close to the sides of provost, and when the coals will be fading out, you can start moving them a bit closer to the middle or put them on the 26mm side.
With Tangiers it is vital to move the source of heat so it is distributed equally on the tobacco.
Personally, I do not move the coals themselves, I rather rotate the provost for about 120 degrees each 5-10 minutes so I can add some heat to the parts that are underheated.
So, this are the basics. I hope that with this guide you will enjoy your Tangiers or dark leafs tobacco sessions like never before.
Olla Bowls team wishes you a nice smoke!
Let us know your opinion in the comments below and don't miss out our new collection.
Different opinion? Cool 😎👍 write it on the comments ❤️
]]>I am Lucrezia Conti one of the Founders of OLLA, today I want you to know more about the paintings we draw, so let's start immediately ......
Made in Italy, "Vivere italiano", has become synonymous with "living well", in every aspect of life, from dressing to eating, to being surrounded by objects designed and built to improve the quality of life.
The OLLA Bowls are products characterized by low technological content, but, at the same time, endowed with extraordinary refinement: the production processes from which they originate, are the result of centuries-old traditions that require many technical acquaintances, so much so that it is precisely the artisans able to transfer such knowledge to the final product.
Therefore,
Why not apply these artistic skills also in the world of hookahs?
My name is Dennis and I'm the owner of Shishamatics on Instagram.
In this part I will try to help you to manage the heat while your smoke session and give you my personal opinion about the Olla HMD 2 PROTOTYPE.
]]>My name is Dennis and I'm the owner of Shishamatics on Instagram.
In this part I will try to help you to manage the heat while your smoke session and give you my personal opinion about the Olla HMD 2 PROTOTYPE.
Before of all you need to know how to pack properly your tobacco, so if you haven't already read our packing guide, please click here: Click here
When using the Olla Bowl HMD 2 PROTOTYPE it is important to prepare four coals (I use 26mm cubes) and put them inside and place the lid on.
Depending on your tobacco, after 5-7 minutes the smoke start to be dense and once the bowl is heated (from 7/20 min), you can leave the lid from the HMD if needed.
However frequently I dont need to take it off because the heat is perfect in the Olla Bowl at many times and you dont need to do anything.
If you dont use four coals the heat will be not enough in your Bowl for the tobacco. Certainly be sure that each tobacco has a different heat resistance. Sometimes you have to take the fourth coal out of the HMD 2 (at the most time nearly after 7-20 minutes) or start with only 3 coals. However often, and that is absolutely revolutionary for me, you dont need to put the fourth coal off!
You can smoke for 1,5/2 hours and sometimes you have to regulate the heat because the different tobacco heat resistances.
There are two ways to adjust the heat:
Furthermore as I use the HMD 2 PROTOTYPE the ash never falls down to the bottom of the Bowl. Actually the lid is like a heat retainer. He helps you to focus higher temperature in your Bowl.
My recommendation to you: use the HMD 2 PROTOTYPE with an Olla Bowl like for example the „CRONO CELESTE“.
That is all for today, I hope that this guide helps you to make your hookah session better. If you want you can leave your own experiences in the comments.
We wish you a great smoke! Dennis @Shishamatics
]]>Welcome on board, please select one of the following guides just clicking on it:
]]>I am Lucrezia Conti one of the Founders of OLLA, today I want you to know more about the clays we use, so let's start immediately ......
The first thing you need to know about OLLA is that it is composed of a special mix of "faïence", the name derives from the city of Faenza, which for centuries was one of the major European producers.