Happiness Can Give You Blisters

Let me set a scene for you -- A college student sits on the back porch of his apartment with a pair of metal tongs in one hand and a lighter in the other. He stares at a piece of charcoal held in the metal tongs… while his thumb is turning white from the pressure he’s been applying on the lighter’s gas button for a full minute. Beside him lies a wrapper with “Quick-lite” printed across the side.

Ok, that image has to be a bit depressing for avid hookah freaks. Fortunately, there’s a metaphorical Zoloft for the average quick-lite charcoal blues. Akhla Charcoal is the Greek equivalent of a small-scale supernova.

I received my sample pack of Akhla Charcoal and decided to go out onto my back porch to light it, as had become my little ritual. I took my lighter out, shook my hand in preparation for another “quick-lite” session, and held the flame to the small, round black briquette… for about two seconds. The charcoal popped, and an orange trail traveled the length of it and engulfed it. I might have been staring a little too intently, because my face melted a little bit -- yet I still managed to smile as I walked inside.

Of course, that’s just the lighting process. I was even more amazed when I got the coal inside my apartment and onto a bowl of Blueberry Pancakes flavored Hookah Freak Shisha. Apparently most quick-lite coals are made by soaking a normal coal in lighter fluid or something else similar. Before, I had been smoking Gunpowder Berry Pancakes. Suddenly, I was smoking real Blueberry Pancakes. I swear that Aunt Jemima was somewhere off in the background humming a little tune.

So, it lights fast and burns clean… what else can it do? While I smoked I prodded the coal with my metal tongs and it stayed together… charcoal has a tendency to get ashy and fall apart, making your tobacco taste bad by getting down into the bowl. The little chunk of coal went from black to grey and remained solid the entire time. The entire process took about an hour, which was a feat within itself.

I guess this should be summed up… I have a new friend. His (or her?) name is Akhla Charcoal. It burns hot, burns long, burns clean and burns fingers, so don’t play with it without the proper equipment. It will be a permanent addition to my circle of buddies when we’re sitting around, smoking some Shisha, and telling our outlandish stories.