Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Romman Mint Review

Brand/Flavor:
Romman Mint

Methodology:
-Approximately 50 hits/person across 35 minutes
-3 individuals in the circle
-33mm Golden coal, offset holes, foil rotated every couple minutes
-22" generic 1-hose hookah (hereafter referred to as Ophelia...semi-arbitrary choice)
-Vase filled with cold water

First Impressions:
VERY sticky, lots of molasses, but not unmanageable, slightly stemmy, all typical for Romman. Aromatic but not overwhelmingly so. Professional-looking tin with a zip lock pouch within. Zip lock pouch is fairly useless, leaks molasses rendering tin rather disgusting. (Shisha was transferred to a jar earlier this week, more details to follow on that technique.)

Post Mortem:
Almost cooked all the way through. Only about 10% retained any kind of moisture.

Pros:
-Decently thick smoke, quite usable for rings, french inhale, etc.
-Consistent smoke
-Significant buzz
-Natural mint taste for the majority of the bowl
-Strong menthol coolness

Cons:
-Mildly stemmy
-Slightly metallic aftertaste towards the end of the bowl

Eric's Thoughts:
Mint isn't my favorite flavor to smoke on its own. I've had mint mixed with many different flavors in the past from fruit to chocolate, and to be quite honest, I don't really like the mint on its own. I feel that mint is better suited as an enhancement for other fruit flavors and should really rarely be smoked alone. I felt that the flavor didn't have anything beyond the menthol's cooling sensation, which really cannot be held against it as it is advertised as a pure mint flavor. Overall, good smoke, wouldn't do it alone too often, but the flavoring is certainly as advertised.

Andrew's Thoughts: First 20 minutes were spectacular. Natural mint flavor with powerful cooling that opened up my chest and lungs (I'm asthmatic). The metallic taste kicked in about two thirds of the way into the bowl, but was much like that of organic toothpaste–probably the result of a menthol overdose. The nicotine rush was so strong that I had to lie down only 10 minutes into the bowl, and was physically uncoordinated until a full 15 after we had put down the hose. Overall, the experience was quite enjoyable (as a mint-lover, admittedly), if quite intense. In my experience, the mint also mixes quite well with other flavors (berry, chocolate, etc.), so I honestly don't see how you can possibly go wrong with this shisha.

Peanut Gallery:
(Caroline)
I agree with Andrew--the mint completely cleared out my sinuses, which was nice.

Conclusion:
Honest and intense, Romman Mint is perfect for any mint-lover, though it might be a bit strong for the rest of us, not to mention a bit pricey ($5/50g, $12/125g). However, mint's natural mixability makes this shisha a difficult one to pass up.

EDIT (4/06/09): After nearly an hour of debate, we've decided to change the grade to B+/A-, as I (Andrew) strongly believe that Romman Mint is a run-out-and-buy shisha, whereas Eric finds its overwhelming flavor when smoked on its own to be too negative a quality to warrant an A of any kind. We are both very opinionated (as advertised!).

B+/A-

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