Romman Double Apple Review

Brand/Flavor:
Romman Double Apple

Methodology:
-22 hits/person over 35 minutes
-3 individuals in the circle
-2 CoCo Naras, offset holes with 3 small vent holes opposite, foil rotated every few minutes
-3 hose Mya Staff filled with ice water with a small Heba diffuser

First Impressions:
Typical choppy Romman cut, very sticky and moist. This batch was a bit more stemmy than those past with at least one very large stem. Smells strongly of anise (kind of like black licorice) with a vague hint of apple. Very herbal.

Post Mortem:
Cooked almost all the way through, less than 5% moisture retention.

Pros:
-Reasonably thick smoke
-Strong buzz
-Strong anise flavor

Cons:
-Anise completely overpowers the apple

Andrew's Thoughts:
Double Apple is one of those flavors that every hookah smoker has tried at least once. Nearly every brand has one, and it's usually one of its top sellers. That said, I only recently discovered what Double Apple actually is, at least according to Sonthert over at Tangiers (he actually makes the stuff, so I'm taking his word for it). Apparently Double Apple is made with apple, anise and rose oil, and that is what distinguishes it from normal apple flavors. I was therefore a bit more forgiving when I took my first hit and tasted nothing but anise. However, the same went for my second, third and fourth hits, and indeed throughout the entire bowl I could taste nothing resembling an apple or even rose-like flavor. As a licorice-lover, I do enjoy anise most of the time, but this was just too much. It was sharp, herbal, and overpowering, and beyond practicing my smoke rings I really had very little motivation to keep inhaling. If you really really like anise, you'll probably like this shisha, but everyone else would probably be better off looking elsewhere for their apple fix.

PS. Eric says this tobacco is for licorice lovers. I disagree. I LOVE Romman Licorice, which tastes like licorice. This tastes like anise. Anise is a lot less sweet, and any real licorice fan can readily distinguish the two. If you hate licorice, however, they probably both taste the same, and you probably ought to stay away from this stuff anyway.

Eric's Thoughts:
I'm personally no fan of black licorice, so I will admit I'm a wee bit biased against this flavor. But here goes. The smoke was thick and fun to play with and the buzz was strong. Not pass out strong, but strong. That said, from my understanding of Double Apple, the Anise flavor should balance with the apple flavor. Romman doesn't quite get that though. In fact, I could honestly barely taste anything resembling apple whatsoever. Each hit I took was simply anise, anise and more anise. The smoke and buzz were both good enough not to make me want to stop smoking it, and the Anise flavor wasn't nasty enough to make me gag, but as far as apple goes, there really wasn't anything going on. So if you're looking for something that tastes like licorice, Romman Double Apple is great. If you're looking for a proper double apple, I suppose you could do a helluva lot worse than Romman, but not by much.

Peanut Gallery:
(Caroline) I was excited to try Double Apple, because I love apples and anything apple flavored, but was sorely disappointed when I did. It's like Apple Jacks—it doesn’t taste like apples. Except, unlike Apple Jacks, it doesn’t even taste like sugary, delicious cereal, either. The flavor is more along the lines of burnt Italian cookies combined with old black licorice and despair. Anise was the dominant flavor, and there wasn’t even a hint or an aftertaste of anything that remotely resembled apples. Not a flavor I would willingly smoke again.

Conclusion:
The usual Romman strengths of buzz and thick smoke couldn't save this shisha from its lopsided flavor. Recommended only to anise-lovers and those who care only about nicotine and smoke.

C+