Well I said some harsh things about Coco Nara coals before, and I would now like to retract this harshness.  I guess this is the kind of coal that you only appreciate after you get to know it a little bit.  After I figured out how to light these coconut-derived, sugar-cube shaped beauties, they turned out to be a truly fabulous facilitator of smoking joy.

I figured out that my little stove top burners are not ideal for lighting the coals, but if I balance them just right over the flame and light both sides as intensely as possible, then the payoff is well worth it.

In this case, I had transitioned them from the heat of some other coals once they were sufficiently heated to smoke on their own two feet:

It’s true what they say — Once these Coco Nara coals get goin’, they burn clean, strong and for a really long time.  I was enjoying this particular bowl so much (the shisha happened to be Layalina, Kiwi flavor) that I hated leaving it.  After I had smoked it for about 30 minutes, neither the coal nor the shisha showed any signs of letting up.

This goes to show ya, sometimes the right shisha and the right coals come together to make the perfect, burning bowl of harmony.

See the happy smoke:

And this is surely a happy smoke ring:

Good job Coco Nara, and good job Layalina.  Did I mention that Layalina is another one of those dependable, not too expensive brands of shisha.  A small box like the one show below doesn’t usually cost more than $2-3.

How to light hookah coals with a blazing fireball of fury:

They are using a coal lighter/holder to keep the coals right next to the flame.

In retrospect, I think this lighting apparatus would have been useful for my recent experience with Coco Nara.

(update: I had better luck with Coca Nara shortly after writing this post)

My first experience with Coco Nara was interesting.  First I was excited about the coals based on the description given on the box… then I couldn’t get the dang things to light!

Here’s some bullet points of the advantages of Coco Nara coals, as given by the packaging (all of which sound great):

• Made from Coconut shells (no trees were murdered)
• 100% natural
• Burns three times longer than other charcoals
• Leaves less than 4% ashes
• Easy to light
• Odorless and tasteless

Another good thing: a box of 16 of these little wonder coals was only $2.50 from the local market.

The fact that different coals require different levels of heat to get started, is never a problem for me since I’ve got an open-flame burner in the kitchen.   Usually it’s not a problem, that is.  Here are some pics of the coals right in the open flame:

I left the room to watch TV for a while and, when I came back, some of the edges were red.  For a lot of coals, this is enough to get started at least, so I put them on the bowl to tried to stoke them up a bit by inhaling through the hookah.

Result: They went cold in a about a minute.

My thought at the time was, “If I only hadn’t gotten rid of that blow torch…”   So I tried again to put them on the burner but again, after a while, in the interest of time gave up on the Coco Nara’s in favor of some good ‘ol Easy-Lite coals, which pretty much never fail.

Sure enough, here’s a picture of some the Easy-Lite coals after about 10 minutes on the burner:

I will try the Coco Nara coals again in the near future because:

• I don’t want my $2.50 to go to waste.
• I found a few accounts online of people who are apparently in love with these coals.
• Plus I found this video (and lots of others like it):

Related post here about lighting coals.   It’s possible that my stovetop burner is not ideal for Coco Nara coals… I’ll try again soon in any case.