(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.

Arab Khaleej coals are smokeless coals, what many would call “Japanese style.”  This is one of the highest quality hookah coals I’ve ever used.   They require a stove top to light (realistically) but their long term burning quality is well worth the trouble.  They are smokeless, long-burning and make for a high quality, smooth-burning hookah-smoking experience.  About five bucks for a box of 15 “sticks” or 60 little squares.  Very good value.

After burning about a half hour, one piece was still burning: