Catch-Up

I will make no excuses or pretenses about my prolonged absence. I'll only say, it's good to be back. And hi, McLane.

Here's a butt-ton of recipes and reviews I thought I'd already posted but haven't apparently!

HookaH-HookaH - Acai Berry

In the box: Not overtly fruity on the nose. Much like white grape, it's kind of rocking a fermented feel. Very unique, I'll give it that!
In the bowl: It's actually very floral. Like a rose? I can actually tolerate? It makes me see what everyone likes about a good rose! Acai is mellow but present, fruity/berry-y but not fake. Tasty and wonderful. Also probably one of my favorite favorite mixers. I should get a gigantic tub of this, stat. And you. should. too.

star star star star star
5/5 stars for H-H ACAI!!!

Orange + Acai + Margarita = The Everything Fruit!
Blackberry + Acai + Hazelnut = Purple Haze!

Becky's Shisha Kitchen!
Recipies of Delicious Smoking

Ha7elnut

Another mild and delicious chill-out flavor from the kitchen, this one is. The seven spice, I'll reiterate, is much different than when I first opened it. The nuttiness is really complimented by the spice amalgamation. After a bit of burn time it actually started tasting like chai. Nudge nudge, H-H.

1/2 Hazelnut + 1/2 7-Spice = Ha7elnut!


This one's not worthy of a name

Having in mind that my H-H Chai is too licoricey, and mintyness is the perfect foil to licoriceyness, I thought that equal parts Chai and Spearmint would be great. This was a grievous miscalculation on my part. Chai is so overpowering, I didn't taste the mint at all... so there was no coolness or, I don't know... enjoyability? If you're into this kind of thing, I would recommend either saving your Spearmint or messing with ratios.

1/2 Chai + 1/2 Spearmint = Something Becky hates


Mint Paddy's Day

DESSERT HOOKAH DAY. Have I got a sweet after-dinner class act for you. Cappuccino with Irish cream mixed and packed, with mint sprinkled over top is the smoothest of the smooth. Rich, creamy,

1/2 Cappuccino + 1/2 Irish Cream + Mint (on top) = Mint Paddy's Day!


York

There's nothing much written on this page, except for a big banner at the top that says "Knee-Deep in Cooch Napkin." Basically, this choco-mint mix tastes exactly like you'd expect and want it to. Mix credit goes to Mike Frye! :)

1/2 Chocolate + 1/2 Spearmint = York!

Now get outta my kitchen.

See you later, Internets, I am at a party! <3

Actually Lazy Sunday

I feel, dear readers, that I have not been making good on the part of my tagline what says "whatever else I have to say." Verily, posts have been few and far between, and compared to ow I normally talk they've been downright curt when they do come around.

If your one of those 4 people that reads this blog and just doesn't comment, I apologize to you. It has been this way because all of the interesting and colorful stuff I've had to say lately has been, well, a total downer. I've been having a shitty semester. Really shitty. For a number of reasons. Are my problems complex and therefore kind of interesting? I guess. Are the ways in which I'd go about relating them colorful? Most yes. But is this a freaking Livejournal where half the people that come across would think that I'm positively flooding my keyboard with wristblood while I write these rants and cut myself? Probably. And I don't want to present/propagate that image, and I don't want to bore or get you down, so online I try to keep it upbeat. And if upbeatedness is not to be had that day then I won't write much of anything.

WHICH brings me around to saying that this weekend has been pretty damn good, and very relaxing, and super freakin' snowy so I'm in the mood to charm the pants off you with a couple blend reviews.

Becky's Shisha Kitchen!
Recipies of Delicious Smoking

Had this one in the book for a while, actually. I'm starting my good-faith effort to use up flavors that I bought because they sounded like not-licorice and they turned out to be straight up licorice. Starting with the 7-Spice which may I make you aware, has changed drastically in smell from the first time I opened it, and it shows in these blends.

(a la Aladdin introducer [voiced by Robin Williams I bet you didn't know])
Arabian Iiiiice....

I mixed 1/4 Nakhla mint, 1/4 Hookah-Hookah Spearmint, and 1/2 extremely non-anise smelling H-H 7-Spice to synthesize what I hope will be the most exotic Popsicle ever.
THE RESULT: This mix is simultaneously cold and smoky. Dare I say it is perfect? I may darest. There's something so balanced and non-creepy crawly I get about the 7-Spice this time... do you know what I mean when I say creepy crawly? How licorice in any considerable amount just oozes over your tongue like asphalt on a hot day? Yeah, well, it's not there. Mint is, I suppose, the perfect foil for anise, though I may use a little less in the future. It's a powerful ally, you know?

1/4 Mint + 1/4 Spearmint + 1/2 7-Spice = Arabian Iiiice! (Like Arabian daaays...
more often than not, are hotter than hot, in a lot of good waaaaaaaays...) *sigh*

The Everything Fruit

You know how fruitcake is called fruitcake, and it kind of tastes like there's some fruit present, but if you're munching on a store bought one (god knows why) you realize that the only fruity thing about it are these Gummy Bear looking bits that don't even taste like fruit themselves but are closer to Spice Drops? Yeah, I guess this mix is like that. I wanted something fruity when I mixed 1/2 H-H orange, 1/4 Acai Berry, and 1/4 Margarita, and I can't say I didn't get it.
THE RESULT: It is well balanced if nondescript. I thought that the sour Margarita would actually be too much and it's not at all. It's a different kind of nondescript than the Slammer I wrote about a ways back, but this wishy-washiness is far superior. The likeness does bring me about to an observation, though, as I am a scientist, and that conclusion is: ORANGE IS A NOTHING FLAVOR. I haven't tried it alone, but I guess I should, because in a company so well versed in fruit flavors, I went on trust that H-H's Orange would knock me out of the park, but it's fairly nonexistant in both of these mixes. Nothing says, let alone screams, "orange" and it was half of the bowl, you know? The sour gets even a bit lost for my taste, but I'm kind of okay with that because I added Margarita in the hopes that it would be an assimilated accent. I'm getting mostly Acai Berry but that's fine, because I love that flavor.
I do really like this mix though. I mean, A LOT. But I couldn't say why I like it since typically I criticize blandiness. But I guess when you compare blandy fruit and blandy sour you get inexplicable good. *shrug*

1/2 Orange + 1/4 Acai Berry + 1/4 Margarita = The Everything Fruit!

Now get outta my kitchen.

Mwa ha ha. 3 bowls.

I am good at this mixing thing. You should be peeing your pants to read and try the recipes coming up.
But you gotta wait!

I came to the realization that there are two keys to instant Youtube success: Be a hot girl, and have a schtick. And, well, I am/have those things, so I have planted the seeds in my nifty little brain that I might diversify and do video reviews too. But, like, only on mixy ones. Like Hookah Freak, Starbuzz, and my own creations. Not that plain flavors are boring, but they are easier to articulate in print. For blends me and my circlemates uuusually have a lot of "Bluuuh, well, it's, uuuhhh, good? There is, at times, geh?"
They'll still be here, though, too! I guess I'm just kind of thinking aloud. Which is what blogs are best for.

Anyway, that comes later. My blendventions come now!!!

Becky's Shisha Kitchen!
Recipies of Delicious Smoking

White Out

Whiteness. Delicate. Smooth. Floral. Gentle. It's not the blizzard imagery you might expect, but it's what you're gonna get out of this blend. One part H-H Rose, 2 parts H-H Spearmint, and 3 parts Nakhla Vanilla, and the product in your bowl is smooth and cool. I've said it before, Rose normally does not go down my hookah hose without a fight. But the tag-teaming Vanilla and Spearmint wrestled it into submission here. It is definitely present though! And as a white rose is far less garish than a red, the Rose in this blend just leaves us with a delicate floral feel. The Spearmint cools, the Vanilla rounds out the rough edges. Vunderbaugh. Light, but not because there's not much flavor.

3 Vanilla + 2 Spearmint + 1 Rose = White Out!

Purple Haze

Blackberries and acai berries - purple. Hazelnut. Get it? This mix is definitely fruity! (Go figure.) Round berryness prevails and then, all of a sudden and when you least expect it, there's the hazelnut hangin' around your tongue like a loitering teen. But this teen is clean-shaven. He doesn't ride skateboards or light trash cans on fire... His other interests are actually, like, community service and stuff. He also happens to loiter. You actually kind of like it. It provides a nice image. I like this mix because it's a different flavor on the inhale and the exhale, but overall I expected more of a punch from the berries. Needs some tweaking I think, before I really kiss the sky. (Ha ha, Jimi Hendrix is awesome haw.)

Blackberry + Acai Berry + Hazelnut = Purple Haze!

Now get outta my kitchen.