Mya Hookah Review - Ballerina

Review of the Mya Ballerina

Introducing the Mya Saray Ballerina. Light graceful lines, quality workmanship, um, I think my dancer analogy is going to go terribly wrong but anyways, here we have the Ballerina. With many of the Mya Saray hookahs I have reviewed I’ve discussed how solid and durable they are,workhorses for the hard smoking settings, etc. The ballerina is still well made with a solid brass core and chrome plating, but it is a little more on the stylish and elegant side.

The first thing to note is that if you get it from Myahookah.com it comes with their new high impact plastic case. The case is very nice with a lockable latch, compartments to separate the pieces, and a internal padded zipper pouch to give the base added protection. I’ll be posting a review of the case itself in a separate write up. But for now the important thing is that the Ballerina comes with one and it keeps it quite safe and secure.

The base is Bohemian Glass.  Which means it is thin but strong. The top is set up for a screw in stem as opposed to a pressure grommet so you don’t have to worry when one of your friends picks the hookah up by the stem and tries to move it into the next room. The metal threaded top piece will also protect the top of the glass from accidental impacts while you are cleaning it, filling it, or putting the stem in. The shape is elegant with a mixture of a traditional base with a modern interpretation with clear sections and frosted sections and the gold painted designs provide a nice touch. The glass passes the light clearly and when there is water in it the effect is quite beautiful. The way the smoke looks when it fills the base is also rather nice to watch.

 The stem is also artistic. While the lines are simple, the ripple effect gives it a more graceful look. Don’t let this fool you however, it is still solid brass cored with a chrome finish and is quite durable. The stem is set up with 2 capped spots for additional hose ports, which means with a few hose adapters from Myahookah.com and your bare hands you can set the Ballerina up to take up to 4 hoses.  As I’ve stated before, the stem is a screw in type, so you can actually carry the whole hookah by the stem instead of having to carry it by the base. 

 

 

The downstem on the Ballerina is quite wide and long, allowing for good deep hits and a lot of leeway as to water level. The typical 1 inch guideline for water levels can really be considered a minimum with this hookah and you can add a bit more water to the base for added stability and a deeper bubble.

   

 

All in all, the Ballerina is a beautiful hookah good for both everyday use and for a more special occasion. The fine Bohemian glass base gives it a more light and elegant look when combined with the beautifully designed stem. The case means you can safely transport it when going out and want to bring something a little nicer with you than the usual smaller travel hookah. 

And of course, it smokes like a MYA.

Hookah Set Up - Mya Mikro

How To Set Up A Hookah - Mya Mikro

In some ways, the Mya Mikro is like any other hookah. You want the water to be about 1 to 1 ½” up the downstem. As you can see in the picture, it’s about where my finger is on the vase. Then, you replace the stem. It’s easiest if you put the gasket on the base and then push the stem on.

Now comes the fun part, packing the bowl. Unlike your standard Mya Bowl, this one sits flat IN the top of the stem. Almost like a modified Syrian bowl. Imagine, no more having the bowl knocked off your hookah by someone hitting the hookah or bumping the table! Keeping in mind that the bowl is convex, and the screen is concave, you have to watch how you pack this bowl.  Packing the tobacco evenly across the bowl will either result in your screen not sitting properly on top or you will end up under packing the bowl. I have found that packing the tobacco higher around the edge and a bit lower in the middle works best. Essentially, you are creating a cavity in the center of the tobacco for the screen to drop into.

Make sure your hose gasket is in place and then firmly insert the hose end with a slight twist. If the hose is seated properly, you are ready to go.

It is important to keep how the bowl is packed in mind when you are putting the coals on your bowl. Since the majority of your tobacco is around the sides of the bowl, put the majority of your coals around the edge of the screen, not all piled in the middle for best results. Also remember this is a metal screen, not foil you are using so the initial heat will have to be higher to heat the screen and allow proper heat transference to the tobacco. Once the tobacco is up and smoking, however, you can actually cut back a bit on the coals as a screen also tends to maintain heat better than foil. Heat control is really a matter of practice. Each smoker will find the ideal amount of coal to produce smoke of a thickness and taste that suits their smoking preferences.

The hardest thing about this hookah is de-ashing the screen. As I’m sure you noticed, there is no tray to catch the ash, so simply using a pair of tongs to push the ash off the edge is NOT recommended. I found the simplest way to clear the old ash and coals is to take whatever container you use for your hot coals, and set it at the edge of the bowl, right under the hinges for the screen. Then you simply use a pair of tongs to pivot the screen on the hinge and dump the ash back into your coal carrier. This is actually simpler than it sounds and I can do a quick flip and pump with very little problem.

To remove the bowl, simply grab the post sticking out from the screen assembly and slowly and gently lift it up. The bowl comes out very easily for cleaning and/or repacking. And speaking of repacking, I have found that smoking Tangiers I can get about 1 ½ to 2 hours of smoking on one of these bowls. And I can refill it right there at my table for a second round. I just pull the bowl, dump the spent tobacco into a container of some sort, repack it, and flip the screen back down. No need for foil and a toothpick to get set up for the next round.

All in all the Mikro is a fine little hookah. Solid and compact with a nice smooth hit and lots of smoke. It’s easy to set up and just as easy to clean up. Plus you don’t need to carry foil and a toothpick around with you when you take it someplace. Priced around $45 it is the ideal small hookah.

Mya Hookah History

The History of Mya Hookah

How many times have you purchased a product and wondered what the history behind that product or company is? Or perhaps you are like myself and just often want to know why you should buy from one company instead of another. With the Hookah culture being so popular and mainstream today, there are hundreds of companies out there to buy from. By the end of this post, I hope to give you some hookah facts that will make you the Mya Guru with your friends and a very loyal customer.

A Family Business Since 1863

In 1863, there was a man named Anis Mehio and he began the Mehio family tradition of Hookah manufacturing by building his first factory in Lebanon that produced the tobacco burner (Bowl), which was made from clay at the time. Anis Mehio’s son, Tawfiq, opened the first retail store to sell hookahs, in Lebanon. In 1931, Anis Mehio was the first Lebanese to travel to the Czech Republic and manufacture a hookah base with mouth blown bohemian glass and bohemian crystal. This was the beginning of authentic Bohemian Glass Hookahs.

Unfortunately, in 1957, Anis Mehio passed away in a car accident during one of his trips to the Czech Republic. His son Youssef took over the family business and carried Anis Mehio’s legacy on. Youssef was 14 years old when he took over the company and he helped to take it to the next level. Youssef invented the hookah pressure releaser and he was the first to create a hookah stem that could be taken apart for maintenance. This is the type of stem that you see in Mya Hookahs today. Youssef also invented the hookah carrying case.

His Son Nizar and his Son-in-law Mahmoud, are very involved in the company today and have helped turn Mya Hookah into the amazing company that it is.

The Name Mya and Mya Saray

You may have heard of Mya (pronounced Mee-ah) Hookah, as it is called today, also go by the name Mya Saray (promounded Mee-ah Sah-rye). “Mya Saray” was introduced by Youssef and it is a mixture of two languages. The word Mya comes from the Italian language and stands for the word “my” as in “Mine”.  Saray is from the Turkish language and stands for the word “Palace”. So Mya Saray is Italian and Turkish and stands for “My Palace”. Today it is known as Mya Hookah meaning “My Hookah” which is a testament to Mya’s logic of providing very unique and customizable hookahs.

Why My Palace?

Mya Saray was not just a hookah company. Mya Saray also specialized in crystal products. Chandeliers, vases, crystal hookahs and other crystal products were the specialty of Mya Saray, whose roots began in the Czech Republic with Bohemian Crystal.

Mya Saray has a palace that spreads across the world. Their main headquarters are in Lebanon. Mya also has offices in USA/Virginia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

So now that you are a Mya Guru, you can spread some knowledge among your friends during your next smoking session and you can take pride in being a customer of a company that has deep ties to their product history and always has you in mind.

Happy Puffing! 

PS: clue #4 is spread throughout this blog post! if you look closely, you will find all the letters of the name underlined. All you have to do is find the letter and unscramble them! Learn more about how you can win $100 by guessing who it is first, here: http://www.myahookah.com/guess-who-celebrity-clues.aspx Get your guesses in before it's too late! Good luck!

How To Pack A Bowl

Myahookah.com actually has several different kinds of Bowls, or Burners as they call them. The standard Egyptian bowl, the large Egyptian bowl, the Rock Burner, the ClayEgyptians, and the Lebanese bowl (which is just a male version of the Egyptian), and several specialty bowls that come with such hookahs as the Mozza and the Mikro. With the exception of the Rock Burner, which is actually a slight variation of a Phunnel bowl, with a center hole and a trough for the rocks or tobacco around the edge, all of Mya Saray’s bowls have the standard holes in the bottom bowl.

The Egyptian and the large Egyptian bowls are different from the “traditional” hookah bowl and the typical “modern” bowl in that they tend to be deeper. For folks more used to packing the shallower “traditional” or “modern” bowl, this extra depth can sometimes lead to over packing and reduced air flow though the tobacco. This reduced air flow will cause the top layer of your tobacco to char or burn, leaving you with little smoke and even less flavor. To correct what is often perceived as a lack of heat, people will often add even more charcoal to the over packed bowl, making it burn even worse, sometimes actually producing large clouds of smoke that either taste like nothing or taste of burnt tobacco.

Packing A Bowl

So, how do you pack a Mya Saray bowl? To be honest, you pack it like any other hole in the bottom bowl. The trick is to pack it loose enough to allow good air flow THROUGH the tobacco. I’ll give MY personal technique, but what will really make a difference will be the air flow test at the end. This test is a simple way to make sure that no matter HOW you actually packed the bowl, the air flow is sufficient for a good session.

I am a dumper. Some folks add the tobacco a pinch at a time, some folks even separate each leaf and place it in individually, I have gotten good enough that I can usually gauge about how much I need and set it loosely in my palm. I then dump the tobacco in the bowl and push it around gently with my fingers until it is properly distributed throughout the bowl. 

You will hear people insist that you must leave a very small gap between the tobacco and the top of the bowl so the foil will not touch the tobacco, others will pack it to the top of the bowl and lay the foil right on the tobacco itself. I started as a leave space person but now I don’t bother. With proper heat control, it is ok for the foil to TOUCH the tobacco. In my experience, packing the tobacco OVER the top of the bowl, putting the foil on and seeing a mound under the foil often leads to improper air flow and the problems described above.

Air Flow Test #1

Once you have your tobacco in the bowl, its time for the first air flow test. Hold the bowl up and put your mouth on the bottom of the bowl, where you would put it on the top of the hookah stem. Now suck in slowly, does it feel like there is anything restricting the air flowing through the packed bowl? In my experience, you should be able to get the same air flow from a packed bowl as an unpacked one. Now give it a few harder pulls, still good air flow? Cool, it’s properly packed. If the air flow is restricted you can either manually fluff your tobacco and try again or you can hold your hand over the tobacco and blow with short but gentle puffs into the bowl to try and fluff the tobacco from below. I know some folks who do this test by blowing into the bowl instead. I find this isn’t an accurate test because when you put the bowl on your hookah and start puffing, you’ll be sucking the tobacco DOWN into the bottom of the bowl and that is when you get the restricted air flow if your pack is too tight ON THE DRAW.

Ok, last stage, foil and holes. This part is easy. Place the piece of foil over the top of the bowl, push the foil down while keeping it taught across the top of the bowl, and press the excess foil down and around the outside of the bowl to secure it in place. DO NOT push the foil down onto the top of the tobacco if you can avoid it as it will negate the nice fluffy packing job you just did.

Air Flow Test #2

Every single hookah smoker I know has their own method, depth, size, spacing, number, etc. etc. etc., when it comes to poking holes no one method is really any better than any other in my opinion. I use something small and sharp, preferably a thumb tack or a sharp tooth pick and make a series of small holes in a spiral pattern towards the center of the bowl. How ever you make your holes, there is one last quick air flow check you can make to see if your foiling and hole punching mashed down the tobacco. So try pulling air through the bottom of the bowl again. A little restriction is to be expected, but if the air doesn’t flow smoothly and easily, you may try the blow through method to see if you can loosen it up a little or you may need to re-foil. It’s entirely up to you.

Place bowl on top of hookah, add charcoal to taste, smoke and ENJOY.