If your smoking career has been as long and as extensive as mine then you'll undoubtedly have heard of temple balls many, many times. Possibly in hushed whispers. Maybe, unlike me, you've previously encountered a genuine one, and got to smoke it. Lucky you, if this is the usual quality of a temple ball!
So, Hashishin doesn't appear on the wall, and I only managed to get one of these before they sold out as someone mentioned in a comment on a topic that he had temple balls in stock. Temple balls?! No. Couldn't be. Went to find the link, and there they were! I can't import hash from the Middle East though, surely? Isn't that a step too far? I smoked a lot, drank some good wine, and ordered a temple ball. I couldn't miss out. What if I never saw another? Shipping from the Middle East though. This stealth better be as legendary as I've been led to believe.
6 days after being posted, it arrives safe and sound. Any residual concerns I had dissolved when I open the package and saw how it had been packed. I can believe that 99.99% drop rate, as the stealth is absolutely crazy. In amongst it all was a perfect temple ball, wrapped in the gold foil, and with a tiger staring back at me. He did it. Got a temple ball to the UK! Absolute legend! I nearly threw away the 1.7g of unidentified but slightly fruity smelling black hash inside the packaging, but I spotted it and didn't! Thanks Hashishin, I'll give that a try soon, and hopefully you get back to me with what it is.
Carefully unwrapping the foil finds a glossy ball wrapped in clingfilm. Getting the film off is quite tricky as it's so, so sticky. Clean, hashy and slightly piney aroma to it, and more so when it's torn, revealing the grainy inside. Inside it's a lot less sticky, and a much lighter brown than the outer shell (for want of a better word...it's not very thick, but it is slightly different in texture). Easy to tear a small chunk off and work it into thin snakes to put into my wake and bake joint of the day with 3 small silver Rizlas and a whole B&H gold cigarette. Doesn't stick to your fingers much, so no cleaning needed before rolling. In fact, I think it's only really the surface that's all that sticky.
The smoke is sublime, smooth, spicy and very, very strong. The smoke from the end of the joint is is very pleasant to inhale and savour whenever a strand gets near my nose. Exotic, slightly sweet in tone, and spicy and hashy as hell. More than halfway through the joint and the heavy Indica head stone starts to come on. After lying down when I've finished the joint my head just gets more and more heavy, and fuzzily stoned. Very strong waves seem to hit my mind as if I'm on some almost trippy mental rollercoaster. It's so strong that at one point I found the very act of thinking difficult. Can't remember when that's ever happened to me before. This incredibly strong head stone gets stronger and peaks after about 30 minutes after I've finished the first joint and stays at that incredibly high level for a good hour.
It's a good hour after that before I think about another joint, and clearly it can only be this, right? Same effects but stacking and layered and even stronger. This may not be the kind of stone that everyone likes, but this is what I crave from smoking, and this has scratched the itch like nothing else I've had in living memory.
3rd joint finished and I'm not even sure how I've managed to type this. Slowly, and methodically, is probably the right answer. So, despite the fact that I'm getting hardly any body effects from this, my head and my mind are beautifully and very heavily stoned right now, and I don't think I'd have any chance of decent answers if I watched Pointless. Although not couch locked as such, I'm not doing a lot for the rest of the day, and you should plan accordingly if you're lucky (or were lucky) enough to get your hands on one.
On reflection, 100% worth the risk to import what is probably the best hash I've ever smoked. Ever. Amazing stuff. If it ever comes back I'm first in the queue, especially at $120/10g! I think I could do with a snack now too...