In relation to focus-pulling, high-end, tabletop vaporizers (units that warmth — however don’t combust — hashish with the intention to launch an inhalable THC vapor), the gold customary has lengthy been Storz & Bickel’s Volcano. It’s a tool that’s straightforward to make use of, straightforward on the eyes and sociable (the vapor is delivered both through a hose and mouthpiece or massive plastic bag, each of which may be handed round, whereas the unit stays put), and there haven’t been many severe opponents within the area for the reason that first Volcano hit the market 23 years in the past.
Till now.
I lately had the chance to kick the tires on a brand new gadget known as the OOKA Ooka— a high-priced ($399), high-tech tackle the normal hookah-style water pipe — that may be the primary vaporizer to problem the Volcano’s dominance.
A couple of minutes after getting my palms on the Ooka, I used to be smitten with every little thing the gadget needed to supply. After which, a couple of minutes after that, I turned offended (nicely, a minimum of pissed off) at what it didn’t.
Let me clarify on each fronts. First, the positives — and there are loads of positives.
Professional: Curb enchantment
For starters, this can be a severely handsome piece of kit. Designed by a former Dyson engineer, it one way or the other manages to be Apple-device modern and Kardashian curvy on the identical time, with a generously rounded clear glass backside third that attaches to a gently tapered higher half (obtainable in black or white) that flares out once more on the high to resemble the bowl of conventional hookah. A hose, connected about midway up the aspect of the faintly teardrop form, ends in a wand-like mouthpiece that may be twist-adjusted to manage the quantity of vapor being delivered.
Make no mistake — this can be a gadget that doesn’t simply should be on show, it begs to be the middle of your consideration.
Professional: Ease-of-use
Like all piece of latest tech, there’s positively a studying curve concerned with utilizing the Ooka. Not like a variety of tech (significantly hashish tech), it’s not a very steep one. Throughout my introductory session on the Artist Tree Studio and Lounge in West Hollywood, I used to be up and working in about 5 minutes, which is how lengthy the unit takes to warmth up after it’s switched on. A skinny ring of pulsing amber gentle across the high means it’s heating, strong amber means it’s able to rumble and pink means you’re completed.
And anybody who has needed to cope with the odor of spilled bong water will probably be glad to know that the oldsters behind the Ooka have designed the machine to show off if it’s by chance knocked over to stop spillage. (I’m taking the corporate’s phrase for it on this depend. No hookahs have been toppled in my presence.)
The just-launched Ooka vaporizer ($399) is accessible in white or black.
(Ooka X seven9)
Professional: Water-cooled vape hits, anybody?
As a result of vaporizers warmth (as a substitute of burn) the plant materials solely to launch the psychoactive elements, many customers discover these units much less irritating to the lungs. By marrying vape know-how to a water pipe supply system — primarily cooling the vapor — the Ooka is ready to ship hits that play good with even probably the most thrashed lungs.
As somebody whose first bong hit of any given sesh is commonly adopted by a cough (thanks, college-era bong rips), there was a sure satisfaction in with the ability to exhale massive, billowy clouds with out the telltale tickle of an about-to-erupt bong cough. (And let’s face it, listening to anybody cough — irrespective of the rationale — may be type of alarming nowadays.)
Professional: It’s bought the leisurely social session on lock
One of many options that makes this not only a dialog starter but in addition a real occasion starter isn’t one you’ll essentially discover instantly. In an effort to seize the sociability of a conventional hookah-smoking session (which makes use of charcoal to warmth specifically ready tobacco and unfolds over about an hour), the Ooka employs some severe under-the-hood wizardry that enables a ganja gathering to proceed at a leisurely tempo; serving up constant clouds of vapor over the course of 45 to 60 minutes with out having to repack, restart, refire or in any other case fiddle with it.
When you do need to break issues up time-wise, there are two choices: pausing issues mid-sesh for as much as 10 minutes at a time or just turning it off and returning to the remaining minutes in one other sitting. Utilizing one gram of hashish flower per session is sufficient to get a gaggle of three or 4 weed heads loads baked. (The Ooka of us say a hose-splitter — that may flip the one hose-and-wand into two — will probably be obtainable for buy quickly.)
Con: You’re married to the pod — for now, anyway
How do I do know it’s precisely one gram of hashish flower per session, you ask? (I may’ve sworn I heard you ask.) The reply to that brings me to the one — only one — factor that retains the Ooka from being an ideal piece of paraphernalia: Utilizing it requires popping open the highest and dropping in a particular pot-filled plastic pod that’s obtainable solely by way of Ooka‘s hashish model accomplice seven9.
It’s not the price of the pods that bothers me (with an MSRP of $18 per one gram pod, it’s not out of line with the pre-rolled joints and jarred flower obtainable in SoCal dispensaries). Neither is it a problem of availability that chaps my cover; at launch, $36 two-packs of the pods have been obtainable direct-to-consumer by way of the getooka.com web site with free same-day or next-day supply (within the L.A., Orange County, Inland Empire and San Diego metro areas) in addition to through the Freeway Hashish dispensary in Marina Del Rey and Illa Canna in L.A’s West Adams neighborhood.
It’s not even a matter of selection; at launch, the pods can be found in 5 completely different labeled-by-effect pods (“Simply Vibe,” “Completely satisfied Hour,” “Get Zen,” “Zone In” and “No Worries”) full of Northern California-sourced flower and added terpenes (terpenes are the naturally occurring risky compounds that give completely different hashish crops their distinct odor and style) in a variety of THC percentages.
What makes me reluctant to go all-in with the Ooka‘s pod ecosystem is {that a} consumer’s cannabis-consuming choices are restricted to the flower that seven9 decides to pack into these pods. To me, that runs counter to the larger communal side of weed. Why? As a result of if one in all your baking buddies occurs to pop by with one thing new and thrilling — perhaps a cultivar they’ve lately found or some flower they’ve grown themselves — that high-tech hookah is as useful as a $399 paperweight. Hashish focus connoisseurs face the identical conundrum (although the seven9 of us say focus pods are anticipated to be on supply someday this yr.)
That lack of flexibility in cannabis-consumption units has lengthy been one in all my pet pot peeves, and Ooka is way from the primary firm (and undoubtedly gained’t be the final) to take this strategy. Though it’s a much bigger difficulty within the vaporizer pen cartridge area (the place some extracts can be found in 510 thread screw-on cartridges and others in a bewildering array of device-specific pods), I’ve additionally felt the frustration within the flower area. One gadget that involves thoughts is the Omura, a handheld vaporizer gadget that makes use of tiny pre-filled paper tubes known as flowersticks. One other is the Beed, a joint-rolling robotic that requires popping in proprietary pods of nitrogen-flushed floor flower.
Within the case of the Ooka, the capsules, which resemble the Okay-cup pods that pop into Keurig espresso makers, include an NFC (Close to Subject Communication) chip that communicates with a chip reader-writer contained in the water pipe itself.
As seven9’s chief product officer, Robert Sindelar, the person behind the pod’s design, tells it, the chip know-how is designed to be sure that the herb is correctly heated and that the Ooka delivers a constant smoking expertise from the primary hit of an hour-long session to the final. As soon as the session has run its course, so has the plastic pod, virtually all of which may then be recycled. (The chip know-how additionally means a DIY refilling-reusing hack is outdoors the talent set of all however probably the most superior natural fanatics.)
In an interview with The Instances, Sindelar framed the proprietary pods — and the chip know-how embedded in them — as a method of delivering a secure, sociable and constant expertise to hashish customers of each talent degree. He additionally highlighted the challenges of bringing such a possible game-changer to market.
“I perceive your sentiments,” Sindelar mentioned after I shared my reluctance to be wedded to the pod. “And I share lots of these sentiments. As a result of this machine is massive, as a result of it’s has a price ticket of a sure sort — regardless that it’s an excellent worth — and we need to share this innovation with as many individuals as potential, now we have to maintain the machine worth as little as potential and correctly fund the enterprise.”
Sindelar in contrast the contraption to the present king of the desktop vape class, the aforementioned Volcano, which is as open-source because it comes, however will price you $80 to $300 greater than the Ooka, relying on the mannequin.
I completely get that the type of technological innovation and design thought that clearly went into the Ooka doesn’t come low-cost. And I perceive how partnerships just like the Ooka X seven9 one will help decrease the price for customers with the expectation that pod gross sales will observe persistently over time. Even so, If I’m shelling out $399 for a water pipe, I need to have the ability to smoke no matter I need out of it.
The takeaway
As a result of the Ooka‘s official launch is lower than a month within the rear-view mirror, it’s far too early to inform how the broader weed world will weigh the high-tech hookah’s substantial upsides towards its singular draw back. And who is aware of what is going to occur to the proprietary pod strategy down the road? Within the case of each the $99 Omura (which hit the market in 2019) and the $299 Beed (which launched in April 2022), suitable DIY choices have been ultimately included into the choices (although Beed’s fill-your-own pods are presently obtainable solely outdoors California, the place its pre-filled pods aren’t obtainable).
Once I requested Sindelar in regards to the prospect of including fill-your-own pods, he didn’t foreclose the chance. “We’re nonetheless working by way of loads,” he mentioned. “However as we study extra about what’s delivered to the particular person [vapor-wise], if we are able to management the temperatures over time and management the consistency of the efficiency and the hookah-type expertise from begin to end, we are able to have larger confidence in opening [the platform] up. … We’re taking a look at expansions into different states [the Ooka‘s availability is California-only currently]. We’re additionally taking a look at codecs that give us the power to have this nationally. A few of that we are going to see very quickly.”
For now, regardless that it’s a focus-pulling sesh centerpiece that may ship pleasant, sturdy clouds of cool vapor that may get you greater than the nationwide debt ceiling, I can’t, in good conscience, say I feel it’s value shelling out practically $400 for the Ooka — a minimum of proper now.
What I can’t suggest extremely sufficient, although, is to attempt it out first hand if and when the chance arises. And it may come up quickly: The Ooka of us have been enthusiastically internet hosting demonstrations throughout Southern California. One unfolded in April across the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Pageant previous to launch, one other at a 420 celebration in Marina Del Rey (that includes rapper Tyga) and, most lately, Ooka hoses have been hoisted final weekend at a Puff Puff Pleasure occasion in Hollywood.
