Xperience

Buy Darkside Xperience

Xperience is the newest line from Darkside and works with completely new flavourings you won't find anywhere else in the range. We carry five Xperience flavours in 100g tins.

The nicotine level matches the classic single flavours, because Xperience is built on the same popular Core base tobacco. The smoke feels smooth and doesn't scratch your throat, which comes down to the blend of Burley and Virginia. Provided you pack the bowl with a little distance to the heat.

What's behind the name Xperience?

The line isn't called Xperience by chance. Darkside didn't set out to put another flavour on the shelf, but to build a taste experience that is special in the best sense of the word, more like something you remember fondly for a long time. That's why the flavours are tied to genres that carry that feeling: car culture, gaming, street art and extreme sports.

It carries right through to the packaging design. The tins show cars, snowboards and graffiti instead of the usual fruit imagery, and the flavour names pick up the same world.

What sets Xperience apart from the other Darkside lines?

Darkside now runs three tracks, and they're easy to tell apart.

• The classic line: single flavours on Core base tobacco, home to long-runners like Needls and Kalee Grap.
• Shake: ready-made flavour mixes, where the maker has combined several flavours into something new.
• Xperience: completely new, intense flavourings on Core, built as a world of its own.

So the difference between Xperience and the classic line isn't strength, it's the flavours. Both are dark blend hookah tobacco.

Which Xperience flavours are there?

We carry these five:

• Petrol Headz: mango, pineapple and passion fruit. The maker describes it as a sweet mango lemonade with pineapple juice that drifts into a tart passion fruit note.
• Bry Vs: white grapes, raspberry and blackcurrant, together like a sweet berry drink.
• Pinkmnia: strawberry, raspberry and grapefruit. You'll know the direction if you like the best-known berry and grapefruit mix on the shelf, though this one is a little less overloaded with sweetness.
• Mlt Frt: mango, papaya and guava. A deliberately broad fruit mix that tastes less like a single fruit and more like intense fruit nectar.
• Mntslide: chewing gum and mint, the fresh corner of the line with a clear chill.

Darkside Xperience Petrol Headz To the product Darkside Xperience Bry Vs To the product Darkside Xperience Pinkmnia To the product Darkside Xperience Mlt Frt To the product Darkside Xperience Mntslide To the product

How strong is Darkside Xperience?

Darkside sorts its range into strength levels, and here in Germany the scale runs from Base to Core. Xperience sits on Core, which puts it right at the top, on the same level as the classic Darkside flavours. That's why our Dark Blend Guide files Darkside under strong dark blend.

What that means for you: the nicotine content is high and can give less experienced smokers a nicotine rush. Xperience is not the tobacco for your very first bowl. If you're just getting started, have a look at our beginner hookah tobacco category instead, where you'll find Virginia based tobacco that will treat you better. If you already have some dark blend experience, you get the familiar Darkside level here with new flavours.

Smoke it on its own or mix it?

Both. The maker deliberately designs the flavours to work as a solo smoke while still serving as a building block for your own favourite mixes. Since the flavourings were developed from scratch, they bring notes you won't find in the rest of the Darkside range.

Two combinations that suggest themselves: Mntslide as a fresh component alongside a fruity flavour, and Bry Vs when you want to give a mix a berry base. Petrol Headz and Mlt Frt, on the other hand, are already broad enough to work very well on their own.

How do I pack a bowl with Xperience?

Inside the tin, the tobacco sits in a plastic bag. Cut it open, tip the contents into the tin and bin the bag, then give the tobacco a proper stir before you pack.

After that, fill it loosely and fluffily, about half first, then spread it so the bottom doesn't show through anywhere, and add the rest on top. Don't press it down and don't work it downwards, just move it around. Stay about two millimetres below the rim, because Darkside expands a little under heat and then sits against the top.

You have plenty of room when it comes to bowl shape. At tastings Darkside mostly works with multi-hole bowls, and the brand's own Darkside bowls are built for exactly that. Not sure which one to pick? Our bowl finder will steer you to the right model.

Strong aromas need a hookah that pulls its weight. The Darkside Hookahs are built for exactly this kind of draw.