Being compared to Nakhla’s Sweet Melon, the standard for the cantaloupe flavour among hookah smokers, this tobacco measures up very well. Unlike Nakhla’s Sweet Melon however, Hookafina Cantaloupe is more of a candy tasting cantaloupe, which is not all a bad thing. The sweetness is strong, but not overpowering so that it looses the cantaloupe flavouring. This flavour also mixes wonderfully with mint.

Nakhla Sweet Melon is a sweet, candy cantaloupe flavor, not a melon blend like the Sweet Melon available from Starbuzz. The aroma and the taste match almost perfectly. The flavor is sweet, but not particularly ‘refreshing’ like the real fruit. The flavor has more of a warming sensation to it. If that’s not your thing, you can counteract this by adding just a hint of Nakhla Mint flavor tobacco. You may find subtle undertones of honey, but I mean very subtle. Sweet Melon is one of the sweeter flavors from Nakhla. Some find it almost sickly sweet, but the majority find that it is a good balance. As with most Nakhla flavors, the natural tobacco taste is present, but well hidden in this flavor.

Unlike the Sweet Melon flavors produced by Al Fakher and Nakhla which focus on producing a Cantaloupe flavor, Starbuzz Sweet Melon is obviously a blend of melon flavors like Watermelon, Hondey Dew, Cantaloupe and possibly another melon which is difficult to directly identify. Unfortunately however, the sweet Watermelon flavor dramatically overpowers the others and what we’re left with is a very sweet overall flavor, and an over powering but more mild candy/buble-gum Watermelon. It may be possible to tone the sweetness down by adding about 15% mint shisha (such as Al Fakher) to your bowl.