It’s time to talk about loading a bowl, specifically what people are still doing wrong when packing and loading a bowl. A common misconception is that the more you pack into the bowl, the longer it will last, the better it will smoke, and the higher you will get. Well, no, that’s not the case. Of course, you don’t want to load too little into the bowl, unless you only want one or two hits. Otherwise you risk sucking the bowl through too quickly and losing out on a couple hits.
Loading a bowl too full and packing a bowl too much is going to only accomplish a couple things: your bowl is more likely to get clogged, and you’re a lot more likely to torch the crap out of your bowl. Then you’re just wasting your weed. This is the most common when you don’t grind your weed prior to loading and packing a bowl. If you ask me, you should always grind your herb, but some people just prefer not to.
If you are using a grinder, then you need to load even less than you normally would if you were not using a grinder. Bowls using ground herb give you stronger hits, so naturally you don’t need to smoke as much. Hence why grinders are popular in the first place.
The trick to loading and packing a bowl is to find your happy medium. So, what is the happy medium? For me, it’s three quarters of the way full. I apply this rule regardless if I’m loading a pipe, bong, or bubbler. Then I lightly pack it by pressing down with the end of my lighter. I can’t stress enough how important it is to not use too much pressure when you’re pressing down on the bowl. Remember the tighter you pack it, the harder you’re going to have to suck to get a hit.
You’re also less likely to waste your weed when the bowl isn’t filled to the brim. Accidents happen and you never know when someone might drop the bowl, or blow on it, or cough it out, if you haven’t packed it tight enough.
Since I started using the three quarter rule my bowls always smoke perfectly. If my bowl does clog, then I know that it’s time to clean the piece. You can always just load more, right?
Image Source: potstockphotos.com
What’s your preferred way of packing a bowl? Share your thoughts in the comments!