About this product
These are the round quick-light charcoal discs used across Tanzania for bakhoor, oud, loban and shisha. Each tablet is 33 mm across – the size that sits correctly in an ordinary mabkhara, a ceramic incense burner or a standard shisha bowl – and they are made to catch from a single flame at the edge rather than needing a stove or a blowtorch.
Once lit, the tablet spreads its own glow across the disc in under a minute and then settles into a steady, even heat for roughly an hour. That is long enough for a full bakhoor burning, a majlis, or a shisha session without having to stop and swap the coal halfway through, which is the main practical difference between a quick-light tablet and loose lump charcoal.
They come in a sealed tube, and that packaging matters more here than it does in a dry climate. Quick-light charcoal works because of the accelerant pressed into the disc; in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar humidity, tablets left open to the air absorb moisture and become slow and reluctant to catch. Keep the tube closed between uses and they light the same way in month six as on the day you bought them.
Use them only in a well-ventilated place. Burning charcoal of any kind produces carbon monoxide, so an open window, a veranda or an outdoor space is the right setting, never a closed room. Always let the tablet burn out fully in the burner rather than putting it in a bin, and keep the tube away from children.
Charcoal Tablets