Glass Review: Bubble Bong Box by Hemper

Maybe you’ve seen this fun looking piece bubble up on your feed. Let’s get right to it. The Hemper Box! Brand: Hemper [Affiliate Link]

Hemper Box Bubble Bong Box Review

The good:

My hands down favorite thing about hitting this lil snowman shaped bubbleman is looking at my warped reflection staring back at me from the chromatic glass right around the downstem while I hit a bowl. I can see the bowl light up, then my eyes light up, then I’m lit up. This is the first time I’ve had this experience with a bubbler and this welcome, but somewhat narcissistic if I really think about it too long, addition is worth having the Hemper cloud bubb in the collection all by itself. It’s become a little visual cue or tick during the regular meditative breathing session that is a bong rip. It has good volume and function. I was originally trepidatious about cleaning it but it hasn’t been nearly as hard as I was thinking it might be. Trust when I say that your average chandelier perc is much harder to clean. At least we’re still in iso and salt territory here. The bowl that comes with it on the other hand isn’t as easy to clean but still is doable. The color, the size, the pull: it’s a solid little mass produced piece.

The bad:

The downstem sits at a 45% angle and while that’s nice and familiar for a flower bowl – I do have to warn that the banger that comes with this is not angled correctly to have the banger sit parallel to the surface. To dab out of this, you’ll have to hold it funny in the air and trust when I say that isn’t a good time. In fact, the banger is completely mismatched to the piece weightwise, too and just poking it with a Q-tip to clean it can cause it to fall and shatter. Ask me how I know. Similarly, the female part on the bubbler is too deep and the fit is too loose. I can definitely see how a nice branded accessory box that comes with everything directly to your door is preferable to trying to catch smoke shops’ weird hours, ending up having to make multiple trips, and all that awkward conversation! It’s obviously Chinese glass, but there’s nothing more capitalistic and therefore Amurrican than buying the better priced option and ignoring the negative externalities on the environment or human rights.

Hemper Box Review Conclusion

My verdict? This is nice for flower but you’ll need to find a different banger to use this for dabbing. The box itself is a great concept and the marketing execution of the box – including getting samples in front of reviewers like myself and sponsoring events like JeoCentric’s Content Creator retreat – is top notch. I do wish they’d consult with heavy glass users and do more real world testing on the bowl/banger to bubbler match but it’s entirely possible that I just got a single bad piece that was on the bad end of the spec range leading me to fringe cases resulting in the breaking of both bowls in the box. By the way, even with both bowls breaking, paying the $40 cost of the box for everything else included is still a good deal – at the full $100 – I’d have to think about it while high. Haven’t seen a better beginner set online yet for a better price and this box can teach a beginner a lot (including about failure modes). If you want to see if you have better luck than me with the Hemper Box, and achieve the fabled magic mirror on the bubbler effect that I still miss – order a Hemper Box here: Past Hemper Subscription Boxes [Affiliate link]