Category: Hubbly-Bubbly

Hookah vs. Cigar

More than likely, you’ve seen a hookah in your lifetime. However, unless you’re a regular at a hookah bar, you’ve probably forgotten all about it. Do you still think you’ve never heard of a hookah? Think back. Way back. There you are, lying on your bed, while your Mother is reading the fantastic tale of a little girl in a land of pure imagination. If you guessed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you’d be wrong. No, this book was written nearly 100 years before Roald Dahl’s tale of Charlie. The book (and later movie) that gives children their first glimpse of this curious device is Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, wrote about an inquisitive, smoking caterpillar. You may remember Sammy Davis, Jr., perched atop a giant mushroom, asking young Alice, “Who … Are … You?” The device the caterpillar was smoking is called a hookah!

Hookahs have been around, in one form or another, for several centuries with their origins generally traced back to what is modern day Turkey. Needing a way to cool the smoke that leaves a tobacco pipe, the Turkish developed a way for the smoke to first pass through water before being inhaled. This cooled the smoke and gave the hookah its trademark bubbling sound.

Modern hookahs have evolved in design but still perform the same, simplistic function as the hookahs of old. The tobacco that is smoked in the hookah has also seen evolution and change. Originally, tobaccos would be mixed with molasses or honey and placed in the bowl-like apparatus atop the hookah. Coals would be directly-applied to this mixture and, instead of burning, the tobacco would be heated to the appropriate temperature to create smoke. Today’s hookah tobacco, commonly referred to as ‘shisha,’ is made with modern components. Tobacco, glycerin and sugar are combined with countless flavors to produce a truly unique smoking experience. The flavors range from fruity apples and oranges to cultural favorites like bubble gum and cola. In fact, there are over 50 flavors available to today’s hookah smokers!

As mentioned before, the tobacco is heated rather than burned. The hookah tobacco is generally void of the chemical additives found in cigarettes. In fact, hookah tobacco is usually composed of only tobacco, glycerin, sugar and flavoring. This is a far cry from the nearly 600 additives that can legally be added to cigarettes. These additives also transform into other chemicals when burned – a process that happens every time a cigarette is lit and smoked.

Cigars, another ‘natural smoke,’ have long been the gourmet smoke among smokers and socialites. They have a “good ol’ boy” reputation that makes it socially unwelcome for women to smoke and are usually found in cigar bars and private clubs. For years, cigars have had no real competition and the hookah stands poised to edge out a serious piece of the gourmet smoking market.

Hookahs come in all sizes, makes and colors. They are crafting of everything from acrylic to crystal, which allows them to traverse the social lines. People can spend anywhere from $20 to $5,000 to find the hookah of their dreams. There are even custom hookah producers who, if you cannot find the hookah you are seeking, will build a hookah that is completely personalized and truly yours.

The cigar bars of yesteryear are finding themselves in direct competition with a new type of business that is sprouting up everywhere. From college towns to bustling metropolises, hookah bars and cafes are becoming the new, trendy place to hang out and smoke. Patrons can rent a hookah (or bring their own) and smoke for anywhere from $7.00 to $20.00 per bowl of tobacco. Each bowl of tobacco can be smoked for nearly an hour, making this an inexpensive alternative to cigars and other smokes.

More than anything, the hookah provides its participants with a wholly-unique, intimate environment that has no boundaries or rules. Everyone is allowed and dreams, thoughts and opinions fly, completely unabated.

Business entrepreneurs are recognizing the curious draw that the hookah has over customers. The investment to open a hookah bar or cafe pails in comparison to the funds required to open a cigar bar. There’s no need for an elaborate humidor and, in fact, one could even get away with just offering hookahs. It’s no wonder that hookah bars are one of the fastest growing concepts among modern day bars and cafes. As simplistic as the hookah’s design, a hookah business is incredibly easy for first-time business owners to own and operate and requires a minimum in upfront capital investments.

So, from a hookah-smoking caterpillar to the day’s newest craze, hookahs have come a long way. Only time will tell if they have a chance against cigars and other gourmet smokes but one thing’s for sure: hookahs are here to stay.

How To Buy a Hookah

Since the culture of hookah shisha is one of relaxation, it’s best to approach the process of hookah buying with patience. Research the subject, become familiar with the best materials and products, consider the aesthetics–what pleases most and will most enhance the smoking experience for you? Quality, beauty, and price are the broad parameters to consider when you set out to buy hookahs.

While it’s a good idea to have checked out any local retail outlets where hookahs are available, and to have tried various hookah pipes at a lounge, your best bet in meeting the above criteria is probably going to be buying online. There’s simply a much broader range of hookahs available online, without the markup a brick-and-mortar store is forced to charge.

For the hookah body, also called the vase, or govde, Pyrex glass or ceramic, or some other non-porous, tempered material, are the best. Avoid wood or copper. Bases come in sizes from small to large and a multihued array of colors and designs. Stems will generally be stainless steel or another solid metal, fluted and, again, in a range of heights. Hoses also come in a variety of styles and lengths. The tobacco bowl should be ceramic, clay, or metal. You can get a hookah with one hose fitting or multiple hose fittings. There are a number of sites where you can build your own hookah from a selection of parts, and others where you can order custom hookahs. There is a wide selection of high quality hookahs available ready-made, however.

Egyptian hookahs generally have hand-blown glass bases in jewel and opal-toned colors, while Syrian hookahs have exquisitely ornamented ceramic or glass bases. Beyond these traditional styles there are a plethora of modern interpretations, animal shaped hookahs, mod hookahs, mini hookahs, traveling hookahs complete with carrying case, and rotating hookahs. Prices range from about $35 for a mini, quality, single-hose hookah, with a mid-range for medium hookahs at $60 to $100, and from about $115 to $135 or more for a large hookah. For a custom hookah, you can spend from around $225 for crystal to as much as $1,000 for a hookah made of silver.

Most hookah purchases will come with individual bowl, stem, plate, base, and hose or hoses, in separable parts for ease of cleaning, and will include tongs for coals, screens, brushes for cleaning, and instructions. Some will also come with a carrying case and extra rubber stoppers, some hookah tobacco and charcoal.

A Guide to Hookah Smoking

The slow and relaxed experience of smoking a hookah, which includes preparation of the hookah and the tobacco, is the whole point of hookah smoking. It’s not about a buzz or a nicotine fix, it’s about the relaxed space, among friends and out of time, that is created by the hookah and the act of smoking it. Typically, a hookah smoking session lasts somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes.

After carefully preparing a clean hookah with cold water, selecting a flavorful tobacco for the bowl, lighting and adding the charcoal, the aromatic hookah smoke is drawn bubbling through the water. Cooled and softened after being filtered by the water, light, pleasant smoke infuses the senses, lingering on the air, encouraging slow meditative breathing and sweetening conversation, games of dominoes, or quiet contemplation and study.

Some techniques used to enhance the experience of hookah smoking are adding ice to the water and chilling the hoses beforehand. The lush fruit flavors of hookah smoke can be heightened by the addition of fruit juice or wine to the water in the base, and both customers and proprietors of hookah smoking lounges regularly combine tobacco flavors to come up with their own special blends.

Some tips and warnings given by veteran smokers include the following: always use the proper charcoal, specifically made for hookah smoking-regular charcoal briquettes cause carbon monoxide poisoning, and charcoal which isn’t low-smoke will overwhelm the hookah smoke; only a very small amount of hookah tobacco is needed in the bowl, since a little goes a long way; if the smoke or flavor are lacking, it’s probably because the coals aren’t hot enough-when smoking for more than half an hour or so, fresh coals will be needed.

Because hookah smoking is, and has traditionally been, a social activity, the etiquette which attends it is important. Some of the rules of etiquette are never to light cigarettes using the charcoal that heats the hookah tobacco; avoid blowing smoke in the face of another person unless they ask–so they can taste the flavor being smoked; since the point of the individual plastic mouthpiece is health and safety, don’t share them; when one person is done smoking but the hookah is still in use, setting a hose directly on the table signifies that smoker is finished and another person may use the hose; when a hookah smoking session is completed, the hoses should be wrapped around the stem; finally, don’t smoke anything but tobacco out of a hookah.

Hookah Tobacco aka Shisha Tobamel or Maassel

The tobacco used in hookahs is different than that associated with cigarettes, or, indeed, any other form of smoking. It is, traditionally, a damp blend–called shisha, tobamel or maassel–of fresh tobacco leaves with molasses or honey and semi-dried fruit or fruit pulp. Some smokers would add pomegranate juice or perhaps rose oil to the water, which added flavor to the smoke. Later, hookah tobacco was also mixed with fruit extracts, and in the 1980s tobacconists began experimenting with various flavors, so that now a virtual smorgasbord of highly aromatic hookah tobacco is widely available.

While some hookah smokers still prefer a strong Turkish tobacco, many delight in the large assortment of flavored tobaccos, often called shisha. The dark, wet mixture comes in flavors ranging from apple, cherry, apricot, and watermelon, to rose, jasmine, vanilla, honey, and licorice, with more exotic blends beyond that, such as lemon-cola, cappuccino, apple-mint, and a list of custom blends that is nigh on infinite.

Prices for packaged tobacco range anywhere from $4 to $17 depending on quality, and a variety pack of flavors might cost about $30. The price in most lounges for a bowl of hookah tobacco ranges from $4 to $9 for slower burning leaf or custom blends.

Since hookah tobacco is very wet it must be smoked using a hookah charcoal. Rather than being lit directly, the tobacco is heated with a coal placed on tinfoil or wire mesh above or in the bowl holding the damp mixture. Each bowl of this wet tobacco lasts a long time, usually requiring several replenishments of the charcoal. In the past, among those rituals and traditions surrounding the lighting and smoking of the hookah, or narghile, were strict prohibitions against lighting the tobacco incorrectly–or even allowing a cigarette smoker to light their cigarette off of the hookah coal.

Hookah tobacco is generally only 30 percent tobacco and 70 percent fruit flavoring and molasses or honey. It contains .05 percent nicotine and most types contain no tar. Because the tobacco is heated, rather than actually burned, studies have shown that there are fewer carcinogens produced in hookah smoke than in other forms of smoking. However, concerns about the length of time smokers generally spend around a bowl of hookah tobacco do warrant consideration, and studies have shown that carbon dioxide intake is actually higher in hookah smoking. Though mellower and less carcinogenic, hookah tobacco is still tobacco and the health risks remain. Hookah tobacco should only be smoked by adults over 18 years of age, and then smoked in moderation.