Month: July 2007

some ideas when using quick-lighting coals

I have often in the past used natural coals, and I really prefer them, but where I’m living¬† now its impossible.

Of course the quick lighting are usually more convenient but we all know about the flying sparks that a lot of them give off, and smoke, but above all the floor gets messed with a heavy film of gun powder, which is what  covers the coal and burns the outer layer.

Its bad to light the coals on top of the shisha itself since it will tend to burn the top layer or worse.

I’m using a very sparky coal now which sometimes¬† even bursts and sends nuggets of coal all over the wooden floor . I purchased a coal carrier of heavy tin but its built in such a way that makes it hard to get the coals out of so slowly I tied to improvise.

First I found laying around what looks like it was a large tray in one of those toaster ovens, its square shaped. I¬† put¬† the coals on that and then when they sparked hurridley got my home made wind breaker which I had formed circular and is made of heavy duty aluminum. Now when I light them, the coals will still smoke, but at least I’m not spraying my floor with black ash.

Hookah 1

another cool idea, or not?

Their¬† are opinions that its a good idea to store your¬† shisha tobacco in the refrigerator. As mentioned before and I’ll only touch on it now, its no good. How do I know? From doing it 4 years ago when I was just starting out and had a small enough stash¬† of shisha to put in. It ruins the taste and if you keep it in long enough, it will get rancid.

That’s in practice. In theory the best thing you need to do upon using an unopened box of shisha for the first time is to open the seal, and let it sit out for between 1-4, some do for much more. The idea is to acclimatize theshisha. Maybe you¬† live in a dry arid desert area, this will affect your shisha’s way of evaporating upon smoking it. Or if you live in a humid zone, keeping it out will¬† acclimatize it to that smoking room’s humidity.

(Many cigar afficiandos  buy and use a thermadour which does the same thing for the cigar tobacco).

After that one time, you use the shisha you want to smoke and wrap up the rest well in a nylon or plastic bag, or ziplock and it would be nice after that to put your bags in an airtight tupperware type of box or container. No refrigeration! A room tempature closet or drawer is the end of that.

Some people will put the hookah bottle with water in the refigerator until its close to freezing, but be extra careful with that since the bottle can break very easily after that.

Try bottling cold water and pouring it in. I’ve heard about others who put the stem (shaft) in the freezer or even the hose. Firstly the metal will get hot after just a few minutes anyways but the hose is bad news. Why freeze leather or plastic or wood? And what about moisture condensation¬† from the freezer? If your hose is not of the washable type, its going to corrode and rust soon.

Hookah 1

How much charcoal to use

When smoking hookah one of the major costs will be charcoal. You don’t want to use too much for a few reasons. One, too much will not only be a waste of charcoal and money, but also of your precious shisha stash. Too much heat will burn the shisha tobacco instead of allowing it to dissipate and evaporate like its supposed to.

Since the shisha mixture has in it honey or molasses, glycerin , tobacco and flavouring, what is needed is to get the mixture hot without burning and then it will dissipate; you getting the taste. With too much heat, your shisha will burn and taste pretty bad.

One sign of “too much coal” is viewing any smoke coming off the top of your tobacco bowl. Bad. Take off some coal.

Also look at your water bottle. Its going to fill up with smoke at the top where you left off putting water. Which is a good reason not to put too much water in, since the water contained in the bottle always cools off the smoke, but if you don’t have enough room at the top of the chamber, what you’ll get will be always too hot.Leave some room enough for the smoke to aculimate . Its cooler smoke and that’s what you’ll be smoking on your next toke.

Another sign might be not enough holes punched in the foil that is under the coals. Maybe ash has blocked it up and all your heat is at the top scorching the tobacco in the bowl.If so, puch more holes.

Remember that the tobacco bowl comes in so many sizes and material. A small bowl might be fine with one coal or even half being smaller. Also the type of shisha in the bowl matters. The premium extra fine shisha needs less coal and will burn longer. You might need a coal and a half or more for regular shisha and again half that amount for the good stuff. (Which proves that buying good shisha will actually save you money in the end.)

Often I use the gigantic “party bowl” that Smoking-Hookah.com sells. I fill it up well, but not to the top where it will burn off from heat scorching the foil which will burn the shisha . In preparing your bowl, even if it is small do the same and leave room between the tobacco mix and the foil.

Using a regular, smaller sized bowl will get you a more even smoke, use less charcoal and will not leave shisha at the end. By using good premium shisha in a regular ceramic bowl, you can get anywhere between a 45-75 minutes smoke, but¬† after 45 minutes you’ll most likely need another coal. The gigantic “Party bowl” when filled well will last much¬† longer, but its usually used for a multi-hose smoking session of longer length. Still, if I’m busy at something and don’t¬† want to stop to make another bowl or even change a ready made one, I”ll use the big bowl¬† and have a loooong smoke.

You’ll have to try and play around with each size bowl and how much tobacco to use as well as how much coal. You can always add more as the smoking session goes on.

When you’re finished , check the left over in the bowl. Was it all scorched, or mildly so, was there any left over in the bottom? In most cases there is a hint of tobacco left.That’s normal. If you see the mixture is burnt here and there unequally , probably you weren’t moving the coals around the rim of the bowl and slowly bringing them into the center, or maybe the coal was only on one side of the bowl.

No one wants to waste money on charcoal. How about your throat? If nothing else, if you feel harshness while you are smoking, than take off some coal. Also, you can blow lightly on the hose and let out some heat so that the nest toke is smoother.

Could be your hookah is too small for the amount of coal used. While bigger is not always better, even in hookah smoking, the mini hookahs need less coal and heat since they are not as cooled by a lot of water, the hot smoke going down the shaft and material its made of. The brass or cast steel metal stems will keep the hookah from heating as much as the thin stainless steel.

Hookah 1