How to : Prepare the perfect shisha

For a few years now smoking Shisha has been the ultimate all-round relaxation tool for me. If it is hanging around with a few friends, listening to music, sit outside in the sun or even just all on your own. It always brings me to my personal nirvana. There is only one condition, the Shisha has to  smoke like a soft cloud with a subtle taste, preferably a lot of smoke. In this blog article I would like to share my experience how I to prepare for the best Shisha experience.

What do we want ? We want a Shisha that smokes easy, soft, a lot of (not burned) taste and huge smoke plumes.

What do we need ? Good tobacco, enough aluminum foil and decent charcoals. All of these three accessories are fundamental for preparing the perfect Shisha. If you get the perfect combination of these three, you are ready to roll.

What is Shisha ? Is also known as hookah, waterpipe, sheesha, nargile, gudugudaa, chillam, huqqa, lulava or whatever. Google it or leave this page.

So what is the secret ? The secret lies in the perfect combination of your tobacco, aluminum foil and charcoal. That is all there is to it. Finding the perfect combination demands some trial and error. We want to warm up the tobacco to the perfect temperature. Don't ask me numbers, I never made a scientific experiment of it. The reason is obvious to everyone I guess. A low temperature level does not generate enough smoke and taste, too high will burn the tobacco and there won't be any taste left.

 Depending on how wet the tobacco is, you need more or less heat. Every charcoal type has another heating profile. With the right amount of tobacco and aluminum foil you can create the perfect conditions. The moisture of the tobacco is actually the part that holds all the taste. The more moisture the more taste you can have. Now enough talk, lets start preparing this thing. You got everything ?

We start off with preparing the Shisha itself. Remember to clean often the inside of the glass, hose and the tube with hot water. If possible, use a special Shisha brush for the glass and tube. Fill up the glass with enough cold (the colder the more smoke) water. Make sure the tube reaches maximum 2 - 3 cm under the water level. Some people suggest to add ice cubes to create more smoke. Just take in mind if you add any liquors to the water, use preferably 10 - 20 % liquor and 90 - 80% water. If you use too much liquor it will be really difficult to inhale.

Now we add the tobacco. Make sure you don't fill up the tobacco till the edge. Leave some mm's till a 0,5 cm margin between the tobacco and aluminum foil. Too close to the foil gives direct contact with the charcoals. This will make the top layer burn straight away. It will be hard to get some good taste even if there is good wet tobacco at the bottom.

 Now comes the challenge. Add enough layers of foil but not to much, so the tobacco can get warm. I do 6-8 layers with fast lightening charcoals depending on the thickness of the foil. If I have organic charcoals I don't do more than 4 layers. The thicker the foil the few layers you need. Experiment with the layers depending the charcoal type you have. Make a small holes in the foil. Not to big to avoid direct contact again with the tobacco. The purpose is to channel hot air trough the tobacco without burning the tobacco by direct contact.

Final stage, the charcoal. As previously mentioned we have 2 types of charcoals. The fast lighters and the organic ones. The fast lighters can be lighter with a single touch of a flame, the organic are almost like the once from a barbeque. They take a long time to light, but last longer and don't create too much heat. In next graph you can see the heating profile of both types.

Black : Fast charcoal
Red : Organic charcoal

The fast charcoals get warm very fast, for a moment too warm and then the heat plumits. The organic ones take a time to get on temperature but stay for a long time consistent.I prefere the organics because they create just enough heat for a long time and don't easily burn the tobacco.You should put the charcoal on the foil when the coal is almost totally white, including the bottom. You can blow on it to make heat it faster. The secret is to put the charcoal on the Shisha when it is generally white. Not before, this saves you also a lot of breath to start the Shisha.

What I do in general is move the charcoal in a circle over the foil. So every time another spot of the tobacco is heated and can cool down. Once smoking you can cover the charcoal to keep the heat locked up. If the tobacco starts to taste heavy, open the foil a little bit to cool down. With this strategy you can regulate the heat the entire session. Especially at the end when the charcoal looses energy to create enough heat.

I have explained the most major parts of smoking and preparing a Shisha. Play with these tips and experiment and you will get a hang of it. Enjoy and please share your experiences !