Hookah A Brother Up

tinwhiskers

Pretty simple, looking to buy a hookah to smoke while chilling outside with friends; we are social cigar smokers so I figure this will be a hit at the next get together. Anyone have any model/brand they recommend, or general advice. I have used hookahs before, but only at a bar where all the charcoal and set-up stuff was done for me.

Iruka

I've ordered shisha from Hookah hookah, and their brand is alright, but not quite the fluffy smoke I've had elsewhere. The real benefit is their shisha comes in really nice little tubs which is great for not getting that bullshit syrup everygoddamnwhere.

The company itself is legit though, haven't had any trouble with them, and they sell plenty of shisha brands. Unless you have a really nice store around you, all the head shops around me have tended to treat hookahs as a secondary novelty, and therefore never carried more than one brand of shisha (al-fakher)

Setting up the hookah is pretty easy, I'm sure there are you tube videos. Never found a grate that worked better than plain tin foil with pin holes punched through it. Throw some ice in your water for extra wonderfulness.

Mad Jazz

Yeah, what Iruka said.

As far as tips for setup and management while you smoke, here are a couple:

1. Don't fill the base up with too much water. You run the risk of it going up the pipe and getting the shisha wet, or perhaps more disastrously, going down the hose and ending up in your mouth (risk of each depends on your particular hookah). That is a horrible experience, trust me. About an inch over the end of the pipe should be fine.
2. I second putting ice in the base. Depending on your desires, you can also put some booze in there (clear stuff works best, I've experimented with pretty much everything from vodka to 151 to everclear and have had...mixed results) to change up the flavor a bit and, depending on who you talk to, add a bit of a post-drink feeling to your smoke. Pretty bro-sciencey, to be honest. I've also been told that putting some milk in the base can also enhance the flavor/smoothness or whatever, but the one time we tried it didn't seem to do anything.
3. When you poke the holes, I've found that lots of small holes is preferable to fewer giant ones.
4. Don't keep the coal in the center of the bowl the whole time, it gets too hot and everything gets all harsh. I think hookah bars train their people to keep loading everyone up with coals to burn through their shit faster, but it ends up tasting terrible.
5. Learn to blow smoke rings! Smoke rings are fucking rad and they make you feel like Gandalf.

Enjoy! I got rid of my hookah a couple of years ago for a cross-country move and there are definitely days when I wish I had it still.

WiseManTobes

Mad Jazz wrote: »

Yeah, what Iruka said.

As far as tips for setup and management while you smoke, here are a couple:

1. Don't fill the base up with too much water. You run the risk of it going up the pipe and getting the shisha wet, or perhaps more disastrously, going down the hose and ending up in your mouth (risk of each depends on your particular hookah). That is a horrible experience, trust me. About an inch over the end of the pipe should be fine.
2. I second putting ice in the base. Depending on your desires, you can also put some booze in there (clear stuff works best, I've experimented with pretty much everything from vodka to 151 to everclear and have had...mixed results) to change up the flavor a bit and, depending on who you talk to, add a bit of a post-drink feeling to your smoke. Pretty bro-sciencey, to be honest. I've also been told that putting some milk in the base can also enhance the flavor/smoothness or whatever, but the one time we tried it didn't seem to do anything.
3. When you poke the holes, I've found that lots of small holes is preferable to fewer giant ones.
4. Don't keep the coal in the center of the bowl the whole time, it gets too hot and everything gets all harsh. I think hookah bars train their people to keep loading everyone up with coals to burn through their shit faster, but it ends up tasting terrible.
5. Learn to blow smoke rings! Smoke rings are fucking rad and they make you feel like Gandalf.

Enjoy! I got rid of my hookah a couple of years ago for a cross-country move and there are definitely days when I wish I had it still.

Seriously the trick to smoke rings, ( well beyond getting the mouth/tongue click down) is DON'T inhale ( can inhale after a couple rings) but man, rings blown without inhaling are just thick and solid and will cross entire rooms!

On the Hookah end, are you 100% sold on a water Hookah? A friend of mine recently got this like, electronic multi input Ohmz vaporizer ( it even hooks up to his computer to read for proper temperature settings ) and it 's attachments turn it from a tiny pocket sized vape, into a 4 man table hookah, cept a vaporizer instead of water

TehSloth

If I was getting something like a hookah again I'd definitely look into something like wiseman tobes mentioned above. I haven't personally seen one designed for multiple people like a hookah is but if they're around they would be worth a look. I used to have a hookah but gave it to a friend when I moved. Since then I've just got a personal vaporizer and it's so much more convenient. Hookah is a cool social experience but there's a lot of set-up and clean-up involved for pretty much the same effect IMO.

Mad Jazz

Oh, one other thing: If you're gonna use it for shisha, use it for shisha. If you're gonna use it for...other stuff, use it for other stuff. Don't mix and match because it can fuck with the flavor (so I've been told from people who've mixed; mine was always strictly shisha only) and you can get residues of things in the smoke.