Nima Heydarian

By Nima Heydarian published October 16, 2012

Hookah Smoking Tips

The following steps are essential for maintaining your hookah and getting the best experience out of it.

Maintenance tips

  • Wash your hookah after every use
  • Wash the hose after every use if you have a washable hose. Traditional hoses should be blown through and hung up to dry/air out
  • Don’t leave water in the hookah base when you are done smoking
  • Once a month disassemble the hookah and clean every part. Sooner if off flavors are coming through in your sessions
  • Store your tobacco in a cool dry place.

Hookah‌ tricks

Following are the most popular tricks to enhance your smoking experience. If you have any questions regarding the following tips or have your own unique trick make a post on our hookah forum.

  • French inhale: The smoke is pushed out of the mouth and inhaled again through the nose.
  • Smoke rings: Smoke is formed into a ring shaped vortex as it exits the mouth.
  • Smoke bubbles: Smoke is blown into soap bubbles which become cloudy and erupt with smoke when burst.

Mix flavors with each other

You can mix two or more flavors and come up with your own unique hookah flavor. You can do different portions of different flavors. Here are some flavors that go well together:

  • Mint & Rose
  • Double Apple & Rose
  • Mint & Melon
  • Strawberry & Banana
  • Cheery & Cola
  • Mango & Peach

To mix the tobacco flavors together simply mix them in a jar and put it in the bowl. Start small, only mixing enough for one bowl at first. This way you avoid ruining a large amount of tobacco if you don’t like the mix.

Add food flavor extracts to the tobacco

Some people like to enhance their experience by adding their own flavors. One of the most popular flavors to add is mint and it is one of the strongest. Only a couple drops of mint extract in a bowl of tobacco will add a nice minty kick. Other flavors can be used but it is best to stick to food grade, glycerin based flavoring designed for candy production.

Add rose water to the base

Some traditional shops will add rose water to the base to add a slightly floral note to the smoke. The effect is subtle and use most often with black style molasses. Otherwise rose flavored tobacco is preferred and offers more rose flavor.

Add Wine, Juice, or Alcohol

Some very strongly scented liquids can add a slight flavor note to the smoke but

  • If you decide to add wine, use white wine for more subtle flavors and use red wine for heavier flavors (like double apple or red grape).
  • Don’t add anything that you don’t enjoy the flavor of.
  • Adding clear spirits like vodka and ever-clear are pointless. they have no flavor and the alcohol is not inhaled since the base water does not add to the smoke.
  • Be aware that you only need a small amount of these additives. Usually one or two shot glasses of the additive is enough.

Comments

  1. Jimmy Abdallah says:

    The most important trick i learned is to Squeeze the tobacco to get the glycerine out of it

    it exposes the flavor more and makes it burn less

  2. What do you do with the glycerin? throw it out?

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