To get the most out of your hookah it’s important to get everything you can out of your tobacco. When using deep funnel bowls, and other bowls designed to retain the molasses and not let it run down the stem, you will often be tired of a session long before all of the tobacco is cooked through and there is still good flavor. When this is the case you can actually stop and smoke the same bowl the next day.
This is most easily done with very strong flavors and heat resistant tobacco that has been packed very densely. You will hear about people doing this the most with Tangiers tobacco but other very strongly flavored tobacco can work as well. All you have to do is not clean out the tobacco from the bowl or remove the foil and set the hookah up the next day and smoke like normal. It’s no different than adding a second round of coals in the first sessions. So long as there is still good flavor to be had you can keep smoking.
Right now I am sitting outside smoking a bowl of Tangiers Kashmir Prune that I smoked yesterday with one round of Coconara coals and it’s smoking beautifully. Big clouds and lots of flavor. The fruit notes have mellowed a bit but the spicy floral notes of the kashmir are still nice and strong. Fruit flavors are more fickle and delicate to begin with so some flavors won’t work as well but it’s a matter of experimentation to find out what works.
This way you can avoid wasting large amounts of tobacco when using the deep funnel bowls. This is one of the reasons that having a few different bowls is a good idea. That way you can stop smoking one if you get bored, pack up another and come back to the first at a later time.
When I’m in the mood for an awesome, long lasting and fulfilling smoke, I take my time. I can pack a vortex and blow smoke that looks like a smoke screen, or I can tone down the heat and just enjoy the great flavor and smoke that sometimes lasts for three hours+.. Yes, 3 hours and then some. Heat management is critical but it’s not rocket science either. I think the trick is loving the hobby enough to be patient and enjoy the “work” that it can take to have a session with the “wow” factor.
I’ve learned that by truly “baking” the shisha and not letting it pass the point of being over-heated will allow the flavor to last the longest and allow it to diminish so slowly that there are times you will “remember” that you’re losing flavor. I experience a point in the second session (and yes, sometimes the 3rd session) when I realize that the “added flavor” is all but gone with only the slightest hints/notes of the original flavor and that now I’m actually smoking the tobacco. Here is where the quality tobacco comes into an extremely important play. Had you over-heated the tobacco even one time in any of the previous sessions, the tobacco picks up that over-heated/harsh flavor and now is when you’re going to taste it. I believe this point of the session is when most sessions are considered “done”. “Over”. “It’s dead”. May I utter the words “Oh, contraire!”. It is at this point when you can enjoy the real tobacco flavor. With my setup this is when I’ve got a good 20 to 30 minutes of the most pleasurable smoke that ever comes from my KM. True tobacco flavor, mild and smooth with only the occasional note of the previous flavor.
How many times do you hear a review and they say “It looses its flavor quickly”. Yes, this is true but not 100% of the time. A quality tobacco may retain its flavor longer but depending on how it’s smoked can and will determine how long the flavor lasts. Filling a room with humongous smoke clouds is going to take some heat and cut way down on session time and flavor. I’m not saying one is better than the other, I actually love both! I’m just sharing that there are times when I just love a long lasting session with a good and balanced flavor that will melt away the stress of the day.
Lastly, my main setup is a KM Basha – 36″ Tri-Metal Oxidized with a Sahara Smoke Vortex bowl. Old faithful is a 17″ generic brass stem in a home-made vase and there’s not much difference between the two with proper holes ‘n coals!
?ich ?ookah