8 Hookah Tips and Tricks You Should Incorporate into Your Hookah Routine
The hookah in India has a history of hundreds of years, but innovation and preparation methods for hookah in the global market are just the beginning. With these swirling cultures and practices that make up your hookah and are rooted in tradition, there's always something new to learn and apply, leading us to our 8 best tricks and tips! These tips have been tried and true and have become a standard operating procedure!
1: Wash Your Hookah Between Use
With attention to detail, you can pack your bowls and manage heat, but if you don't mind leaving your vase with excess juice, tobacco chips, and stagnant water for days in your vase, you might as well just throw it away. Hookahs should be washed between uses for best taste and seasonality.
2: Preserve Basic Cocktails
Adding fruits, spices, herbs, or various juices can be a fun and exciting step in preparing your hookah, and we recommend it! However, milk, acidic fruits (such as lemons, limes, prunes, grapes, etc.), and alcohol should be avoided. Bacteria in milk start to grow once it reaches 45 degrees Fahrenheit, high acid juices can compromise the quality and finish of the downstem, and alcohol in confined spaces is particularly dangerous for long-term inhalation...
3: Clean Up Before Starting the Session
Hookahs should always be sealed when installed correctly, but doing so will trap negative pressure when mixing everything together. Purifying the water before starting the session will not only allow the hookah to expel this old air, but it will also help you check the water level and purify itself before surprises happen. If you purify before smoking, you can check the normal airflow in the pack by pressing the charcoal from the bottom up. In the future, think of this as a warning from your hookah.
4: Ice Comes Out of the Hookah
One of the biggest myths about hookahs in India is that ice softens smoke, but we'd like to say that's not entirely true. Now the ice is in place at the end of the day and is outside, not inside the hookah. Next time you need to cool your hookah water while smoking outdoors in the summer, try making an ice bucket out of hookah and regular table salt. When it snows on the outside of the hookah, it doesn't melt quickly with continued stretching, and the salt keeps the ice colder, making your sun fun longer.
5: Pack Under the Rim
Think of a hookah like Icarus. To keep flying through the clouds, you need to stay away from the sun (in this case, the edge of a hot bowl). By packing under the rim, heat transfer from the charcoal to the clay occurs naturally, ensuring a stronger flavor. It also provides some breathing space for the tobacco to inflate and deflate as it burns, making it easier to clean and more likely to run out of packaged tobacco. Experience suggests using a thermal management device (HMD) and 2 mm below the rim as a starting point for the foil.
6: Using Hookah Flavor as an Ingredient
Mixing and making complex mixtures can be challenging. Where do I start? Well, first of all, you have to keep some distance between yourself and the hookah flavours you want to mix. Blueberry Muffins are no longer the ones you know and love but come in two flavors. Roasted Sweet and savory blueberries. You can add lemon chunks right away. Lemon goes so well with blueberries and now doubles the baked goods! But you're missing something... Maybe some coffee or tea? Add a little citrus tea or mochaccino and your "thank you brunch" mix is complete!
7: Burn the Charcoal Perfectly
You can't rush towards greatness. After all the work of making the mix, packing the bowls correctly, and setting the hookah to perfection, you'll be playing the hookah charcoal wait game like everyone else! Lighting charcoal is always the worst part of preparing your hookah. Let's face it, it's an important step nonetheless. Using under-light charcoal in a session creates thermal management issues and undoubtedly allows you to taste the charcoal instead of taste buds later in the session and has a greater tendency to completely blackout the charcoal.
8: Bury Coal in Ashes and Insulate Them
Need another coal? What if I said I could already have it? To enter the endless coal matrix, store the charcoal ashes of each session in a heat-protected container. For the session, burn one or two additional coals as usual, fully immerse in this container and cover with ashes. The ashes become a natural insulator and retain the charcoal fire with minimal shrinkage for up to an hour. No ashing or flipping is required. Now we need to add one or two coals. Voila! Ready to go in seconds! Blow off the excess ashes and reheat the charcoal.
Bonus Tip: Don't overdo it. Hookah is a refuge and a means of relaxation. The last thing to emphasize is to set up a hookah and smoke well. There are many nuances and tricks to becoming a hookah master, but the heat flows through the hookah tobacco and the result is smoke. As long as you achieve it and, more importantly, enjoy yourself, you have done it right. We could always be better, but hookah couldn't be the best when it was created hundreds of years ago. So smoke.
1: Wash Your Hookah Between Use
With attention to detail, you can pack your bowls and manage heat, but if you don't mind leaving your vase with excess juice, tobacco chips, and stagnant water for days in your vase, you might as well just throw it away. Hookahs should be washed between uses for best taste and seasonality.
2: Preserve Basic Cocktails
Adding fruits, spices, herbs, or various juices can be a fun and exciting step in preparing your hookah, and we recommend it! However, milk, acidic fruits (such as lemons, limes, prunes, grapes, etc.), and alcohol should be avoided. Bacteria in milk start to grow once it reaches 45 degrees Fahrenheit, high acid juices can compromise the quality and finish of the downstem, and alcohol in confined spaces is particularly dangerous for long-term inhalation...
3: Clean Up Before Starting the Session
Hookahs should always be sealed when installed correctly, but doing so will trap negative pressure when mixing everything together. Purifying the water before starting the session will not only allow the hookah to expel this old air, but it will also help you check the water level and purify itself before surprises happen. If you purify before smoking, you can check the normal airflow in the pack by pressing the charcoal from the bottom up. In the future, think of this as a warning from your hookah.
4: Ice Comes Out of the Hookah
One of the biggest myths about hookahs in India is that ice softens smoke, but we'd like to say that's not entirely true. Now the ice is in place at the end of the day and is outside, not inside the hookah. Next time you need to cool your hookah water while smoking outdoors in the summer, try making an ice bucket out of hookah and regular table salt. When it snows on the outside of the hookah, it doesn't melt quickly with continued stretching, and the salt keeps the ice colder, making your sun fun longer.
5: Pack Under the Rim
Think of a hookah like Icarus. To keep flying through the clouds, you need to stay away from the sun (in this case, the edge of a hot bowl). By packing under the rim, heat transfer from the charcoal to the clay occurs naturally, ensuring a stronger flavor. It also provides some breathing space for the tobacco to inflate and deflate as it burns, making it easier to clean and more likely to run out of packaged tobacco. Experience suggests using a thermal management device (HMD) and 2 mm below the rim as a starting point for the foil.
6: Using Hookah Flavor as an Ingredient
Mixing and making complex mixtures can be challenging. Where do I start? Well, first of all, you have to keep some distance between yourself and the hookah flavours you want to mix. Blueberry Muffins are no longer the ones you know and love but come in two flavors. Roasted Sweet and savory blueberries. You can add lemon chunks right away. Lemon goes so well with blueberries and now doubles the baked goods! But you're missing something... Maybe some coffee or tea? Add a little citrus tea or mochaccino and your "thank you brunch" mix is complete!
7: Burn the Charcoal Perfectly
You can't rush towards greatness. After all the work of making the mix, packing the bowls correctly, and setting the hookah to perfection, you'll be playing the hookah charcoal wait game like everyone else! Lighting charcoal is always the worst part of preparing your hookah. Let's face it, it's an important step nonetheless. Using under-light charcoal in a session creates thermal management issues and undoubtedly allows you to taste the charcoal instead of taste buds later in the session and has a greater tendency to completely blackout the charcoal.
8: Bury Coal in Ashes and Insulate Them
Need another coal? What if I said I could already have it? To enter the endless coal matrix, store the charcoal ashes of each session in a heat-protected container. For the session, burn one or two additional coals as usual, fully immerse in this container and cover with ashes. The ashes become a natural insulator and retain the charcoal fire with minimal shrinkage for up to an hour. No ashing or flipping is required. Now we need to add one or two coals. Voila! Ready to go in seconds! Blow off the excess ashes and reheat the charcoal.
Bonus Tip: Don't overdo it. Hookah is a refuge and a means of relaxation. The last thing to emphasize is to set up a hookah and smoke well. There are many nuances and tricks to becoming a hookah master, but the heat flows through the hookah tobacco and the result is smoke. As long as you achieve it and, more importantly, enjoy yourself, you have done it right. We could always be better, but hookah couldn't be the best when it was created hundreds of years ago. So smoke.
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