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Author Topic: Best hookah flavors?  (Read 5049 times)

Tylui

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Best hookah flavors?
« on: July 20, 2010, 10:07:52 am »

Howdy folks! So, since the last thread about smoking was locked by the OP, I thought I'd start this thread.

But it's much different than the last one in that I don't want to hear about how smoking is bad. I know the risks involved.

I just want to know what your favorite hookah flavor is.

Personally, I have two(three?)!

Starbuzz Blue Mist is fantastic. It's a mixture of blueberry and mint and has a wonderful flavor with a cool aftertaste and leaves you with that minty fresh feeling.

Then my next favorite is actually a mixture that I tried by accident. Kiwi and Blackberry. Holy crap it is incredible. It sounds like it wouldn't mix at all but it is easily the best flavor I've had.
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Josephus

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2010, 10:14:48 am »

Honestly, I've never used a hookah. In this benighted country, the good ol' shisha pipe is used by young people who want to circumvent laws against selling cigarettes to minors.

I understand there's some sort of syrup mechanic? Please explain how a hookah works for the rest of us non-exotic smokers.
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Osmosis Jones

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2010, 10:17:05 am »

I would recommend double apple or double cherry if you can get them, can't remember the actual brand names though. Possibly my favourite one was orange, but I've also had an absolutely disgusting orange flavour from a different brand, so it can be a little iffy.
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fenrif

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2010, 10:37:54 am »

Before the ridiculous smoking ban in the UK there used to be a bar where I went to uni where you could hire out a hookah for the night... good times. :P

Personally I prefer the cherry flavours, though I don't know any brand names or anything.
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Sir Pseudonymous

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2010, 07:20:18 pm »

Howdy folks! So, since the last thread about smoking was locked by the OP, I thought I'd start this thread.

But it's much different than the last one in that I don't want to hear about how smoking is bad. I know the risks involved.

I just want to know what your favorite hookah flavor is.

Personally, I have two(three?)!

Starbuzz Blue Mist is fantastic. It's a mixture of blueberry and mint and has a wonderful flavor with a cool aftertaste and leaves you with that minty fresh feeling.

Then my next favorite is actually a mixture that I tried by accident. Kiwi and Blackberry. Holy crap it is incredible. It sounds like it wouldn't mix at all but it is easily the best flavor I've had.
I was thinking about making a thread like this too, only devoted to favorite tobacco in general (but including hookah, of course).

I think I might have had blue mist when I went to a hookah bar with some friends, but didn't enjoy it too much. I think it was a combination of being mildly drunk, the temperature and lack of oxygen in the smoky room, the flashing lights, that it was the second of two preparations, and that I'd been smoking cigarettes while in there too. I felt sick as hell, and staggered drunkenly to the car, sat down, chugged a bottle of gatorade, and was fine three minutes later.

I understand there's some sort of syrup mechanic? Please explain how a hookah works for the rest of us non-exotic smokers.
The shisha is a syrupy mixture of tobacco and honey/corn syrup, loosely packed in a bowl at the top of the pipe and covered with a filter, usually taught aluminum foil with a large number of small holes punched in it, upon which one or more burning coals are placed. Air is drawn down over the coals and into the shisha, and the resulting smoke is bubbled through some manner of cold liquid at the bottom (usually ice water, but I've heard everything from juice to milk to vodka suggested), so that the smoke coming out the hose is cold and full of water vapor, like a delicious cloud.


I don't recall the other flavor from the hookah bar, but after splitting the cost of a hookah with a friend, I've smoked watermelon (good), pineapple (decent, but has a weird acidic burn to it), and banana (good, but tastes kind of grainy, as artificial banana flavor does). I want to try coconut or mango, but I never think to look at the shisha flavors when I'm in the tobacco store... :-\
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Rebirthocool

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2010, 08:04:53 pm »

i never really cared for hookah bars, mainly because there was no nicotine being served. it's good for kids though.

as for a flavor, i remember a top shelf watermelon one that was dandy, but overall the apples usually taste the best.
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Sir Pseudonymous

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2010, 08:14:10 pm »

i never really cared for hookah bars, mainly because there was no nicotine being served. it's good for kids though.

as for a flavor, i remember a top shelf watermelon one that was dandy, but overall the apples usually taste the best.
Here hookah bars have actual tobacco in the pipes. Hookah's are still a poor source of nicotine, though. Still enjoyable to smoke, and if combined with cigarettes you can pretend the nicotine buzz is coming from the hookah. I actually smoked a cigarette and drew from a hookah at the same time, at least once. I might have been drunk, as a) I don't remember when this was, and b) I smoked a cigarette and a hookah simultaneously, which sounds like something I'd do when drunk.
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Jreengus

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2010, 08:50:40 pm »

I keep reading the thread title as hooker which gives a highly disturbing mental image. This is probably because I've never heard of hookah before.
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Josephus

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #8 on: July 20, 2010, 10:50:12 pm »

I keep reading the thread title as hooker which gives a highly disturbing mental image. This is probably because I've never heard of hookah before.

If you watched Return of the Jedi, you've seen one. Jabba's opium pipe is a hookah.
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Tylui

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2010, 01:52:35 pm »

If you watched Return of the Jedi, you've seen one. Jabba's opium pipe is a hookah.

Alice in Wonderland, also! Absalom the caterpillar.

i never really cared for hookah bars, mainly because there was no nicotine being served. it's good for kids though.

as for a flavor, i remember a top shelf watermelon one that was dandy, but overall the apples usually taste the best.
Here hookah bars have actual tobacco in the pipes. Hookah's are still a poor source of nicotine, though. Still enjoyable to smoke, and if combined with cigarettes you can pretend the nicotine buzz is coming from the hookah. I actually smoked a cigarette and drew from a hookah at the same time, at least once. I might have been drunk, as a) I don't remember when this was, and b) I smoked a cigarette and a hookah simultaneously, which sounds like something I'd do when drunk.

If you don't get a buzz from hookah it could mean several things. Either you need a lot(And I mean a lot) of nicotine to get a buzz, the tobacco is smoldering too coldly(you can see this also, if the smoke is thin), or if the tobacco is oldish, or it was not stored properly. The nice thing about hookah is you can get the tobacco real hot, but if you put enough water in the bottom it cools it off so it doesn't burn as you inhale, or, most probably, you have a low quality shisha... Keep in mind that I'm not a certified hookah master, but in my experiences, hookah smoke has been enough for my cigarette smoking friends and brother to give them a buzz.

Someone mentioned the aluminum foil as the screen for the hookah... I wouldn't recommend it because I have a feeling aluminum can't be good for your lungs... Anyway, you can get a better amount of hot, concentrated air with the aluminum foil, but Social Smoke sells stainless steel screens and they are nice. But it doesn't concentrate the heat enough so I usually end up putting my wind screen over it too.
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Sir Pseudonymous

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2010, 08:12:37 pm »

The only figure I've seen stated for how much nicotine a hookah preparation contains is 70% more than one cigarette. Spread out over an hour or so, and split between several people, that doesn't really amount to much.

Of course, I suppose I've also got a bias in that every time I've smoked one, I've already had and adjusted to a nicotine buzz. :/


Aluminum foil is the most common filter, though it is of course not the best thing to use. I haven't seen a filter for sale anywhere I've been (which is, admittedly, only the nearby smoker friendly, where I got the hookah, coals, and shisha), though the current bowl has a wind shield built on to it (which is actually kind of annoying, since it makes it harder to get the filter on, and it can't be opened while there are burning coals in it).
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Tylui

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2010, 09:16:24 am »

Wow that would be a pain. I'm constantly taking my screen off and readjusting the shisha. I think I read somewhere or someone told me not to do that but it gives me better results it seems *shrugs*

Also, I'd be irritated having the wind screen on there already... I like to remove and replace it a bunch of times better temperature control. haha
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Puck

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2010, 09:23:29 am »

The only figure I've seen stated for how much nicotine a hookah preparation contains is 70% more than one cigarette. Spread out over an hour or so, and split between several people, that doesn't really amount to much.

Of course, I suppose I've also got a bias in that every time I've smoked one, I've already had and adjusted to a nicotine buzz. :/


Aluminum foil is the most common filter, though it is of course not the best thing to use. I haven't seen a filter for sale anywhere I've been (which is, admittedly, only the nearby smoker friendly, where I got the hookah, coals, and shisha), though the current bowl has a wind shield built on to it (which is actually kind of annoying, since it makes it harder to get the filter on, and it can't be opened while there are burning coals in it).

The good stuff about the pipe is the water. IIRC the water gets out a lot of the more ... hazardous components of the smoke. For instance, most of the tar will never even reach your lips!

I wouldnt use aluminum foil, however. That's just junkie style, seriously. You got a friggin hookah pipe, not a hooker pipe.

No offense to hookers.

edit: I've always been a fan of the melon flavah, but I couldnt tell whether that was some standardized buyable stuff or selfmade by that guy I smoked with. Its been a while... and I didnt ask him.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2010, 09:25:16 am by Puck »
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Sir Pseudonymous

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #13 on: July 22, 2010, 09:40:54 am »

I use a long metal stick attached to a set of tongs that came with the hookah to move the coals around inside the windshield (the few times it's been applicable). The fact that the coals burn out faster than the shisha poses a problem, though, so at some point it has to be opened to add another coal. The last time I smoked it, at a (small) party on the third (there was a larger party at the same house the next day, of course. In fact, I found out about that by happening to end up getting drunk there that night), we were all too drunk to do that, so my friend just put both coals in at once. It worked surprisingly well, truth be told, giving great hits immediately, though it naturally finished faster.


The good stuff about the pipe is the water. IIRC the water gets out a lot of the more ... hazardous components of the smoke. For instance, most of the tar will never even reach your lips!

I wouldnt use aluminum foil, however. That's just junkie style, seriously. You got a friggin hookah pipe, not a hooker pipe.
I've heard that the water doesn't really do anything to filter out the smoke, on account of tar not being water soluble, but then the only source for that theory I've seen is a WHO paper that can be summed up with "TOBACCO BAD, FUCK YOU", which cited no sources for any of its claims, so I'm not inclined to trust it to be honest about anything.

If I could get a filter, I would, but no one I know can order shit online, for one reason or another, and the local tobacco store doesn't have them (they do have hookahs, shisha, coals, bowls, and hoses, though).
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Josephus

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Re: Best hookah flavors?
« Reply #14 on: July 22, 2010, 09:42:26 am »

I wouldnt use aluminum foil, however. That's just junkie style, seriously. You got a friggin hookah pipe, not a hooker pipe.

Don't knock aluminum foil, man. In a pinch, you can use the foil from a pack of cigarettes as an impromptu pipe. That's some useful shiny paper, right there.
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