Hookah 101

Hookah is growing in popularity as a past time across the United States in every major cities and even in some of the smaller cities

Lot of people are aware of the what a Hookah is an they spend a Saturday evening chilling in a Hookah bar with friends.

But there are people I meet all the time who have never seen or smoked a hookah. They curiously look at what is going on and wonder what that funny looking thing is.

So what is a Hookah

For the ones who have never seen one. The image on the left is what a hookah looks like.

Its a glass base which contains water and central stem (made of aluminium or stainless steel) that runs from the top bowl to the bottom vase. The bottom vase is filled with water to a level such that the central stem will just submerge in the water.

Towards the top of the Hookah is a ceramic bowl, which is filled with sheesha. Sheesha is really nothing but flavored tobacco. The sheesha comes in a lots of different flavors.

Most hookah lounge dont carry anywhere close to all the flavors just because its plain impractical.

After the Sheesha is put in the bowl, the bowl will be covered with an aluminium foil. The foil fully covers the bowl, completely hiding the Sheesha.

The foil will be perforated with tiny holes so that hot air can pass through and burn the Sheesha in the process.

Finally a lighted charcoal is put on top of the aluminium foil, which will help burn the Sheesha due to the heat

On the side of the Hookah there are two little stems, as can be seen in the schematic diagram of a Hookah. Typically in a single hosed hookah, one of the stem will be used to attach the hose which is then used to smoke. The other stem is a valve which is used to blow out any smoke buildup in the base of the Hookah. Due to the nature of their function the stems are not interchangeable.

In a multi-hose hookah the valve is usually replace my multiple stems that are meant to put in multiple hoses.