What Is Hookah?

When someone mentions the word 'hookah' you may picture a mystical genie emerging from a bottle, sucking on a hose connected to a water filled vase. Perhaps they blow out a steamy series of smoke rings, or forge precise wispy clouds using only their breath. Hookahs are not just gimmicks from fairy tails and cartoons. They are in fact a very real, very old form of smoking tobacco that is still practiced today in many cultures.

Mechanics of the hookah

But what exactly is a hookah? There is much more to a smoking from a hookah than just sucking smoke out of tube. Hookahs are precisely crafted devices for combustion and smoking of tobacco and other substances. The actual mechanics and inner functioning of a hookah are a mystery to most people, but they are not that complicated. Hookahs most resemble water pipes and bongs in that tobacco smoke, heated in a bowl, is drawn through one or more water filled chambers by the act of the user inhaling through a hose. The water chambers remove much of the harshness of the tobacco and create a much finer smoke in which to inhale. The fancier the hookah, the larger or more elaborate the chambers it may have, thus creating even finer smoke. However, unlike a bong, the tobacco is not directly set on fire. Instead, hot coals are situated in a mechanism just above the tobacco so when the user inhales, hot air from the coals is sucked directly over the tobacco heating it much more evenly, creating much better quality of smoke from more even and gentle combustion.

What to smoke in a hookah

What exactly do you smoke in a hookah? Traditionally, a substance called shisha is smoked. It is made from tobacco but it is flavored with various substances like fruits and spices. The shisha itself comes in a tin, like chewing tobacco, to maintain freshness. It is soaked with a sappy, sticky, resin-like coating which contains its unique flavors. The flavored tobacco, indirect heating and water conditioning of the smoke creates a fine flavored mist to inhale, which more resembles steam than smoke. The final result is a flavored mellow mist that barely resembles the harshness of tobacco smoking.

Using the hookah for social gatherings

Hookahs traditionally have more than one hose attached so more than one person can smoke at any given time. This makes smoking from a hookah the perfect after dinner activity or relaxing social group activity.

In societies where hookahs are prevalent, it is common to seal deals, memorialize important events and cement life-long friendships around the hookah. There are even hookah bars in which people can go to relax and sample different flavors of shisha.