There are a couple ways to prevent air lock when using a phunnel / funnel bowl. The first way to prevent air-lock is to get a good foiling technique down. I have found that a piece of foil that is 6-8in long and 6in wide is the ideal size to work with. Another way to combat air-lock is to poke holes in the foil over the spire. If you employ both of my methods, I can assure you that you will have a successful smeesh.

Diffusers are a tool used by hookah smokers to break up the flow of smoke and create hundreds, if not thousands of tiny bubbles instead of just a few large bubbles. This has a couple of advantages such as, smoothing the draw of a hookah, aid in the filtration of smoke, and quiet the rumble of the hubbly-bubbly.

If you are new to smoking hookah, you might not realize that you aren’t getting as much flavor out of your sessions as you could be. If you are using the same hose for every session and not washing your hookah between every session, flavors of your past session are going to linger in your hose and stem. The flavor that is hanging around in your hose or stem is called “flavor ghosting”. Flavors that ghost your stem or hose muddle the flavor of sessions to come. Most flavors will …

There is no excuse for not taking the proper precautions against illness while enjoying your shisha. Mouth tips can be purchased for pennies a piece and are readily available to consumers. For just a few dollars, you can help keep your friends and community safe from the spread of communicable diseases with these simple, cheap, and sometimes stylish attachments.

There is a new technique that, so far, has been proven (by myself and others) to instantly acclimate Tangiers Noir Tobacco. Before removing the tobacco from the sealed bag, massage the bag for 4-5 minutes. This completely mixes the tobacco in its “California” climate controlled bag. Then, empty the tobacco in to your shallow air tight container, and let…

I know it’s tempting to look into the bottom of an almost-empty tub of Al Fakher Soft Black and see all that juicy goodness and think, “this is going to be great!” But don’t be fooled! All that juice in there is actually going to create all kinds of problems.

The Vortex Bowl from Sahara Smoke is one of only a few very popular specialty bowls. While it has a few drawbacks, one of its major selling points is that it’s among the easiest to pack. In this short tutorial I’m going to show you how to pack your Vortex bowl and get an excellent smoke, no matter what kind of shisha tobacco you fill it with. So, lets get started.
Mix Your Shisha
The Vortex Bowl shines the most when using a wet shisha (though brands that are more dry will …

First we talked about the basics of hookah anatomy. Then, we got into the gritty details of hookah charcoal. This week, we’re going to discuss what it takes to pack your tobacco in your bowl and get a great smoking session out of it. So, lets get started.

If you’re reading this guide, there’s a good chance you’re not using a specialty bowl, such as a Vortex or phunnel bowl. Rather, you’re probably using the bowl that came with your hookah. That’s a standard bowl. It may be an Egyptian bowl, a mod Bowl or a Mya bowl, but regardless, the routine for packing pretty much any of these will be about the same. So, for this guide, we’re going to assume you…

We are working our way down the hookah. Last time we discussed all the major parts of a hookah and what they do to help maximize your smoking experience. This time, we’re going to get into the gritty details of the hookah experience with a look at coals. What are they, what do they do and how do we use them best. So, lets not waste any more time.

Coals are an absolute essential part of the hookah experience. They are among the few things truly setting hookah apart from virtually …

A hookah, originally referred to as a nargileh or a shisha, is a kind of waterpipe used for smoking wet tobacco called Moassel (or in the United States, Sisha—yeah, we got our words all mixed up over here). Getting an excellent smoke session from a hookah isn’t something most people can do without a little guidance. There are many caveats to a great session that take some time and practice to master. In this series of tutorials, we hope to help new smokers (and those who’ve been sojourning from the …