Hello sober family, how are you all doing! This post is for all shisha beginners who are looking for some basic shisha knowledges to help set up your first shisha at home.
Hong Kong’s shisha culture has grown tremendously in the past 3 years from smoking red leaves / blonde leaves to now dark leaves and many more types of leaves. (We will write another blog for this later on.) We have come a long way in shisha. Many people think making a shisha is difficult and they make it complicated by over-thinking the steps.
The most important key for making a well-performed shisha is to build your foundation skills. Details make a huge difference indeed. Below are some points to note for making a shisha.
First is choosing the right equipment and accessories. Below is the checklist for your shisha set up if you are completely new into this hobby.
Shisha pipe
Bowl
Heat management device
Hose and mouthpiece
Shisha mouth tips
Tong
Charcoal burner
Charcoal
Shisha fork and poker
Flavours (2-3 + mint is good enough)
Shisha pipes range from 500+ HKD to 5000 HKD +. A good shisha pipe lays the maximum performance of your shisha. The price is usually proportionate to its quality. Stainless steel pipe is the best material for the shisha pipe and makes up the majority of the models in the market. Bowls selection is equally important as it dictates how the smoke will turn out. Factors like clay quality, volume, phunnel or killer bowl affect the functionality of the cloud density and flavouring. A good heat management device and charcoal quality will help minimise the ashy taste during your session.
Second is choosing what flavours you want to smoke, the majority of the people get confused on the flavour mixology. Best tip is to smell your tobacco and put different flavours together to smell to see if they will go well together when you are doing a mix. There will be good mixes and bad mixes, you have to keep trying everyday or whenever you are packing to find out what goes well. There are millions of combinations, the joy of finding a totally new mix just hits different. But the basic tips is to find a base flavour first, like grape, peach, lemon, and then extend from there with other mixer flavours to add an extra layer of tea, floral, citrusy scent. Always recommend you to put a slight bit of mint that can help wrap up the mix and enhance the flavours.
Third is the packing of the bowl. Every packer in different shisha lounges has its own style. semi-dense packing a bit over the rim of the bowl is always our to-go. Remember that if you pack it too tight or too full, you will have a hard time smoking it but it will potentially give you a stronger head buzz. And if you pack it too less or too fluffy, there is a chance that the flavours won't come out as much or the smoke density will be reduced.
Fourth is the heat management of the bowl. We recommend starting your bowl with 3 pcs of charcoal and let it sit for a few minutes and take one charcoal away once the bowl is heated enough and ready to smoke. Keep the charcoal close to the rim of the heat management device for even heat distribution. Be gentle when you do charcoal change as you don’t want the ash to fall down on the bowl to give an ashy taste. Overheating the bowl will turn your flavours into a sour and unpleasant taste, and also gives you a choky feeling if it is burnt.
These are the few simple keys that one has to keep in mind when making a shisha. There are way more details we can elaborate on each of the points above but for now this should give you an idea on some basic fundamental knowledge of your shisha.
