I don’t spend a whole lot of time doing research on this topic because I am much more effective when I experiment on my own to find the answer.  So here are my top tips for creating a premium smoking experience by altering how you set up your bowl.

1. Cut your foil some slack.  It’s all too easy to take the foil and pull it tightly over the bowl to make a flat surface for your coal to rest on.  I recommend placing the foil on top of the bowl and then pushing the sides down around the bowl lightly.  Then shift the foil up a quarter of an inch or so and then tighten the excess foil around the base of the bowl.  This allows for there to be a little air chamber in between your coal and the shisha.  This allows the tobacco to burn more slowly and smoothly but be careful because too much of a chamber will make the smoke too light for most seasoned hookah smokers.  Adjust to fit your needs.
   • Aditionally I find it nice to try and make the surface of the foil very “rocky” in that the coal can sit up on the peaks of the foil.  This makes the coal burn evenly by allowing airflow around it, it also helps to keep your shisha from burning, and the ash lands in the “valleys” allowing for the coal to continue burning strong until it goes out.
2. Holes:  size does matter. If you use foil for covering the bowl and providing a platform for your coal you may or may not know just how much the size of those hole really matter to the quality of the burn.  I learned very quickly that as little as 4-5 big holes can take a perfectly good bowl and turn it into a harsh smoky exhaust.  Especially if you use round quick-lite coals which have a little bit of a residual lighter fluid taste this can really have a negative impact for you and your guests, especially if it’s their first time smoking.  The best method I have found is to take a push pin and push it in just enough so that it puncures the foil.   I cant stress this enough, make the holes as small as you possibly can and make many of them as opposed to a few large holes.  I have found this is the most influential factor in creating a smoother more enjoyable smoke flavor and texture without sacrificing thickness.
3. Mix it up a bit. After you have covered your bowl and poked a ton of tiny little holes in your foil, the last thing to do before “lock and load” is to place the bottom of the bowl up to your mouth and blow a short burst of air through it.  This loosens up the shisha that you may have already packed too tightly.  And if you followed step one now you have an extra little chamber for your shisha to pile lightly on top of itself.  This makes for a very easy flow of air through the hookah and a more even burn.  Make sure that you do this over a sink or outside because sometimes you’ll get shisha juice all over the place if your holes are too big or your shisha is very wet.

These tactics work especially well if you have a small bowl for your hookah.  Larger bowls have less trouble with creating an even burn if packed correctly.  Do you have more tips?  I’d love to hear them in the comment for this article.

There are a slew of issues that arise when trying to perfect this method.  If there is too much milk it will naturally bubble up into the chamber and the hose in a fashion identical to the way that you used to blow bubbles in your chocolate milk.  Your mom surely would not approve.

If you choose to ignore this and continue, business as usual, you will end up with milk embedded in your hose.  Milk embedded in your hose heated by fresh shisha smoke will turn to cheese.  As good as cheese is, hookah hose cheese is AWFUL.  Not only that but if you forget to clean your base after use, you will have an equally nasty surprise when you go to clean for your next use.

Murky Experimentation

I experimented with this issue to try and find just how to get the desired result:

We filled our hookah 1/4 of the way full with whole milk and the rest with water to make sure to dilute the mixture fully.  Little did I know that dilution is a relative term.  Instead of lighting up and commencing sesh, we first tried pulling a few times to see how the water/milk mixture reacted.  As expected the milk bubbled immediately into the chamber and up into our hose.

We then tried diluting it even further with maybe 1/8 milk and the rest water.  Still.  Same result.

This is where I made a mistake in preperation for this article.  Instead of starting fresh on the last trial I poured out about half the mixture and then filled the rest with water.  So If my math is correct that would ideally be 1/16 milk…  We had finally gotten to a point where the bubbles were tame and wouldn’t rise up and into the hose.  Don’t get me wrong it was still very bubbly but it was diluted enough that they wouldn’t rise if you didn’t pull too hard.

The Sesh

So now we have our semi-bubbly-murky-milky-water-mixture and some mint flavored shisha.  There was a slight difference in the way that the hookah pulled.  It wasn’t “WOW what a smoke” but it did cause a bit of the harshness of the smoke to dissipate.  It felt a little cooler which I believe was probably an false perception to the smoke being a little less harsh.

We smoked for about an hour and felt satisfied with our findings.  It was a lot of work trying to find just the right combination and I think it’s something that still needs to be perfected.  It seems to me like it’s a little more of a psychological thing than anything else but to add a few tablespoons of milk and experiment wont hurt the experience by any means.

So What did We Learn?

Through talking to my worldly hookah pro, we’ll call her “peenk,” we came up with a few things that are important to consider about the whole hookah milk debate.  I hope you’ll use these when making your own decisions because I know I haven’t really come to a firm one on my own.

1. The ration of water to milk was so ridiculous in our trials and in other trials I have read about that I doubt the milk is having the optimal effect on the smoke that it could be.  I am not saying that it has no effect but it is not having the effect it potentially could be.  If you could find a way to fill your glass with milk entirely without having it bubble up I imagine this would be a very different experience.
2. Milk has much more to it than water.  Milk is made up of water, fats, sugars and inorganic salts.  Milk has a much higer absorbative quality than water does and when mixed with other substances, including smoke, will absorb the odors and qualities of those substances.  This would lead me to believe that in fact that hookah smoke would end up thinner after passing through milk.
3. Cow milk and goats milk are entirely different things.  While Peenk was in Armenia she had an incredible experience with a milk hookah that was made from goats milk, which is much more prevalent in the middle east.  It makes me wonder if this is where the whole debate arose from given that hookah originated from that part of the world.  It wouldnt surprise me if centuries have gone by and Americans just screwed up the recipe because of our own assumptions.

I am interested to hear if anyone else has tried it with goats milk.  I’ve also heard promising things about coconut milk.  Please, enlighten us.

Method 1: Let me clear my throat

1. Make sure you’re not in a drafty environment with either a window, fan or vent blowing air throughout the room.  You need a still room to maximize your smoke ring potential.
2. Prepare your hookah and make sure you have a good burn with thick smoke.  You can usually tell by how much smoke is filling up in the chamber (the space between the water line and the top of the shisha or glass).
3. Relax and enjoy a few drags   This is actually a very important step.  It takes practice just like whistling but I firmly believe anyone can learn to do it.  I learned in my first few hookah sessions.
4. Inhale deeply and try to keep as much smoke in your mouth as possible as well.
5. Make one of the following faces:
   • Open your mouth while covering your teeth with your lips.  Its sort of like impersonating your granddad who has no teeth.  Don’t leave too much of an opening with your mouth but don’t make it too small.  You’ll find that if you can master step 5 the opening in your mouth wont matter much at all.
   • Or if you prefer you can experiment with a fish face or your “O” face (which may look like this).   A lot of people I see use this method, I found the first method works better for me though.  Would love to hear your comments on which you use.
6. The next step requires a bit of practice to get it right.  Imagine you are trying to clear your throat or coughing very lightly.  Use that strategy to release a short pocket of breath.  Don’t be too concerned with how much breath you release, just focus on being able to control the opening and closing of your throat.  Make it very intentional short, light coughs.
   • When you’re comfortable with that some people will also close their mouth just after the breath of air which helps to make your rings thicker.  Imagine this part as if you’re saying “OUW.”
7. I recommend taking time to appreciate your form before quickly coughing up a cloud of perfect smoke rings.  Take time to appreciate one ring at a time and letting the smoke in front of your mouth clear away before trying your next one.
8. You’ll know you did it right if you have pretty ring formed in front of you.  When you get good at it you’ll find you’re comfortable sending rings anywhere you want and even have them collide into each other.  You’ll be a regular rapid fire ringmaster.
9. Be sure to show off to your friends as much as possible.

Method 2: Jawesome

1. Repeat steps 1-3 from above.
2. This method does not use your lungs at all.  Take a nice big drag of smoke into your mouth and hold it there.
3. Make your “O” face which is like whistling but with a larger opening.
4. With your “O” face close your jaw so that the air that escapes, escapes through your mouth.
5. This is a good method for good distance on your rings and but not as good for maintaining a thick solid form.

Smoke Ring Science

For some of you like me (science minded) it may help to understand the science of a smoke ring and then you’ll figure out on your own how to create the most successful method for producing them.  This was a great link I found for explaining how smoke rings form.  I also find it’s a good conversation starter around the hookah if you can explain why the smoke ring you’re blowing does what it does.  It’s a science lesson with live diagrams and demonstration.

“Smoking a hookah is nothing like smoking a cigarette…cigarettes are for nervous people, competitive people, people on the run…when you smoke a hookah, you have time to think. It teaches you patience and tolerance, and gives you an appreciation of good company.” -Ismet Ertep

Hookah is more than just pastime, it’s a culture. It’s an experience to be shared with friends, family and strangers alike. We love it so much that we wanted to make an online magazine dedicated solely to hookah… or narghile.. or shisha… or ghelyoon… whatever feels right.

This blog/online magazine aims to provide a resource for hookah smokers to keep up with current news, trends and information on hookah.  You’ll find useful guides, how-to’s and tips for enhancing the hookah smoking experience.  We will recommend music that complements hookah and creates that perfect ultra-chilled ambiance.  And the most important thing is that we are open to your ideas and contributions.

We want to be a place for you to submit your photos, music selections, articles, guides, links, etc.  This magazine is for you, shisha stoner.  We hope you enjoy.