HookahNoobah

Damn; next to Tangiers, Nahkla tied for second with Fumari and AF, with 10 votes.   I thought Nahkla was pretty flavorless, as I mentioned in the OP. I have done roughly 20 / 30 of the Nahkla flavors sold on Hookah-Shisha, and haven't had one I was impressed with, flavorwise.   Either my cutting-down on cigarettes hasn't yet lead to any significant repair of my taste buds, or I am doing something wrong. If the latter is true, any idea on what that may be?   I fill the bowl close to the foil, but with enough space as to not cause burning. After experimentation I now haven't burned a bowl in a while. I use a plastic puncher to punch holes in the foil, and then I finishe up with a lot more holes poked with the poker that comes on the tongs. I set my coal on the ends at first, moving them closer to the center as the bowl progresses. So I am pretty much following the guide for noobs on this forum, except for that I don't touch the shisha to the foil like suggested, as it causes it to burn for me, leaving an unpleasant taste.   Thanks for the responses, I think I'll buy all the Fumari and AF varieties next before trying Tangiers, as I hear that is not for noobs like me.

I've set the poll to allow multiple answers. I want to know: which brands of shisha, in your subjective opinion, have the most potent flavor?   All brands have multiple varieties within them, but which brands stand out to you as those which have the post potent flavors within their varieties?   I have tried around 10 flavors of Nahla, and while impressed by the buzz from the high nicotine content, have been less impressed with the flavors in regards to their POTENCY. I.e., I can without a doubt taste the flavoring, but it does not stick out to me, as, say, e-liquid flavoring does.   Thank you!

I apologize for the tripple post, but it won't let me edit.   The hookah bubbles immediately with no effort. I am referring to receiving a nice hit with minimal effort, instead of bubbling. If I use minimal effort, than I have to take a long draw to get a nice hit. I was expecting minimal effort and a short draw for a nice hit, anagolous to pipe (NH) tobacco.   [EDIT] I can edit this post but not the former ones?   I feel lightly inebriated from this. How is that so? I can have a snus in my mouth, be snuffing every 10 minutes, smoking a cigarette, smoking a pipe simutaneously and feel nothing but shit after that much nicotine. BUT I FEEL GREAT. How is this possible?????????   Why would nicotine from any other route of administration provide no pleasurable effects while this provides a very mild, euphoriant, relaxing experience???   [/EDIt]

I just moved my coals to the middle from the outside because I was getting less smoke, and now I am getting larger clouds of smoke than I was initially?

Can I upload Pictures on this forum or do I have to upload it to a hosting site first? The max size for "Attach Files is only 120kb", my pic is 1.2mb.   Thanks to the advice of this forum, I decided to go with a smaller hookah and took the QT route, which I ordered from the Mya website.   The hookah arrived yesterday, and the Nahkla today. I am using natural coals.   Question 1   I am smoking it right now for the first time and my main concern is that it requires just a tad bit too much effort to draw on, which I understand to mean that there is too much air leaking. The hose is securely attached, no air coming out there. I don't feel that the QT bowl (or the Mya standard bowl, can't recall) fits the pipe stem perfectly. It feels clumsly. Air could be leaking here. The purge valve seems like another spot where air could be leaking.   I ordered the QT with an "adapter for 2 hoses" and another hose. I was messing around with the QT yesterday and thought that the adapter worked by removing the purge valve and placing the adapter on top. I got as far as unscrewing off the purge valve before the ball bearing fell out and I decided not to mess with it any more, placed the ball bearing back in and screwed the purge valve back on.   Could I have fucked the purge valve up by doing that? All I did was unscrew the valve and the ball fell out. I notice that when I exhale out my nose with my mouth still on the hose, the ball is easily displaced by the minimal breath going out my mouth on exhale, which requires me to pull harder on my next hit to get the ball back in place.   Is there anything that noobs do that would make the QT require more than a minimal effort to start bubbling?   Question 2   I'm sure I could google this, but while I have this thread open: how do I use the adapter for the QT to add a second hose on?   Question 3   I am not tasting the flavor that strongly. I am using the Strawberry flavor right now as I figured it would be potent. I have two theories:   1) I was a pack a day smoker for 6 years untill two or three months ago, but I now smoke less than 4 cigarettes a day (today I didn't smoke); could my taste buds just not have healed yet? If this is the case, why doesn't hookah kill the taste buds?   2) While driving home from work, right prior to smoking this hookah, I smoked pipe (NH) tobacco for 30 minutes (and this was the second pipe of the day). I know that smoking another cigarette immediately after a cigarette diminishing the taste by half, easily. If I want to maximize flavor from the hookah, is it best to avoid pipe tobacco immediately before hand? On the other hand, the strawberry flavor in particular is not that potent for my taste buds, while my e-cigarette flavors are very potent. Even if the taste of the tobacco is to be diminished from using other tobacco immediately before hand, I would have thought that the strawberry/mollasses would have stuck out, regardless.   Question 4   With pipe (NH) tobacco, I must relight the bowl several times during the bowl. Always. I have not perfected my technique so that the bowl only requires two lights. With natural coals on a hookah, do they simply never go out unless you do not take a hit for longer than 10 minutes (or whatever)? What about with quick lights: will they require "relighting" ?   Question 5   I can't seem to get a "monster cloud" of smoke as I have seen people on YouTube do with the QT. Even if I inhale the entire capacity of my lungs, I am not getting a huge cloud of vapor on exhale. For a comparison, if I take a miniscule hit from pipe (NH) tobacco, I can get larger clouds of smoke. What could I be doing wrong?   Summary   I very much enjoy this route of administration, the paraphanilia of the Mya QT, and the Nahkla Strawberry flavor. I must stress my thanks to this forum for their help so far. I'm sure as a total noob I have screwed up somewhere to cause the minor complaints that I am having, and am excited for your answers.   In another thread, someone mentioned how hookah is vaporized rather than combusted. I can now see how clear that is. It causes no stress upon the lungs whatsoever: no wonder nonsmokers use hookah while being so adversarial towards real-smoking. Why is it even referred to as hookah-smoking? This is nothing like smoking. Seriously: even an e-cigarette causes more stress upon the lungs than my hookah does.

Right: the coals are above the tobacco, so it is vaporized. I did not think about that. Good to know.   Nakhla is higher nicotine than Al Fakher, ther reason I switched my recommendation for you was that it sounded like you were only using regular pipes and cigars which are not inhaled and as far as I know don't really give you much nicotine.   I see that you are also a cigarette smoker so I can go back to recommending Nakhla for you (although I think you already bought a bunch).  I don't think a regular bowl of Nakhla is going to give you as much Nicotine as a cigarette; certainly not as much as a cigarette with eJuice. According to the Obama Administration FDA, I would be classified as a "Quintuple Tobacco Addict", or one who obtains nicotine from 5 different source: cigarettes, snus, intrasanal snuff, tobacco pipe,  and e-cigarettes. After my Mya QT arrives, I will be upgraded to "Sextuple Tobacco Addict". Up untill a bit over two months ago, I was actually only a cigarette smoker, but when I got my biannual sickness, I decided to use Snus in order to reduce cigarette consumption for two weeks; somehow or another I started to use snuff and pipe that same week, and realized shortly thereafter that cigarettes are the absolute least fun and least enjoying way to obtaining nicotine (You smoke the same pack, every day, with no variety). I now smoke less than 5 cigarettes daily, at most. Surely I have multipled the intake of nicotine tremendously, yet I have cut down on the cigarettes 5-fold. My Doctor said that he "could care less about obtaining nicotine from any method other than cigarettes." I haven't talked to him about Hookah, but now that I know it is vaporized, perhaps he would give me the same response.   There is not a single pipe smoker / snus taker / snuf sniffer I have met in-person or online who will admit that their method of using nicotine is significantly harmful; everyone of them states categorically that it is no worse than coffee. This is in contrast to every single cigarette smoker I have met in-person or online who admits it is significally harmful. Is there any way to generalize Hookah users in this same fashion; i.e., is there a consensus among Hookah smokers that their inhalation of tobacco vapor is no more harmful than an addiction to coffee?   I truely do not care about the health effects from the methods of obtaining nicotine: I am an unrepentent, guiltless smoker; however I do like to be informed about my decisions so when I talk about it I am not just speaking out of my ass. The other day I lectured someone that hookah was not inhaled (oops) and I would rather not make similar mistakes again.

Oh shit. Why is it inhaled but a pipe/cigar not? Is Al Fakher higher in nicotine than Nakhla? In regards to the OP, I put some eJuice on a real cigarette an hour ago and found it lovely.

Are you guys inhaling the hookah smoke? I am a pipe smoker and can smoke all day long without getting the slightest hint of a buzz, because pipes are not traditionally inhaled, as cigars are not. I was under the impression that hookahs were not inhaled as well.

I've been doing aromatics but just got into a bit of English tobacco. I still prefer the aromatics but am working towards them.

Ok. I just ordered every flavor of Nakhla from hookah-shisha.com (29 flavor) in 50g sizes. That should keep me busy for a while. After that I'll start on the Tangiers.

Ok right before reading Skoozles post, I just ordered a Mya QT and also a [url="http://www.myahookah.com/mya-rocks-hookah-shisha-burner.aspx"]Mya "Rocks Burner" bowl[/url] (which, to me, looks like a phunnel bowl) because after some reading I thought Tangiers sounded good and read that it required a funnel-shaped bowl. Should have I obtained a "Tangiers Phunnel" bowl instead? I am interested in Tangiers due to the higher nicotine content thereof. Why would you suggest Lucid first before the other lines? From this [url="http://www.hookahforum.com/topic/40373-beginners-guide-to-hookah/#entry490695"]post for noobs[/url], Lucid is washed. Is it still better for me (an extreme tobacco user) to try it first? Thank you

And if I have a bit of money to spend (now that I am not getting a 30"+), I'll probably like to get several varieties from one or two good brands. Any suggestions while I have this thread open?

Well, shit. From the advice of this forum I think I'm going to go with a $50 Mya QT and place it on my desk. When I am not so much of a hookah noob, then I will purchase a 30-36", when I am "Hookah Interemdiah," and then once I am "Hookah Expertah" I will purchase a 48", and maybe when I am "Hookah Inifitah" I will purchase [url="http://www.hookah-shisha.com/p-1097-the-sultan-hookah.html"]this[/url]. Thank you for helping a noob out. I appreciate that my first thread on this forum has garnered 29 posts; I have never done that before, and I doubt that my style of writing had anything to do with it. You guys are great. From what I've read in this forum, the QT seems highly regarded. Is this right?

At those measurements Stuie I come in at a meager 30". For a single bowl, are we constantly adjusting the coals throughout the bowl? In regards to cleaning a large hookah, is this practically accomplished in the shower? What is the best method?

Or what is the highest that would be comfortable without having to stand to adjust the coals?

In relation to a part on your body when you are sitting down, how much shorter should the coals be? I am in a pretty tall chair at my desk. 48" measures to the bottom of my nose.

Bigger is better, right?

Thank you everyone for the responses. I might just go with a single hose since I will be the only one using it 99% of the time. So that means I should get a 48" right? What are the downsides to purchasing a large hookah over a smaller one?

I'm a regular (non-hookah) pipe smoker, and I smoke all day every day (3-5 bowls) which last 30-45 minutes each. From this thread I am getting the impression that a hookah takes much longer to smoke, from 1-2 hours. If I start this habit than I will have to cut down on my pipe (sigh..)

It won't let me edit yet, but here is a site that orders by height: http://www.hookahcompany.com/all_hookahs_37_ctg.htm?page=2 To bad that none of those over 36" have two hoses, except for one which is $250.

I actually wanted to start a new post to ask that very question: is there a downside to multiple hose? I am a hermit who simply chain uses tobacco products in all forms. Once or twice a year my brother or mother might visit me, and that is the sole reason why I would like to have a second hose. The convenience of not having to pass a hose around is nice; but is there any downside to having more than a single hose on the hookah (especially if most of the time only a single hose will be used?), other than the lack of variety ?

I must be stupid. My goal is to acquire a hookah over three feet tall with two hoses. This seems like the most difficult task. The closest I can find is [url="http://www.hookah-shisha.com/p-9175-king-tut-2-hose-hookah.html"]this[/url] but its only 34" and is less than $80. I'm under the assumption that an $80 hookah signals "poor quality"; is this an accurate belief? I would love to spend $80 if I am wrong; for some reason I was expecting to have to dish out $150 or so for a legitimate hookah. That website is typical of most of the hookah shops I have seen online: they do not allow you to search by height!! I have seen two exceptions, but none had two hoses that were over 36''. I have seen some that meet my qualifications but look way too much like "NH" devices, a.k.a modeled after the common water pipes used for illegal substances. I want my hookah to resemble a hookah. Is there any tips and tricks to searching for a particular hookah? Thank you.