Newcomer

[campanota]

Hello my name is Javier and I am a newcomer.  I was wondering if someone could answer a few questions.  I want to buy a Hookah but first I want to know how much shisha is consumed to know how many packs to buy.  Let´s say, a 50 gram pack, how many hours could I smoke it.  Another question is how many charcoals must I use? 
Thanks and hope to experience hookah soon.

[John Deere]

Welcome to the forum, now lets get down to business. A 50g pack of ma'assel (shisha is another name for the hookah) lasts me about 15 bowls, and I use about 2 rolls of charcoal or 20 or so chunks of nutural coals,  for that much ma'assel. One head, depending on the brand lasts from a half hour to 2 hours. I recomend Romman a lot, but other good brands are Al fakher, and some people like Al Waha and Nakhla, but some of their flavours tend to be weird. Good luck, ask any questions if you have them.

[campanota]

Thank you for the response.  I am anxious to try the hookah experience, unfortunately it takes quite a lot of paperwork to bring one and the ma´assel from the United States, that´s Mexico for you.  The bright side is that I can meanwhile become a theoretic buff during my wait.  Beleive me I appreciate every piece of information you can give me.
Well, here are other questions.  How much time does it take to smoke a bowl?  I have seen hookahs that have up to 6 tubes, if I want to share with someone is the flavor affected?  Which are the best hookahs, syrian, egyptian?  Finally is taste affected by the size of the hooka or in other words, does size matter?
Thanks for your time.
javier

[John Deere]

1. a bowl, depending on the size, brand, and coal, lasts from 30 min. to 2 hours
2. sharing, in my experience, does not affect the flavor, but generally speaking, share with no more than 3 people on one hookah.
3. I personally like an egyptian, but syrians are nice if your going for multiple hoses, since there are valves inside the hose ports that cut off all of the hoses except the one being drawn from.
4.Larger hookah=larger vase=more water and more air space=cooler smoke

[cypress]

I agree with JD. How long it lasts depends on how big your bowl is. Yesterday I bought a bowl and it holds about 20 grams in it. Its about 2 inches wide and about 3/4 of an inch deep. That sucker lasts 2.5 hours for me. Also it depends how many coals you put on it. I like mine a little on the hot side for a super thick smoke. I use 2 big chunks of nour on it. I could get buy with one but its just not as thick as I want it to be. It also depends on how much you actually fill the bowl. some people like leaving about an 1/8 inch from the top of the bowl and some people like to overfill the bowl. Since its your first experience you are going to have to play with the filling, amount of coals, and the whole pattern and figure out what is best for you. Good luck.  The multihose might go some what quicker though as if you were buy yourself you would be puffing all the time non stop. With a multihose your rest time would be between sharing it with users. IE puf puf pass, puf puf pass, puff puff pass. I hoped this helped.

[campanota]

Thanks for your reply and hospitality.  I am sorry my reply took so long but I couldn´t get use of the internet.  The information will help me a lot.
Sincerely,
Javier Gomez