Questions of a hookah ninja.

[Cyphatic]

Ok so I only said Ninja cause that was the smiley I felt like using.  That and Ninja's are badass.  Just like pirates.
...
Anyways, here's my big list of questions.
 1 - Does Nargile/Argile = Hookah? I heard Hookah was the name of the base.
 2 - Does Mu’assel = Shisha?
 3 - What does putting Ice in the water do?
 4 - What do people use in their Hookah's beside water?
 5 - Is Romman made with Honey?  Does this have an effect on why is it so good?
 6 - What tobacco's are recomended besides Starbuzz/Romman/Fumari?
 7 - What coals are recomended besides Quick Light Gold Coals (forgot the name), and Japanese Silver?
 8 - Why lemon wood, and can anyone vouch for Romman Lemon Wood coals?
 9 - What's the best lid?
10 - Is mya the best in terms of build quality? 
11 - Is using a gun cleaning kit (steel brush) overkill/damaging for cleaning the stem/orifaces?
12 - Who makes the strongest Mint tobacco?  I love Romman's.
13 - What's the whole story with hashish used in hookahs?
14 - Does anyone else here use a bottle of bubbles to blow awesome smoke bubbles with?
15 - What's the best option for making a mya hookah rotate? Lasy susanne or?
20 - What's the deal with Japanese Silver coals?  If I use them straight off the bat, the smoke tastes funky.  I hear you're supposed to put them on after your bowl is halfway gone.. is that right?
21 - Unglazed Clay vs. Glazed Clay vs. Ceramic vs. Steel, what's the cleanest?
22 - Foil vs. Screen vs. Clay Lid, what's the cleanest?
23 - What's the best tricks to making crazy huge thick clouds?
24 - How do you blow smoke rings?

[MR Bubble]

Gee, some great questions. I'll do my bestest to answer some of them:
1. Yes. You will also hear it called "Hubbly Bubbly, Shisha," and other names I can't remember. An Iranian hookah is called "Gehloon." I know I spelled that all wrong, but someone will come along and police me up and make it all better.
2. No and Yes. A lot of people call it shisha, or sheesha. Supposedly this is wrong. I have heard it refered to as Shisha many time while in Egypt. It may be the Egyptian dialect or something easy for foriegners to comprehend, as tourism is their #1 goal in that country. IF you call it shisha, someone will correct you on the forum, but it sure won't be me, as I too call it shisha on occasion and I consider it almost a universal term that is easier to spell and pronounce. So, flame me.
3. It is supposed to cool the smoke down a little. I never have noticed a great difference and am just as happy with using refrigerated water.
4. Anything you want to. some of my greatest water substitutes have been White Zinfadel (the cheaper the better) with fruit type flavors. Another great was ouzo while smoking Nakhla apple. I'll do a live review around Christmas time when the wife is out of town. However, most sane people use fruit juices, cold coffee, and even milk, which I think would be a very bad idea.
6. Whatever you find to be good.  Here's the deal with this sport: 3/4 of the fun of this is buying samples you've never had and experimenting. It goes off the beaten path, but you get some good keeprs along the way. I would recomend my favorites, but most here think I have the taste of a barbarian.
8. I think lemon wood it a good coal. It is cheaper than quicklights and I think it is the best tasting. Romman lemon woods are good in my opinion. They just require a lot of work, trying to break them up into useable pieces.
12. If you love Romman's mint, I would think you have something good. However, I have only trie one mint before and it was so strong, I could never get it lit from all my coughing and gagging trying to get some smoke through. I think anyone here who has tried it will vouch for Nakhla making one powerful mint.
20. I love japanese coals. Hopwever you need to stay away from "easy lite" brand. They are a little skunky to me. The more expensive ones are usually the better ones. And no, I have never heard that it's best to use them after your bowl is half-way gone.
That is about all I can answer. I could have answered more, but it would have been pure speculation, when someone else here could answer from experience.
MR Bubble
 
 

[dizzing]

heh, i'll go ahead and give my answers to some as well, because i'm bored and have nothing better to do:

3 - as well as cooling the smoke, the ice also (purportedly) makes the
smoke more dense.  i believe this may have something to do with
temperature differences, i really have no clue about the physics behind
this.

7 - nour finger coals are excellent. my favorite are probably those
japanese silver coals, but from what i hear they vary WIDELY by
brand.  the ones i got were in sticks of four, and said "Golden
Charcoals" on the box.  however, they were marketed as japanese on
the webiste where i bought them (southsmoke i believe).

8 - they are good unless they get mashed to sh** during shipping. 
mine were, and yielded VERY few useable chunks, and a ton of powder and
little grains of crap.

9 - jamaican, from what i hear. err. j/k.. and i don't really get the
question. unless you mean screen or foil, in which case i'd say i've
had best results using both (upturned screen on top, foil over that)

10 - as far as i know, and from my personal experience, yes.
absolutely.  but that may not be true.  taqseem stargate
hookahs are purportedly top notch.  all i know is that mya hookahs
are exquisitely crafted.

11 - i have used one for quite some time, and have noticed no effects
other than that it gets the barrel SPARKLING clean.  seems like an
excellent thing to use, and the owner of my local hookah cafe even
recommends it and uses it himself.

13 - i dunno, but i tried it once and it knocked me on my ass (in a BAD way).  it was quite unpleasant.

14 - absolutely

15 - that's the only thing i've ever heard to use, but i've also
considered making some sort of specialized base/stem interface using
ball bearings.  should be possible, rotating the top and not the
bottom, although making this effectively airtight might be a bit of a
challenge.  never done either, just try to be careful

16-19 - maybe

21 - i had a steel one (til the cops took it due to their ignorance)
and it stayed spotless with fairly regular cleanings.  glass can
theoretically be spotlessly cleaned as well, but chemically rather than
with scrubbing. unglazed clay bowls tend to get quite blackened over
time, and i've never successfully restored them to like-new condition.
dunno about glazed.  wait, i lied, i used to have one of those,
but i honestly don't remember (see number 13 )

24 - a very tiny burst of air, propelled either with the tongue or
quick contraction of the diaphragm, combined with a pointed tongue
vertically centered slightly behind the teeth, with lips making the
"uuuuuu" in "eeuuuuugh", it's a weird shape really, i can't describe
it.  this takes a lot of practice and coordination, and there are
a few techniques that can be successful.  you should be able to
get it though if you just keep trying.  i swear i saw somebody on
here who was talking about how to put little rings through big ones and
make heart shapes, but i don't remember where, who, or when.

[mushrat]

2 smoke ring videos
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