Homemade Shisha, Traditional Style

[stupidsongs2]

Short:
I'm trying to make a honey based shisha. Help me out with some links.


Long:
Traditional shisha is made with honey; however, almost all commercial shisha is made with a blend of molasses and glycerol. It also seems that for some reason, most of the people that make their own shisha try to mimic these commercial production methods. The reason the producers use it is very simple, glycerol is considerably cheaper than honey (it is a waste by-product of bio-fuel production, for every liter of diesel, there is 100ml of glycerol produced), however, when thinned slightly with molasses, it has virtually the same characteristics as honey at a fraction of the cost. It seems like using glycerol and molasses for shisha would be like using corn syrup and palm oil for homemade cookies, it'd work, but the traditional way will work much better on a small scale.


I've read that you must soak the tobacco before mixing with with the honey to wash away all of the foul flavors of production, but I do not know what ratios I should use, or how to flavor the shisha effectively. In the past, when a flavor has been weak, I would add a few drops of extract to the water of the hookah, and that would result in a very pleasant flavor that was strong regardless of the quality of the smoke. Any ideas?

[OBY]

I have done several batches of shisha. Almost all of them failed. I have made a shisha with just honey and tobacco, molasses and tobacco, tobacco molasses and honey, tobacco glycerin honey, tobacco molasses glycerin. I could go on and on and on.

I got the same results with all the different combinations of shisha that had no glycerin. No smoke. Actually there was a very tiny amount, but I would say it would count as a no smoke.

With all of the shisha I used glycerin in I got smoke. Now the different amounts of smoke depends on how much glycerin you add. I have yet to perfect flavor. I think you need special tobacco flavorings because cooking oils and flavorings do not work.


What kind of glycerin did I use?

Well I went to Walmart's home care section and bought the kind for medical use. I did research on the internet and found out that home care glycerin is the exact same as food grade glycerin.


So to get smoke, use glycerin. Wash your tobacco or it will be a harsh smoke. Don't make the shisha too gooey or it runs down the shaft and makes a mess.

[hday]

I've ran across a few tutorials on the web, and a few good ones on the forum too. But I've never heard of them making it with honey. It's a very interesting idea, especially to me. My roommate is a photographer and recently photographed a bunch of honey bottles for a website and now we have a huge box of honey.

I'm not sure about the washing. Some tobacco brands don't wash their product (the highly regarded Tangiers I think is one of them) and it appears to have an effect on the final result. There have been other topics about where to get the tobacco itself and what kind to use. There's a local tobacco store that always has large bags of discount flavored pipe tobacco, and I've always wanted to try making my own shisha with some molasses and vanilla extract to make a super flavored shisha.

[AKammenzind]

I've ran across a few tutorials on the web, and a few good ones on the forum too. But I've never heard of them making it with honey. It's a very interesting idea, especially to me.

Really? Half the shisha on the market is made with honey. Only the classic brands use molasses anymore it seems. Honey has a weaker flavor than molasses, and is sweeter... which is about how it affects the smoke in my experience.