Step By Step Help

[CMP]

So, I have been smoking casually hookah for about 1 year now. We meet up with some friends at partys etc, and we bring our hookah, light it and smoke it. That is almost 2 or 3 times a month.

The thing is, we started experimenting with new tobacco recently, and it seems like this tobacco needed more heat as the usual local tobacco we buy. The coals we use are about 30mm, and we normally use just one for a medium sized bowl (About 5cm diameter)full of shisha.

I recently learned thats waaay too little heat, and experienced it with the new tobacco we have been buying.
That got me wondering: Have we been doing things right when preparing our hookah for smoking?
After reading some pinned threads, I found out a lot of mistakes we make. One of those is that we used to never leave the coal on a flame to light it for more than 30-40 secs. Usually, we placed the 38mm coal right on the shisha when we could see some minor red glowing from the inside, thinking it is fully "on".
We pack the tobacco rather softly into the bowl, without pushing it against the bowl, just making layers.
Finally, we use a tray instead of aluminium foil.

The thing is, could you guys point out what we have been doing wrong, except the heat management, as we learned it was just not enough to leave just 1 38mm coal under the flame for about 30 secs and place it upon a 5cm diameter bowl.

Do you think we pack the bowl alrighT?
Do you have any suggestions to make our smoking sessions better?

Thank you very much in advance, me and my friends will appreciate it.

[chinamon]

are you using quicklight coals?
or are you using natural coals?

[CMP]

Mmmm... They are not natural, but definitely not quicklite either, as after those 30 secs we normally place them, they are not even as close as glowing red as I have seen other coals over here.
I cant quite remember the brand, but they come wrapped in a golden aluminum Tube

[chinamon]

Mmmm... They are not natural, but definitely not quicklite either, as after those 30 secs we normally place them, they are not even as close as glowing red as I have seen other coals over here.
I cant quite remember the brand, but they come wrapped in a golden aluminum Tube

the packaging sounds like quicklight.
do they spark for a while after you light them?
well, regardless of the type of coal you are using... always wait until the coal is RED HOT before you put it on top of your bowl.
thats the only thing i can see that you are doing wrong.

[CMP]

Mmmm... They are not natural, but definitely not quicklite either, as after those 30 secs we normally place them, they are not even as close as glowing red as I have seen other coals over here.
I cant quite remember the brand, but they come wrapped in a golden aluminum Tube

the packaging sounds like quicklight.
do they spark for a while after you light them?
well, regardless of the type of coal you are using... always wait until the coal is RED HOT before you put it on top of your bowl.
thats the only thing i can see that you are doing wrong.

Thank you very much.
Should the entire coal be RED HOT?
Because we used to light it for about 30 secs till we could see just some areas (Usually the edges) red hot, not the entire coal.

[chinamon]

Thank you very much.
Should the entire coal be RED HOT?
Because we used to light it for about 30 secs till we could see just some areas (Usually the edges) red hot, not the entire coal.

yes. the whole coal.
if the whole coal is not red hot and you start smoking with it, you will usually taste a "coal taste" in the smoke which is undesirable.

[CMP]

Thank you very much.
Should the entire coal be RED HOT?
Because we used to light it for about 30 secs till we could see just some areas (Usually the edges) red hot, not the entire coal.

yes. the whole coal.
if the whole coal is not red hot and you start smoking with it, you will usually taste a "coal taste" in the smoke which is undesirable.

And the tobacco will not light properly, right?

[schouvler]

are you using quicklight coals?
or are you using natural coals?

If you got them from hookah shisha they r insty lights but a bad brand idk what they are but i would recommend 3 kings for insty coals saalaam orange for natural. And normally i break the coal in half to avoid burning the middle which is another reason why i hate the gold brand that u might have its super hard to break.

[chinamon]

And the tobacco will not light properly, right?

smoking shisha does not require direct heat like smoking a cigar or cigarette (where the tobacco must be lit).
shisha tobacco is heated with indirect heat kind of like an oven.
a coal that is not fully lit will not have enough heat to "bake" the tobacco that you have in the bowl.

[CMP]

And the tobacco will not light properly, right?

smoking shisha does not require direct heat like smoking a cigar or cigarette (where the tobacco must be lit).
shisha tobacco is heated with indirect heat kind of like an oven.
a coal that is not fully lit will not have enough heat to "bake" the tobacco that you have in the bowl.

Yeah I understand how it works.
But by "lit" I did not meant actually catching fire lol. Sorry, I am kind of new to all this new words. My mother language is Spanish BTW. Edited August 28, 2008 by CMP

[bayne]

And the tobacco will not light properly, right?

smoking shisha does not require direct heat like smoking a cigar or cigarette (where the tobacco must be lit).
shisha tobacco is heated with indirect heat kind of like an oven.
a coal that is not fully lit will not have enough heat to "bake" the tobacco that you have in the bowl.

Yeah I understand how it works.
But by "lit" I did not meant actually catching fire lol. Sorry, I am kind of new to all this new words. My mother language is Spanish BTW.

You have really good English, that's why he corrected you.
You are packing your bowl correctly, you don't want to jam it in there.

[CMP]

And the tobacco will not light properly, right?

smoking shisha does not require direct heat like smoking a cigar or cigarette (where the tobacco must be lit).
shisha tobacco is heated with indirect heat kind of like an oven.
a coal that is not fully lit will not have enough heat to "bake" the tobacco that you have in the bowl.

Yeah I understand how it works.
But by "lit" I did not meant actually catching fire lol. Sorry, I am kind of new to all this new words. My mother language is Spanish BTW.

You have really good English, that's why he corrected you.
You are packing your bowl correctly, you don't want to jam it in there.

Thats very good to know, thank you (Both things lol)

I read somewhere it is good to use a toothpick and push a little where the holes of the bowl are, to have a better airflow. Is that right?
Today Ill be finally meeting up with some friends and smoke some orange and maybe even some 2apples yay. I hope everything goes right today. The difference is I know a crapload of new things unlike the last time lol.

Thanks for your valuable help everyone. Ill get back at you telling how things went. Edited August 28, 2008 by CMP