Homemade shisha: Attempt #1

[Claytron]

Cool stuff. Did you try chopping the dried stuff to get a better cut? I imagine if it's cohesive enough you could experiment with the cut size a fair ammount to figure out what works well... but depends on the consistentcy I guess.

[cymptom]

Can't really play around with the cut, as it's already been shredded. It's too fine, actually... but I don't know where to get uncut damiana.

[Scalliwag]

[quote name='Tangiers'] Success is nothing without consistency. Even Geroge Bush got elected a second time. Everybody gets lucky every once in awhile.[/quote] Haha!!! that's funny stuff bro!!! Very good point on how the original shisha was made. It's not like these people had a whole bunch of stuff available with all sorts of additives. Sticking to the basics and nailing a particular recipe and then venturing from there seems like the way to go. I am glad that I got into making charcoal. Frying wood to carbon has a lot less variables than this art. Tangiers is 100% right about consistency. And when it comes to developing you make specific notes and do not change more than one variable at a time unless you are CERTAIN that you have more than one problem. Tweaks always need to have a control. The more variables the more room for chaos. Research and Development is science. Cooking is science. People get lucky but people that get lucky and can't reproduce their luck only produced momentary success. Cymptom seems very realistic in that he stated that he may be prone to leans towards liking his product because he did in fact make it. That is a very good quality to retain. Anyone wanting to be successful at anything needs that mindset.

[Bleeding_Heart1]

I was thinking, Maybe if you mixed the glycerine(makes it smoke right?) and flavor together it would be easier to judge the consistancy. Maybe like 2:1 parts flavor to glycerine? Im just brainstorming...

[Macho555]

I'm reall interested in how this plays out. I would love it if somebody started manafacturing herbel shisha that actually tasted like the herbs, instead of this "SECRET HERBAL MIX" crap, thats then coated with flavorings.

[angemonkwj]

what about buying some of the canned fruit and using the juice thats in the can for flavor. and while ur cooking the stuff together, maybe use some fruit bits to help out with flavor also

[DownZero]

Sounds good. I wouldnt mind trying to make my own someday. Keep on experimenting.

[Claytron]

If I might make a couple recommendations from my cooking experience:A) Get a digital food scale to measure herb. This will make sure you are close (to a degree of acuracy) when you're measuring out quantities. Get a plunger based measuring device like "The Plunger Wonder Cup" or [url="http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13126780&RN=106"]Ajust-a-Cup[/url]. That will allow you to be very specific in your measuring and it's great for sticky shit because you can plunge it flat and then scrape off the surface to be sure you got it all. 'The Plunger' also comes in a smaller 'Jr' size if you're dealing primarily with smaller quantities.

[Claytron]

That 'juice' (which isn't always just juice) is usually mostly water - which wouldn't be too helpful. Alot of times it's also not even the juice of the fruit in question. If it is for sure plain old juice, you could reduce it to a syrup first by cooking it down, but I don't know how much flavor would actually make it from the syrup to the bowl and your mouth. Also this would probably dramatically decrease the expiration of such a mix because juices don't do so well once they're not stored properly.Oops. Meant to edit the last one. Sorry.As for obtaining larger quantitys - search for places that do bulk/wholesale herb distribution. If you ask around, you can probably find a place that will send you the stuff uncut.

[Sonthert]

Yohimbine would be better, you could add vinpotricine, too. 2:1 glycerine to flavor is probably too much flavor. Juice doesn't work.