I Seek Your Shisha Wisdom

[poof]

Hello, i found your forum after i was googling for low nicotine shisha's, figured this would be the place to learn.

Ive been smoking the hookah on and off for a few years now, and at the advice of an indian fellow who mentioned that apple was the standard in india, thats all ive been smoking, and im quite sick of it. I used to smoke this goopy stuff that came in a flimsy plastic bowl that had really low nicotine in it, like .005% or something, but now all i can get me hands on is this nakhla stuff which is way the hell too harsh and they dont seem to have any info on how much nicotine and tar is in their shisha, but i can see why just by looking at it, way too much tabacco to molasses. I actually like the nakhla buzz compared to the other stuff i had tried which was a bit weaker, its just the buzz is a bit too much and the harshness is unpleasant.

Can you reccommend me a company that is alot smoother than nakhla with alot less tobacco in it, and maybe offers a decent combo pack so i can try alot of flavors? I figure if i can find one with a greater molasses to tobacco ratio, it probably wont matter how much nicotine and tar is in the tabacco.

Thanks! Edited April 9, 2007 by poof

[123blow]

Hi, Nakhla has .5% nicotine and 0% tar per kg according to http://en.allexperts.com/e/n/na/nakhla_tobacco.htm . I actually have the Nakhla Apple and it can be very harsh depending on how you manage your coals. One thing I found that helps is using a diffuser; http://hookahwiki.com/index.php?title=Diffuser, and also putting either ice cold water or ice cubes and water into your base. I recently tried both using the diffuser, which I made, along with ice cubes and water in the base with the Nakhla apple shisha and it was considerably smoother and thicker than without the diffuser or the ice and water. Hope that helps a little. Edited April 9, 2007 by 123blow

[mushrat]

Um..Layalina is unwashed and has the same .5% as Nakhla. Al Fakher, Al Amir, Al Ajamy, are all washed with .05%.

There is a recent thread asking about washed tobaccoes, try looking for it...that'll tell you which are .05%.

[MalibuLx3]

Here is the link to the topic mushrat mentioned

http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?showtopic=9833

[poof]

ok, thanks for the info, but still got a few more questions if you dont mind helping out a noob:

1. washed and unwashed aside, what brands have you found to use only as much tobacco as is necessary to keep the molasses together?

2. Also this diffuser intrigues me, though i dont know anything about "a can of bitter" or what this wiki is talking about. Are hookah stems all a standard size and if so, are there professionally made diffusers i can buy?

3. i notice that alot of the time when i remove the foil from the bowl there is a clump of burned shisha stuck to it, what can i do to prevent the shisa from charring (or is it supposed to do that?).

4.I typically use aluminum foil though i have tried a metal grating which was painful to smoke with, but ive heard that foil gives off nasty byproducts when heated, are there quality grills that work as well as foil but can be re-used?

thx

[cypherkk]

I think the lowest "juice to tobbaco" I've seen is sultan, but the stuff tastes like smoking a tree branch. Al Waha, seems ok and Fumari is sometimes very wet and sometimes not.

Smiley's sexy seems about middle of the road as does roman.

Starbuzz, Layalina, and a few others are very wet, dripping and starbuzz is even jellylike.

[MalibuLx3]

2. Also this diffuser intrigues me, though i dont know anything about "a can of bitter" or what this wiki is talking about. Are hookah stems all a standard size and if so, are there professionally made diffusers i can buy?

Here ya go

Hookah-Shisha has one I know of. Search for Heba Diffuser under their website. Edited April 10, 2007 by MalibuLx3

[mgcsinc]

Just to put this out there (as I always feel compelled to): There is, from what I can tell, no reason to think that the nicotine or tar values on shisha packages are accurate at all.

[poof]

Thanks for the diffuser tip!

As far as nicotine content, your assertion seems to be the consensus, so i will just have to go with my gut as nicotine makes me cough violently. I eventually went with fumari as they have a ton of flavors, a customizable sample pack at fumari.com, good reviews and claim to be washed. Would have gone with starbuzz but they offer no sample packs, as if anyone wants to buy a tub of something they might not like. I did see a 31 flavor sample pack from havana, maybe next time. Most other sample packs offer two of the 5-7 pre-packaged flavors as apple derivatives, damn it, what the hell are these companies obsessions with apple?

thanks for the replies, im sure ill figure out the rest of my questions with time. I never knew hookah smoking was such an involved hobby.

[mgcsinc]

It may just be the hideous Nakhla-ness of the Nakhla that is making you cough, not the nicotine

Hookah smoking is only as involved as you make it, but getting really involved can lead to some amazing hookah sessions!