You need to leave just enough room in the vase so that your smoke doesn’t bubble up into the hose. Avoid putting milk or dairy into your base. Adding dairy will ensure an unpleasant smell, mold, foaming in the vase and ruined hoses.
Evenly mix your tobacco so that all of it is covered in flavoring and molasses. Fluff up your tobacco and drop it loosely into the bowl. Leave 2 millimeters of distance between the top of the tobacco and the bowl so that the shisha doesn’t touch the foil when you put it on. Burned shisha will add a nasty flavor to your smoke. Buy a good quality shisha. The quality of your shisha will determine the flavor of your smoke. You can also mix and match flavors for a great-tasting smoke. [4] X Research source Buy 50-gram portions of shisha so that you can try it out without spending a lot of money. You can cut up your tobacco leaves with kitchen shears to more easily pack them into the bowl. However, don’t cut them too small or they’ll fall through the holes and clog your bowl.
Keep the foil tight so that wrinkles don’t distort the heat distribution. If you only have thin foil on hand, then double it up. When you’re finished, your foil-covered bowl should resemble the head of a drum.
Egyptian bowl: Start with a circle of holes around the perimeter and spiral inward. Funnel-style bowl: Make 3 concentric rings: 1 around the edge, 1 around the spire and 1 between the 2 circles that you’ve already made.
If you use Quick Light Coals, hold the coals with a pair of tongs and light 1 corner with a match or lighter. Because sparks will be produced, you should either go outside or stand near a window. Always use the tongs that come with most hookahs to light or move your coals. Avoid using kitchen tongs, which may have been coated in a polymer to provide a non-stick coating for food prep and easy cleaning. When the coal starts to sparkle and emit smoke, pull the flame away. The coal should continue sparking until all of it turns bright orange. If the coal still has some blackened patches that aren’t burning, then blow on the coal to encourage it to heat up. Natural coals burn much longer than quick lights but require something much hotter than a lighter to ignite them. Most people use either a single coil stove burner or a butane torch to light their naturals. [5] X Research source Set natural coconut coals on an electric coil burner until glowing on one side and then flip. Let each side heat up until glowing red before transferring coals to your hookah bowl. Natural coals take between 6-8 minutes to heat up.
Never light the coal directly on top of the foil. The particles released from the coal will get into the bowl and change the flavor of your tobacco.
