Shisha
Tobacco
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Shisha Tobacco; View Entire Selection
The shisha tobacco used in a hookah pipe is different
than that associated with cigarettes, or, indeed, any
other form of smoking. It is, traditionally, a damp blend--called
tobamel or maassel--of fresh tobacco leaves with molasses
or honey and semi-dried fruit or fruit pulp.
Some smokers would add pomegranate juice or perhaps rose
oil to the water, which added flavor to the smoke. Later,
shisha tobacco was also mixed
with fruit extracts, and in the 1980s tobacconists began
experimenting with various flavors, so that now a virtual
smorgasbord of highly aromatic shisha tobacco is widely
available.
While some hookah smokers
still prefer a strong Turkish tobacco, many delight in
the large assortment of flavored shisha tobacco. The dark,
wet mixture comes in flavors ranging from apple, cherry,
apricot, and watermelon, to rose, jasmine, vanilla, honey,
and licorice, with more exotic blends beyond that, such
as lemon-cola, cappuccino, apple-mint, and a list of custom
blends that is nigh on infinite.
Prices for packaged tobacco range anywhere from $4 to
$17 depending on quality, and a variety pack of flavors
might cost about $30. The price in most lounges for a
bowl range from $4 to $9 for slower burning leaf or custom
blends.
Since shisha
tobacco is very wet it must be smoked using a hookah
charcoal. Rather than being lit directly, the tobacco
is heated with a coal placed on tinfoil or wire mesh above
or in the bowl holding the damp mixture.
Each bowl of this wet tobacco lasts a long time, usually
requiring several replenishments of the charcoal. In the
past, among those rituals and traditions surrounding the
lighting and smoking of the hookah, or narghile, were
strict prohibitions against lighting the tobacco incorrectly--or
even allowing a cigarette smoker to light their cigarette
off of the hookah coal.
Shisha tobacco is generally only 30 percent tobacco and
70 percent fruit flavoring and molasses or honey. It contains
.05 percent nicotine and most types contain no tar. Because
the tobacco is heated, rather than actually burned, studies
have shown that there are fewer carcinogens produced in
hookah smoke than in other forms of smoking. However,
concerns about the length of time smokers generally spend
around a bowl of shisha tobacco do warrant consideration,
and studies have shown that carbon dioxide intake is actually
higher in hookah smoking.
Though mellower and less carcinogenic, shisha tobacco
is still tobacco and the health risks remain. Any type
of tobacco should only be smoked by adults over 18 years
of age, and then smoked in moderation.
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