First of all, when choosing tobacco, you should be guided by your own tastes. Based on them, you can buy by the piece, focusing on the basic manufacturers that are popular.
If you do not yet have an idea of your own preferences, professionals recommend starting with simple flavors and combinations. A simple apple or iced berries, etc. By dialing in single tobaccos with simple flavors, you can gradually build up your own understanding. After that, try making your own mixes of simple flavors and buy more complex ready-made mixes. For more authoritative advice, you can contact hookah shops in your city where the employees can share their experience with you.
Types of hookah tobacco
In addition to flavors, tobacco can be of different varieties, because different tobacco leaf is used in the production of tobacco for hookah.
Moissel
This is the most common variety for the production of hookah tobacco. The name is due to the addition of honey to the mixture to soften the flavor. 99% of companies use it exactly, adding fruits, essential oils, spices and various flavorings.
Modern Moissel contains cut tobacco leaf, sugar molasses, glycerin, food flavorings and preservatives. The following tobacco varieties are most commonly used as tobacco leaf for moissel:
Virginia – the most popular tobacco variety, used in the manufacture of light tobaccos.
Berley – the strongest variety of tobacco. It is divided into light and dark. For the production of the vast majority of hookah tobacco is used dark Berley, which has a prune aftertaste.
Oriental is a tobacco variety with a tart flavor. It is distinguished by the fact that it grows exclusively in sunny and hot climates, which allows the dried essential oils to give the tobacco richness.
There is a myth that flavored and unflavored tobaccos differ in their strength. This belief is wrong, as the raw materials used are the same from the beginning. Therefore, the difference in sensation can be caused solely by subjective perception.
Tombak
In Tombak, one can exclusively feel the classic flavor of pure dried leaf. Virginia, Oriental and Burley are also used for production. Its distinctive feature is the high nicotine content and the absence of flavoring additives.
Tombak has a very unusual way of smoking, which is rarely found in our homeland. The leaves are soaked in water, squeezed, freed from the veins and wrapped around the top of the shaft without using a cup. The charcoal is placed directly on the leaves. One of the most popular companies making blends on Tombak is Ajamy. However, be careful – the strength is quite high and the throat hit can be quite strong. This kind of tobacco is smoked mainly in Arab countries.
Jurak
Zhurak absorbs all the pluses of the previous varieties. It has both the strength of Tombak and the flavor of Muassel. Syrups and spices are added to the composition, which makes it fine-grained. Jurak is smoked by pouring a dense mound into a bowl, placing the coals directly on the tobacco. This tobacco is also divided into two categories by strength: medium – Mitha and stronger – Kadva. This tobacco is the most common for smoking in India. In our country it is rarely found.
What tobacco for hookah to choose
Choosing tobacco home, it is worth paying attention to several parameters. Let’s talk about all of them in order.
Tobacco strength
This parameter is determined by the nicotine content in the tobacco leaf. Do not think that at one manufacturer all tobaccos are similar. In the lineup there can be both hard and no nicotine flavors at all. The strength of tobacco is influenced by whether it has been washed during the manufacturing process or not. Washed tobacco will be less strong than unwashed tobacco. There are also many subtleties with drying and cutting. However, it is impossible to determine the exact strength of tobacco. Therefore, it makes no sense to be guided by any figures. This is what the warning inscriptions on many packs say. Therefore, you should focus solely on your feelings through trial and error.
Tobacco also affects many other parameters – smokiness, heat resistance, and the method of filling. Most of them are adjusted directly in the smoking process by means of interaction with the bowl, tobacco layout and the use of kalaud. Even the presence of a diffuser can affect how smoky your hookah will be. But it is better still to ask the consultant when buying, how much the selected tobacco is heat-resistant and how many minutes of heating requires. Information about the number of coals for heating will not be superfluous.
