It has occurred to me that a large number of hookah smokers in north america have never been in contact or even heard of traditional style hookah tobaccos. I feel this to be an important thing as it is interesting to know the roots of hookah smoking, tradition, and educate. Over the next few night I will be covering several topics related to the origins, smoking methods, and ingredients of traditional tobacco.
Tombac
This is laterally as traditional as one can get, this was the first form of tobacco smoked out of hookahs. Tombac is a fairly simple tobacco, it is compressed into large sized bricks and dried, sometimes contains a few spices and flavors. The tobacco is soaked for a short while in preparation, then the leaves are squeezed to remove any left over water and then stacked on each other in the bowl. With this form of hookah tobacco the coals are placed directly on top of the tobacco without the use of a foil or screen. This produces a much stronger and harsher smoke that cannot be inhaled like typical molasses and honey based tobaccos that most people are used to. In my experience smoking tombac is a very interesting experience that I find to be enjoyable on occasion but is not something I often smoke for the simple fact that it will start to irritate the lungs if smoked on a daily or regular basis.
Jurak
Jurak is another very traditional tobacco, which is ground down into a paste and flavored with spices and on rare occasion fruits. Jurak contains no kind of glycerin and because of the thick pasty consistency can be quite the pain to get smoking. Smoke from jurak is normally rather thin, and is enjoyed for its complex and spicy flavors rather than for smoke clouds. In my experience with jurak it can be a bit hard to work with but it is a truly unique and amazing smoke.
Traditional Moassels And Tombels
Traditional style tombels and moassels while not terribly common or well know are much easier to find than juraks and tombacs. In fact chances are most hookah smokers have at least seen them in a shop. Included in this group are a number of amazing tobaccos Nakhla Khan El Khalil, Nakhla Zagloul, Desi Murli, Al Faker Soft Black, and Saloum plain are some of the more common traditional tobaccos around. Most of these tobaccos are merely a blend of tobaccos and molasses or honey with no added flavors except for maybe a couple of spices. Glycerin is also lacking in these tobaccos making their smoke output less than impressive but normally very in for face as far as flavor goes. In my experiences with these kinds of tobaccos I have learned that while fruity flavors can be good there is nothing like a good simple traditional smoke.
Hopefully this post has intrigued you in some way or at least been helpful. I feel that it is important for people to branch out in the hookah world and try things that predate all of this commercialized chemical soup that is being sold as premium tobacco. Hookah are something that have been around for a good amount of time and have a rather interesting history and tradition. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post I will be posting a number of post like this one in the next week in an attempt to educate on different kinds of tobacco, hookahs, bowls, hoses, and to share with you all the unique history of the hookah.
No comments:
Post a Comment