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