How to get thick clouds from your hookah

Those dense, pillow-like clouds are a hookah enthusiast's delight. Getting those smooth clouds though may be troublesome for inexperienced smokers. Understanding how smoke is created from your hookah will help you take the necessary steps in improving your cloud production.

Smoke is generated from three pieces: your hookah bowl, shisha tobacco and hookah charcoal. The combination of all three will result in either a great, decent or poor cloud production. You need to have a good packing method on your fingertips for that bowl, steady heat flowing from your charcoal, and open airflow throughout your hookah for excellent and best cloud results.

The three different types of packing methods you can attempt are: the fluff pack, the dense pack and the overpack. The first consists of loosely, yet evenly filling your bowl. The second is pressing down on the shisha and packing until a semi-dense or dense consistency is achieved. This is suitable for dark leaf tobacco. The last method is packing until it is almost overflowing. This method is useful for brands of tobacco that require a lot of heat.

You will need a hookah bowl that allows excellent airflow. This may also mean that your old hookah needs a little elbow grease if you continually experience poor cloud production. A good cleaning should see better results. Contrary to popular belief, substituting water or adding another liquid to the water, such as milk, will not produce more or denser clouds. However, you may choose to add ice to your water which will help cool the smoke as it passes through.

Finally, the steady heat from charcoal requires that you use good, quality coals. You should also know how much heat the shisha you are going to smoke requires. It is generally best to start off with two coals and work your way up. A heat management device may also be helpful in this department.