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