Testing Some Home-Made Sheesha Flavors

The future lingers, the possibilities ever-grow, and the ideas continue to evolve into creative realities.

When we discussed importing hookahs into the United States, we also talked about trying to import our own brand of shisha to smoke out of said hookahs.  Somewhere along the line, the idea was thrown at me to actually create the shisha ourselves.  I remember the night, I remember the discussion, and I remember the person who gave me the idea (thank you Sarahrose).  I couldn't sleep that night.  Going over all of the tangents and adventures we could get into with this idea was greatly inspiring.

Ordering tobacco is no easy process.  I had no idea prior to this venture that there are 5 million types of tobacco grown right here in the US of A and they all offer a great variety of flavors and uses.  Unfortunately, I had no idea where to start.  What I did know was that we wanted to start with a whole leaf, cut it down ourselves, and complete the whole process ourselves, by hand.  The long, arduous process of cutting, mixing, and rubbing your fingers to get feeling back into them.

Making sheesha is pretty simple.  The ingredients are fairly easy to acquire and the process is more than enjoyable.  If you like cooking, you'd like making sheesha.  The recipe includes a mix of tobacco, molasses, honey, vegetable glycerin, and whatever flavors you want to flavor your smoke with.  Mix to your liking and smoke away.  It's that simple (pretty much).

For my first batch of sheesha, I wanted a very strong tobacco.  I figured that it nothing else, I could get the process of washing the leaves several times down to a science and learn as much about the dissolution of color and aroma from the washing.  I also wanted
to stick to some fairly simple flavors, so I rounded up some vanilla extract and some mint extract.  To start, this should at least be a decent learning tool.

I figured on making a mint, a mango, a vanilla, and a autumn type mix that was going to be my unique blend that I could toy with and see what happens.  My plan is to perfect that mix before Fall actually rolls around.

For the mint, I have been growing several mint plants at the casa and with the recent rains, they have been growing considerably and have some beautiful leaves ready to pick.  Big aroma and massive minty mouth feel on the these plants, so I'm really looking forward to the final product is able to sit and incorporate for a few weeks.

For the mango, I simply peeled a mango, cut it up, pureed it, and threw it in the mix.  Although it didn't provide the flavor of an extract, it helped the consistency and I think a good mix of both is the way to go.

My Autumn mix, which I simply called "spice" is a very aromatic blend of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and a few other flavors.  On the nose, it is brilliant.  The flavor is somewhat overpowered by the Connecticut Broad Leaf, but that'll easily be fixed by some lighter tobacco.

For a first batch, I think I definitely got the mixes down.  Although the tobacco turned out a tad overpowering, we got some great smokes, nice balance, and good clouds from the sheesha.  I was able to share with several folks at Abbey in DeLand and Mermaid Juice in Mount Dora and get some great feedback.  The Autumn mix went over especially well and I mixed up a 25/75 mint-mango that is turning out really good.

In the long term, we're talking about utilizing the Connecticut Broad Leaf to create some middle eastern style flavors, incorporating regional spices to accompany the stronger flavors of the tobacco.  For now, it's off to Egypt tonight for a few weeks and a chance to smoke some Tombac on Thursday.  Reviews to follow.  Cheers!