Кальян

The pipe and its smoke

In its most common form nowadays, the waterpipe passes charcoal-heated air through a perforated aluminium foil and across the flavoured tobacco, and the resulting smoke bubbles through the water before inhalation. The foil or screen separates the coal from the tobacco; the foil reaches a maximum of 450 °C and the tobacco 130 °C. A larger fraction of the smoke condensates of the hookah is produced by simple distillation rather than by pyrolysis and combustion. Traditional water filtration cools the smoke and removes some water-soluble compounds. Burned tobacco is increasingly being replaced by vaporizing flavored tobacco, while the original hookah is often still used in rural South Asia with tumbak, a pure and coarse unflavored tobacco leaf that is burned directly with charcoal.

Flavoured tobacco

Flavored waterpipe tobacco is a complex mixture of approximately 30% tobacco and 70% non-tobacco ingredients. It may contain glycerin, molasses, honey, sugar, fruit pulp, other flavorings such as mint, coconut, peach, cola, bubble gum and grape, and preservatives. Moassel is a mixture of tobacco, flavouring, and honey or glycerin. Molasses, the viscous byproduct of refining sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar, is an additive in mu'assel, the tobacco smoked in a hookah. Maassel is typically manufactured through the fermentation of tobacco with molasses, glycerine and fruit essence, producing a moist and pliable mixture.

Tobacco and charcoal

Tobacco leaves are harvested and cured, and curing with subsequent aging allows the slow oxidation and degradation of carotenoids in the leaf. Waterpipe charcoal is commonly produced from one of three sources: coconut husks, woods, or sugar cane stalks.

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