We’ve been getting even more email now from angsty HoboHeros on when the next HoboHookah, aka the HoboNargile will arrive to the US.

Well, I wish bringing a great product to market didn’t always start with the phrase “when its ready”.  But hell, if we are going to bring something all the way across an ocean it better be damn good, and live up to the brand we have built through the first HoboHookah.

So, whats the story?  Well we are in the process of manufacturing now and should be sending all of the heros who have signed up on our mailing list an offer within the next two weeks.  What I can say is that the offer is going to be good, better than you will ever be able to buy a HoboNargile for and it will be very limited.  It will also be your best chance of getting a HoboNargile before the end of the holiday buying season.

Much like the Nintendo Wii, it seems we are the next hottest product for these winter months, for hookah smokers at least.

We have two videos up this week as, to the chagrin of last post, we missed one last week.  They are up over at Hobocans.  They are all about Nakhla and three of their great flavors: Cappuccino, Apricot and Lemon, which are now all available on our hookah store.

We are also now publishing the videos to a variety of services, including Vimeo and Youtube.  Make sure to subscribe and get our hookah content before anyone else. Thanks Gary V for the heads up on TubeMogul from your book Crush It.

Its always great to hear from HoboHookah users on the adventures they take their hookah on.  Sometimes its backpacking through a rice patty, sometimes it sitting on the precipice of a mountain, and sometimes it comes from the front lines.

“This is a picture of my friend and I smoking the hobo hookah on top of our hummvee in Afghanistan. It survived the whole deployment and was an awesome commodity to have. It kept my entire team happy for 7 months. Thanks for what you guys do.” – Matt C, US Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

No problem Matt.  We love what we do and are glad to hear, although not too surprised, that the HoboHookah is able to survive the rigors of Humvee travel through the Central Asian highlands. 

If you know of someone in Afghanistan or Iraq who loves hookah, let us know.  We might just be able to hook them up, gratis, with the right gear to make their duty more chilled out.

We have another installment of the Hobocans Happy Hour coming up tomorrow.  Check it out, I hear its another hookah flavor review you wont want to miss.

There are a lot of coals out there, and when you get a bad batch, it can literally ruin an otherwise peaceful night with your favorite hookah pipe. 

We’ve made some bad decisions in our lives, both hookah and non-hookah related, and some of those have been in trusting the mantra that all hookah coals are created equal.  They aren’t, in case you haven’t had the displeasure yet.  Here is a quick breakdown of the quick lights that you may be in the market for:

Three Kings Quick Light Hookah Charcoal – made in Holland these guys have been the gold standard for the last decade.  Clean burning, with a nice foil wrapping.  You can never go wrong with Three Kings.  The only down side is that they can be a bit ashy, which hampers the heat management when you are going on your 4th coal.  Overall, a buy.

Starlight Quick Light Hookah Coal (Red Packaging) – these are our favorite.  Made in China, they are typically a hair cheaper than Three Kings and have a bit less ash to boot.  They light up quick and hot with just a lick of the lighter.  We’d carry them, but we have no idea who distributes them, except for our local Egyptian grocer.

Starlight Quick Light Hookah Coal (Blue Packaging) – one of the bodegas in Jersey City started carrying these monstrosities instead of the red package for some weird reason.  They smoke okay, but lack longevity.  They provide a ton of ash per coal and don’t heat up like the red coals.  Stay away, unless your only option is Roland.

Roland Quick Light Hookah Charcoal – these things taste like a burning wood in your month and whatever hydrocarbon they are using to light up the coal basically smells like a tire fire.  If you got these for free from some hookah site and MUST use them, make sure you do it in a ventilated space or you will have a headache.  Don’t go here, take the night off and buy some good coals tomorrow.

Al Fakher Quick Light Hookah Charcoal – these guys are a great go to if you can’t find Starlights or Three Kings.  They are the fastest lighting quick lights around and have one of the cleanest tastes of any hookah charcoal out there.  The only downside is that they won’t go as far as the Starlights and on first ignition they light up unevenly, taking a little longer to get the heat up and the hookah smoke rolling.  Definitely a good go to hookah charcoal, weaknesses considered.

We have a new video up at the Hobocans Happy Hour where we tackle this very question: Get ready to meet the Al Fakher Quicklights and Starlight All Natural Coconut Coals.

It was another long weekend in New York, with loads of visitors abound.  Long time HoboHookah advocate from the Philippines, Grace, was in town and a whole crew of people from Chicago, DC, Boston and even the JC came to town to live party glory.

You all might remember Grace from Mike’s travels through Asia.  She was kind enough to show the man around Il Ponticello and we had to re-up with some hookah and beverages state side.

Big shout out to Kate’s Bar in the Lower East Side for saving the Saturday night and to Anchor for supplying loads of ladies on Friday night.  Of course, we Madison alums were at Madriver in the Upper East to see the Badgers throw away the game vis a vis interceptions.  Wham dog.

We have another Hobocans Happy Hour hookah tobacco flavor review happening over at the Hobocans blog.  This time we tackle a few Tangiers f-Line flavors: Cocoa and Orange Soda.

We reviewed a couple of Starbuzz hookah tobacco flavors over at the Happy Hour, and that got us thinking a lot about flavor mixes.

You could always buy a pre-mixed flavor, something that Hookah Freak has pretty much made their business, or, as we recommend, you could go off on your own and try to discover something great.

There are two reasons to make hookah tobacco flavor mixes:

1) Experiment to find a flavor that you really like;

2) To save on expensive tobacco or to use tasteless or gross tobacco from the back of the cabinet.

We’ll tackle that second, more objective one, in this post.  Everyone has bought a hookah tobacco that didn’t live up to expectations, or in the case of most mint flavors, simply were too powerful for a single sitting.  The trick to mixing shisha flavors that are simply un-enjoyable to smoke by themselves is to find a good pairing.

First, we’ll discuss the mint flavors.  Pure mint goes great with most flavors, but you are better off going with powerful fruit and nut tobacco rather than weaker, more subtle flavors.  In addition, don’t pack the bowls evenly: Use no more that 25% mint in any mix, with most mixes being closer to 10%.  If you are stuck with a mint that you can’t get rid of, try one of these mixes:

• 95% Tangiers Cocoa and 5% Mint: For a great alternative to Fumari Choco-Mint
• 90% Starbuzz Wildberry and 10% Mint: For a great light a sweet mix.
• 95% Layalina Watermelon and 5% Mint: For a sweet melon mojito flavor.

Everyone has had those times when a flavor just doesn’t have any punch, or it just will not go the distance.  If that’s the case, use the tobacco to fill up the bowl to conserve on your higher end hookah tobacco stores for those light session, where you wont be smoking all night.  This works great with a phunnel bowl.  For this kind of mix, use 25% to 50% crappy tobacco with the rest being your premium tobacco.  The flavor wont be quite as strong, but few will notice in the short run.

Got any hookah tips?  Send them to hobohero@hobohookah.com.

If you are talking “places to smoke hookah” than you have to talk about Egypt.  This is the place that has truly embraced the hookah culture to a point that it could rival any bar hop or coffee shop following here in the States.

Hookah is everywhere in Egypt, and particularly Cairo.  If you want to live like a Cairene, than you will have to embrace hookah. 

There are what I would call three main groups of hookah bars in Cairo:

• Tourist bars, that serve good hookah with beer.
• Upscale cafe’s that serve excellent hookah with fruit juice and food.
• Local joints, which serve up double apple and zhargoule with little cups of delicious, sugary tea.

Depending on the night, anyone of these locals is an excellent spot to hit.  If you want a good tourist bar (or rather a place to get a beer and a hookah), definitely hit Hotel Odeon, in Tahrir Square.  This place is frequented by expats (more so than tourists) as well as upper class Egyptians.  It sports a great roof deck, central location, and $2 Stellas (the local brew in Egypt).

If you are looking for a place sans beer and plus some great fruit juice and food options, hit Tornado’s, in Midan Aswan.  This place has the best shisha I have ever smoked.  We recommend the Cappuccino “Tornado” hookah, which comes with a coffee filled vase and two heads of cappuccino tobacco.  There is a 20EGP minimum, so be prepared to kick it there for a while.

Finally, if you have been in Cairo for a bit and have built up a solid network of cool Egyptian dudes, ask them about some of the traditional cafes.  They are all over the place, I use to go to one called Almas up in Nasr City.  But be aware: These places are for the real men of Cairo, and only serve Zhargoule (traditional, heavy hitting tobacco) and sometimes Double Apple Nakhla.  If that doesn’t sounds like a good night to you, stick with the places on the main drag.

And, for the extra point: There is only one hookah cafe you must hit if you are in Egypt, and that is the historic and famous Fishawy’s in Khan al-Khalil.  This crowded cafe is older than the mosques across the street and is located in the midst of a famous market.  Its a great place to wonder around and pick out your hookah prize and then kick-it to some Egyptian music, sweet tea and meticulously served hookah.

We have more on hookah in Cairo over at the Hobocan’s Happy Hour.  Shoot us your Cairo tips, if you’ve been.

“I was scheduled to go to Israel in early May along with a group of forty kids. For the months building up to the trips, my friends that had been to the holy land before told me it was crazy. They had everything. Bars, girls, and even hookahs graced the streets from Jerusalem all the way to Tel Aviv.

Being from the Midwest, my friends and I weren’t so hookah savvy. We would rather go cow tipping if we had the chance. It can be done. Due to my lack of hookah smoke I was a novice without much experience. It wasn’t until after the organized trip that I had a legitimate hookah experience. A friend of mine took me out for a night on the town. We started with a couple beers, and made our way to one of the biggest hookah bar in Israel. If hookahs died and went to heaven they would go to this place. The shelves were lined with hookahs, differing in all sorts of shapes and sizes. One in particular that caught my eye had a hose with a very elaborate cobra design on it. They seated my friend and I at a table, and to my surprise brought forth the mythical hookah from dreams complete with the Cobra hose.

I brought the hose to my lips, and prepared for a puff. I sucked in and absorbed the taste, white peach. To this day it is the best flavor that I have ever smoked. The smoke that came out of my mouth was whiter than the clouds in the sky. I was hooked. We smoked several bowls that night before we retired to bed. From that moment on I was always smoking a hookah. Once I woke up I went back to the bar and bought my treasure. From the moment it was mine, I decided to always keep its beauty pure by lighting it up at least once a day.”

Thanks Max A. for sending us your tale from abroad.  Keep living the dream man!  Anyone else on the planet earth have a sweet hookah bar in another part of the globe?  Shoot your story here.

And all I wanted was to kick back and relax with a few hookah friends over at HookahDomain.com…

And then I ran into this…

… and I have no idea why. Now, before you ask, let me answer a few questions before you ping them my way:

Perhaps I posted vulgar content? My last posting was about Coors Tall Boys and Cuba Libres being my favorite sidekicks to hookah.

Did I violate any of the commercial activity guidelines? Nope, we don’t generally push product. Unless you count the Happy Hour videos I might have linked to to give someone detailed hookah insight (instead of re-writing it).

Did I display far too much awesomeness to contain on just 1 domain? Nah, I leave that to you HoboHeroes.

So I got this going for me… which is nice.

As the summer takes a turn toward Fall, we took one last trip to the Gardens of Queens, namely the beer gardens thereof.  Instead of the much loved Bohemian Beer Hall, we tried the new garden on the street, Studio Square.

As can be expected in Queens, New York: They loved the HoboHookah.  We transported that baby in its soccer ball hookah bag and thrust it upon a narrow-mouth Nalgene.  The only looks we got came with a firm, approving nod.

With hookah bars in New York shutting down left and right or jacking shisha bowl prices through the roof its nice to know there are some public spaces that like the smell of flavored tobacco in the open air.  We definitely recommend a visit and make sure to bring your hookah to meet some new people.

We have another Hobocans Happy Hour on tap.  This time a tired, surly Trent and Mike take on a difficult bowl of Nakhla and phunnel.  Check it out so that you don’t make the same mistake we did.

Put it up!  Got some nice emails from Afghanistan and Antarctica this week, we’ll be doing some write ups on those Hobos.  If you are a Hero in some crazy location in the world, drop us a line with some pics and your story.