Hookah charcoal originated in Arab countries. It is used for smoking, just like Chinese people smoke cigarettes. Some people may be curious about how to smoke a piece of charcoal. It is actually a bit like the principle of Chinese people smoking hookah. Hookah directly lights the tobacco, filters the smoke through water, removes part of the nicotine in the smoke, and then enters the mouth.
So hookah charcoal is not smoked with tobacco or charcoal. It uses a kind of jam or petal jam to replace our usual tobacco, and then transfers the heat of the hookah charcoal burning to the jam or petal jam through a specific smoking tool. In this way, when people smoke, they will produce a kind of fruit or petal fragrance smoke, which will be filtered through water and finally enter the mouth.
So, the so-called hookah charcoal is just a small source of heat. Some people think that it is just a small amount, so the market volume must not be very large. Of course, compared with barbecue charcoal, it is definitely not large. So do you know how much weight of cigarettes people smoke in a day? A conservative estimate is 5,000 tons/day. The weight of a pack of cigarettes is 25~29 grams, and the weight of a piece of hookah charcoal is 15~20 grams, so you can do the math yourself.
When smoking hookah, first wrap the tobacco and spices with tin foil, poke a few holes in the tin foil with a toothpick, then place the lit shisha charcoal on the tobacco, and use the shisha charcoal to heat the tobacco to produce smoke. This places high demands on the charcoal used to ignite the tobacco, which must be hard and non-dispersive, high-density, easy to ignite, burn for a long time and generate heat evenly.
Hardness
Hookah charcoal must be hard enough, otherwise it will disintegrate due to insufficient heat intensity during combustion. That is to say, during the combustion process of hookah charcoal, the charcoal must be in block form and not break. You can verify the mechanical strength of the test charcoal through a small test:
Throw the hookah charcoal on the cement floor and it will not break;
Use two hookah charcoals to collide with each other and they will not break or fall off;
Crush the hookah charcoal with your hands. If it breaks easily or breaks into powder, it is not a good hookah charcoal.
Ignition time
Hookah charcoal is different from barbecue charcoal. It is required to be ignited quickly. Generally, customers require it to be ignited within seven to ten minutes. In actual operation, it is generally required to be ignited within five minutes. Otherwise, when the customer is ready to smoke, the charcoal will not be ignited. Isn't it ridiculous? After ignition, a layer of ash will appear on the surface of the hookah charcoal, but the ash is required to fall off automatically.
Burning time
One of the most important indicators of hookah charcoal is the burning time. If the burning time is too short, the charcoal will have to be replaced during smoking, which will affect the taste of the hookah charcoal. Therefore, customers will make requirements for the burning time of hookah charcoal. For example, the burning time of hookah charcoal with a flat size of 25x25x15mm (1"x1"x0,6") should exceed 60 minutes. And the hookah charcoal with a cubic size of 25x25x25mm (1"x1"x1") should be able to burn for at least 90 minutes.