Where's the Hookah From, Anyway?

You’ve probably seen them in coffee shops or local hangouts: groups of people, clustered around a hookah pipe, puffing away at a sweet smelling smoke. And chances are, you’ve wondered what it’s all about.

What it’s all about, is a new trend. It’s something more than just a fad, and unlike a lot of new “in things,” this one is likely to stay. It’s social, it’s fun, and it has a long history behind it. It’s hookah smoking.

The hookah is a type of pipe, originating in the area from southern Iran to northwestern India about 700 years ago. Like all pipes, it filters the smoke as you inhale; hookahs use water as the filter, and so they are sometimes called water pipes.

From their origin in the old Persian Empire, hookahs spread through most of the modern Middle East, North Africa, and India. They were first introduced to Westerners in 1800s, when the British gained control of India. For a long time, from the Western perspective, hookahs were seen as nothing more than an exotic feature of some alien cultures. If there were referred to at all, it was to give color to a scene; the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland smokes a hookah.

Thing began to change in the last few years. Hookah smoking became a fad, and then a fashion, among the urban hip, and from there it quickly spread. Hookah lounges can be found in Paris, London, New York, and even Omaha and Detroit. As more people start to smoke this venerable pipe, the trend grows. We’ll explore some of that in this blog.

The Modern Hookah Pop Phenomenon

You’ve probably seen them, especially if you live in a college town or a Yuppie neighborhood. Hookah lounges are appearing across America’s urban landscape, and have been for the last ten to twelve years.

These unique water pipes are the latest trend for the young urban set, the college age crowd, and the modern hip. They’re seen as safer than cigarettes, cigars, or even martinis, and they come with an exotic flair that makes them almost irresistible.

Hookahs are particularly interesting as a trend because they actually represent a partial reversal of an earlier trend: smoking generally has declined of the last 20 years, but hookah smoking is on the rise. There are several reasons for this.

One reason is the relative increase in immigration to the US of Middle Easterners. The hookah is a native of the Mid East, and in sidewalk cafes from Cairo to Haifa to Beirut to Kuwait it’s common to see groups of young men gathered around the pipe, smoking slowly and discussing the latest newspapers, or soccer matches. Hookah smoking is a social thing, and when immigrants from hookah-smoking societies arrive, they bring their social pastimes with them. Pastimes like the hookah.

Another reason for the increase in hookah smoking is the tobacco mix. Hookahs use a mix called shisha that is quite different from the Borkum Riff your dad used to pack in his pipe. Shisha actually has less tobacco in it, and is mixed with fruit, herbs, and honey, giving it a unique flavor and sweetness that accentuated by the hookah’s water filtration. The scent, savor, and flavor of the hookah are all reasons for its popularity.

Finally, because they use water filtration and a naturally low-tar tobacco mix, hookahs are seen as less dangerous than cigarettes or cigars. In fact, in some places, they are even replacing the cigar bar craze of 15 years ago. It seems that the hookah may be with us for some time.