In the course of our shisha reviews, we’ll often times make mention of either Mike’s setup or Sam’s setup.  We’ll give you all the information you could need about the setups here on this page.

Mike’s Setup

This is Mike’s hookah setup.  It’s a 26″ Al Fakher Single Hose hookah.  You can find it at HookahJohn’s site here.  More liquid in the base is required to get this hookah to work well, but the smoke is generally pretty good.  One note: absolutely no milk has ever gotten into the hose when we use it in the base.  Although the amount of smoke in the base is relatively low, the smoke rarely gets stale.

Sam’s Setup

Sam’s setup is a little bit older, but it’s a Magdy Zidan Single Hose hookah of about 28 inches.  The stem itself was a good deal for the money (under $100), but its amount of use means that it’s seen better days.  Luckily a little ingenuity and electrical tape have kept it standing tall and holding it’s own. Although we couldn’t tract down the exact setup, we found a similar Magdy Zidan in approximately the same style at HookahLounge.net (where the setup was originally purchased).

The Bowls

Vortex and Traditional

On the left is our excellent vortex bowl.  Perfect for heavier shishas like Tangiers, but also great for larger quantities of lighter shisha, like Al Fakher or Starbuzz.  The blue bowl on the right is a small traditional bowl that generally gets used when not as many people are smoking.

Medium Clay and Tangiers Phunnel

The bowl on the left in this picture is a medium clay bowl that came with the hookah, and it is used 90% of the time on this setup.  The big guy next to it is a Tangiers Phunnel (or Funnel)  bowl.  It was designed by the makers of Tangiers to hold in the wetness of shisha, in order to keep it smoking and flavorful for longer periods of time.  While we enjoy Tangiers, we highly recommend the vortex bowl for any group smoking session.