Different Types of Shisha Bowls

Depending on what kind of smoking experience you’re after, you may want to try out a few different types of shisha bowl (sometimes referred to as Shisha heads). That’s what’s great about shisha, you can try and test all the elements to create a setup that’s perfect for you. The style of the shisha bowl, the material used to make the shisha bowl, the way it’s designed and the charcoal you use to smoke will all have an affect on your smoking experience, so to be sure to get the best from your pipe take a look at how the various shisha bowls differ below:

Style of Bowls

There are various different styles of shisha bowls that offer various advantages over other bowls and even become more beneficial for certain types of flavours, such as vapour paste flavours. The different styles include:

• Standard / Egyptian
• Vortex
• Funnel
• Dome
• Twin / Triple / Quad heads

Standard Egyptian Style Shisha Bowl

These traditional bowls are – as the name suggests – are usually hand made from clay, and originate in Egypt, where some of the early shisha pipes were found. An Egyptian Style Clay shisha bowl usually has around 5 holes in the base for airflow and are cost-effective. These are the type of bowls that you would normally get when purchasing your first shisha pipe.

Pros:

• Low cost
• Readily available
• Supplied with most first time Shisha pipes

Cons:

• Not the best looking
• Hand made so quality is not always the best
• When used with juice / liquid based flavours, the juice will flow down the bowl into the water jar underneath.

Recommended for:
These are ideal for steam stone and shisha flavours that have little to no juice.

Vortex Style Shisha Bowl

Vortex Style bowls was an innovation that was introduced as an alternative to traditional bowls as a way to counter the big issue that traditional Egyptian bowls suffered from; juices leaking into the jar. The vortex bowls differ from traditional bowls by introducing a large raised middle stub section that has the holes in its side. This unique twist meant that juices could no longer flow straight down through the holes in the base into the jar. Due to the design, the juices do remain in the base which allows the flavours to remain nice and wet for a better smoking experience.

Pros:

• Unique design
• Prevents juices from flowing into stem / jar
• Offers better smoking experience
• Works well with all types of flavours

Cons:

• Sometimes can be a little fiddly to clean

Recommended for:
These are ideal for any type of flavour including steam stone, juice based molasses and vapour paste (hookahsqueeze / Hookah Cream/True Cloudz). Recommended over a standard traditional bowl.

Funnel Style Shisha Bowl

These work in a similar way to vortex with a raised central section, however, the key difference here is that there is a large hole in the top that serves as a large funnel straight to the jar (hence the name). This larger hole allows for much more smoke to be drawn and to flow down the stem providing a fantastic smoking experience.

Pros:

• Available in many different colours and designs
• Works with all types of flavours

Cons:

• Pricier than standard bowls

Recommended for:
These are ideal for steam stone and shisha flavours that have little to no juice.

Dome Style Shisha Bowl

Dome style bowls are named after the fact that the inside of the bowl is not flat like other bowls but infact are formed in the shape of a dome pushing out. These bowls are mainly used to minimise the amount of flavour used when smoking a shisha and is especially good for molasses based flavours.

Pros:

• Saves on shisha flavour usage
• Low cost
• Due to its shape

Cons:

• Not very good for steam stone based flavours as you cannot pack enough in
• Mainly hand made so quality is not always the best

Recommended for:
These are ideal for molasses based flavours, ideally with little juices as well as vapour based flavours. Not recommended for use with steam stones.

Twin / Triple / Quad heads Style Shisha Bowl

These types of bowls are more novelty types of bowls than anything else. The idea here is that you can add different types of flavours to the different head which creates a customer cocktail flavour. You can also then manually control how strong each flavour is by applying more or less heat to each head. These types of bowls / heads are generally handmade and originate in Egypt.

Pros:

• Low cost
• Readily available
• Supplied with most first time Shisha pipes

Cons:

• Not the best looking
• Hand made so quality is not always the best
• When used with juice / liquid based flavours, the juice will flow down the bowl into the water jar underneath.

Recommended for:
These are ideal for parties to show off something different and can be used with any type of flavours except vapour based ones.

Size of Bowls

Shisha bowls generally come in 3 different sizes, small medium and large. Standard sized bowls are generally medium in size and will determine just how much flavour you can pack into the bowl.

Glazed / unglazed Finish

Cooked Clay bowls in their natural state are porous which allows water / liquids and any flavours to get absorbed into the clay leaving an aftertaste or residue. This is what an unglazed shisha bowl is and is left that way to allow people who love the distinctive taste of one flavour to completely infuse with the bowl. There is no colour applied to these types of bowls.

Recommended for:
Only opt for an unglazed bowl if you have a particular favourite flavour that you will use exclusively with the bowl. Be aware that if you smoke a different flavour, you will still taste the original flavour as well.

Glazed Shisha Bowl

The vast majority of shisha bowls are glazed which therefore make them non-porous. Most shisha bowls are provided with a glazed finish, this means that when they are made, there is a layer of glaze added to seal the clay bowls to stop liquids, flavours and juices.

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Do you have any questions? Something not unclear? Then feel free to contact us! Agree with the above? Or even have your own advise that you want to share? Free free to add a comment below!

The Shisha Shop, 11-13 Fairways Business Park, Lammas Road, E10 7QB London, United Kingdom

TEL: +44 20 8133 3263

Beginner’s Guide to Buying a Shisha Bowl