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For your first mix, take two flavours: a base at 70 per cent and an accent at 30. In a 20-gram bowl that is 14 and 6 grams. Mix fresh in a dish, never in the tin.
A mix has a base and an accent. The base brings fruit or sweetness and makes up the larger part. The accent brings freshness, acidity or cold. Start with 70 to 30 and shift in steps of ten after the first bowl.
| Ratio | When | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 70 / 30 | Almost always the way in | Fruit with mint or citrus |
| 80 / 20 | The accent is very strong | Fruit with strong mint |
| 60 / 40 | The accent barely came through in the last bowl | Peach with strong mango |
| 50 / 50 | Two fruit flavours of equal strength | Berry with grape |
Mint and citrus come through at just 20 to 30 per cent. With noticeably more mint, the smoke quickly turns harsh for most people, and the fruit gets lost. A very intense flavour covers a mild one, so it is better to combine two flavours that taste similarly strong on their own.
All five mixes use light tobacco and can be recreated gram for gram. The grams are for bowls holding 15, 20 and 25 grams.
Adalya Waterlon with 30 per cent Hookain Green Lean.
Holster Twenty Five with 30 per cent Adalya Ice Boni.
MOE'S Blue Beast with 30 per cent Hookain Zenta Schox.
Al Fakher Grapio with 20 per cent Hookain Smint, with the HMD on top.
Brohood #13 John with 40 per cent MOE'S Exotic Sun.
| Mix | Base | Accent | 15 g | 20 g | 25 g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melon and Lime, 70 / 30 | Adalya Waterlon | Hookain Green Lean | 11 + 4 g | 14 + 6 g | 17 + 8 g |
| Grape and Mint, 80 / 20 | Al Fakher Grapio | Hookain Smint | 12 + 3 g | 16 + 4 g | 20 + 5 g |
| Double Apple and Mint, 70 / 30 | Holster Twenty Five | Adalya Ice Boni | 11 + 4 g | 14 + 6 g | 17 + 8 g |
| Blueberry and Citrus, 70 / 30 | MOE'S Blue Beast | Hookain Zenta Schox | 11 + 4 g | 14 + 6 g | 17 + 8 g |
| Peach and Mango, 60 / 40 | Brohood #13 John | MOE'S Exotic Sun | 9 + 6 g | 12 + 8 g | 15 + 10 g |
Smint is a very strong mint with menthol and eucalyptus, so only 20 per cent. Double apple tastes tart and spicy and needs a fresh partner rather than a second fruit. Exotic Sun is an intense mango; at 40 per cent the peach stays in front. You will find more light flavours under Virginia tobacco.
Blending is the safe way. Take only the amount for one bowl out of the tins, loosen both flavours in a dish and mix them thoroughly with a fork or your fingers. Shorten long fibres with scissors beforehand. That way every puff tastes of the whole mix.
With layering, the fresh flavour sits on top, so it is strong at the start and then fades. Because the layers burn at different speeds, though, the bowl often tips from mint to fruit. In a large Phunnel you can also place them side by side instead of on top of each other.
A kitchen scale with a gram display makes a mix repeatable. Set up the dish, tare it, and weigh out the base first, then the accent. How much your bowl holds is covered in the article Building a hookah bowl properly or in the Bowl Finder. Once a mix tastes good, write down the flavours, grams and bowl.
Light and dark mix well, and many manufacturers give recipes for it themselves. A small share of Dark Blend brings more tobacco flavour and kick to your Virginia. Start with 10 to 30 per cent Dark Blend and raise the share from bowl to bowl. Mix both thoroughly and pack loosely. You set the heat according to the more delicate Virginia: light up with little charcoal and only add more once the bowl draws calmly. What distinguishes the two tobacco types is explained in the article Hookah tobacco types.
Moisture matters even when mixing light with light. A dry tobacco and a very juicy one burn at different speeds. Treat the bowl like the juicier flavour: slightly less heat, the charcoals at the edge and a slow light-up.
No idea for a mix? MixMate asks you for up to two taste directions and the tobacco type, then suggests a mix of flavours that are currently available. The result shows the role, per cent and grams for your bowl size, plus a matching bowl if you like. Greyed-out choices currently have no available mix.
| Mistake | Result | Better |
|---|---|---|
| Too much mint | Smoke turns harsh, fruit gone | Start with 20 to 30 per cent mint |
| Too many flavours at once | No single flavour comes through any more | Start with two flavours, then expand |
| Mixed directly in the tin | The tins no longer taste pure | Mix the bowl amount in a dish |
| Untested mix straight away in a large batch | If it does not taste good, a lot of tobacco is lost | Test one bowl first, then mix larger amounts |
| Too much Dark Blend in the first mix | Tobacco flavour and kick mask the aroma | Start with 10 to 30 per cent Dark Blend |
| Flavours only laid on top of each other | First only mint, then only fruit | Blend them well beforehand |
If the first bowl does not taste good, the mix alone is rarely the cause. Often the bowl is too hot. How to control the heat is covered in the article HMD and heat management.
70 to 30: 70 per cent base, 30 per cent accent. In a 20-gram bowl that is 14 and 6 grams.
To start with, 20 to 30 per cent. With a very strong mint, 20 per cent is often enough; with noticeably more, the smoke quickly turns harsh.
Start with two. Three or four work too, but the more flavours in the bowl, the harder it is to taste the individual ones.
Yes. Start with 10 to 30 per cent Dark Blend and raise the share from bowl to bowl. You set the heat according to the Virginia.
Test the mix with one bowl first. If it tastes good, you can mix a larger amount and store it airtight. The original tins stay pure that way.
Blend. Layered flavours burn at different speeds, so the taste then jumps from one flavour to the other.
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