Hello Hookah.org. It is Paul here once again with another video for you. This one is actually
to accompany an article that I posted recently that is in response to one of the more common
questions that most hookah smokers ask. "What is the best hookah?"
I personally don't think there's really such thing as "the best hookah." There is such
a thing as the best hookah for me or for you. Currently, right now, the best hookah for
me is this. It's the one I'm enjoying. It's the one that I really love. It is at the moment
at Khalil Mamoon halzona. As you've seen in many of my other videos, I also have quite
a few hookahs pretty much all of which I consider to be my best hookahs.
They're the ones that I've stuck with over the years, they're the ones that give me good
smoke and they're the ones that I find aesthetically pleasing.
I think that there are best brands in each category. Those major categories being such
as Chinese hookahs, Egyptian, classic Egyptian hookahs and Syrian and Turkish, things like
that. General categories that really mean a certain set of features.
If I were to choose one Egyptian hookah brand that I suggest people seek out, it really
would be Khalil Mamoon. Part of the reason for that is the fact that they are almost
always available. There are some other brands that I am a big
fan. I used to be a big fan of Magdy Zidan, but because of the lack of popularity in the
west, they're not as available on the market as they used to be and you don't see as many
models as you do in Khalil Mamoon. One of the other reasons that KM is absolutely
great for a lot of people is because they offer so many different models that they're
pretty much guaranteed to be something that you love, everything from the classic stainless
steel body to the Trimetals that you see here. They've been doing a lot of cast brass, which
is really great and really beautiful. Each of those appeals to a different hookah smoker
more than the others. You have a lot of options. In that same vein, because there are so many
models, sometimes less popular hookahs will get discontinued, push the way side, or at
the very least not stalked by American vendors because they're not moving; they're not as
popular and they need to make shelf space for the more popular items like Trimetals
and some of the new things like the oxides and stuff like that.
Sadly, one of the problems with popularity is that if you don't get the model you want,
a few years down the line when you finally decide to make that purchase, it might not
be available for you. That happened to me with the original Trimetals actually.
I would love to get my hands on a vintage Khalil Mamoon trimetal, but I'm pretty happy
with what I have. Regarding Syrian hookahs, I'm still a pretty
strong devotee of Noir, also known as Al Nawras. That is a very hard to find brand of hookahs
but its pretty much perfect for me. They tend to be shorter, they tend to be a
little bit more restrictive in their drawn and they have this beautiful, very subtle,
almost [00:04:07] design element to them and my favorite is the Noir [00:04:11], which
is just a simple swirl design. If you can find Noir hookahs, they are my
pick for the best Syrian hookahs that you can currently find on the market. With that
being said, those are extremely hard to find and people have been jacking up prices to
an absolutely ridiculous degree, which has limited the fans of Noir to being either those
who already have them who were lucky enough to buy them back in the day because they had
a great price point. $100 for a Noir; who can say no to that?
Or those that are seriously hardcore collectors because I've seen some of them go for upwards
of $200 and I find that to be a little bit unacceptable.
On the other hand, there are some Egyptian brands that have been following the Syrian
styling and they are a good alternative, Khalil Mamoon being one of them, [00:05:11] being
a very good brand that also doesn't have a huge market presence right now, but they're
great if you can get your hands on them. Regarding Chinese hookahs, there's really
only one option in my opinion. It's Mya Saray. Mya Saray is pretty much the only Chinese
hookah I'll even give a second glance. Once again, similar to Khalil Mamoon, they have
so many different models that you're pretty much guaranteed to find something that you
love. They are always in stock. Mya Saray is all
about mass production. It's all about creating a clean repeatable hookah that is the same
from one model to the next. If you buy a Mya QT this year, it'll be the same Mya QT you
buy five years from now. Really great stuff. They're very well made. Most of them, not
including their economy line, are cast from solid brass or at least some brass alloy and
then plated to give a silver look. I think that their very modern design is beautiful
and really speaks to some people. Not so much to the traditionalists.
Speaking of traditionalists, Turkish hookahs have been on the rise over the last few years
and there are some really nice brands hitting the American market.
The most notable of which is Elmas. Elmas translates into essentially "diamond" or "jewel."
They are absolutely gorgeous hookahs, but they are very expensive. Understand that with
a traditional style Turkish hookah, you don't have the purge valve that you do on Egyptian
or modern Syrian style. That is an off-putting factor for some of the more modern hookah
smokers, but if you're looking for traditional smoking, Elmas is pretty much the way to go.
Like I said, they are expensive but you can have everything from relatively small models,
which will cost you some money, but they're egregious, all the way up to the 501B; that
is the model number of one of them that it's hundreds of dollars but it is absolutely gorgeous,
it's massive and has beautiful tooling work. There are some other brands though that are
worth looking into. El Nefes is one that has been gaining a lot of popularity because it's
available, though that is a modified Turkish hookah, so it does have a purge valve.
Another line that I think you should look into because they are more affordable and
easier to find, Othmani, thanks to our friends over at [00:08:03]. They have really beautiful
hookahs that are very much in response to the demands of the customer. Gorgeous stuff
at a somewhat more reasonable price than Elmas and all around good hookahs.
Those are my picks when it comes to the major styles of hookah. Noir for Syrian, Khalil
Mamoon for Egyptian, Elmas for Turkish and Mya Saray for Chinese. If you stick to those
brands, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a good hookah that will smoke well and will
almost guaranteed look pretty damn good too. This is Paul giving his opinions for whatever
they're worth on the brands to keep your eyes out for and the brands to choose if you're
choosing your first hookah and really aren't sure where to go.
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contests, which you should definitely do. This is Paul for Hookah.org saying thank you
very much for joining us and happy smoking.