Natural Hookah Charcoal Guide: Coconut Charcoal Benefits
By Amir / April 29, 2024
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What is Natural Charcoal?
If you don’t use natural charcoal briquettes yet, do you even really smoke hookah? A must for the modern hookah enthusiast, all-natural hookah charcoal is essentially the bee’s knees. By only using organic ingredients like coconut shell, orangewood, lemonwood and sometimes bamboo, natural charcoal is absent of the chemicals used in quick light charcoal. This means a cleaner, longer burn with less ash on your hookah bowl and a better tasting hookah session! I’m getting ahead of myself, we’ll get into all of the natural charcoal benefits later. Keep reading.
Coconut Shell Charcoal
By far the most popular choice for natural hookah coals, coconut shell charcoal. Many of the modern charcoal brands boast the eco-friendly nature of producing charcoal made from coconut shells. Usually by saying “not a single tree was cut down” in the making of these natural hookah coals. Coconut fruit is plucked from trees in places with a tropical climate like Indonesia and the coconut husk is melted down into a paste. Before the paste hardens, the coconut shell is compressed into coconut charcoal briquettes. This tight compression allows for much longer burn times than traditional quick light coals. Usually up to 4 times longer! That’s only the first pro of natural coconut charcoal.Pros & Cons of Coconut Charcoal
As you’ll see, this list is very weighted to the pros of natural charcoal. Not many cons to speak of so we’ll leave that for last. Coconut charcoal benefits include but are not limited to longer hookah sessions with more flavor from your flavored tobacco, less ash and limited cracking throughout your smoke and better heat distribution over your shisha. Is that enough to make you purchase all-natural charcoal? How about the eco-friendly production methods? Or, the absence of flammable chemicals like benzene or other accelerants? That should do it, right?
Coconut shell charcoal burns at a lower temperature than quick lights. Right in the temperature sweet spot for your hookah tobacco. Lower temperature allows you to smoke to the bottom of your hookah bowl without scorching the top layer, in turn, you get longer sessions filled with the flavor you want. And, being all-natural, coconut coals do not put off unwanted smells or taste. Just the perfect hookah experience.
Now to the cons, just one. Natural coals aren’t considered “convenient”. They don’t light as quickly as their classic quick light companions. You’ll need an electric coil charcoal burner and about 6 to 8 minutes of your time. In saying that, you’ll only need to light one round instead of firing up a new quick light charcoal every 15 minutes. So, there you have it, natural coconut charcoal is the answer to all of your hookah charcoal needs.
Natural Coconut Charcoal – How to Use
As stated above, purchase a reliable electric coil burner or use your stovetop with adequate ventilation in the room to light your natural coals. Place them directly on the coils until one side is glowing red and then flip. Once the whole charcoal briquette is glowing, use your handy hookah tongs to transfer to your bowl and you’ll be smoking long into the night. Once you’ve finished smoking (the coals will probably last longer than you) place the coals in water to fizzle out before tossing. Simple as that!