According to the Wikipedia entry, smoking a shisha (or hookah) is sooo 16th century. Fire, smoke, water, trees and tobacco--the experience is almost elemental. But the Shishavac wants to brings things up to date, shopping-channel style.
A shisha is a water pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco. Similar in principle to a water bong, the shisha consists of large water bottle with a neck that is stuffed with tobacco and then covered with perforated tinfoil. Red-hot lumps of charcoal are placed on top to set the tobacco smoldering. You then suck through the hose, smoke is pulled into the bottle, bubbles up through the water where it cools, and then travels on into your eagerly waiting lungs.
When prepared properly, a shisha is fantastic. The shishavac might not help with the quality of the preparation, but it makes it easier. It does four things. First, it will ignite the charcoal. Place the chunks onto an electrical element and it will heat them until ready, sounding an alarm when done.
Then, when you have loaded the shisha, you put the hose into a hole on the Shishavac and it sucks, getting the fire going and priming the tobacco. Usually the guy in the shisha bar does this for you before handing you a sealed plastic mouthpiece to put over the hose-tip, but hey, who needs employment anyway?
Third is cleaning. The Shishavac can also blast air through the tube with a 600-watt motor to clear out lingering particles. This is, apparently, better than water which can rust parts of the tube.
And fourth is drying. Should you decide to wash the hose, or find it filled with steam and saliva, the Shishavac will blast dry air through the tube. If this sounds suspiciously like step three, then that's because it probably is.
The whole thing is built into a tatty, plasticky-looking device that resembles an oversized Nespresso machine. It can be bought for $280. Here in Berlin, that would buy you around 70-80 shishas in a bar down Neukölln way.
Shishavac product page. Thanks, Marianne! [Shishavac. Thanks, ]
