What tea to drink with hookah?
What Tea to Drink with Hookah
Every true connoisseur knows that while smoking a hookah, you always feel like drinking – tobacco smoke actively dries out the mucous membrane, your throat becomes dry, and dehydration can cause a severe headache. Consuming alcohol with nicotine is not the best solution, and plain water spoils the taste of a good tobacco mix. The optimal solution, recommended by hookah connoisseurs and medical professionals, is tea. Which tea to choose for hookah and how it pairs with the tobacco mix – simple life hacks for our readers.
Hookah and Tea – Rules of Choice
In many cultures of the Middle East, black or green tea without sugar is the traditional drink for hookah. Coffee is also often used as an accompaniment to hookah, but for some people, the combination of caffeine and nicotine creates too much strain on the cardiovascular system, and coffee also does not offer such a rich selection of tastes and nuances. Juices and sweet carbonated drinks do not quench, but only intensify thirst because they contain an increased dose of sugar and gas, which irritates the stomach. Tea offers a calming and relaxing effect, and a wide selection of flavors allows you to make the optimal choice for any tobacco mix. Other reasons why we recommend serving tea with hookah are:
If an unpleasant aftertaste from burned tobacco leaf appears in the hookah smoke, the bitterness in the mouth can be quickly washed away with a sip of fragrant tea;
The taste of tobacco unfolds much better with a cup of fragrant tea;
Tea enhances the atmosphere of an evening with friends after a hard day;
A cup of tea occupies your hands, especially if you have to wait a long time for the mouthpiece in a company of friends;
Tea is a great tradition if a group is sharing food or drinks.
Fruity Tobacco with Shu Pu-erh and Da Hong Pao Teas
Hookah smoke, filled with subtle fruity notes, ideally combines with ripened teas of the Shu Pu-erh and Da Hong Pao varieties. Shu Pu-erh, or Pu-erh tea, is a fermented and artificially aged tea leaf from mature bushes. It has a pronounced tonic effect, invigorates the body, and improves mood.
Da Hong Pao tea has a richer taste with sweet notes. During brewing, the color and taste of the tea slightly change – a bright and dark golden, slightly sharp drink without bitterness acquires a deep amber color and a sweetish taste with notes of freshly baked bread. Da Hong Pao and Shu Pu-erh are perfect for tobacco mixes of any strength level.
Floral and Berry Tobacco with Tie Guan Yin and Bai Mu Dan Teas
This combination is an ideal choice for those hookah connoisseurs who lack energy after a hard workday. Chinese teas Tie Guan Yin and Bai Mu Dan are light but very invigorating drinks. Bai Mu Dan, or White Peony tea, grows in Southern China. It has notes of honey, peach, and the floral blend of valleys and mountain slopes, infused with the sun. Tie Guan Yin is a semi-fermented tea that occupies an intermediate position between green and black tea. It has a pronounced tonic effect, improves mood, and increases tone without over-exciting the cardiovascular system. Tie Guan Yin and Bai Mu Dan harmonize perfectly with tobacco mixes that have a floral, berry, vanilla, and fruity aftertaste.
Soft Teas for Heavy Tobacco
With strong tobacco varieties, we recommend a soft tea that will not overpower the rich aroma of the smoke. The best choices are the Chinese tea varieties Tie Guan Yin, Sheng Pu-erh, the tea drink Honeybush or Taheebo, as well as the South American favorite, Mate. Another popular drink from South America is Rooibos – it does not contain caffeine, and its delicate, sweetish, and tart notes are guaranteed to bring a lot of pleasure to the whole company gathered closely around the hookah.
A successful choice for a hookah with strong tobacco mixes is the popular Indian tea Masala. In this combination, Indian spices and herbs emphasize all the richness of tobacco with aromas of melon, cardamom, coconut, jasmine, pistachio, or grapes.
Hookah on Tea
Another way to combine tea and nicotine is a hookah on tea. It can be prepared in two ways – by brewing the tea directly in the vase or by brewing the tea in a separate vessel and pouring it into the vase, diluting it with water or ice. For preparing the drink, it is recommended to use spices and herbs – cloves, star anise, or cinnamon sticks for black tea, and mint, lemon, ginger, or thyme for green tea. The choice of drink for hookah is purely individual, but we took the liberty of providing you with some universal recommendations. With black or green tea, you will turn the smoking process into a real ceremony, which will soon become traditional for you. Have a good, bitter-free smoke!