The World Of Shisha Cultures: Maklaud X HookahBattle

This year we plan to launch a limited collaborative shisha model togeather with Maklaud, this shisha will represent our HookahBattle Mission:

help hookah workers from different countries meet regularly, communicate with each other, carry out cultural exchange, – and also immerse themselves in the atmosphere of celebration, friendship and sports competition.

An 8-sided column at the bottom and an 8-sided column at the top hold the globe in the middle.Each facet of the column will represent a specific hookah culture from a specific region of the world.

We travel across the different countries and we understand that different regions of our planet have a different shisha cultures concepts. Since Im from Russia, I will give an example of Russian shisha culture specifics:

1. Combination of Chineese tea with a shisha smoking.

Reason: first shisha lounges in Eastern Europe region originaly grows from Tea Rooms (specific place where you can rest and drink a big range of tea selection especialy from China). This year we are gonna celebrate 20 years of «Shisha Lounges of St. Petersburg» community, which been founded by Oleg Knyaginin. Place where we gonna celebrate it? «Tea House» — on of the first shisha lounges in St. Petersburg

2. No foil, HMD smoking.

Reza Bavar (read my interview) — revolutionized global shisha market with his concept of Kaloud Lotus. His technology has become one of the integral attributes of Russian hookah culture. Technology. Not his product. And thats the drama. 

3. «Hookah Master» as a term. Hookah Master as a psychotherapist.

In many countries when you visit a shisha lounge and place an order to have a shisha smoke session you will dont even see the guy who will pack a bowl for you. Russian lounges have made it really different taking idea from bartender culture. The main job of Shisha Master is to ask his guest questions to find out their needs and prepare the perfect bowl with 100% guest taste expectations. Some lounges even go far about it and train their ShishaMaster to be the guests psychotherapist: a guy who can talk with you about your hard work day. I belive the pioner of such an idea been Garik Konovalov in 2013 when he have launched his chain of lounges «Unique Hookah Places» across all the Russia. Its been hard to find their lounge (you could get in only with personal invitation) and the main value of visiting been — talks with shisha masters. Moreover Garik have proposed an idea to celebrate The International Day of Shisha Master on 1st July. You can send him a message in Instagram and ask why its 1st July (nobody knows including me). 

4. Endless love for Dark Leaf Shisha tobacco 

In 2011 Russians get in love with crazy american product — Tangiers Dark Leaf shisha tobacco. I remember a lot of talks on old shisha forums. I remember first contestants of HookahBattle presenting bowls with Tangiers. Nowadays Russia have around 100 local manufacturers of Dark Leaf shisha tobacco products. A great case how another techology became a part of Russian shisha culture. But hey, Tangiers is still the leading imported shisha product for Russian market.  

5. Stainless steel hookahs

I remember how we started our hookah business in the second half of the 2000s with Syrian iron powder hookahs. Its been better than first Chinees shishas but iron powder accamulates flavor / rusts and oxidizes / breaks down. From the other hand its been very cheap and nice looking.

The GodFather of Russian Shisha Models industry — Ivan Botanov (OtIvana brand) been known as a guy who can upgrade your Mya Saray shisha.

MYA been the best staneless steel stems on the market but had only 1 problem — quality of inhale. Ivan been the guy who can fix it. Me and Ivan 2026:

See that silicone mouthpiece on the lanyard around Ivan’s neck? Ivan is the man who invented this idea. 

In 2012 Ivan have launched his own brand «OtIvana» a combination of avial and stainless steel shisha model with perfect quality of inhale. Back in 2012 I told him «you are crazy, nobody will buy it for such a high price».

I was wrong. Inspired by Ivan success nowadays you can find dozens of Russian shisha models manufacturers brands who use the same material and technology. After a several years Russian manufacturers killed #1 company of Russian shisha industry — MYA distributor (guess it happens in 2019). In 2017 I have had a meeting with the leader of MYA company in the USA shisha expo — Mr. Badawi asking a question why they dont want to fight with growing russian shisha models brands focusing on stainless steel models. He replied me:

«Our main clients are from Middle East and we have our own shisha culture we are focusing: one shisha for 1 flavor with not stainless steel but with a type of metal that absorbs taste»

6. Silicon hoses

Silicon hoses for shisha been invented at 00s by Meduse Design Czechian company and been presented by their russian distributor «Art Smoke» (predecessor of Darkside Corporation). Ivan Batanov been one of the first ambassadors of silicon hoses in Russia making own model of medical silicon hose + glass mouthpiece

7.  Franchise of shisha lounges

The very first idea of a shisha lounge franchise concept belongs to one of the godfathers of the European shisha market — Piotr Śliwiński from Poland, who launched one of the first lounge franchises in the 2000s with the Buszek chain. Piotr was also the author of the concept of creating a separate tobacco and syrup-based shisha product (Doobacco)

As about Russian market, without false modesty, its been me with Nargilia lounge chain: 2009-2017, more than 150 franchises sold in 6 countries. The project was closed due to my management mistakes (write a comment if you want a full story)

The very first does not mean the best. (By the way Im looking for investor to re-launch the concept of Nargilia International franchise operator — DM me for more details)Nowadays, HookahPlace has more than 250 lounges in over 30 countries, making it the largest international lounge chain in the world. DM me if you want to open a HookahPlace lounge franchise on a special terms

There are many other franchise lounge concepts from Russia (Tangiers Lounge, Myata, etc.), and I can definitely consider them part of the local shisha culture

8. Professional Awards.

O yes this is a definitely spiritual bond of Russian shisha culture. I cant say JohnCalliano been a pioneer of professional awards, but their team have made it really famous and stylish. Nowadays most of famous Russian bloggers have own annual Awards. 

9. Shisha cocktails.

I have mentioned before the Russian distributor of Czech Meduse Design shishas, the company ‘Art Smoke,’ which introduced silicone hoses, but this was not their biggest contribution to the global shisha industry. Back into 00s they could be stupid and act as any regular distributor — just import products and do sales (Meduse pipes). But they’ve been smart and have created the new value of product — they’ve been the authors of wonderfull Shisha Cocktails with luxury outsourcing and catering services for best Moscow restaurants:

10. Shisha tobacco ambassadors.

Ispiried by Cigar industry,  Satyr — shisha tobacco brand from St. Petersburg been the pioneer of Shisha tobacco ambassadors idea. Ambassador is the guy who visit shisha lounges and shisha shops to make a product presentation for management and guests. Nowadays most of Shisha Tobacco brands use the business idea of ambassadors. 

  1. I have already shared my vision of Russian shisha culture.
  2. I want you to go to the comments under this article and share your view of your country’s shisha culture, along with its key attributes.
  3. Please format it as bullet points, with one point for each attribute.
  4. The problem is that people who do not travel cannot really answer such a request, because they do not have a basis for comparison.
  5. If you know your local specifics and also travel enough to understand the differences, then you are the right person to take part in this discussion.

All the good commentators will be granded with a nice gifts personally from me. Which countries are we most interested (by rank of the most registered contestant teams from HookahBattle database):

1. USA (124 teams)

2. Brazil (97 teams)

3. Spain (95 teams)

4. Ukraine (87 teams)

5. Germany (67 teams)

6. China and Hong Kong (127 teams)

7. Czechia (54 teams)

8. Turkey (49 teams)

9. Japan (40 teams)

10. Taiwan (38 teams)

11. Kazakhstan (37 teams)

12. Belarus (31 teams)

13. UK (29 teams)

14. Uzbekistan (22 teams)

15. India (21 teams)

16. Bulgaria (19 teams)

17. Australia (18 teams)

18. France (18 teams)

19. Indonesia (15 teams)

20. UAE (11 teams)

21. Poland (9 teams)

22. Slovakia (8 teams)

23. Iraq (8 teams)

24. Greece (7 teams)

25. Switzerland (7 teams)

#tag

0 Comments

Want to add a comment? Commenting and voting is only available to members of the Business Club Hookah Battle (Join for free)
Already a Business club member? Einloggen.