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Shisha charcoal ideally must burn sustainably and evenly. It also must be odorless. Photo credit: Shaman Charcoal
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Shaman Charcoal has a presence at most shisha industry exhibitions. Photo credit: Shaman Charcoal
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Shaman shisha charcoal is a global bestseller (pictured here: products for the Russian market). Photo credit: Shaman Charcoal
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Shaman Coal promoters putting on a show at a shisha lunge in Russia. Photo credit: Shaman Charcoal
Shisha charcoal is a highly-specialized product designed to bring out the best of a hookah session. One of the world’s leading brands explains why.
Charcoal is indispensable when enjoying a hookah, for it is heating the shisha molasses to just the perfect temperature. It’d be a bad idea to simply use regular charcoal – for instance barbequing charcoal – for that purpose. Conventional charcoal would actually combust and burn the tobacco.
“It not only ruins the taste but also generates a very nasty amount of ash in the bowl, which bears the real risk of the user inhaling it as they enjoy their shisha,” explained Milan Shabaev, co-founder of Shaman Co., one of the most prominent dedicated shisha charcoal manufacturers out there. The entire point of shisha smoking is the fact that the tobacco is merely heated to release its vapors, rather than being burned. Only that generates the cool, soothing smoke that is so characteristic for the shisha experience. In a way, it would perhaps not be too far-fetched to regard shishas as the original “heat-not-burn” (HNB) product – having been around for hundreds of years before HNB even became a thing.
Indonesian coconut shells for superior charcoal
Milan Shabaev founded Shaman Charcoal in 2016 together with his partner, Daniel Muratov Roizman. The company’s products are currently available in 35 countries worldwide. Though the firm manufactures its charcoal in Indonesia in collaboration with a local partner, the two co-founders mostly handle their marketing operations from an office in their native Spain. Shaman coal is exclusively made from coconut shells, which of course also helps explain the factory location. “The raw material is abundant in Indonesia and easy to process, making charcoal of superior quality which burns sustainably and evenly due to its high calorific value,” Shabaev said. Although the company also has experimented with alternative agricultural by-products such as pistachio, hazelnut, or even sunflower seed shells, they all turned out to produce inferior charcoal. Shabaev added that it also wouldn’t satisfy consumer criteria like low ash, long-lasting heat, and a neutral taste profile. Nothing, so it seems, can hold a… well… candle to coconut charcoal.
Two methods, one quality product
To transform shells into charcoal, Shaman deploys both a traditional burning method as well as a more modern pyrolysis technique. The former involves the gradual charring of shells that have been tightly stacked layer upon layer in either a steel drum or, sometimes, a clay oven reminiscent of a kiln. The stacking prevents oxygen from reaching the slowly smoldering shells, resulting in maximum carbon (well, coal!) yield. “This is the most commonly used method, as it requires absolutely zero technology and is incredibly cheap,” Shabaev said. “The only thing required is constant attention from the workers to keep the shells burning and stacking on new ones as needed.” Pyrolysis, on the other hand, is a considerably more advanced technology, where the shells – again under the absence of oxygen – are charred in a more controlled manner using specialized machinery. “But while this method is more expensive due to the elaborate set-up, in the grand scheme of things it does not really result in a noticeable quality difference; at least not one that can be perceived where the end consumer is concerned,” he pointed out.
Cubes preferred
Although some other shisha charcoal manufacturers settled for pressing the carbon particles into pellets, Shaman exclusively goes for cubes, the currently most common formats available being 26mm and 28mm. A special 22mm cube is popular in Japan, according to Shabaev. The company also makes a hexagonal product, but that is primarily marketed in Brazil and the Middle East.
“Cubes are the ideal shape,” asserted Shabaev. “They emit heat evenly and last long enough to be the favorite choice of shisha lounges anywhere.” But that doesn’t mean that Shaman is neglecting its r&d; Shabaev divulged that the company is to soon launch “a new range of charcoal with an upgraded shape designed to further improve heat distribution and also reducing the already low ash quantity.” While he doesn’t expect the average user to immediately notice those tweaks, he insisted that ”the new product is nevertheless going to make the end user’s shisha experience even more pleasant than before.” In addition, the company is presently researching and developing a “quicklight charcoal.” The name being quite self-explanatory, Shabaev disclosed that the product will be “suitable for traveling,” because it “can be lit with a simple lighter within seconds and last long enough for an on-the-go smoking session.”
Germany no longer the “holy grail”
Until not too long ago, Shabaev and Roizman still used to think of Germany as “the holy grail of all charcoal markets.” But, the two partners have since come to realize that the German market has become over-saturated with a myriad of competing products, “all of them labeling themselves as ‘premium’.” The partner duo therefore actively made the decision not to focus their marketing on Germany any longer as they previously did, but instead concentrate on other European Union states such as Poland, Spain, Greece, and Italy. Germany being part of the picture or not, Europe remains the top market for Shaman products, closely followed by – almost naturally – the Middle East. Surprisingly, third ranked is Brazil, with North America and Australasia trailing behind.
Sticking to one product rather than covering everything
Each and every shipment of Shaman charcoal undergoes rigorous mandatory lab tests to safeguard against potential spontaneous combustion during transport. But quality testing, for instance for ash content and cracking, also is routinely conducted to maintain the products’ high quality standards. “Too many [charcoal] companies focus on absolutely every product type, from shisha charcoal to carbon for cigarette filters and anything in between,” he claimed, adding that such a broad spread easily impairs product quality overall. That is why Shaman decided to solely cater to the shisha market. ”We believe that this dedication is one of the reasons why we literally receive dozens of requests per day from all corners of the globe from people seeking to become our distributors.” The magic of the shaman appears to have incredible power.