Alex Royle
Founder and flavour rater, Mix’d
I have been smoking shisha for over twenty years, which is long enough to have watched the whole thing change.
I started on supermarket double apple in a friend’s back garden and learned the hard way what a badly packed bowl does to an evening. The two decades since have mostly been spent working out what actually makes a mix land, and that learning happened in two very different places.
At home, where a bowl can be pulled apart and rebuilt until it behaves, and a bad call costs nothing but an hour. And in lounges, where you get one shot at a menu you have never seen, written by someone who assumes you already know what everything tastes like. That second problem is why Mix’d exists.
The profiles behind it are not lifted from marketing copy. Every flavour is rated for sweetness, cooling, harshness, cloud and longevity based on how it actually smokes, then scored against every other flavour in the database. Where the engine and I disagree, I go back and re-smoke it.
I am not a brand ambassador and I take no money from tobacco companies. The pairings are opinionated because somebody has to have an opinion, and twenty years of bowls is a reasonable place to form one.
How the Ratings Are Made
- Smoked, not scraped. A flavour goes in the database once it has been packed and smoked, not because a distributor description sounded convincing.
- Five axes, every time. Sweetness, cooling, harshness, cloud and longevity, each on a five point scale, so two flavours from different brands can be compared honestly.
- Pairings are scored, not guessed. Every flavour is run against every other one, weighing category, sweetness balance, cooling and known clashes.
- Corrections welcome. If a rating reads wrong to you, say so. Several already changed because someone who smokes a line more than I do pushed back.
Independence
Mix’d takes no money from tobacco brands, lounges or distributors. There is no sponsored placement in the database and no affiliate link anywhere on this site. Nothing is sold here, and the app is free with no account.
Shisha smoking carries serious health risks. This site is a flavour pairing reference for adults who already smoke. It is not an encouragement to start.
Privacy
The app keeps everything on your phone. There is no account and your session history never leaves the device.
This website uses Google Analytics to see which flavours and guides people actually find useful, and only after you accept it on the banner. Decline and no analytics cookies are set at all. We never sell data and run no adverts. Full detail in the privacy policy.
Get in Touch
Missing flavour, wrong pairing, or a lounge that wants its menu in the app: mixdshisha@gmail.com or @mixdshisha.