Best Lists
My Five Favourite Shisha Mixes
Everything else on this site is ranked by the engine, which is the honest way to do it: category fit, sweetness balance, cooling, harshness, out of 60, no opinions involved.
This list is the opposite. These are the five I actually order, and the engine is only lukewarm about a couple of them. That gap is the point. A score tells you a mix will work. It cannot tell you which one you will still be thinking about the next day.
The List
- 1
Paan, Vanilla and Coconut
Fumari, Al Fakher and Nakhla · scores 46/60
The best bowl I know how to build, and the one that made me stop treating paan as a novelty. Paan does the leading, all rose and betel and nothing else on the menu. The vanilla takes the hard edge off it, which is the bit that puts most people off paan on their first go. The Nakhla coconut is barely sweet and exists purely to thicken the thing, so the vanilla never tips it into dessert. Three flavours, three separate jobs, and it falls apart if you drop any of them.
Ratio: 50 paan / 30 vanilla / 20 coconut
- 2
Paan, Coconut and Rubicon Lychee
Fumari, Nakhla and Adalya · scores 45/60
The summer version of number one, and the one I hand to people who found the vanilla build too rich. Rubicon Lychee is floral in the same direction as paan rather than pulling against it, so you get depth instead of contrast. Lighter, brighter, and it holds up better on a warm evening. Keep the paan down or the lychee disappears entirely, which rather defeats the object.
Ratio: 40 lychee / 35 paan / 25 coconut
- 3
Supernova, Falling Star and Pinkman
Darkside and Must Have · scores 44/60
All dark leaf, and the heaviest thing I smoke. Supernova is a 5 out of 5 cooler with almost no sweetness of its own, so it behaves like a cooling agent rather than a flavour. Falling Star and Pinkman do the berry work underneath it. The result is cold, dark and long, and it is completely unsuitable for a first bowl. One fewer coal than you think, and check it at five minutes.
Ratio: 40 falling star / 40 pinkman / 20 supernova
- 4
Love 66 and Lady Killer
Adalya · scores 43/60
Two Adalya mixed fruits together, which by my own advice should not work: two bases, no accent, both sweet. It works anyway. Love 66 is a 5 out of 5 for sweetness and Lady Killer brings enough berry sharpness to stop it collapsing. This is the bowl for a table that wants something obviously enjoyable and has no interest in discussing ratios. Watch the heat, because there is nothing cooling in here to hide behind.
Ratio: 60 love 66 / 40 lady killer
- 5
Blueberry and Raspberry
Al Fakher and Fumari · scores 43/60
The simplest mix on the list and the one I fall back on most often. Two berries, no mint, nothing clever. Blueberry gives it the body and the Fumari raspberry is tart enough to keep it from going flat, which is the failure mode of most berry bowls. If the menu has not got the Fumari, Frozen Raspberry from Al Fakher does the same job with cooling attached.
Ratio: 60 blueberry / 40 raspberry
Why These Are Not the Top Scorers
None of these five tops the database. Grape and Lemon Mint scores 57 and is a better recommendation than anything here for somebody who has never built a mix.
The engine rewards balance, availability and low risk, which is exactly what you want when advising a stranger. It has no way of scoring the fact that paan tastes like nothing else on earth, or that a cold dark leaf bowl in February is worth the extra care. Use the scores to avoid bad bowls. Use lists like this one to find the bowls worth chasing.
One Piece of Advice That Beats All of It
If you are walking into a lounge you have never been to, ignore every mix on this page and order Al Fakher.
It is the most consistent brand in shisha. The same tub tastes the same everywhere, every lounge carries it so the staff know how to pack it, and being blonde leaf it survives a heavy hand on the coals. Everything on this list assumes somebody competent is building the bowl. Al Fakher assumes nothing.
- Somewhere new: Al Fakher, fruit base, small mint.
- Somewhere you trust: ask what they are proud of.
- At home: anything on this list.
Common Questions
What is the best paan shisha mix?
Paan, vanilla and coconut at roughly 50/30/20. The paan leads, the vanilla softens the sharp edge that puts people off it, and the coconut thickens the mix without adding sweetness. It is a three-flavour build and it needs all three.
What shisha should you order at a lounge you have never been to?
Al Fakher, with a fruit base and a small amount of mint. It is the most consistent brand in shisha, it is stocked almost everywhere so staff know how to pack it, and being blonde leaf it tolerates an extra coal. Save specialist brands for a lounge you already trust.
Can you mix three shisha flavours together?
Yes, once each flavour has a distinct job. Three of my five favourite mixes use three flavours, and in each one something leads, something softens and something thickens. A third flavour added without a reason just makes a bad bowl impossible to diagnose.