How to Blow Smoke Rings

What a Ring Actually Is

Push a slug of smoke through a round hole and the edges catch on the rim. Friction slows the outside while the middle carries on at speed, so the outer smoke curls backwards and outwards, and keeps curling. That rolling doughnut is a vortex ring, and it holds together because it is spinning, not because the smoke is thick.

This is why blowing fails. A long breath is a jet, not a slug. It pushes smoke out in a continuous stream, nothing gets the chance to curl, and you get a cloud that falls apart a foot from your face.

It is also why the shape of your mouth matters more than the amount of smoke. The rim does the work.

• A ring survives because it spins, not because it is dense.
• Short pulse, sharp edges. Long breath, no ring.
• The smaller and rounder the opening, the tighter and longer-lived the ring.

The Mouth Shape

Take the smoke in and hold it in your mouth, not your lungs. Rings are made in the mouth. Inhale properly and you have already lost both the density and the control.

Now make an O. Lips rolled slightly inwards over the teeth, teeth apart, jaw dropped a little. The gap wants to be about the size of the end of your thumb. Most people start far too wide, get a puff instead of a ring, and conclude they cannot do it.

The tongue is the part nobody mentions. Pull it back and down, flat to the floor of your mouth, so there is a clear chamber behind the opening. If the tongue is anywhere near the front it breaks the slug up on the way past.

• Smoke in the mouth, not the lungs.
• Lips in an O, rolled slightly in. Roughly a thumb-end of space.
• Teeth apart, jaw relaxed. A clenched jaw gives you an oval.
• Tongue back and down, well out of the way.
• Hold the shape completely still. Everything moves except your face.

The Pulse

Here is the whole technique. With the shape held, give one short sharp pulse from the back of your throat, as if starting to cough very quietly, or saying the word oh and stopping immediately. Some people find it by thinking of a tiny hiccup.

The pulse comes from the throat and the base of the tongue. Your lips must not move at all and your cheeks must not squeeze. If you feel your mouth changing shape as the smoke leaves, that is the ring failing before it is born.

Short is the whole point. Somewhere around a tenth of a second. Any longer and you have gone back to blowing without noticing.

• Pulse from the throat, like the very start of a cough.
• Roughly a tenth of a second. Shorter than feels sensible.
• Lips and cheeks stay frozen throughout.
• One ring per pulse. Do not try to chain them yet.

The Easier Way In: Tap Your Cheek

If the throat pulse will not come, cheat. Hold the same O, keep the smoke in your mouth, and flick your cheek with a fingertip. The tap does the job the throat would have done and pushes a neat slug out of the opening.

This is worth doing even once you can pulse, because it teaches your face what a correct mouth shape feels like. If the cheek tap gives you a ring and the throat pulse does not, your shape is fine and the problem is your throat. If neither works, go back to the O.

• Same O, same still lips, flick the cheek with one finger.
• A soft flick. Hitting yourself harder just fires smoke everywhere.
• Use it to check your mouth shape, then wean yourself off it.

The Smoke and the Room

Technique gets you most of the way, but you cannot make a ring out of smoke that is not there. You want a bowl running properly and giving thick, cool, heavy clouds. Thin wispy smoke disperses before the vortex can form.

Density is a real, measurable thing rather than a vibe, and every flavour on this site carries a cloud rating out of 5. Dark leaf tends to sit at the top: Pinkman and Supernova both put out genuinely heavy smoke. On blonde leaf the dense-cloud brands do the same job with a gentler session, and White Gummy Bear and Ambrosia are both a 5 out of 5.

Cooling helps too. Cold smoke is denser and hangs about longer, which is why a bowl with mint in it visibly holds its shape better. Fresh water in the base, a clean hose and sensible heat management will do more for your rings than any amount of practice on a tired bowl.

• Aim for flavours rated 5 out of 5 for cloud. Every flavour page lists it.
• Dark leaf generally gives the heaviest smoke, at the cost of a stronger session.
• A little cooling makes rings hold together noticeably longer.
• Still air is not optional. No fans, no open doors, nobody walking past.
• Aim slightly downwards. Warm smoke rises, and a rising ring tears itself apart.

Why Yours Are Falling Apart

Almost every failure is one of five things, and they are all fixable in an evening.

• You are blowing. The commonest fault by a mile. Pulse, then stop.
• Your mouth is too open. Halve the gap and try again.
• Your lips are moving. Freeze the shape and let the throat do everything.
• The smoke is too thin. Change the bowl, the coals or the flavour.
• The air is moving. You will never beat a draught. Find a still corner.

What to Try Once They Hold

Once a ring survives a couple of feet the rest is showing off, and it comes much faster than the first one did.

Push a ring by blowing gently at it from behind, which speeds it up and shrinks it. Make a small one and fire a bigger one through it. Blow a fat slow ring and pull it forward through the middle with your hand for the jellyfish. None of it is harder than the original ring, which is the bit worth all the practice.

• The push. A soft breath behind a ring makes it accelerate and tighten.
• Ring through ring. Small and slow first, then a bigger one straight after.
• The jellyfish. Fire a fat slow ring and drag it forward through the middle with your hand.
• The tornado. A different trick entirely: pour smoke onto a flat surface and chop upwards through it.

Step by Step

1. Get the smoke right. Run a properly packed bowl with a dense-cloud flavour and fresh water, in a room with no draught. Thin smoke will not hold a ring however good your technique is.
2. Take smoke into your mouth. Draw a decent mouthful and hold it in the mouth rather than inhaling. Rings are made in the mouth, not the lungs.
3. Make the O. Lips in a small round O rolled slightly over the teeth, about a thumb-end wide. Teeth apart, jaw relaxed, tongue pulled back and flat.
4. Pulse from the throat. Give one short sharp pulse from the back of the throat, like the very start of a quiet cough, around a tenth of a second. Keep the lips and cheeks completely still.
5. Adjust and repeat. A formless puff means the gap is too wide or the pulse too long. Nothing at all means the shape is wrong, so tap your cheek to check it, then go back to the throat.

Common Questions