How To Store Shisha To Maintain The Flavor Like The First Day

One of the biggest problems faced by hookah smokers is how to effectively store their precious flavors and coals after they are done with their sessions.

What often happens is that months or years of neglect results in the rapid deterioration of flavors and charcoal, which causes a rise in unnecessary extra costs on new flavors and coals.

This article will inform aims to help and rectify common mistakes people make that slowly reduce the quality of their smoke sessions in the long run.

5 Ways on How-To Store Hookah Shisha Tobacco & Charcoal

1. Keep Your Hookah Tobacco/Flavors in an Air-Tight Seal
2. Keep Them Covered From Sunlight At All Costs
3. Do Not Keep Them Near a Heat Source
4. Moisturize Tobacco That Has Dried
5. Keep Your Coals in An Air-Tight Container

Keep Your Hookah Tobacco/Flavors in an Air-Tight Seal

Keeping your hookah tobacco in an air-tight seal will prevent any mold from forming on your tobacco and will also prevent your flavor from drying out and tasting stale.

Every time you open a pack, don’t be lazy, do focus on finding a way to shut it well too! After all, you want to smoke again, don’t you?

2. Keep Them Covered From Sunlight At All Costs

Direct sunlight for extended periods of time may result in reactions in the tobacco and molasses in the shisha to occur that may degrade the tobacco.

This will reduce the quality of your flavor and may leave a bad taste in your mouth. Rapid temperature changes to our tobacco are not good for its quality, nor would it taste good.

3. Do Not Keep Them Near a Heat Source

This is an add-on to point number 2, if the tobacco is stored near a constant heat source, eg: radiator, stove, oven, may cause reactions to occur that will result in poor hookah flavor quality. So, treat it just like you would treat your food because you will also be consuming this tobacco through the smoke.

4. Moisturize Tobacco That Has Dried

If your tobacco has dried out, you can consider buying tobacco syrup to mix into your shisha to revive some of its lost flavors. The moisture helps the tobacco to last long during your hookah sessions.

5. Keep Your Coals in An Air-Tight Container

Coal does not have an expiry date but they may get water-damaged so keeping them dry is important! Coals are lit by fire, and water is fire’s biggest enemy, so make sure you avoid water and coals coming in contact with each other.

How Long Can You Keep Shisha Tobacco?

Shisha tobacco has an approximate shelf life of 2 years when it is sealed. Once opened, it will retain its flavor for up to 6-12 months. You can still smoke it after, but it will not taste as good as it once did.

You can keep shisha tobacco for almost as long as you want, if you store it properly, you can smoke it for as long as you have the flavor.

If you cannot find air-tight containers for storing your flavors, a cheaper alternative can be using zip-lock bags that are also air-tight and will provide the same protection that a container can give.

Our advice would be to avoid letting your hookah tobacco be placed somewhere that experiences rapid temperature changes.

Should You Keep Hookah Tobacco in The Fridge?

Keeping hookah tobacco in the fridge is a better method for storing your tobacco as it will slow down the degradation of your shisha and will therefore increase the lifespan of your flavor.

However, this is not a necessary method of storage, if you can keep your flavors stored in an air-tight container, they will still last you a long time. If you find yourself living in a country with a hot climate and no air-tight containers, a fridge maybe your best option for storage.

Precautionary note Please remember that not everyone in, for example, your house or whoever you may share your fridge with, knows and recognizes what hookah tobacco looks like. The last thing you would want to happen is if one of your friends, family, or any loved one opens your fridge door, assumes your hookah tobacco is food, and decides to eat it.

Hookah tobacco is NOT to be consumed like that! Therefore, keep in a packaging that discourages consumption, because you may have children who do not understand reading, hence would not follow if you have simply just left a note that it is not to be eaten.

Can You Freeze Shisha?

Hookah flavors may be kept in the fridge, but do NOT keep your shisha in any freezer for extended periods of time.

Freezing tobacco results in drying all the moisture and the oils that produce all its great flavor, this will reduce your flavor quality and overall quality of your session.

Dry hookah flavor not only burns out fast but is also harsh on the throat when you smoke it, as it can get too concentrated after losing a lot of its smoothness.

Does Tobacco Expire? What Happens When You Smoke Expired Shisha?

Tobacco does not necessarily have an expiry date. Shisha tobacco on the other hand, due to its other constituents, the few ingredients added to it may start to have mold forming if not stored properly, then it should not be smoked at all.

However, if it is well-kept in an air-tight container, away from sunlight, it should be completely fine to smoke, however, don’t be surprised if it has lost its quality, expired flavor may taste stale and old but it still fine to use.

Shisha flavors have a shelf life of 2 years (sealed), once open and stored properly, you can expect maximum performance for 6-12 months after opening.

We would not advise you to smoke hookah tobacco that has expired. Why take the risk, your health matters more!

I was once buying hookah tobacco from a shop I would regularly buy from. Except for that day, I noticed the packaging was a little dirty, so I started wiping it. Since I had paid more attention to it this time than before, I decided to take a glance at the expiry date of hookah tobacco. Can you guess when it had expired?

2 YEARS AGO! Can you believe that? That means, had I blindly trusted the seller and not double-checked my purchase, I would have smoked tobacco that had surpassed its recommended smoking date by 2 years!

Based on this experience, I hope we are able to teach you a lesson because we certainly now check the expiry date of our hookah tobacco, because sometimes, your hookah supplier either simply does not care, they only want to sell and make money.

OR, at times, due to human error, they may also not notice and accidentally sell you hookah tobacco/flavor that has already expired.

Tips For Shisha Charcoals Storage

Charcoal does not have an expiry date, it is completely fine to use old charcoal, the coal will not expire, however, it is best to keep it sealed and away from moisture, moisture will not damage your coals per se but you will notice that they will burn out much quicker than they once did because their quality will no longer be good.

This is called having water-damaged coals. So what should you do if that happens? The best way to treat water-damaged coals is by baking them, you can heat your oven to 300 degrees, if your oven has a convection setting, that is even better.

Convection settings turn on a fan inside to displace hot air, effectively drying coals. Bake your coals for 2-4 hours and then allow them to cool down before properly storing them.

Additionally, as we discussed earlier, make sure your charcoal is stored out of reach from children as they could confuse them for something that is meant to be eaten! (Charcoal is definitely not chocolate and it definitely will not taste as good, unfortunately, it could be extremely harmful!)

All in all, the best way to store coals is not in the original container, especially in regions with high humidity. Buy an air-tight container and keep them there. If kept dry, coals can last you indefinitely!