Fruit bowls, sometimes referred to as hookah fruit heads or fresh heads, are created by cutting a piece of fruit into the shape of a hookah bowl, stuffing it with shisha tobacco, and attaching it to your hookah pipe in place of the traditional bowl. Fruit heads are more exciting than conventional bowls since they provide an extra blast of fruit flavour from the juices mixing with the shisha tobacco (if you’re searching for a new bowl, check out our hookah bowl buying guide). You can cut the fruit into any form or pattern you choose, as long as it is sliced to serve as a shisha bowl. We’ve even seen some insane “jack o’lantern” style pumpkin bowls, but those aren’t really fruit, so don’t be scared to get creative!
PROS OF A HOOKAH FRUIT BOWL
natural flavouring from fruit juices added
appear impressive
Good to make
make fresh shisha flavour combinations
When your clay bowl breaks, this comes in handy.
CONS OF A HOOKAH FRUIT BOWL
It takes longer to prepare since the interior of the damp fruit makes it more difficult to reheat the shisha tobacco mixture. It also makes smoking more messy and doesn’t produce an airtight seal.
WHAT FRUIT CAN YOU USE TO MAKE A SHISHA FRUIT BOWL?
Almost any fruit, within reason, could be used to create a fruit bowl for shisha. Ideally, you want a piece of fruit that can be readily sliced into a bowl shape and has a soft inside with a hard exterior (for structural stability). The most preferred options include:
- Apple fruit bowl
- Orange fruit bowl
- Pineapple fruit bowl
- Watermelon fruit bowl
- Lemon fruit bowl
- Pear fruit bowl
- Grapefruit fruit bowl
- Lime fruit bowl
TOOLS REQUIRED TO MAKE A SHISHA FRUIT BOWL
- Kitchen knife
- Apple corer
- Teaspoon
- Absorbent paper towel
- Aluminium foil
- Toothpicks
HOW TO MAKE A FRUIT HOOKAH BOWL
As one of the simplest and most common fruit bowls, we’ll use an apple as our example to demonstrate how to create a hookah bowl.
STEP 1: CORE THE APPLE
With other fruits, this step would often be done last, but since we need to remove the apple’s actual core, it’s ideal to do it first. Therefore, remove the apple core with the apple corer as intended.
STEP 2: CUT OFF THE TOP THIRD OF THE APPLE
Cutting off the top third of the apple with a kitchen knife is typically the first step (most people consume the leftover fruit).
STEP 3: SCOOP OUT THE INSIDE FLESH OF THE APPLE
Carve out the apple’s interior into a bowl shape, leaving a minimum wall thickness of 1 cm, using a combination of the teaspoon and kitchen knife (for any difficult portions). Even better, you may create a funnel-shaped fruit head by carving out a doughnut shape and leaving a raised stump in the middle near the core hole.
STEP 4: DRY THE INSIDE OF THE APPLE
You don’t want the fruit bowl to be moist, even though you want some fruit juice to combine with the shisha tobacco. To remove any extra liquid, wipe the inside of the apple with an absorbent paper towel.
STEP 5: LINE THE BASE OF THE APPLE WITH ALUMINIUM FOIL
A little square of aluminium foil, just big enough to fill the hole left by the apple corer, can be used to line the base of the apple to prevent your shisha mix from spilling down the hole. To let the shisha smoke through, pierce the foil three to five times with the toothpick. You can cross a few toothpicks over the hole in its place if you feel that this approach restricts the draw too much.
FIT A FRUIT BOWL TO THE HOOKAH PIPE INSTEAD OF A REGULAR BOWL at step six.
The apple corer hole should have the ideal diameter to cover your stem or male ashtray fitting. To make a suitable seal, place the apple over the male fitting and turn it until it is seated. If the fruit bowl is too loose, test the fit once more by wrapping a layer of paper towel around the stem. Continue until a good seal is created.
Step 7: Add Shisha tobacco to the fruit bowl.
It’s time to add a complimentary shisha tobacco flavour or mix to your fruit bowl. For additional information on how to pack a hookah bowl, check our blog post on how it differs from filling a conventional bowl.
You ought to have enough knowledge at this point to start experimenting with shisha fruit bowls on your own. Please don’t hesitate to email us any images of your creations or to tag us in your social media posts!