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What do you need for a hookah? The ultimate checklist!
Updated March 17, 2025 6 min 
What to expect in our hookah checklist
- All the must-have products you really need to smoke hookah
- Additional accessory recommendations that improve your everyday hookah life
- Practical tips for choosing bowl, charcoal, HMD and co.
- Recommendations for useful accessories like a bowl building mat, charcoal tongs or draining mat
- Helpful notes on what to look out for when buying (e.g. check what is included!)
- Answers to common questions in our big hookah FAQ
You want to buy your first hookah, but you are not sure which accessories you need besides the hookah itself? No problem: we have put together a checklist for you that lists all the hookah accessories you inevitably need. As a bonus, we have created a second list with cool hookah accessories that are not strictly necessary but can make your everyday hookah life much easier!
The right accessories often depend on the colour of your hookah. Looking for a hookah in a specific colorway? We have dedicated pages for that in our shop.
Hookah accessory must-haves
First we want to introduce you to the list of items you absolutely need to smoke a hookah.
Note: Before you order all of these together with your chosen hookah, first check what the hookah already includes, as some of these items may already come with it!
What do you need for a hookah?
Without these hookah accessories it will be quite difficult or even impossible to set up or smoke your hookah. So make sure you have all of these products so you can enjoy your hookah.
Nice-to-have: cool hookah accessories to make your hookah life easier
Besides the must-haves there are also accessories that are not necessary but nice to have! You can see this list of cool hookah accessories below:
- Coaster for your glass
- Bowl building mat
- Draining mat
- Personal hygiene mouthpiece
- Caesar glass
- Charcoal basket
- Bowl building tools
- Wind guard / charcoal screen
Hookah accessory products in detail
Charcoal burner
Without a hookah charcoal burner you will not manage to light the charcoal. It does work with some kitchen stove models, but the risk of destroying the stove is not exactly small. Here it is better to invest around 20 euros in a charcoal burner than to pay the bill for a new kitchen stove. And in the worst case you will also get an earful from your mum if you try it with the stove.
Charcoal
Without charcoal nothing works, in life and with the hookah too! So you need natural charcoal for your hookah. You will find it in our hookah charcoal category. If you want to save money on charcoal, we recommend a hookah charcoal 20kg pack. This saves you a lot of money compared to the 1 kg packs.
Charcoal tongs
To move the glowing hookah charcoal from the burner to the bowl, we recommend hookah charcoal tongs. You can improvise with other aids such as two forks or homemade tongs made of aluminium foil if you have lost your tongs or forgotten to bring them, but that does not really work well. You can only get a firm grip on the charcoal with charcoal tongs. There are many different versions, which you can take a closer look at in the hookah charcoal tongs category.
Bowl
Don't worry your head about it, unless you can smoke it! Jokes aside, the hookah bowl is also a must-have for smoking your hookah. Here too there are many different versions. They differ both in design (shape and colour) and in the tobacco chamber. That is the part of the hookah bowl where the tobacco is filled in. You can find all hookah bowls here.
Smokebox / HMD
The smokebox or Heat Management Device (HMD) is the part of the hookah in which the charcoal is placed. This smokebox is then set on the hookah bowl so that the tobacco is heated and the smoke is created.
Tip: We recommend the ONMO HMD here. In our opinion it is number one both in terms of price and smoking performance!
Mouthpiece
If you do not want to put your mouth on the silicone hose to smoke your hookah, then you need a mouthpiece. And believe us, sucking on the silicone hose is not very pleasant. Every hookah smoker who takes their hookah out and about now and then can confirm this when they have forgotten their hookah mouthpiece. We have various hookah mouthpieces on offer. These are made of stainless steel or carbon, for example.
Hose
The hookah hose connects the hose connector of your hookah with your mouthpiece. The hoses are usually made of silicone.
Tobacco
For your hookah to produce smoke, you need hookah tobacco. There is no way around it! That is why we also have the best hookah tobacco brands available in our hookah shop. As a beginner the selection here will surely feel overwhelming at first. But for every tobacco variety you will find the flavour described in the product description. You will also find information about the base tobacco used. This is usually either Burley tobacco or Virginia tobacco. The latter is milder and much better suited for beginners, as it contains less nicotine. In our article Best hookah tobacco we have published a list of the most popular hookah tobacco varieties.
Find the hookah tobacco that suits you best in just 3 questions.
Coaster for your glass
To protect both your hookah glass and the table from scratches, we recommend a coaster for the hookah glass. The ones from our own brand Moze are made of a PVC-silicone mix and have a very nice design. The hookah glass coasters are also available in the same colours as the hookahs, so the overall look of your setup becomes perfect! Besides the PVC-silicone coasters we offer the Moze wooden coasters, which are equipped with an LED in the middle that can be set to different colours with a remote control. Especially in a dark room it looks very cool when the glass is lit up in colour from below.
Bowl building mat
For many hookah smokers, building the bowl is an annoying task. This is mainly because it creates a lot of mess. With a hookah bowl building mat you can prevent this. All the tobacco that lands next to the bowl while building falls onto the mat and you can pour it back into the packaging. Afterwards you can simply rinse the bowl building mat under water so the molasses stains are removed. In our opinion the bowl building mat is a real relief for your everyday hookah life.
Draining mat
Just like the glass coasters and the bowl building mats, the Moze draining mats are also made of a PVC-silicone mix. The draining mats are, however, much bigger and higher. You can place this mat right next to your sink and simply put the individual parts of your hookah on it after cleaning so they can dry. The water simply runs into the deep grooves of the hookah draining mat and can be poured off once the parts have dried and been reassembled.
Personal hygiene mouthpiece
For many people, sharing a hookah mouthpiece comes with a certain disgust. It is also unhygienic and can lead to you catching diseases from your friends. Exactly for this reason there is the Moze Tip, a personal hookah hygiene mouthpiece that you can simply put on the tip of the normal mouthpiece. That way you always have your own mouthpiece.
If you often have friends over, you can also take a look at the disposable hookah hygiene mouthpieces. These come in a set of 100 for little money. However, the personal hygiene mouthpieces are the more sustainable solution, as they do not create as much plastic waste.
Caesar glass
If you like it exclusive, you should definitely take a look at the Caesar glasses! These are hookah glasses handmade from lead crystal. The price is very high, but once you have held one of these glasses in your hand, you understand the price tag that comes with them! The combinations you can put together from your hookah and these glasses are extremely varied and beautiful.
Charcoal basket
To be sure that the glowing charcoal does not fall on the floor when you carry it from the charcoal burner to the hookah, you can buy a charcoal basket. In our hookah charcoal basket category you will find different versions and more information.
Bowl building tools
Hookah bowl building accessories can work wonders and make building hookah bowls much easier for you. These are, strictly speaking, special hookah forks and pokers that are made especially to distribute the hookah tobacco perfectly in the bowl. That way you get the perfect hookah with maximum flavour! In our article Building a hookah bowl we have created a guide on how you too can build the bowl like a real pro.
Wind guard / charcoal screen
The wind guard or charcoal screen is the part of the hookah that is placed on the plate to protect against charcoal falling out of the HMD or the stringer. If you have further questions about which products you are still missing for a complete set, you can contact our customer service by email or WhatsApp at any time!
Category and product recommendations for you
A few recommendations to browse, matching your accessory search:
FAQ: What do you need for a hookah?
Do I really need every accessory from the must-have list?
Yes, you absolutely need the must-have items to be able to smoke your hookah at all. Some accessories may already be included with your hookah, so it is worth taking a close look at what is included beforehand.
What is the difference between must-have and nice-to-have accessories?
Must-haves are accessories you absolutely need to smoke hookah. Nice-to-have products make the experience more pleasant, more comfortable or more stylish, but they are not strictly necessary.
Can I also light charcoal on the stove?
In theory that is possible, but it is not recommended. Many stove tops can be damaged by it. An electric charcoal burner is much safer and more comfortable.
Which tobacco is suitable for beginners?
Virginia tobacco is particularly well suited for beginners. It is usually milder, contains less nicotine and is easier to smoke than many dark blend varieties.
What is an HMD or a smokebox?
A smokebox or HMD (Heat Management Device) is set on the hookah bowl and holds the glowing charcoal. This distributes the heat more evenly across the tobacco. At the same time, the awkward handling of aluminium foil or chimney attachments is no longer needed.
Combinations of hookah bowl and smokebox are especially popular. Many beginners use phunnel bowls with an HMD, because these are easier to build and often work particularly well with Virginia tobacco. Experienced smokers, on the other hand, often reach for traditional multi-hole bowls with a smokebox to smoke dark blend tobacco in the classic Russian style.
A good bowl and a high-quality HMD have an enormous influence on flavour and smoke development. Beginners in particular often invest a lot of money in the hookah itself and then save on the bowl or smokebox. For a good smoking experience, however, the combination of bowl and HMD is often much more important than the actual pipe. That is why it is often more worthwhile to spend a little less on the hookah and instead invest in a high-quality bowl and good heat management.
Do I have to get everything at once?
You should own the most important accessories right from the start. You can add additional accessories at any time later, depending on which functions or designs are important to you.
What is the most sustainable accessory?
Reusable hygiene mouthpieces like the Moze Tips are considered a particularly sustainable solution, because they can be used again and again and create significantly less waste than classic disposable mouthpieces.
What does a coaster or draining mat do for me?
Coasters and draining mats protect surfaces from water stains, scratches and dirt. At the same time they keep your hookah setup tidy and clean.
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