Hooked on Hookah

A hookah is a water pipe that contains a smoke chamber, bowl, and a hose or hoses.

Sweetened tobacco is mixed with fresh fruit and heated. Its smoke passes through water and is drawn through the rubber hoses to mouthpieces, where it is inhaled.

"I like it. It's a lot smoother than cigarettes, and it tastes a lot better,'' said Chris Sedwick, 20, of Erie, an Edinboro University of Pennsylvania student who recently attended his first hookah session with friends.

Sedwick estimates he has smoked an average of one pack of cigarettes daily for the past year and a half. He wants to quit smoking cigarettes.

For more than an hour, he puffed on white-grape-flavored tobacco.

"It's smoother, and it tastes really good,'' he said. "I like putting my tongue where the smoke comes through and tasting it. It's a lot smoother and less harsh on your lungs.''

A quality hookah water pipe costs about $300, Mustafa said. Most of the 150 hookah pipes -- each about 2 feet to 3 feet in height -- in his stock range in price from $250 to $300, he said.

The sweetened tobacco comes in more than 40 flavors, including apple, blueberry, grape, strawberry kiwi, mint and lemon mint.

The smoking mixture is usually 40 percent tobacco and 60 percent fruit. The tobacco is mixed with fruit and is packaged that way.