The World Of Shisha Cultures: Maklaud X HookahBattle

First of all, I truly respect this kind of project. I’ve had the chance to closely observe how Russian shisha culture has built a strong and unique identity over the years. I’m fully aware of this development and I value it.

However, I believe the Turkish perspective also needs to be properly understood.

The main difference is this:
For us, this is not a “lounge culture.” In Turkey, shisha is part of a much older social ritual. Coffee houses, long conversations, slow consumption… This is not just a product for us it’s an experience.

Before many of the modern trends we talk about today, Turkish brands were already active in the market.
Around 2012–2013, Adalya and Serbetli reached significant sales volumes in the Russian market and became one of the first entry points for many users into flavored tobacco.
This period played an important role in shaping today’s culture, yet it is often overlooked.

The reality in Turkey

One of the biggest differences compared to Russia is the regulatory environment:
* Strict tobacco regulations
* Bandroll system (25g limitation)
* Pressure on indoor smoking
* Constant inspections and operational challenges

But this does not slow the industry down.
On the contrary, the sector in Turkey closely follows global developments and continues to improve day by day.

The concept of the “Hookah Master” has been positioned very well in Russia.
In Turkey, there are also highly skilled masters who are open to innovation, constantly experimenting and learning. The difference is not in capability, but in the conditions they operate in.

Production & development
Turkey is not only a consumer market it is also a producer.

We have strong local brands, and the production side has evolved significantly over the years:
* From brass materials to more advanced production techniques
* From traditional red clay bowls to modern designs
* From leather hoses to more developed and hygienic alternatives

At the same time, while the market was traditionally dominated by blonde leaf tobacco, today we also have companies actively working with dark leaf production.
This clearly shows a transformation:
from tradition → to technology → to innovation
At the same time, the industry in Turkey carries both sides:
It preserves traditional shisha culture while continuing to develop in the modern shisha segment.

Mindset
Despite restrictions, limitations, and challenges, the industry in Turkey continues to move forward with strong ambition learning, producing, and improving.

Areas for improvement
If there is one area that still needs development, it is marketing and communication.

The industry does not always manage this side effectively, and talented individuals or strong projects cannot always maintain consistency without proper support.

I also covered the regulatory situation in Turkey in detail in Episode 3 of my H-Log series. I hope it was understandable in your language I recommend watching it.

Finally, I would like to say this:
Every country has its own realities. But this culture is something we all share.

#nargilehepimizin

My name is Goran Puzic, founder and owner of Dreams GmbH. What started as an idea to host shisha events on Lake Zurich led us to develop our own heat management device after existing solutions failed to meet safety and performance standards. During the COVID period, we introduced our HMD to the public — and quickly gained recognition for delivering consistent, high-quality sessions. Today, we continue to push the experience further and will be presenting our new HMD at the Hookah Battle stand at the Frankfurt trade fair 2026 on Friday (dreams x Diskettlounge RU).

The Swiss shisha scene has been through a lot over the past 20 years — from authentic café culture to mass-market lounges, and now into a space that sits somewhere between passion, stubborn habits, and structural pressure.

And if you’ve been around long enough, you’ve seen every phase of it.

## From culture to cashflow

Back in the day, shisha in Switzerland was more about culture than business. Small cafés, improvised setups, clay bowls, natural coals — and people who actually took their time. The bowl wasn’t just a detail, it was the core of the experience.

Then came the boom.

Suddenly everyone wanted to open a shisha bar. Speed became more important than quality. Staff weren’t trained anymore — just shown the basics and pushed into service.

That’s where things started to slip.

No one wanted to properly build bowls anymore. The classic apple head? “Too slow.” “Too much effort.” Ironically, it came back later as a trend — but more as a visual gimmick than real craftsmanship.

## The Swiss paradox: expensive, regulated, inconsistent

When tobacco taxes increased significantly, it changed everything.

Prices went up. Margins got tighter. Pressure increased.

And whenever a market gets pushed too hard, it adapts.

The grey market today isn’t a side issue — it’s deeply embedded in the scene. Many lounges wouldn’t survive without it. But it comes at a cost: inconsistent quality, lack of transparency, and zero standards.

At the same time, Switzerland is slowly aligning more with European regulations — which likely means:

– higher prices
– stricter rules
– even more pressure on operators

## Technology? Often stuck in the past

Walk into many lounges today and you’ll see the same setup:

Silicone bowls.
Cheap attachments.
Aluminium HMDs — often copies.
Built for speed, not for performance.

The issue isn’t that these tools exist — it’s that they’ve become the standard.

Many owners have been running the same system for years. It “works,” so why change it?

Meanwhile, the global scene keeps evolving.

## Then comes dark blend

Dark blend tobacco is slowly entering the Swiss market — and it changes the game.

It’s stronger, more complex, and far less forgiving.

Bad bowl? You’ll notice immediately.
Poor heat management? Ruined session.

This is actually a chance for the scene to level up again.

But that requires knowledge. And the willingness to improve.

## That’s where we come in

With Dreams GmbH, we made a conscious decision not to take the easy route.

From day one, our focus has been clear:
heat management that actually works — consistent, controlled, reliable.

Not a toy. Not a cheap aluminium compromise.
A proper HMD built for real performance.

And yes — you can feel the difference.

## From the lake to the lounges

What makes us a bit different: we don’t just build products — we create experiences.

Our events on Lake Zurich are the opposite of typical lounge culture:

– small groups
– clean setups
– time for quality

No rush. No mass turnover. Just shisha the way it’s supposed to be.

And we bring that same mindset back into the lounges we work with.

## The first ones are moving

They exist — the lounges in Switzerland that understand things need to change.

Places that are going back to:

– proper clay bowls
– well-built setups
– real heat management

That’s where our HMDs are being used.

Not because of hype — but because they deliver.

## The scene is at a turning point

The direction isn’t fixed yet.

Either it continues with:

– quantity over quality
– grey market over structure
– “good enough” setups

Or it shifts towards:

– higher standards
– better knowledge
– real craftsmanship

Dark blend will accelerate this shift. Regulation will too.

The only question is: who adapts — and who stays stuck?

## At the end, it’s simple

Shisha was never meant to be rushed.

It’s about setup, feeling, and detail.

And right now, the scene is dividing again —

between those who just serve
and those who actually understand what they’re doing.

Hello everyone,
We are Cybuch Shop – the largest retail shisha store in Poland. We officially started our business journey in 2018, although we have been involved in the shisha market since 2010. For many years, Poland was a country that was mostly catching up with more developed shisha markets in Europe and around the world. Poland is also one of the largest countries in the cultivation and production of tobacco leaves. Unfortunately, due to very high excise tax and an unfavorable method of calculating it, hookah tobacco in Poland is very expensive and next year it will most likely become even more expensive.Because of this, the official hookah tobacco market in Poland is quite limited. At the same time, the unofficial market remains very large – definitely larger than the official one. Thanks to it, many consumers have the opportunity to discover flavors and brands from all over the world.
For many years, the Polish tobacco brand Taboo has been present on the market, while other hookah tobacco brands have appeared and disappeared over time. Around 2010, the Polish market was dominated by Kaya and Amy hookahs, as well as Arabic-origin tobaccos. On the unofficial market, American brands such as Starbuzz, Fumari, and Fantasia were popular at that time. For a short period, we even had official Starbuzz production in Poland.
Back then, shisha bars were rather few in number. They were often Arabic-style venues, but usually without strong specialization or high-quality service. A major turning point for retail stores came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people who used to visit shisha bars regularly started buying their own hookah sets for home use.
The development of the market was also strongly influenced by the arrival of people from Ukraine and Belarus, where shisha culture is much more mature and developed. They played a big role in showing Polish consumers how shisha should taste and how it should be properly prepared. During that time, many Russian and Ukrainian tobaccos, hookahs and accessories appeared on the market. To this day, a large part of our assortment is based on products from this segment. At the same time, we also offer a wide range of products from German brands such as Aladin, Moze and Steamulation, as well as from the Polish brand Wookah.
In recent years, high-quality, exclusive shisha lounges have started opening in major Polish cities. Thanks to them, Polish consumers were able to experience what shisha culture can really look and taste like. Shisha catering for events and private parties has also become popular. Today, the best lounges in Poland are often run by people from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Retail customers in Poland can be divided into three main groups:
1. Traditional customers — those who mainly smoke Arabic and Turkish tobaccos, such as Al Fakher, Adalya or Afzal.
2. Beginners — customers who are still learning the market and mostly choose what is easily available in stores, usually blonde leaf tobaccos.
3. Experienced customers — those who usually smoke dark leaf tobaccos, such as Darkside, Black Burn or Musthave.
The most popular hookahs are usually in the price range of around 100 euros, preferably as complete sets. The most commonly chosen colors are black, gold, and silver. Multi-hose smoking is also quite popular, although we usually advise against this solution.
Since the beginning of our store, we have actively selected our assortment. We try not to promote low-quality products or solutions that are not truly useful in practice. Today, we offer around 3,000 different products. We can say that our store has a real influence on what types of products are currently selling in Poland.
We constantly observe trends from all over the world, look for the best solutions and also introduce our own original products. We run a YouTube channel where we educate the community about shisha. In Poland, there have been several shisha bloggers and content creators over the years, but because of the relatively low level of interest in the topic, their activity eventually became unprofitable and they stopped creating content. For the same reason, there are currently no major shisha events or industry gatherings in Poland. We ourselves made two attempts to organize and maintain such events, but due to low attendance, we had to stop.
At the moment, there are two hookah tobacco factories in Poland — Taboo and Al Fakher. Unfortunately, because of the high excise tax rates, fresh batches are regularly available mainly from Taboo, which is also gradually reducing its offer. Al Fakher was available for around four years, but the distributor also tried to expand into the vape segment and later legal changes caused the company serious financial problems.
The shisha market in Poland now seems mature and stable. Despite rising tobacco prices, sales value remains at a similar level, which may suggest that the number of units sold is decreasing. At the same time, thanks to consumers easy access to “exotic” tobacco brands, accessory sales remain stable, and customers are increasingly choosing more expensive and higher-quality products. We are also seeing a trend toward more convenient and potentially less harmful smoking, reflected for example in the strong sales of Xkah electric hookah bowls.
The future of shisha in Poland remains uncertain. This is mainly due to the direction of government policy, which increasingly promotes a healthy lifestyle and treats everything related to smoking and nicotine negatively – while alcohol, at the same time, remains much more socially accepted.
We have already attempted to create the first hookah association in Poland. We hope that, over time, the approach toward smoking products will become more balanced and that it will be possible to begin a real dialogue about changing the way excise tax on hookah tobacco is calculated.
From our perspective, Poland has huge potential, but the further development of the market will depend mainly on regulations, the availability of legal tobacco and consumer education.
Despite all the difficulties and uncertainty, our company will continue to operate, grow, and do everything possible to popularize and develop hookah culture in Poland and across Europe. We believe that through education, careful selection of high-quality products and building a conscious community, shisha can continue to grow in the right direction.

My name is Kiki, and by now I’ve become one of the Hookah Battle Legends. A big part of that came through founding Eden Hookah Club, My Shisha, and MEZZA Space, as well as working as the Head of Marketing for the tobacco brands MEZZA and tombacco.

When we talk about shisha culture in Indonesia, we kind of have to put the word “culture” in quotation marks, because normally culture implies a long-standing tradition — and in Indonesia, shisha has only really been around for about ten years. Since tobacco imports were legalized, the shisha market has been growing steadily, although still on a relatively small scale. That’s mainly because smoking at home is uncommon, and tobacco is still fairly expensive for the average Indonesian budget.

That said, the scene keeps growing. We’re talking about the mega hotspot Bali, where you now find a lot of premium lounges, led by places like EDEN Hookah Club and other Russian-run lounges, but also local restaurants with offering a great mix of shisha, food, drinks, and entertainment — all with impressive interior design and, especially for foreigners, very reasonable prices.

The culture has spread from Bali to the island of Java, and partly to Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi as well. It’s also becoming increasingly professional, driven in part by initiatives like shisha academies, for example those offered by EDEN Hookah Club.

Indonesia can definitely pride itself on having one of the largest selections of tobacco brands, especially Russian tobaccos, but also very well-known local brands such as tombacco with its Virginia line or MEZZA with its Burley line. Thanks to imports of shisha equipment — particularly from Russia, Germany, Turkey, and China — the variety of products available has grown massively.

As a result, Indonesia is now in a position to warmly welcome shisha lovers from all over the world, offering a wide selection of blends, flavors, and shisha quality ranging from good to very high quality.