Dubai Hookah Maker Uses Tech to Bring Shisha to Global Smokers

Dressed in a white lab coat and taking notes on a laptop, the researcher takes another puff from his hookah. Concentrating deeply, he analyzes the smoke cloud’s aroma and structure like a sommelier would do with wine.

Inside this R&D center for Advanced Inhalation Rituals, he and others are trying to breathe new life into a 500-year-old tradition that’s a favorite pastime in many Middle Eastern cafes: Smoking a waterpipe with flavored shisha tobacco.