Apples are not my favorite fruit, but I do enjoy them in jams and juice form and more importantly, as the flavor of choice for my hookah tobacco. When it comes to Shisha, Double-Apple is my smoke ring path to relaxation and contentment.

I fancied myself quite the Shisha maverick until a recent trip to Djerba  جربة, Tunisia.

I accompanied my cousin to ChichKhan Café  الشيشخان, a palatial Hookah Café in the center of the island that uses fresh fruit and juices as building blocks for the Hookah itself.  Rather than using a single piece pipe, the full Hookah is assembled from the base up starting with large cocktail glass filled with apple juice which is then tied using  aluminum foil to an actual hollowed apple with an additional hole cut through the side to support the hose. Above the apple, supported by yet more aluminum foil rests the bowl containing the tobacco and coals. The end result was a flavorful smoking experience despite the fact the flimsy assembly of the makeshift Hookah was at times unstable and often needed to be adjusted.

The uniqueness and selection of fruit-assembled hookahs at ChichKhan also made for an interesting landscape of tables littered with odd and somewhat comical hookah pipes, some with large melons protruding from the middle of the hookahs. It remains debatable whether adding an actual apple to the equation in addition to the apple juice adds much to the flavor over a juice-cooled Shisha, but the presentation I find gives a unique and adventurous feel to the overall experience.  The mad-scientist approach to fruit-based Hookah could perhaps be improved upon by purchasing more solid custom-manufactured single piece hookahs that would allow for fruit to be used in place of the gasket in the assembly.