You don’t need tobacco to smoke at this hookah lounge.
The Terrene Cafe and Hookah Lounge, on Vassar Drive, is the only hookah lounge in Albuquerque to use tea shisha instead of tobacco shisha. The tobacco-free lounge opened about three months ago.
Owner Aaron Roth said tea shisha is made from ground black tea leaves mixed with a flavored sugar base, a switch from using tobacco leaves.
“The tea shisha seems to be higher quality because the smoke is just as thick as the tobacco smoke, but there’s no tar and no nicotine, and it also tastes better,” he said.
Evolution Tea Shisha, the brand used at the lounge, was invented by producer Hookah Hookah last summer while Roth was creating the lounge. Roth said the shisha comes in 20 different flavors such as pumpkin pie, margarita and his own special concoction mojito.
“It actually tastes like the smell, which is great,” he said.
Many people like tobacco shisha because of the short buzz they feel after smoking, but tea shisha is calming. Plus, it doesn’t have to be changed out as often.
“When the tobacco is spent it tastes burnt, but when the tea is spent it just tastes like tea again,” he said.
For $10, customers get two hoses and a bowl of tea shisha, which lasts about an hour.
Roth said tea shisha can be an alternative to those who feel sick after smoking tobacco shisha.
“When you smoke the tobacco shisha, people tend to get a headache or a stomachache, and it’s just really intense,” he said.
Customer Iain Deason said he doesn’t like smoking tobacco shisha because it makes him loopy.
“I don’t smoke cigarettes themselves,” he said. “I feel that tobacco kind of dries you out a little bit and it kind of gives you a nasty feeling, but I love the smoke of it. I love kind of the pleasure you get out of it, but I really love blowing smoke rings and stuff like that.”
Roth said he’s had some community members who are opposed to the hookah lounge, even though the shisha is tobacco free, which surprised him.
“Also, people don’t really know what a hookah is and it’s really a beautiful process, and I think we’ve forgotten that or maybe haven’t learned it yet,” he said.
He was introduced to hookah lounges when he lived in Egypt during his senior year of high school.
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“It’s the most beautiful thing out of the Arab culture, just because that’s their coffee shop type of meditation,” he said. “It’s almost a spiritual experience when people were smoking in Egypt, from what I noticed. Everyone would get their own pipe, so it wasn’t as social an event, but people would meet up there and they would sit there for hours talking about their experiences from that day.”
Roth said he tried to recreate a Middle Eastern hookah lounge, which provides exotic and local art in a relaxing and comfortable environment. The hookah lounge is located in a little hidden nook, making it cozy, he said.
“It’s not a traditional hookah lounge, but I do try to create the same feel as a traditional hookah lounge, which is more like a cafe so people are sitting around, reading a newspaper (and) smoking a hookah.”
Deason said in the times he’s been to the hookah lounge, he’s experienced a comfortable environment.
“The atmosphere experience is paramount of the lounge itself,” he said. “In the times I’ve come in I’ve either been with a few friends or just to kick back and study by myself.”
Roth said most of his clients come in from 8 p.m. to midnight on weekdays. Roth said he is considering extending his hours.
“I didn’t realize that Albuquerque actually needs a place where people can come in later and just hang out,” he said.
The lounge hosts event nights during the weekend, which include local bands, DJs and art exhibits.
“I do like to keep the atmosphere pretty calm for the most part and the events are on the weekends so the people who want to do studying during the week aren’t annoyed by it,” he said.
