The story behind Shiazo

In the past decade a cultural revolution began in Germany and in many other western countries. Many young people started smoking shisha – a trend was developing. Today there are more than 5000 shops and cafés are selling and serving shishas in Germany! Later there were more and more studies warning about the health risks of smoking shisha in general. The tobacco contains nicotine and is carbonized or burnt.

Furthermore, the public awareness of the harmfulness of smoking raised and condenses more and more, even in political descisions in the present. So, many shisha bars faced a big problem after the smoking ban for the whole gastronomy in many parts of Europe, especially in Bavaria, Germany.

Something new was required to make shisha interesting to even more people. During a walk over a rocky ground in Switzerland the idea hit us. After a few months and many experiments Shiazo was introduced to the market as a test in the summer of 2010. The name “Shiazo” was derived from “Shisha” (hookah) on the one hand and the name “Zofia” on the other hand. Who was meant? Thousands of people suddenly started steaming Shiazo – unbelievable!

Until the final market release in autumn 2010 some improvements were still made: the development of a liquid formular optimised for the minerals, a coarse grain size suiting any bowl and the gradual expansion of offered information. Due to the strong demand for the product, a drastic price reduction was possible – now Shiazo is cheaper than any tobacco and the steam-stones are still flavourful, mild and provide dense steam clouds..