Shisha charcoal shapes and sizes: the catalogue, compared
By Mohamad Sinno, Charcoal Expert ·
Every shape guide in this market is written for the person smoking. None answers the question a distributor is holding: which of these goes in a container, and what does choosing one instead of another cost by the tonne.
The catalogue, in one view
We press 8 shapes. The cube runs a five-step ladder and is the only one with a recorded count at every step. Hexagonal, stix and octagonal come off the same dies and share one size list. Flats, dome and lotus each run a shorter list. Tolerance is ±0.3 mm per side across the roster.
| Shape | Sizes | Pieces per kg | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cube | 22, 25, 26, 27, 28 mm | 96 · 72 · 64 · 54 · 48 pcs/kg | The default across most markets, and the only shape with a recorded count at every size. |
| Cube with hole | 26, 30 mm | on request | A centre-hole cut of the same cube, for buyers whose lines ask for one. |
| Hexagonal | 20×50, 20×35, 21×50, 22×50, 22×35 mm | on request | The anti-roll cut of the extrusion, for foil markets. |
| Stix / finger | 20×50, 20×35, 21×50, 22×50, 22×35 mm | on request | The long round profile the trade orders as stick or finger. |
| Octagonal | 20×50, 20×35, 21×50, 22×50, 22×35 mm | on request | The third extrusion cut, on the same dies and the same sizes. |
| Flat / brix | 25×25×15, 25×25×17 mm | on request | Lower seat and a shallower heat bed; both heights share one footprint. |
| Dome | 20×35 mm | on request | Curved upper face on a flat base, so it seats on one plane. |
| Lotus (3 leaves) | 15×25 mm | 72 pcs/kg | A three-leaf pressing; the second shape with a recorded count. |
Two shapes carry a recorded piece count: the cube and our lotus. Both are nominal packing counts taken as the cartons fill, and they move with density and moisture. The rest say on request — the count exists, it has not been tabulated, and a figure carried across from a neighbouring shape would read here exactly like a measurement.
Read the table by segment. A device-led market wants the cube ladder and the flats; a foil market wants the extrusions; a private-label programme works backwards from a box count, which makes the piece count the first number to settle. Any size on custom order. Anything outside the roster is custom rather than catalogue, and the export desk opens that conversation. If you are working backwards from a box, the per-SKU minimum is what turns a shape choice into a design count.
Cube sizes: 25, 26 and 27 mm
Three sizes carry most of the volume, and the millimetre between them is not cosmetic: 72 pieces to a kilogram at 25 mm, 64 at 26 mm, 54 at 27 mm — the number that decides how a retail box looks and what it costs to fill.
The conventions around those sizes are worth reading with their dates attached. A Europe-facing buying guide from November 2020 treats 25 mm as the safe default — "25mm charcoal are considered a safe choice" — and routes 26 mm the other way, "recommended being used exclusively with HMD's such as Badchas, Kaloud Lotus, Phoenix and others". It is also the only source we fetched that maps a size to a geography: the 28 mm cube "has become a stable in the Spanish and Australian Market, and most recently expanding into countries like Greece" (sic — the source writes "stable" where the sense is "staple").
An Indonesian supplier chooser dated October 2025 attaches burn windows to the same sizes — 90 to 120 minutes for a 25 mm cube in a heat-management device, 100 to 130 for a 26 mm in larger bowls, 50 to 70 for a flat disc. Those are that supplier's figures, published without test conditions, and repeated as a dated convention rather than adopted. We publish no burn time of our own, for the reason set out on our quality page: a duration without its bowl, airflow and device cannot be compared between suppliers. The counts and the box arithmetic they drive are on pieces per kilogram; the 25-versus-26 decision has its own page at cube 25 mm vs 26 mm.
Flats, hexagonals and sticks
This corner of the catalogue collects names, so it is worth being exact. The long round profile the trade calls a stick or finger coal is a shape we produce — our catalogue name for it is stix, and it runs alongside the hexagonal and octagonal cuts in the five shared sizes, 20×50, 20×35, 21×50, 22×50, 22×35 mm. A buyer asking for sticks or fingers is asking for the stix profile. The three cuts differ in their faces, not their dimensions, so the anti-roll profile costs no size. The long formats page carries the mechanics and the dated sources behind them.
Flats are a cube made shorter, and the market disagrees about how much shorter. A US retailer brand line dated December 2023 lists its flats at 17x25x25mm; the October 2025 supplier chooser routes a "flat disc charcoal (25x25x15mm)" to Kaloud Lotus devices. Neither mentions the other. We press both heights — 25×25×15 and 25×25×17, on the one 25 × 25 footprint — our own record, stated beside those published values rather than merged into them. The flats page sets out the disagreement in full.
Four shapes rarely get written about at all. The dome presents a curved upper face on a flat base. Our lotus is a three-leaf pressing and, at 15×25 mm, the second shape with a recorded count — a shape name, unrelated to the Kaloud Lotus heat-management device named further down this page. The cube with hole is the same cube with a centre-hole cut, in two sizes. The octagonal is the third extrusion cut, on the same dies as the hexagonal and the stix. None is a niche invented for a catalogue page.
One format we are asked for and do not press: the triangular coal built around the Kaloud Lotus, a heat-management device. It is a market shape designed for one device, and this factory does not make it — a plain answer beats a substitute under the same name. The guide describing it is unusually candid about the fit: "exactly three pieces fit perfectly inside the Kaloud, and offer a very stable heat performance. This is only when they fit exactly into the system, which is rarely."
Get the shapes in one parcel
The fastest way through this table is to hold the pieces. Name the shapes and sizes your market buys and we will put them in one parcel side by side, so the comparison happens on your bowls rather than on anyone's published numbers.
What shape choice does to your container math
Here is the layer the chooser guides have no reason to carry. A 20 ft of this product cubes out before it weighs out — it fills by volume and never reaches its weight cap — so packing density sets the payload directly. A 20 ft of cube 25 mm, 26 mm loads 20 t; the extrusion and flat group — in roster terms hexagonal, stix, octagonal and flat/brix — loads 18.5 t. A 40 ft weighs out before it cubes out, so it carries 26.5 t for every shape and the difference disappears. Confirmed 24 July 2026, re-affirmed 28 August 2026 [src: Data-Sheet §5, P29, CLIENT-CONFIRMED].
Three gaps there are deliberate. No dome payload exists — the shape is pressed but no dome load has been measured, and inferring one from a neighbour is the arithmetic the sheet forbids. Lotus and cube with hole are the same: on request, not derived. And the 22 mm cube carries no payload row, so nobody should read one across from the 25 mm line. The full table, with the measured cells marked as measured, is on payload by shape. These shapes sit beside the measured specification and the commercial terms on coconut shell charcoal briquettes, wholesale from an Indonesian factory.
Shapes and sizes: common questions
- How many shapes do you actually produce?
- 8: Cube, Cube with hole, Hexagonal, Stix / finger, Octagonal, Flat / brix, Dome, Lotus (3 leaves). Hexagonal, stix and octagonal share one size list, so a size quoted for one is the same in all three.
- Is a stick coal the same thing as a finger coal?
- Yes, and both name the profile our catalogue calls stix. Send a diameter and a length rather than a name.
- Which sizes have a published piece count?
- The cube ladder — 22 mm at 96, 25 mm at 72, 26 mm at 64, 27 mm at 54, 28 mm at 48 pieces per kilogram — and the lotus at 72, all nominal packing counts taken as cartons fill. Every other shape is quoted on request.
- Do you make the triangular coals that fit a Kaloud Lotus?
- No — and note the two senses of the word: the Kaloud Lotus is a heat-management device, while our own lotus is a three-leaf briquette shape. The triangular format is a market shape built around that device and this factory does not press it. If your market runs it, we will say so rather than offer a substitute.
- What tolerance do you hold on a dimension?
- ±0.3 mm per side. Any size on custom order.
- Does shape change how much fits in a container?
- Yes, on a 20 ft: 20 t of 25 or 26 mm cube against 18.5 t for the hexagonal, stix, octagonal and flat group, because a 20 ft fills by volume before it reaches its weight cap. A 40 ft is 26.5 t whichever shape you order.