Humectants in Kohlhase & Kopp Blends?

[odobenus]

Hey folks, looking for some wisdom. I've now heard anecdotally on a (small) number of occasions that Kohlhase & Kopp has a heavy hand with the humectants -- PGs or otherwise. I'm wondering whether you all might know anything to corroborate this, or just have first-hand experience that signifies one way or the other.

I like the modern (K&K) iterations of Red Rapparee and Black Mallory pretty well, but every now and then I get a weird inarticulable feeling or taste when I'm smoking them that I never get from an SG, Germain's or GLP blend, for example. They also have a certain tackiness, and occasionally a very bitter flavor that I've only ever experienced elsewhere with some Peretti blends. On the other hand, my palate is rather suggestible (it is connected to my brain after all) and it's entirely possible that I imagine things after hearing rumors.

 

[odobenus]

P.S. The only other K&K blends I've tried were Fribourg & Treyer zombie labels that didn't appeal, but I got rid of them before I thought to question their contents.

 

[sasquatch]

Man I've had tons and tons of K/K stuff, and never even considered the humectant levels or possibilities thereof. All good on this end, Wessex, McConnell, Rattray's etc....

 

[danimalia]

I'm working through a tin of Solani 656 right now, and while it definitely came moist, it seems to dry out fine in a normal period of time. Certainly, a more natural drying than, say, Cabbie's Mixture, which my tin never really seemed capable of fully doing.
And I have never really knowingly tasted PG in a smoke, so I couldn't help you there.

 

[odobenus]

That’s interesting and very good to hear. Thanks guys.

 

[sablebrush52]

I've never had a problem with any of the K&K product.

 

[hugodrax]

Frankly, no. K und K are the last of the great houses, in my opinion, and deserve praise and purchases.
They do Virginias right.

 

[sablebrush52]

They do Virginias right.

They sure do. They are a very high quality blender.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I just wish they'd ship more.

 

[trubka2]

You can find out exactly how much PG is in many KK-manufactured blends here. It's the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture site. I can't figure out the rhyme and reason behind which blenders are listed and which aren't - they have Capstan, Peterson and Rattray's, but not Fribourg and Treyer, for example. Just type the name of the blend into the field marked "suchtext" (where I've entered "marlin flake"). They also tell you how much sugar and other stuff is in your blends. I don't know what counts as a "heavy hand". As you can see, there's just shy of 35 mg of PG (they use a comma for the decimal point) in a 100 gram tin of Marlin Flake, which doesn't seem like much to me. Heavy hand or not, I really enjoy just about every KK-made blend I've tried. I go through a ton of HOTW (41 mg of PG, 41 mg of inverted sugar), just can't get enough of it, literally.

 

[odobenus]

Thanks for all this, folks. It's reassuring.

And Trubka, what an amazing resource! I kinda wish every blending house were so transparent, though it might take away from some of the friendly bickering at tobaccoreviews.com.
Looks like Red Rapparee has 51 mg of inverted sugar, 16 mg of PG, 15 mg of glycerol (I'm guessing another humectant?), and 11 mg of 'flavor' (top note?).

And Black Mallory has 60 mg of inverted sugar, 20 mg of PG, 18 mg of glycerol and 9 mg of flavor.

Very cool. Thanks.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have never had an issue with KK using to much pg. I am sensitive to PG as well as rd virginia's and if there is too much pg in a blend, my mouth gets wicked dry, not just regular dry, wicked dry, there is a huge difference.

 

[odobenus]

That's very interesting, Harris. If you don't mind saying, what are some of those blends that seem to push your limit of PGs? I've experienced the wicked dry on a few occasions.

 

[brooklynpiper]

I love K&K, but was disappointed by my most recent purchase of a round of the Rattray's VaPer series. Really chemically taste and unnatural resulting mouth coating. I don't react to red virginia as some do.
I jarred up the tobacco and put it in timeout. Hopefully I can come back to it and it'll be glorious. All my K&K products and Rattrays products before then had been fantastic.

 

[cigrmaster]

odobenus,

That's very interesting, Harris. If you don't mind saying, what are some of those blends that seem to push your limit of PGs? I've experienced the wicked dry on a few occasions.

Boswell aromatics were the blends that had too much PG for me. It was the summer of 2012 and I wanted to check out a few aromatics as I had never tried them before. I enjoyed the flavors of the ones I tried but I couldn't deal with the nasty drying. I gave them away to someone who liked them.

 

[hawky454]

You can find out exactly how much PG is in many KK-manufactured blends here.

That is a really cool site! I’ll have fun with that for sure, thank you for posting that! I had no idear such a site existed, this is why I love the forums!

 

[trubka2]

That is a really cool site!

For sure - Who would've thought you could have so much fun with a German government website?!
While down in that rabbit-hole, I came across another thing that's also really interesting. I already posted about it in a thread I can't find now, but maybe it's worth a repeat. It's a fuller list of EU-manufactured blends from 2004 that also has some of the flavoring agents and stuff (maybe the federal or EU regs were different back then?). But it's only available in a pdf that you have to download - high internet hygiene level required for sure! I don't want to put a link up here, but you can find the document in a few places if you google the title: "Liste der Zusatzstoffe in Tabakprodukten 2004: Pfeifentabak".
The funny thing is I personally don't much care what's in a blend as long as it tastes good and smokes well. Just fun to look at all the "secrets".

 

[jravenwood]

Really chemically taste and unnatural resulting mouth coating.

Same here.
Ive tried alot of the K & K made virginias and every single one gives me a strange feeling in the back of my throat that oddly enough turns into a feeling of heartburn. Ive never experienced this with any other blender, but I stopped buying those blends because of it. I notice it with all the Fribourg virginia blends like Vintage, Blended, and Cut plug, and some of the wessex. All mine were fresh tins.
It translated in my mind as being low quality leaf and A LOT of PG. Just my opinion.

 

[krizzose]

One thing I really like about the K&K blends I smoke the most (Marlin Flake and HOTW), is their moisture level. I’ve had no problem smoking HOTW straight from a fresh tin. Marlin Flake is wetter out of the tin, but dries faster IMO than a lot of other blends.

 

[hawky454]

Liste der Zusatzstoffe in Tabakprodukten 2004: Pfeifentabak".

Thanks! Yeah, I don’t really care, it’s just fun to see what’s in some of this stuff!