Just saw this thread—I’ve been using the product for years, and it’s wonderful-really works as advertised in absorbing excess moisture. The product is simple: compressed calcium carbonate, i.e. blackboard chalk, but who cares what it’s made of, as long as it works and this stuff really does work. Similar to the Denicotea crystals which do the same thing but have a different chemical composition. If you use this product, you will end up with a fine gray ash at the bottom of the bowl, and zero dottle. Now that has to be worth something.
But here’s a little story: just a few short weeks ago pipesandcigars.com carried them in bags off 10 each, and so I ordered 20 packages of 10 units. They shipped me 20 units, thereby shorting me 18 packages. (Note: later, after much aggravation, they issued a refund for the 18 missing packages.) then they told me that they had seven packages left, and would ship them to me. Sure enough, some bright fellow in the shipping department opened the small plastic bag, removed three units and shipped me the 7 units, rather than the 7 bags. Now that’s quality control!