Sonthert Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Here's what's been going on...They raised taxes on all types of tobacco. The federal tax on 1 Lb. of hookah tobacco (454g) is going from $1.0969/Lb. to $2.82 approximately, April 1st, 2009. They will also be supposedly retroactively taxing tobacco back to January 1st. 2009 (Absolute horseshit!!). What does that mean to you guys? The wholesale price on tobacco will go up about $4.10/Kg ($1.71*2.2 Lb./Kg). This will of course raise the retail price at least $1/250g package, regardless of the initial price. You'll notice it most on lower price brands (since the tax is relatively a larger percentage of the price of the product). Starbuzz has already moved to increase wholesale. Tangiers is going to follow suit, raising wholesale $5/Kg. Increased prices on molasses and packaging make up the other $.90 cents. Other brands will be likely to follow suit up and down the line. If you're a big fan of roll your own cigarettes, grab your ankles, the tax is going from $1.0969/Lb. to about $26/Lb. So it could be worse for hookah smokers....Another KM container hit Los Angeles, more craptacular stuff, according to George. The guy that imported it doesn't like me too much, so I haven't seen for myself, but George assures me that is similar to the container from November, 2008. HookahCompany has a container coming in from Egypy sometime around March 12th. Supposedly its better KM stuff, some MZ and some no-name Egyptian stuff, including three piece leather hoses and high-quality stem pieces for them. Apparently, George spared no expense, avoiding third quality stuff for 1st quality stuff. I'm excited.No movement on Syrian shanks, but after the Egyptian container, George and I might dip into them. I haven't made any progress on making Tangiers shanks, but it is still high on my priority list. I've been working on a lot of new flavors. It gets harder and harder each time, the number of good flavors keeps dwindling and your expectations continue to go up, so...Flavors I'm working on...Tropical Punch....Done (#48)White Grape....Done (#13)Cola...stage 2Green tea with honey...stage 3Renovated Indigo Flower....Stage 4Violet...Stage 1Mango...Stage 1 (Still...yes)Undefined herbal flavor like Chartreuse (Stage 1) New Lime...stage 4Coconut...still stalled. Fail-boatCheesecake flavor...fail boat.Coffee Flavor...fail-boatMade some test batches of washed caffeinated tobacco. Look for samples of that.I forgot if I mentioned...a new batch of Japanese Golden Canaries were imported. They're back to their weight from about three years ago...17.6g/bar. The last batch was about 15.9g/bar. The Abu Hitham ones from 6 months ago were 15.4g/bar. Way to go Canary! Still no movement on Easy-Lite Chinese coals. Probably not going to be imported again. If you like them...stock up.Hookah Company washable hoses...big disappointment.Newer KM hoses...still crummy. Hoping for good ones in the next cargo container...does the carpet flavor ever go out of the deluxe hoses? Bohemian Jars. Still in short supply...will they ever get imported again? Romanian glass...not as good. Not that much cheaper. New KM jars...the gold rubs off. Bummer.Inspected the line of Hookahs from Al Fahker's West Coast distributor. Excellent. Easily the best quality shanks on the market. Look for a new entry to their hookahs, if you haven't been keeping up. Its quite nice, mediumish, not solid, much more affordabl, without the gold plating. Tony gave me a master case of Al Fahker plastic playing cards. Excellent. First class guys at Al Fahker's distributor.I'm still working with the distributor of Meduse hookahs in Great Britain to import Meduse to the US, to get the smoking ban/excessive taxation on Hookah tobacco lifted in Great Britain and get Tangiers imported to Great Britain. They also have a novel heating device for replacing charcoal. Quite interesting.Inhale has a new sculpted hookah, a resiny-plastic cover that has a glass jar over it, It has a skull, a snake and some other grim icon on it. Quite interesting and attractive, though.Super Chiefs may be hitting circulation again. MN Hookah...dropped off the face of the planet???Hookah-Shisha wants me to do a blog for their website. I have only one question...whats a blog? Lots of hookah lounges keep opening. Guess in Chicago closed theirs to do retail.Met and saw lots of nice people from out of state..MechAnt's friends, Judge Poser and his sister...Guys from the Chicago naval training center. Edit: This item removed to conform with Forum RulesSomebody wants to jack the the name Kashmir Peach...I have a trademark attorney working on the problem. You can thank Top Tobacco for trying to end-run me. Thats about it, all that I can think of. Thanks to all the people that support Tangiers, I love you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Oh yeah, Hookah Company's new Snake Charmer Hose...overpriced, but beautiful hand-wound twine handle. Headpiece is crummy and taped on, too, but fixable for those who desire an ostentatious hose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinamon Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (Sonthert @ Mar 9 2009, 08:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hookah-Shisha wants me to do a blog for their website. I have only one question...whats a blog?ive never got in to the whole blog thing (reading or writing) but, to my understanding, it is like an online diary for the public to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinamon Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (Sonthert @ Mar 9 2009, 08:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>MN Hookah...dropped off the face of the planet???what do you mean by this? they just shipped an order for me a few days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoop Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 thanks for the update eric. i might be coming down some time soon to spend some quality time with you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToncSTAR Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 MMMMMMMMM Green Tea with Honey. Cant wait man MNH? Really? Havent ordered from them in a couple months but they still seem like their doing good.And, could you explain what the super chief is specifically for? Ive seen pictures but not a really good description. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechAnt Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Yay on updates!Boo on taxes.Tangiers brand hookah = sex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modisess Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 nice updates.. i agree with tonc, green tea with honey sounds oh so good....p.s. scoop, your avatar is hilarious! i might do that to my sis one of these days.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boricua Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (chinamon @ Mar 9 2009, 03:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>QUOTE (Sonthert @ Mar 9 2009, 08:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hookah-Shisha wants me to do a blog for their website. I have only one question...whats a blog?ive never got in to the whole blog thing (reading or writing) but, to my understanding, it is like an online diary for the public to read."A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video."Blogs are different things for different people, think of it like a website where people publish their own articles or commentaries on things. So it would be like writing a brief article or commentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Sorry, MNHookah hasn't ordered from me in awhile..I think the disposition of their website might change. Either sale of site or change to a drop-shipper. I was referring to the not ordering thing. Clearing all the time cannot I be engaged towards. Confusing every occasional period of time I have never not failed to endeavor to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoop Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (Sonthert @ Mar 9 2009, 01:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Sorry, MNHookah hasn't ordered from me in awhile..I think the disposition of their website might change. Either sale of site or change to a drop-shipper. I was referring to the not ordering thing. Clearing all the time cannot I be engaged towards. Confusing every occasional period of time I have never not failed to endeavor to be.eric has become a jedi master...turned into yoda.i cant wait for green tea. i wish it was minus honey but ill wait till i try it to judge...white grape is unbelievably amazing. the batch that ilya got is nearly gone. sooooo gooood. also cant wait for tangiers hookah. i would weep and cry because its not done yet but i fear that eric feeds on our tears and dreams! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchard Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Green tea and honey... I can't wait for that. That was an update of epic proportions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToncSTAR Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (Sonthert @ Mar 8 2009, 10:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Sorry, MNHookah hasn't ordered from me in awhile..I think the disposition of their website might change. Either sale of site or change to a drop-shipper. I was referring to the not ordering thing. Clearing all the time cannot I be engaged towards. Confusing every occasional period of time I have never not failed to endeavor to be.ive noticed that. they have a 3 pack tangiers deal going on right now and they have alot of "out of stock" flavors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentBob Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Thanks for the update, kind a State of the Union of Hookah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
An1m Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (Sonthert @ Mar 9 2009, 03:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Here's what's been going on...They raised taxes on all types of tobacco. The federal tax on 1 Lb. of hookah tobacco (454g) is going from $1.0969/Lb. to $2.82 approximately, April 1st, 2009. They will also be supposedly retroactively taxing tobacco back to January 1st. 2009 (Absolute horseshit!!). What does that mean to you guys? The wholesale price on tobacco will go up about $4.10/Kg ($1.71*2.2 Lb./Kg). This will of course raise the retail price at least $1/250g package, regardless of the initial price. You'll notice it most on lower price brands (since the tax is relatively a larger percentage of the price of the product). Starbuzz has already moved to increase wholesale. Tangiers is going to follow suit, raising wholesale $5/Kg. Increased prices on molasses and packaging make up the other $.90 cents. Other brands will be likely to follow suit up and down the line. If you're a big fan of roll your own cigarettes, grab your ankles, the tax is going from $1.0969/Lb. to about $26/Lb. So it could be worse for hookah smokers....Another KM container hit Los Angeles, more craptacular stuff, according to George. The guy that imported it doesn't like me too much, so I haven't seen for myself, but George assures me that is similar to the container from November, 2008. HookahCompany has a container coming in from Egypy sometime around March 12th. Supposedly its better KM stuff, some MZ and some no-name Egyptian stuff, including three piece leather hoses and high-quality stem pieces for them. Apparently, George spared no expense, avoiding third quality stuff for 1st quality stuff. I'm excited.No movement on Syrian shanks, but after the Egyptian container, George and I might dip into them. I haven't made any progress on making Tangiers shanks, but it is still high on my priority list. I've been working on a lot of new flavors. It gets harder and harder each time, the number of good flavors keeps dwindling and your expectations continue to go up, so...Flavors I'm working on...Tropical Punch....Done (#48)White Grape....Done (#13)Cola...stage 2Green tea with honey...stage 3Renovated Indigo Flower....Stage 4Violet...Stage 1Mango...Stage 1 (Still...yes)Undefined herbal flavor like Chartreuse (Stage 1) New Lime...stage 4Coconut...still stalled. Fail-boatCheesecake flavor...fail boat.Coffee Flavor...fail-boatMade some test batches of washed caffeinated tobacco. Look for samples of that.I forgot if I mentioned...a new batch of Japanese Golden Canaries were imported. They're back to their weight from about three years ago...17.6g/bar. The last batch was about 15.9g/bar. The Abu Hitham ones from 6 months ago were 15.4g/bar. Way to go Canary! Still no movement on Easy-Lite Chinese coals. Probably not going to be imported again. If you like them...stock up.Hookah Company washable hoses...big disappointment.Newer KM hoses...still crummy. Hoping for good ones in the next cargo container...does the carpet flavor ever go out of the deluxe hoses? Bohemian Jars. Still in short supply...will they ever get imported again? Romanian glass...not as good. Not that much cheaper. New KM jars...the gold rubs off. Bummer.Inspected the line of Hookahs from Al Fahker's West Coast distributor. Excellent. Easily the best quality shanks on the market. Look for a new entry to their hookahs, if you haven't been keeping up. Its quite nice, mediumish, not solid, much more affordabl, without the gold plating. Tony gave me a master case of Al Fahker plastic playing cards. Excellent. First class guys at Al Fahker's distributor.I'm still working with the distributor of Meduse hookahs in Great Britain to import Meduse to the US, to get the smoking ban/excessive taxation on Hookah tobacco lifted in Great Britain and get Tangiers imported to Great Britain. They also have a novel heating device for replacing charcoal. Quite interesting.Inhale has a new sculpted hookah, a resiny-plastic cover that has a glass jar over it, It has a skull, a snake and some other grim icon on it. Quite interesting and attractive, though.Super Chiefs may be hitting circulation again. MN Hookah...dropped off the face of the planet???Hookah-Shisha wants me to do a blog for their website. I have only one question...whats a blog?Lots of hookah lounges keep opening. Guess in Chicago closed theirs to do retail.Met and saw lots of nice people from out of state..MechAnt's friends, Judge Poser and his sister...Guys from the Chicago naval training center. Edit: This item removed to conform with Forum RulesSomebody wants to jack the the name Kashmir Peach...I have a trademark attorney working on the problem. You can thank Top Tobacco for trying to end-run me. Thats about it, all that I can think of. Thanks to all the people that support Tangiers, I love you all!That entire post was a blog entry. Thanks for the updates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 At least the irony was ripe for somebody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redjako Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Sonthert, what do you think about:Utah just banned (per following CA laws) all Smoking in bars. Hookah lounges will face heavy fines if they use "tobacco" based products, and so numerous people I nkow have complained about the lack of flavor and smoke in the herbal switch the hookah bars have had to make.However, Utah has never taxed Shi-sha with the regular tobacco Tax, as with cigarettes or roll able tobacco etc.Same thing where you are? State wide? It seems odd that in a state the Shisha is not taxed as Tobacco, but has been banned from being smoked indooors in a public place.Any thoughts?Thx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 QUOTE (redjako @ Mar 9 2009, 11:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Sonthert, what do you think about:Utah just banned (per following CA laws) all Smoking in bars. Hookah lounges will face heavy fines if they use "tobacco" based products, and so numerous people I nkow have complained about the lack of flavor and smoke in the herbal switch the hookah bars have had to make.However, Utah has never taxed Shi-sha with the regular tobacco Tax, as with cigarettes or roll able tobacco etc.Same thing where you are? State wide? It seems odd that in a state the Shisha is not taxed as Tobacco, but has been banned from being smoked indooors in a public place.Any thoughts?Thx.Faith and superstition ARE dangerous. In California, smoking in tobacco establishments with 60+% of their revenues from tobacco are exempt. I really have nothing to say publicly about this ignorant witch hunt. I have a number of things I'd like to say, several of them involving profanities, most of them rife with overly conservative or liberal comments about liberty and Police States. But, I will refrain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
An1m Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a hookah smoker's face - forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 No comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
An1m Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 LOL MSPaint FTW! If I was on my computer it would have looked a lot nicer, but you guys get the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 it sucks on the tax thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noca$h Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Sweet, more expensive baccy.Yup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cemab4y Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 I saw a show on TV this morning. The late Senator Russell Long (D-La) was chairman of the Senate finance committee for many years. His most famous quote was "Nobody likes taxes". I am not happy with the increase. At least I do not smoke cigarettes, the federal tax on smokes just went up to $1.01 per pack. I keep a blog. If anyone is interested in my activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, please seehttp://www.cemab4y.blogspot.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 i thought it was .61 cents a pack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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