Proportion Of Tobacco In Shisha

[Baric]

Does anybody know, roughly, how much tobacco there is in your average batch of 250g shisha (obviously its going to change between brands, but it doesnt need to be too specific)?

I ask as i'm interested in making my own shisha, mainly out of curiosity and because its hard to find good shisha in the UK and orders from abroad are rare, but decent pipe tobacco runs at approx £8 per 50g here. Figure in £2 or so of flavouring, glycerin, honey and its £10 to treat 50g of tobacco. Seeing as 250g of AF is around £14 and nakhla £10, unless that 50g of tobacco yields more than 250g of shisha, it doesnt make much economic sense.

Thanks!

[bayne]

Although I can't help resolve the question, I do offer this;
What you figured makes total sense. Pipe tobacco is premium, and is meant for smoking without altering it. If one tried to use the tobacco nakhla used in a pipe, I'm sure it would taste terrible.

[Codename067]

You want to know how much tobacco is in each batch with out considering the Glycerin or the Honey?

[Bulldog_916]

In a tobacco like Nakhla, I would say it's 3:1 tobacco to additives by weight.

In something like AF or Starbuzz, it would be more like 2:1 additives by weight. Edited March 16, 2009 by Bulldog_916

[Baric]

Thanks for the responses; all very useful! Codename: yeah thats what I was getting at in a roundabout way! Its mainly just to work out whether making my own shisha here in the UK will make economic sense vs buying from the US and shipping it here.

I think i'll make my own just for the experiment, but I cannot see it saving me much money!

[Sonthert]

Um, 9-20% as a rough estimate. I would use cigarette tobacco rather than pipe tobacco.