As Many Of You May Know About My Issues With Tang

[Sonthert]

It smelled fine in that little pocket of air. Once the foreign air (yours) started invading, it sent it into humidity shock. Just a theory.

[mattarios2]

alright, guess tang just isn't for me, I've gotten 3 flavors to acclimate out of .... about 12 or so.

[Scoop]

It smelled fine in that little pocket of air. Once the foreign air (yours) started invading, it sent it into humidity shock. Just a theory.

thats been my understanding too. its pretty much what happened to my white grape. we bagged it in cali, and took it to miami. upon arriving at our hotel, we opened up the bag. it smelled great for about a minute before i started to think it burned bad. everyone thought it smelled nasty, but it did eventually get back to white grape smell and smoked great.

[moatilliatta]

It's gotta be local climate giving anyone a problem, the humidity is fairly steady where I am (steadily unpleasant HAR HAR) and all I've ever had to do is just dump a new bag into my tupperware, leave it open for a day or so (stir it once or twice during that time) and it's good to go.

[JDHarding]

When I make it, lets say the dewpoint is 35F. I seal it up. It gets to your house, the dew point is 60F. Humidity shock. Its not that your humidity is unstable, its thats its different than when the tobacco was sealed up.

That being said, the problem you guys are talking about where it smokes fine and then gets worse comes from a particular problem, you stir the tobacco up, and only take tobacco off the top. You need to think of that tub of tobacco as a cake, cut a square piece out in your mind and put it in the bowl, top and bottom. If you only use tobacco off the top, some flavors will fade quickly, since some float to the top. It can also come from not stirring well enough, too.

The tobacco is cookd to drive off the excess water...lower water content. The lower water content also makes the flavors separate a little more...its not pre-stirred and it won't stay that way. It forms into thin, little layers of different densities of flavors. If you use a long, shallow container, it will reduce this separation effect. If you use a deep, tall container, it will make it worse, if its a problem for you. If in doubt, use a container thats large and way too big, allowing the tobacco to spread out across it.

Those Ziplock sandwich containers should work pretty good for 250g. They're shallow and wide. They also don't cost much.

[Sonthert]

My guess is you're still underpacking it or using too much coal. Thats usually what the problem is.

[evilded777]

My guess is you're still underpacking it or using too much coal. Thats usually what the problem is.

Just wondering, what would YOU call underpacking?

I don't pack as full as most around here, and I don't have problems. Maybe the flavor doesn't always last as long, but it smokes like a dream and tastes great for quite a while depending on the size of the bowl. I smoked OG Apple yesterday, out of a small phunnel... great taste for probably an hour and a half, trailed off after that... still smoking, and well (oddly not much of a buzz, not like I get from Guava).

[mattarios2]

My guess is you're still underpacking it or using too much coal. Thats usually what the problem is.

is that comment to me?

because once i manage to get it acclimated it seems to smoke fine, no tickle, no harshness, good flavor and good smoke, I am not able to get MASSIVE clouds, but if i could get more chances at smoking it I could get the smoke better, but i never get a chance to, cuz it never acclimates. I only use 1 coco split in half, and then I keep adding halves as needed.

[Balthazar]

alright, guess tang just isn't for me, I've gotten 3 flavors to acclimate out of .... about 12 or so.

You and me both, brother ... Don't think Norway is the optimal place for Tangiers, but I've always found it weird that I get some flavors to smoke great while others never seem to acclimate properly.

Kashmir Peach, Orange Soda and Blueberry are probably the only flavors I've gotten "right". Watermelon used to work, and was my favorite, but I've ordered four different 250s (from three different vendors) over the last year and none of them has acclimated properly. Smells nothing like it did that summer I actually had it working.

Just a question from a guy who knows nothing about climate: does it "work" differently in different seasons of the year? For some reason I seem to have most luck with Tangiers in the summer time, but this just might be me imagining things. But now that it's getting hotter (our winters are really cold) I decided to take out a container with Tangiers Watermelon that I've had stored since autumn 2008, and for the first time it's actually starting to (gradually) smell more and more like it should. Has been out for two days now, and went from plastic/soy to soy with a strong hint of watermelon. That's why I was wondering if it could be the weather ...

[evilded777]

alright, guess tang just isn't for me, I've gotten 3 flavors to acclimate out of .... about 12 or so.

Just a question from a guy who knows nothing about climate: does it "work" differently in different seasons of the year? For some reason I seem to have most luck with Tangiers in the summer time, but this just might be me imagining things. But now that it's getting hotter (our winters are really cold) I decided to take out a container with Tangiers Watermelon that I've had stored since autumn 2008, and for the first time it's actually starting to (gradually) smell more and more like it should. Has been out for two days now, and went from plastic/soy to soy with a strong hint of watermelon. That's why I was wondering if it could be the weather ...

/snipped

I'd say: yeah. The humidity is generally related to seasons: cold seasons will tend to have lower humidity and the warm seasons tend to have higher humidity (I think, I'm a long way away from high school science class, and my brother is the real science geek)

[Sonthert]

I've heard several people that it smokes better in summer than it does in winter. Why? I can't say. I've had other people say they can smoke it in sub-zero weather without a problem. I can tell you that any low-water tobacco does it. I used to have the same problems with Nahkla back in the day.

Here's a little science project:

There are two classes of humidity shock. One is Soy sauce/BBq sauce, the other is burnt. It would follow one is associated with way too high a humidity , the other way too low. Which is which?

You're probably asking "what does it matter in this case?" I think that there might be ways of forcefully acclimating it, but I can't really see the problem since these things don't happen here, if you see what I'm saying.

[mattarios2]

so you are saying since the issue doesn't arise in cali, there is no way for you to test it ...

man that's unfortunate.

[Sonthert]

Basically. If you guys help, maybe I can come up with something to help though.

[mattarios2]

I'm all ears, whatever I can do to help, let me know, if i could get the stuff to acclimate i'm sure i'd love it, i loved the flavors that i got to acclimate.

[Sonthert]

Would you say the tobacco smelt soy sauce/BBQ Sauce or Burnt?

Where do you smoke, what city, state, whats the temperature/humidity there?

[moatilliatta]

I'm in Missouri and it's more humid here than not I'd say, and I've definitely never had a 'burnt' smell. I guess soy sauce isn't tooooo far off from the new Tangiers smell.

[mattarios2]

Mix of soy sauce and the actual smell the tobacco should smell like. Majority of the time though, it smells like plastic with a hint of the flavor.

Scenario 1: I smell hints of tropical punch, but I also smell soy sauce, it almost gets there, and then it goes back to straight soy sauce. The it will just smell like soy sauce for a day or two, then start to slowly creep back to the right flavor, but never fully there.

Scenario 2:I smell pure loveliness out of the bag, within 5 min goes to plastic, and then slowly smells good, then jumps right back to plastic, and it goes back and forth back and forth, and never smells perfect, always get a plastic smell that over powers the correct flavor.

I smoke in my basement, it is a finished basement, I live in Rochester Massachusetts.

We have very cold winters with very low humidity, and some what hot summers.

Yesterday was 70 today was 84 (very rare day for us in MA to get that temp in April, tomorrow says 54 degrees with rain.

We actually got snow flurries for about 10 min 2 weeks ago. Overall summers are 70- high 80 degrees, rarely 90-100. And incredibly high humidity. We have to run a dehumidifier in my basement or the rugs get moist and get moldy.

In my basement, if its hot out, it is cold in the basement, and if its cold out its hot in my basement, so i thought that may be an issue, so for a while I acclimated in the first floor of my house, and still no luck.

[Sonthert]

Open the stuff up before it rains tomorrow, see if it changes, too.

You leave the containers open when acclimating?

[mattarios2]

i dump the entire thing on top of aluminum foil and spread it out and mix every 6 hours or so.

I'll try that and see what happens.

[evilded777]

i dump the entire thing on top of aluminum foil and spread it out and mix every 6 hours or so.

I'll try that and see what happens.

Dude... have you got a humidity meter in your basement by any chance?

I'm really not all that far away from you in Pawtucket, RI... so our weather is VERY similar. I have a whole bunch of un-tried flavors coming in this week; will have to record how things go for me with each new flavor.

[mattarios2]

thats a good idea man, is that what I want a humidity thermometer? or a dew point thermometer or what? lol, could you chime in on that one Eric?

[evilded777]

thats a good idea man, is that what I want a humidity thermometer? or a dew point thermometer or what? lol, could you chime in on that one Eric?

Wish that I knew. I honestly would think you want something that shows the humidity level.

I am going to be getting some for my basement/office/smoking area, 'cause I have a humidity problem down there in general during the summer months (mold, yech... need to keep it below some %, I forget).

[moatilliatta]

Open the stuff up before it rains tomorrow, see if it changes, too.

You leave the containers open when acclimating?

It's gonna rain here all week, I'll open a few up and see what happens.

Yeah, I dump them in tupperware upon receiving, mix it up, and leave it open for a day or so. Might stir once or twice in that time... So far they've all smelled just fine after that 1 day.

[mattarios2]

thats a good idea man, is that what I want a humidity thermometer? or a dew point thermometer or what? lol, could you chime in on that one Eric?

Wish that I knew. I honestly would think you want something that shows the humidity level.

I am going to be getting some for my basement/office/smoking area, 'cause I have a humidity problem down there in general during the summer months (mold, yech... need to keep it below some %, I forget).

We will wait to see what Eric says

Open the stuff up before it rains tomorrow, see if it changes, too.

You leave the containers open when acclimating?

It's gonna rain here all week, I'll open a few up and see what happens.

Yeah, I dump them in tupperware upon receiving, mix it up, and leave it open for a day or so. Might stir once or twice in that time... So far they've all smelled just fine after that 1 day.

you my friend, are lucky!

[Sonthert]

Either. If you tell me what the temperature and Relative humidity is (thats the X% number) I can tell you what the dewpoint is. Usually weather.com, the weather channel or the newspaper will have the dewpoint. Dewpoint is the most important, relative humidity somewhat important.