It's propylene glycol (not to be confused with polypropylene glycol, which is car antifreeze). Most American blending houses with the possible exception of McClellends and C & D, use it as a humictant. I suppose it would be ok but some blends such as Captain Black are soaked with it to the point of being sticky and leaving a black tarry sludge in your pipe. It doesn't bother some guys here at PSF but I'd rather not have tobacco loaded with it.
Thanks Arkie, how do we know if a company uses this? is it public knowledge if a company uses it or not?
If you buy a pouch of OTC at a supermarket that has 1/4" of dust on it and yet the baccy is still moist, it definitely has PG in it. Seriously, I can't think of any American OTCs that don't have it. The Middleton stuff such as Carter Hall, Prince Albert and Middleton's Cherry has it but they don't seem to be quite as soaked with it. Sometimes you can detect it simply by feel. If you pinch a bit of tobacco and it stays clumped or if it feels sticky, chances are very good it has PG. Also, PG will leave a sticky residue on the rim of your pipe if you load your pipe close to the top. Some of the "house blends" at B & Ms (local tobacco shops) are actually Peter Stokebbye or some other European mixtures and they won't have PG. As I said before, tolerance to it is a personal thing. It doesn't bother some smokers and I can live with it but, IMO, a blend loaded with it has one strike against it before it steps up to the batter's box.
Five Brothers! Seriously, if you get a pouch of tobacco that won't dry out even when you don't jar it, there's PG in it to a substantial degree. Sometimes it doesn't bother me, as is the case with Prince Albert and Carter Hall. SWR seems to have very, very little but it's still there. Usually the problem for most people lies in excessive use of PG in heavily sauced aromatic blends. This combination seems to really gunk up a pipe.
Yeah, I'm finishing a pouch of SWR Aro that I got at a grocery store. It was crispy when I first opened it. I never thought about the combination of sauce/topping aros and PG but you might be onto something there. Paladin and CB are good examples of that.
