What is UP with this Shisha?

October 16, 2007 3:43 PM

No tobacco? Ingredients in Pig Latin? Sugar cane bagasse? What is in this sketchy, sketchy shisha, and should I smoke it?

I just bought a new hookah, and the kindly old lady at the tobaccionists hooked me up with some complementary shisha. However, upon leaving the store, I looked at the box. It said it was "Herbal Hukka" and promised no tobacco, nicotine or tar. Oh well, I can just get real, nicoteeny goodness elsewhere. Then I looked at the ingredients, which read:
Ugarsay anecay agassebay+Molasses+Flavour.
Reading it, I was like, huh.....Ugarsay? That doesn't sound like Urdu or Hindi or....it sounds like pig latin!
And it was! "Sugar cane bagasse" is what's left over after you get all the sugar out of sugar cane. Does anyone know if this is a thing you CAN use as a base for shisha? Why would they put the ingredients in pig latin, for god's sake? What's going on here?

posted by 235w103 to grab bag (7 answers total)

Set it down... go get some real tobacco.
posted by MaxK at 3:51 PM on October 16, 2007

Is there a company name on the box?
posted by nomisxid at 3:54 PM on October 16, 2007

If you inhale bagasse dust regularly you can get bagasosis.
posted by TedW at 3:58 PM on October 16, 2007

It's Soex. I found a thread on it elsewhere, that has a picture of the ingredients side.
Here.

Why would they put it in pig latin? This all confuses me.
posted by 235w103 at 4:01 PM on October 16, 2007

Why Pig Latin? Because there is a well-known lung disease caused by inhaling this stuff, maybe?

Who knows why it's put in Pig Latin. This stuff probably falls in a regulatory gray area between the FDA and the BATF and is likely produced without any kind of regulatory supervision. I sure wouldn't recommend smoking it.
posted by ikkyu2 at 4:29 PM on October 16, 2007

And somewhere, a food scientist weeps, wishing they could put the ingredients to a new snack food for kids in pig latin.

Why is it in pig latin? I think ikkyu2 has it.

And they were high when they wrote the package copy. It seemed like an awesome idea at the time, dude.
posted by Gucky at 4:51 PM on October 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

I won't even smoke stale shisha. Chuck it.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:28 PM on October 16, 2007