Oriental VC Cooltone ever changing?

I'm ever thrown off by this whole Oriental kick. Sadly, I wasn't around for the old Oriental G, seeing as I'm only 20. Within the last year I have started using the Oriental VC Cooltone as it is cheaper than Ilford Multigrade and it is practically identical. I've tested them side by side with a print and they were exactly the same, except the Oriental was a bit slower. But we're talking miniscule, like maybe a second or two of time on the enlarger. Contrast, weight, surface, paper base, everything else was the same in both papers. And my teacher and mentor Patrick Jablonski also claims that they both smell the same, his theory being Ilford MG has a specific smell to it. So in my eyes, if they aren't the same paper than Ilford might have started passing their formula to Oriental. I've also read this on many APUG forums.

This is where the fun begins. I recently bought a new 25 pack of paper from Freestyle, and immediately after opening it i could feel a difference in the weight of the paper. This batch seemed much thinner. Having used Iflord and the Oriental equivalent for about 3 or 4 years now, it was an easy difference to note. The surface seemed a bit different also like it had a bit more tooth to it. once I started printing, I noticed that the image was appearing much faster than before. I use the Adams Version of Ansco 130, and usually the first blacks would start to appear around 45 second in the developer. With this pack of paper, however, the first blacks would start to pop up around 20 seconds. Also, i compared the paper bases once the prints were dry and the old Ilford like stuff had a much more bright white look to it next to a warmer looking new batch. Also, the blacks were much deeper, almost silky and the prints had a more glowing type depth to them than the older stuff. I even had to check the box two or three times to make sure Freestyle didn't send me the wrong product, or that I had ordered the wrong one. I ordered this "new" 25 pack around the beginning of April, and the last "old" pack I ordered was a pack of 50 from B&H around the end of January.

Long story short, something is different about the newer paper I ordered more recently. I haven't gotten around to ordering more, to see if maybe it is a fluke, but there are so many differences by such a large margin that I don't think it was. You get used to using something for quite some time, and when it change it is obvious to notice. If anyone has had a similar experience recently, then let me now. I understand that what we have nowadays isn't the same as back then, but have they changed what we have nowadays. If no one has any explanation, than I'm okay, because I like how the newer stuff looks anyways compared to Ilford MG. Thanks ahead of time for all your answers and time.

Papers tend to change a lot regardless of brand. Who knows what goes on behind those closed doors. Forte went through significant change and then changed again, Ilford is not the same either in warm tone or neutral tone. Agfa went through an infamous change in the mid 80s and one thing that never gets mentioned is that at the same time the Oriental neutral tone did as well and also lost a lot of it's richness in the deep tones. Now Oriental is changing things up again as you note and the Warmtone is very different than it was a few months ago. Seems to be the nature of the industry that the makers are constantly tinkering to probably up the profits or perhaps from changing sources of some ingredients.
Dennis

While I'm disappointed to hear about this change, I appreciate that others are posting to "warn" me about it. I have some Oriental I purchased mid-2008; I love the cooler tone of that paper and the price was great. I've heard both on here and from a fellow classmate that Oriental recently switched to a warmer formulation; sort of defeats the purpose for me as I liked the paper specifically because it was cooler.

Any luck with Kentmere or something else for cool-to-neutral? I do landscape and street, and don't personally feel as though warm tone is appropriate for my artistic tastes. I'm looking for something fiber-based, variable contrast, preferably safe to use under OC lighting (as that is what my college lab has installed).