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Do you have to keep pipe tobacco in a humidor

What is the best way to store pipe tobacco?
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  • @Hiker007, In my opinion, the best way to store tobacco is in a mason jar, that is the best way, and of course, make sure you use glass containers, plastic will not work, I'm sure most everyone will agree with that.
  • PhilipPhilip Enthusiast
    When you say store, do you mean until you can make your way through it, or do you mean for the long haul?
  • If you have a tin or pouch that you are going to go through in a relatively short period of time, you can use that - but that means less than a month. Otherwise, glass mason jars.
  • motie2motie2 Master
    The local Stop 'n' Shop has little pyrex bowls with airtight silicone tops. Each holds about 2 oz. of pipe tobacco, perfect for the 1.75 oz. Sutliff tins. I have one for each of the four tobaccos I currently enjoy.
  • daveinlaxdaveinlax Connoisseur
    the tobacco I keep at hand for daily use is in a plastic bag stored in a humidor.
  • SERENTILSERENTIL Newcomer

    Once tins are opened, they don't typically keep the tobacco in the right condition to smoke for long.  They'll dry out over time.  Mason jars seem to be the way to go for short-term and long-term tobacco storage.  These 16oz beauties can be found most anywhere and they'll hold 8oz of tobacco quite well.

    Mason Jars 4- 16 oz. Blue Wide Mouth Jars  Wide Mouth Blue Glass Quart Size Mason Jars /6.5in. Tall x  3.7in. Widelids Included

  • xDutchxxDutchx Master

    For long term storage I like mason jars, or the American style tins with a pop top. Once I crack open a tin and start smoking it on a regular basis, I usually move the contents to a Tupperware style container. If the original tin is of European design, I will usually more it to mason jars for long term storage, particularly if the tins are square. I have found that the square style tins can lose their seal easily, in some cases much easier than round style. In that case, I will move the tobacco straight to mason jars as soon as I obtain it.

    Plastic Tupperware style containers will ghost, so if you plan to use them for short term storage, they should be thoroughly cleaned with baking soda between blends, or at a minimum dedicated to a particular blend or genre of tobacco.

    You will find that the higher the quality of Tupperware container, the more effectively it usually holds the moisture in your tobacco. The reason I mention this, is because the disposable cheaper styles will work, but you need to keep an eye on your moisture content a little closer than you might with a higher quality container.

    Another advantage to Tupperware style containers, is their weight, if you are going to need to go mobile, and are concerned with weight or breakage issues. If you are going on vacation for 2 weeks, and want a 17 blend selection, the plastic containers won't rattle, break, or break your back wagging them around.

  • I will chime in here that you can keep pipe tobacco in a humidor...  Before I really got into pipe smokin, back in Oct of 16, I kept my one and only pouch of Borkum Riff Bourbon in one of my cigar humidors with my cigars.  The pouch lasted me over 3 years, being as I only smoked it a couple of three times a year.

    But now...

    I have 2 dozen big mouth mason jars, a dozen decorative big mouth candy jars and 29 large apothecary/candy jars and the 20 or so tins.

    All of the jars work fine, some of em being used for long term storage, others more often.  Probably only have 6 or 8 of the tins opened, and they seem to be doing fine.  But, then again, I kind of like my tobacco more on the drier side.
  • Definitely Mason Jars, I transfer small amounts for smoking to a smaller, Wide Mouth jar as well.
  • The humidor has become victim to my transition from 'pipe smoker' to 'pipe smoking hobbyist'. For nearly fifty years I've been smoking a pipe and considered myself a basic 'pipe smoker'. Which entailed buying a package of OTC pipe tobacco from a drug store or supermarket ... or once The Tinder Box opened near me ... a couple ounces of aromatic house blends ... usually "North Sea". And a humidor proved to be quite useful when purchasing eight ounces or more of a specific blend. I'd fill it with tobacco and smoke until the humidor was near empty and purchase more. I knew nothing of cellaring and barely branched out to other blends unless my particular brand was currently out of stock. When that occurred I'd grab something else to get me through the week. 

    Fast forward to my discovery of the YouTube Pipe Community about a year and a half ago, leading to my transition from 'pipe smoker' to 'pipe smoking hobbyist' or 'enthusiast'. And I went from smoking one or two brands to what at last count is somewhere in the vicinity of 60 different blends in various quantities in my cellar. Couple that with the fervor over the impending FDA Deeming Regulations and I'm slowly transitioning to 'tobacco hoarder'.

    So as my tobacco supply multiplied and with it the variety of blends, my smoking habits changed drastically. I no longer smoke only one blend but constantly switch up throughout the day, seldom smoking the same blend twice during the course of a week. Any tobacco blend I'd put in a decanter or humidor would dry out before I barely made a dent in it. So all bulk tobacco is now stored in Mason Jars and the humidors have become more of a decoration. I'll occasionally use them for flints and pipe cleaners, or when I get a big order from Pipes & Cigars and don't have any Mason Jars around the house - so I'll jam the bagged tobacco into a decanter until I get to the store and pick-up more Mason Jars. Which is quite sad really because the humidor/decanter was once a mainstay accessory for the pipe smoker. Making Christmas shopping much easier for my wife, as a new humidor was always a welcome Christmas present..

    Since the topic is humidors I'd suggest taking pictures of the humidors in your collection and posting them on the site to share with the members. I might start a new discussion dedicated to photos of members humidors. Need to get the camera out and take a few snapshots of my own.        

  • dbh1950dbh1950 Newcomer
    Hiker007, sounds like the vote is for Mason Jars, of which there are other brands, Kerr being another. Many sizes are available, giving a wide choice for whatever is needed. 
    I usually never purchased large amounts of tobacco, having on hand what I planned to smoke for a month or so, drying out not being a problem. No longer having a local source, purchasing tobacco online has opened the door for ordering in bulk. Enter the canning type jars for storage. They also lend themselves to rehydrate tobaccos which have dried out. I usually slice some apple, checking it every few days, looking for any mold development on the apple, a week or so seems to work. I resurrected a large amount of Dunhill 965 thus way, no noticeable effect on the flavor, night and day as to moisture level. 
    I vote Mason type jars.
  • motie2motie2 Master
    Agreed that mason jars are the preferred storage for larger amounts of pipe tobacco. For those of us on a more limited budget, who buy tobacco in smaller amounts and never cellar, mason jars are excessive in capacity. Hence, my preference for the air-tight pyrex bowls holding about two ounces.
  • @ghostsofpompeii, North Sea was my favorite TB blend back in the day.
  • motie2motie2 Master
    From http://www.pipes2smoke.com -- Pipe Missive May 25, 2017.
     
    <<A number of you have asked how I rehumidify tobacco. I have two ways of doing it. If it is an unopened tin tobacco that I think has dried out I put in in my humidified tobacco cupboard or in my cigar humidor. There it sits for 3 weeks. The logic is, if it died out because of air leakage then in a proper moisture level 18% it will reabsorb. It does.
     
    After 3 weeks. I open the tin, and if still a bit dry the tobacco is transferred to a mason jar, (forget the paper in the tin). I spray it with distilled water that has a few drops of white vinegar added to it. (I qt/litre 5 drops.) And see how it is overnight.  The whole trick is to bring back the moisture level slowly. I find it works better that just trying to rehumidify quickly. Why, I have no idea.
     
    The second more radical approach I only occasionally use with tobacco that is totally dried out. I take the tobacco out of its tin/pouch. Put in a sieve and hold it over a pot of water just off the boil. It takes up quickly and then most of the time is a little too moist. This technique I believe works because its moisture and heat. Keep in mind that tobacco can absorb 100% of its weight in water. Overnight it dries enough. I used this to restore 5 green pouches of John Cottons.
    Worked great.
     
    There are no guarantees on rehumidification. Most tobaccos come around but some just don’t. Tobacco ideally is around 18%. If it’s a blend it should just clump together when if a flake it will be springy.>>
  • I've had two canisters of Velvet tobacco in my closet for somewhere between 15 and 20 years. One was opened and I may have only smoked a bowl or two before discovering I wasn't that impressed with it, the other is still sealed. They were given to me by one of my foreman while working at US Steel. His wife worked at Walgreens and they were doing some sort of inventory and removing items from the shelf that hadn't moved, creating a bargain bin for such items. Well these two tins had been marked down so many times there was about five layers of price tags ... one on top the other. With the final tag reading 50 cents. Now 50 cents for a 14 oz. can of smoking tobacco is something she couldn't pass up and brought them home to her husband. Assuming someone he knew at worked smoked a pipe and might be interested. Well that someone was me.

    Now considering that can was sealed with nothing more than the plastic lid you know it was dry enough to be brittle after so long. And it was about this time I discovered the YouTube Pipe Community and several instructional videos on rehydrating tobacco. This was the perfect candidate. By all standards it was D.O.A. and just waiting for last right and a decent burial. So of all the methods I'd watched the one that most appealed to me was this one.

    Pour the tobacco into a sealable Tupperware container with a lid. Spread it out pretty evenly. I use a flat bottomed rectangular container. I then get a cap from one of my prescription medicine bottles (you know ... the white lid on your plastic bottle of pills that's about the size of a half-dollar and just about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep) . Then pour distilled water (must be distilled water) into the cap. Now take a paper towel and crumple it up into a ball. Take the wadded up ball of paper towel and place it in the cap of distilled water. Then let the towel be completely absorbed with the water. You may need a little more ... but the lid doesn't have to contain any additional water, it's just there to keep the wet paper towel from making contact with the tobacco. Once the paper towel is completely absorbed then gently place the lid with the wet paper towel in the center of the Tupperware container with the tobacco ... seal up the lid on the container. And set it aside for a day or two. Once you open the lid the tobacco should have retained enough moisture to once again be smokable. If it's extremely dry - repeat the procedure and let it set another day or two. My Velvet required a double treatment. But once I was done it smokes perfectly and I use the Velvet for mixing purposes, which suits me fine, and kept me from tossing out a perfectly good blending tobacco.  

    Step 1: Here are The Supplies You Will Need:

          

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    Step 2: In This Next Picture You Will See I've Removed The Cap From The Top Of The Pill Bottle. Then Fill The Cap With Distilled Water:


    003

    Step 3: This Next Picture Is A Bit Fuzzy But You'll See I've Rolled The Wet Paper Towel Into A Ball And Placed It Into The Cap. If More Water Is Needed To Saturate The Towel Do So. But You Don't Need Additional Water In The Cap:

     

    005

    Step 4: Now Gently Place The Cap And Wet Balled Up Paper Town Into The Container With The Tobacco: 

     

    004

    Step 5: Put On The Lid Of The Tupperware Container Making Sure It's Tightly Sealed. Then Carefully Lift The Container and Tobacco And Take It To A Spot Where It Won't Be Disturbed Or Knocked Over And Wait A day Or Two To Check The Results. If The Tobacco Is Still Too Dry Repeat The Procedure With Fresh Water And Towel An Wait A Day Or Two.


    006
  • xDutchxxDutchx Master
    @ghostsofpompeii, I usually rehumidify my tobacco in a similar fashion. I keep a small spray bottle of distilled water handy, and simply spray the underside of the Tupperware lid, and gently shake off any excess droplets. I replace the lid, and usually within 12 to 24 hours, the moisture has transferred from the underside of the lid to the tobacco. The longer the transfer takes, the higher the humidity level in the tobacco as a general rule.
  • All good ideas on rehydrating. I smoker all kinds of tobacco, I transfer an amount from the mason jars an oz. at a time to smaller wide mouth jars and smoke  from them refilling and/or changing as I go. If I tire of one I put the remainder back into the Mason Jar
  • motie2motie2 Master
    Thanks, Ghost. The pictures open things up....
  • Seems to be the most important factor regardless of which method you prefer is making sure to use distilled water
  • @ghostsofpompeii, I'm using your rehydration method right now on some old Pelican.  Keeping my fingers crossed...
  • I'm having good luck with mason jars. 


  • This is the kind of jar I use.

  • Unless the jar has a tight fitting silicon or other airtight seal I wouldn't use it for more than daily storage.
  • All I know is it works for me. I'd prefer a silicone ring if one was available, but the red rubber ones seem to suffice.....
  • @motie2 I use those same jars as well as Ball canning jars and they are great.  Hard to find because they seem to be popular and fly off the shelves here in the Philly area.
  • @ghostsofpompeii Thanks buddy for sharing your rehydration technique. I'm using it now on an old blend that is so dry I was afraid to touch it for fear it would turn to dust... :) Day after tomorrow I will give it a peek and see if there was any magic... I usually will take the tobacco, spread it out on a flimsy cutting board and spray distilled water over the entire area. Then place it back in containers, but only gave me so-so results. Thanks again...
  • I have three with silicon rings that are great and two of them have held the same tobacco for over two years. The tobacco are still moist and haven't lost any flavor. I have one with a rubber ring that I don't use any longer because its so old the ring has dried out and is brittle. Haven't been able to locate any replacement rings (the local craft shops used to carry them) and too cheap to go out and buy rubber or silicon sheets and cut my own rings.
  • Dollar Tree stores have several different small glass jars with silicone rings. I have a 19oz. size that is filled entirely with my last order of 4 oz of C&D Dark Chocolate. Some jars are plain, some are vertically ribbed, etc. . . .
  • I use 1 quart Wide Mouth Ball canning jars for storage, I have a Half Gallon snap ring jar for Black Cavendish that I use lots of to mellow blends and 3 large old candy jars that I store single pounds in.
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