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Storing your Tobacco

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  • edited July 2021
    @AnantaAndroscoggin
    That, does not sound like an ideal situation😳
  • It's the way to goes in New England @AnantaAndroscoggin! The older part of our house has a fieldstone foundation stacked on top of sand. Right now the humidity down there is over 90%.

    My wife bought me an antique secretary a few years back. The upper section has three shelves and glass doors which I used for pipes and overstock tobacco. I keep accessories in the area behind the fold down desk. The draws are filled with tins of tobacco. 
  • KA9FFJKA9FFJ Master
    @AnantaAndroscoggin
    That doesn't sound good...
    😬
  • Like a mosquito to a bug zapper, eh?
  • Am I the only one that doesn't store tobacco? The only blends I have that I must store are Carolina Red Flake for obvious reasons (offered only once a year) and Vanilla Roll Cake (because it's so much cheaper to buy by the pound), otherwise, I order 2 or 3 tins at a time, smoke them, then order more...I guess I'm an odd ball!  B)  
  • I’ve only once bought three tins at a time.
  • I should have been clearer...I order more than 3 tins at time, just no more than 3 tins of the same blend. I smoke 7 blends, and can't stand "old" tobacco. I even ask SP to always give me the "most recent batch" they have of any one blend. 
  • I always buy enough to get free shipping and stock up when there is a sale on a frequently smoked brand. I just opened a tin of Dunhill Flake that I bought in 2015! Between sales and trying substitutes to replace London Mixture I've amassed almost 300 tins that my sexy secretary stores.
  • @vtgrad2003
    You can't stand old tobacco? You just may not appreciate the difference between young and aged tobacco in my opinion.
    With non-aromatic tobacco, it continues to age in unopened tins for up to 10 years in most cases. The majority of pipe smokers and tobacco blenders believe that this is a good thing and makes for a better smoke. One master blender I have spoken to said aging can take off some of the "sharp edges" of a fresh blend and make it a smoother smoke. He compared it to whiskey in that the longer the spirit ages, the smoother and better tasting it becomes. His example was the difference between a young bourbon aged for 24 months to a bourbon aged for 12 years. 

    As a general rule, this doesn't apply to aromatic tobaccos. The theory is that aromatic blends don't age but I believe that what does happen is that the tobacco in aromatic blends will meld together for a couple of years before it start to actually lose some of its flavor/aroma. (Personally I question this theory because I have aromatic blends that have been jarred for several years and they still are great smokes.) 

    I used to only buy what I was smoking at the time - a pouch or a couple of ounces of a bulk blend - and then buy more as I ran out. The exception was for extended underway periods, when I would take a two or three month supply with me. Up until about 10 years ago, that worked for me and then I started getting involved with other pipe smokers and started exploring different blends. I now have about 10 lbs. total on hand. 
  • vtgrad2003vtgrad2003 Master
    edited August 2021
    @PappyJoe Thanks for the advice, but I've been smoking a pipe for roughly 30 years (and cigars and cigarettes for 10 years before that); I've had plenty of tobacco that has been "properly cellared" and to me, it tastes like crap; how does it taste like crap you may ask? Well, it tastes old, worn out, like a bag of yard waste. Now, that's just my personal opinion of course, but I do think that many pipe smokers are unduly influenced by what the 'dominant paradigms' are and how they appear to others if they deviate from those paradigms, so many have been convinced that you need to age your tobacco for long periods of time and the more you age it, the better it gets...and that's simply not the case. Not all wines or whiskeys taste better the more you age them and the same goes with tobacco. That said, yes, I do realize that the tobacco you get from a blender is already "cured" for a period of time, but there is a BIG BIG BIG difference between the time to "cure" tobacco/wines/spirits and what some consider "aging". 

    What I do is absolutely no different from what a huge portion of pipe smokers do, and that is to buy what you need when you need it, smoke it, then buy some more. In fact, it seems a little odd to tell all those people they somehow "don't appreciate the difference". In fact, I particularly think it's odd to store thousands of dollars worth of tobacco...I have much better things to do with my money, my time, and my space than store tobacco...but again, that's just my personal preference as you have yours as well. 

    PS: I mostly smoke straights, not aros:

    CRF
    Burley Flake #2
    straight Bright
    Interlude (lightly cased only)
    Crumble Kake Red
  • LOL, I'll keep that in mind!
  • Well, I guess I have been told.

  • vtgrad2003vtgrad2003 Master
    edited August 2021
    @PappyJoe Sorry if I offended you in any way, but I've always been sensitive to others implying that somehow their palates are more sophisticated than others...in anything...tobacco, coffee, tea, wine, spirits, etc. There's a reason why there are so many different varieties of all consumables out there, and it's because everyone's taste is different. I regularly drink $8 bottles of wine, that in my opinion, taste much better than most $30 bottles of wine...is my palate less sophisticated than that of a wine connoisseur? No, it isn't as I've consumed $1,000 bottles of wine before...fortunately, someone else paid for them, because I would have bought the $8 bottle myself. Cellaring/aging tobacco just because someone says it's what you are supposed to do falls into the same category.
  • I have lots of different tobaccos that are “aging” because I just don’t smoke fast enough and I like to try different tobaccos.  I will admit that I have some P.S. Luxury Twist Flake that is much, much better, to me, than it was 9 years ago.  Much smoother.  Nearly every type of tobacco I have purchased goes straight into a Mason jar as soon as I get it.  For the last couple of years they also get vacuum sealed after I partake of a bowl or two, so most don’t “age” much.  The 9 year old P.S. Luxury Twist Flake was stored in a non-vacuum sealed jar for the first 5-6 years or so.  I don’t remember if it is vacuum sealed now or not?  I vacuum seal Burley forward blends and aromatics especially.  Virginia forward blends I generally don’t vacuum seal.  Another blend I have that was only jarred and not vacuum sealed was some SG Fire Dance Flake, that is also 7-8 years old?  It is now a much smoother smoke as well, but the “berry” topping is very much muted from it’s original fresh tin strength.
    Now, I don’t consider myself much of a smoker, I don’t inhale, and cigarettes haven’t corrupted me and crippled me into needing a “nicotine fix”.  I do enjoy relaxing with a tobacco pipe and trying the plethora of tobaccos that are out there.  In fact, I don’t think I have finished 2 oz./50 grams (A Tin) of any one tobacco, except maybe Lane BCA, RLP-6, C&D “Espresso”.  I am definitely NOT hardcore, and I admit, I don’t want to be.
  • To all:
    Like we always say here at TPL, smoke what you like and like what you smoke...
    😁
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