Cool and dry is best. If you can keep it between 55 deg F and 70 deg F, you're doing well; perhaps a 65 deg F upper limit is better still.
Heat, despite the apparent popularity of some of the "Dashboard Stoving" techniques, is not your tobacco's friend. Among other things, you increase the probability that dormant mold spores will germinate. Freezing is also a bad idea.
Of course, moist environments will do nothing other than contribute to rust development, so dry is better. (Remember, the tins are sealed. Moisture inside the tins will stay there, irrespective of the external RH.)
GL Pease, 2005-03-29
If you are comfortable, the tobacco will be comfortable.
James D. Beard, 2005-03-28
The main concern is to keep them in an environment that will keep the tins from rusting. The idea is an environment that does not fluctuate in temperature or humidity.
G. W. Fletcher, 2001-05-10
The stuff should be stored in a cool, dry place. Dry is important. Tins, while coated on the inside to prevent rust from within, are susceptible to rusting from the outside in. There's nothing worse than opening a tin of something you've been looking forward to for years, only to find a dry, rusty mess inside. Rust does have a flavour of its own. It's terrible.
GL Pease, 2001-08-15
Cool, but not cold, storage conditions will allow your tobacco to mature in a slow, even manner. The proper range is slightly less than room temperature (55 F to 65 F) for slow, steady maturation of tobacco. Tinned tobacco that is stored at a slightly warmer range, say 75 F, will mature quicker with only a slight loss in the overall final product. Remember that heat is used with steam, some types of pressing and stoving of tobacco, but these processes are used during manufacturing rather than the long term maturation of the "finished product".
R.C. Hamlin, 1995 Pipes Digest
DO NOT put sealed tins in the humidor! Tins are actually made of steel, and pull-tops are aluminum, and corrosion is their worst enemy. I've lost some remarkable old tobaccos to the dreaded rust.
GL Pease, 1998-11-16
.gif)
