35 Year-Old Tin Of MacBaren's In My Parents' Basement

[papipeguy]

I'm in the midst of cleaning out my parents' house. While rooting around the basement I spotted a tin of MacBaren's Scottish Mixture in a china closet. Since I was the only pipe smoker in the family and I moved out of the house in 1977 this tin has been sitting there at least 35 years. You'll notice that the price at the time was $1.49 for a 3 oz tin. To my great surprise upon opening it the tobacco was still moist! There could only be a bowl or two missing. Pretty cool. I intend to fire some up tonight to see what extreme "cellaring" has done to this blend.

 

[lonestar]

Wow, very cool. Too bad you didnt leave yourself a case of Balkan Sobranie :D

 

[winton]

You are lucky no one tossed it years ago. This is a great surprise.

 

[bubblehead33]

thats an awesome find! be sure to let us know how it smokes eh

 

[brian64]

Wow, quite a discovery...enjoy! $1.49...amazing. Shows you how much devaluation they have inflicted on the federal reserve note since then.

 

[buster]

WOW just WOW!

 

[pawpaw]

very cool lets hear your review

 

[jameral]

That is super cool! I think that's better than finding 20 bucks in a jacket pocket you forgot about.

 

[papipeguy]

I am now smoking this in a French made Le Martinet bulldog and all I can say is, "Wow!" It is a sweet smoke with a very nice, mellow honey character to it. It does not require any hydration at all, which really blows me away considering how long it sat unattended.

I always found that the MacBaren's blends need to be sipped so they don't bite,doing so with this bowl really accentuates how the tobaccos have married and mellowed over the past 35 years.

I'm bringing this tin to the B&M tomorrow to show the owner and to compare with a new tin of the same blend.

Gottasay that I'm having a great time with this.

 

[judcole]

I've smoked some 5 year old tins of Mixture, and they mellowed out nicely. I can imagine what 35 would do.

 

[papipeguy]

I also found an empty tin of Lane Ltd Highland which was my favorite daily smoke. I can't wait to get back there to see if there are any more pleasant surprises for me.

 

[jvandy77]

Great find! Hope the Highland smokes well too!
-Jim

 

[papipeguy]

I kepp hoping that Lane will re-intorduce the Highland blend. It was a burley based Va/latakia with some sort of flavoring. Always got a lot of compliments and I miss it dearly. I have about 6 bowls left and keep re-hydrating it. To dream, perchance.

 

[tokerpipes]

Todays my birthday. You should just send it to me. I turned 34 today. Its one year older than me. :rofl:

 

[colorduke]

Congrats on your find,kinda like pulling a jacket outta the closet and finding a $20.00 in the pocket.

 

[matchstickman]

Now that is just awesome! I could never leave a blend sitting around that long because I am the impatient type, but I am interested to hear how it compares to a fresh tin. Cool stuff!

 

[topd]

My sister and I mess around with metal detectors a lot, and there are some great places

around South West Arkansas to search. One day a few years ago we were poking around an

old homestead, just a foundation and fireplace. She was looking at the fireplace and hit...

pulled a few bricks out and we got 3 cans of old Prince Albert. The cans weren't sealed

like our present day tins, but two of them had tobacco that was dry but looked OK, no mold

or anything. I know, it's just a cigarette tobacco, but I was tickled. She was more tickled

at the third can that had the two $10 dollar gold pieces in it. Both Liberty Ten Dollar

Gold Coins, one an 1879 and an 1880-O.

The cans were certainly not that old, from the 50's or 60's, someones stash I guess, but they

never came back for it.
TopD

 

[markw4mms]

Nice find...glad it smoked great too.

 

[rigmedic1]

That is just awesome luck. The only aged tobacco I have ever had is from House of Calabash, and that is some very fine stuff. Other than that, the oldest tobacco I had was McClelland Christmas 2008, which I opened for Christmas 2012. Really good. I jarred the leftover half for next Christmas. I have some jarred 965 from 2009 as well, and some 2010 tins.....

 

[wildcat]

I'm bringing this tin to the B&M tomorrow to show the owner and to compare with a new tin of the same blend...

Terrific find! Can't wait to hear about the comparison.