I'm very much risk adverse when it comes to pipe tobacco having lived through the banking crisis earlier this century when supplies of pipe tobacco almost stopped completely on the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Medetteranian where my sadly lovely now late wife came from where we and now only I now in full retirement have lived and worked for the last twenty five years.
During the tobacco famine I would stop at every tobacconists supermarket village shop and small roadside kiosk that I found and ask if they had any pipe tobacco at all to sell. Most had nothing but occassionally I'd be told that yes they had some but that it wasn't any good as the seal had blown on the tin. I would ask to see it and in a country where average long summer day time temperatures exceed 40'C you may well imagine what I found upon inspection of the tobacco, dust of course and some very dried up tobacco. No matter I'd ask what price they wanted for it, a few would say it's yours take it at no charge while others would want an extortionate amount for something they'd never sell and probably thinking I was crazy we'd settle on a price of no more than €10 for 50g, €18.50 having being the going rate for the good stuff before the banking crisis.
Of the later produced dried up tobacco that I found the STC Erinmore Flake tins that had not so long before been changed to a square low profile were by far the worst offenders and although the ER was bone dry it hadn't quite dried to dust in any great significance. Purely by chance I came across a tobacconists shop owned by a Mr Dinos, he's Mr as in Greek culture anyone older than you is respected and although he's only one year older than me at seventy five standards have to be maintained. Then recently retired from the financial sector the shop which had been his fathers, a tobacconist in the old sense of the word he wasn't under the financial pressures of younger tobacconists as the business was more of hobby to him where he could meet friends old and new making the shop more of a club house at times and where coffee is constantly on the boil.
Mr Dinos ever the speculator was busy buying up redundant stock from tobacconists that were being forced into closure as suppliers were demanding cash up front for deliveries of tobacco cigarettes and cigars, he never dealt in cigarettes as he didn't want to get involved in the arguments about illegal sales to under eighteens where respect went out of the window and the police plus local trading standards inspectors were waiting in the wings to jump on anyone who supplied cigarettes to under age minors. His purchases were mostly of cigars providing they'd been stored in a humidor as good as his own pipes pipe and cigar smoking accessories of which because of the quantity he purchased spilled over into his home with some especially pipes still there which is another story of lucky finds for me albeit that it didn't take place until two weeks ago thanks to a cigar smoking US sailor and his pipe smoking dad in San Dieago. Unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of tobacco as by then even with his ability to pay on delivery pipe tobacco was no longer available as suppliers had stopped ordering from overseas.
Mr Dinos and I spoke at length about pipe tobacco and when he realised that I was willing to buy blown seals tobacco tins he told me that he was certain he could get that we struck a deal at €8 per 50g tin on condition that I'd buy everything he acquired. Later thinking I might have written a blank cheque I'd worried that I might soon be the owner of a truck load of tobacco but I shouldn't have done so as he self imposed a limit of ten 50g tins a week which he'd fulfil with varying degrees of success. My late wife then reasonably active had slipped into regular Greek grandmother mode cooking all and everything she could lay her hands on so using her kitchen and utility room for tobacco rehydration purposes was out of the question. I remembered my grandfather growing his own tobacco in the UK up until his death in the 1960's, powerful stuff he'd calm it down by adding a little mild St. Julian to his tobacco tin and a cabbage leaf or if too dry a piece of potatoe peel which when I tried it reduced the dry tobacco to a soggy pulp, after that I tried lemon and orange peel in varying amounts which worked very well at no risk to the tobacco, all manufacturers topping and flavouring having long gone and the tobacco never picking up on the scents of orange or lemon. I started with the equivelant size of peel to that of a medium sized fruit segment adding more if required leaving the peel in the tin until it became hard and dry and the tobacco rehydrated and entirely smokeable, as a bonus the hard dried peel I've used as fishing lures the bright colouring on one side and the off white of the other attracting the fresh water wide mouthed bass better than any of the Rappala lures I've used.