Seeing the horror that is the loss of Mac Baren and Sutliff, I am deciding to start getting serious about my cellar. I've crunched our monthly numbers and found that I can put about $150 aside each month for an order. I have compiled a list of my top blends that I need in my cellar, not ones I just want to try. I have narrowed it down to about four blends to rotate throughout the week. What I am stuck on is how I should go about my orders. One option would be to max out my $150 for one blend (about 8 tins), then the next month, maxing out the $150 for another blend, and then repeating through my need tobacco. On the other hand, I could potentially max out my allotted budget on all four blends each month and then repeat (One order of 2x Blend A, 2x Blend B, 2x Blend C, 2x Blend D). My thought behind this is that, while the core blend reserves would grow slower, I would have a variety to rotate through if the manufacturers go out. For those of you who budget money per month to buy your favorites for your cellar, do you usually do a rotating purchase of, for example, 10x of one blend, or (another example) 2x rotating blends?
Advice on Building Up the Cellar
- Thread starter fishmansf
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Keep it simple. You're only talking about a 3 month difference before you repeat the cycle, so just get the max of one blend each month.
I’d wait for the key sales and order as much as you can then. Not sure what your go-to’s are, but Smokingpipes and Pipes and Cigars run sales throughout the year.
Honestly, I think we're at the point where every order should always include something you've never tried, but in the same genre as your favorites. I know conventional wisdom has always been to only go deep on blends you love, but for years I would order 5x tins of blends I've never tried and fast forward to today and many of them have been discontinued and are only available at exorbitant prices on the secondary market. Considering your situation and budget maybe consider adding 1x tin of a blend you've never tried.
I like variety and would get bored smoking the same couple blends no matter how much I like them. Furthermore, tastes change and there are a number of blends I would have exchanged a kidney for a lifetime's supply of that are not even in my regular rotation today (glad I kept both kidneys).
To your question, my purchasing trends have changed a lot over time. I used to have a monthly allowance and would generally go deep on a single blend and the next month go deep on a different single blend, but today I spread things out and will do 2-3 tins of say five blends each order. I made it a goal to have several tins of each GLP blend for example and recently bought a few of each of the HU offerings. Guess it's the collector in me.
Best of luck building your cellar!
I like variety and would get bored smoking the same couple blends no matter how much I like them. Furthermore, tastes change and there are a number of blends I would have exchanged a kidney for a lifetime's supply of that are not even in my regular rotation today (glad I kept both kidneys).
To your question, my purchasing trends have changed a lot over time. I used to have a monthly allowance and would generally go deep on a single blend and the next month go deep on a different single blend, but today I spread things out and will do 2-3 tins of say five blends each order. I made it a goal to have several tins of each GLP blend for example and recently bought a few of each of the HU offerings. Guess it's the collector in me.
Best of luck building your cellar!
Smoke your way through G. L. Pease and Cornell & Diehl tobaccos, find what you like and cellar the shit out of it, don’t worry about any other manufacturers
Those are my two. The only blends I really like out of GLP and CD is Peterson Flake, MM965 and OGS. Other than that, everything is within the CD and GLP line.
That's a good strategy in general. I play a lot of video games but I only buy them digitally when the X Box store is having a sale, to me there's' no sense paying full price when you can be patient and wait for a sale. Granted digital copies don't sell out and tobacco does.
C&D is one of the few manufacturers that have cellaring in mind, Reeves has said the extra air in their tins facilitates aging and then they have the Cellar Series.
You need to take time and sample as many different things as you can. Find what genre you like. Your taste will develop and change over time. I wouldn't commit too much to anything you are not sure you like no matter how much hype there is around the blend. It took me 3-4 years to really know what I wanted to buy in depth. Even now I'm putting some stuff on Tin Bids because it no longer suits me. Don't worry. Don't panic. Just enjoy unsealing new tins of different blends and take a slow journey.
I often fret over the same question. It probably makes more logical sense to get a little of all four blends each order, but for some reason it’s deeply satisfying, to me at least, to order like 5 or 10 of the same thing. I’ll get a fat stack of HH ODF or whatever and be like damn, that’s nice. Good to go on that one for a while. I like stacking a bunch of the same blend and admiring it like I’m Scrooge McDuck in my vault. Either way works 
I honestly don't think he is capable of keeping it simple.
Sell your house, car and wife. And then invest all your money in pipe tobacco.
Depending on what the blend is then bulk purchases and mason jars are the way to go.
If your blends aren’t available in bulk I’d do like Mark @hoosierpipeguy said above and stick to one before moving to the next.
Of course the @VDL_Piper suggestion is a win as well.
In any event it starts piling up faster than you think and if you focus too hard on one blend your taste may change and then you wish you hadn’t.
Variety can be a good thing!
If your blends aren’t available in bulk I’d do like Mark @hoosierpipeguy said above and stick to one before moving to the next.
Of course the @VDL_Piper suggestion is a win as well.
In any event it starts piling up faster than you think and if you focus too hard on one blend your taste may change and then you wish you hadn’t.
Variety can be a good thing!
That would depend on the wife. Maybe sell the kids instead.