Aging Dry Tobacco?
- Thread starter nukesimi
- Start date
How long has the bulk been sitting in bags? Have you tried smoking any of the flakes? I usually let the tobacco dry down a bit before I jar it, but not completely dried out
If they're dry as a mummy, a little hydration won't hurt. Make sure that all surfaces the tobacco touches are disinfected and that you use distilled water. This inhibits mold.
Place in a PYREX baking dish, wet down paper toweling with distilled water and cover the top of the dish, taking care not to touch the tobacco with the toweling. Walk away and check on it in a couple of hours.
Fold back the toweling and shift the flakes around in the dish so that the bottom flakes are at the top. Dampen the toweling again and cover the dish. Come back in a couple of hours and check to see if the flakes have regained some pliability.
If they have, go ahead and jar them, then let it all sit undisturbed for a week so that the moisture has time to distribute itself, then see how they smoke.
Sometimes, rehydrated Virginias get bitey. That happened with some Best Brown Flake and I ended up tossing it. Generally, the flakes respond well to this treatment.
If they're dry as a mummy, a little hydration won't hurt. Make sure that all surfaces the tobacco touches are disinfected and that you use distilled water. This inhibits mold.
Place in a PYREX baking dish, wet down paper toweling with distilled water and cover the top of the dish, taking care not to touch the tobacco with the toweling. Walk away and check on it in a couple of hours.
Fold back the toweling and shift the flakes around in the dish so that the bottom flakes are at the top. Dampen the toweling again and cover the dish. Come back in a couple of hours and check to see if the flakes have regained some pliability.
If they have, go ahead and jar them, then let it all sit undisturbed for a week so that the moisture has time to distribute itself, then see how they smoke.
Sometimes, rehydrated Virginias get bitey. That happened with some Best Brown Flake and I ended up tossing it. Generally, the flakes respond well to this treatment.
I really botched this. I dumped them in a jar with a bit of tap water drizzled on the top. It’s good stuff. Dark Flake, Rum Flake, Bullseye Flake, among others. I left them in the boxes for about a year. Hundreds of dollars wasted.
Don’t fret.
What you did is perfectly OK, especially if you are on city water, which is chlorinated. I was going to suggest a simpler method of laying the flakes out on a clean baking sheet and misting with distilled water, using a spray bottle. But I think that what you did will yeild similar results over time. Give it a month or more for the water to be absorbed and even out.
You will be fine.
I did exactly that years ago to a couple blends. The jars from 2012 are still fine, and still....um....not dry.
Those baggies are permeable, which is why the contents dried out. Since I like to store my tobacco drier than when I received it, to reduce the probability of mold forming during storage and because I don't want to wait till hell freezes over before I can fire up a flake, I usually leave the tobacco in the baggie for a few months before jarring or transferring to food grade .7 mil metallized Mylar which I then heat seal. Metallized Mylar is impermeable. Clear Mylar is not impermeable.
It came to my mind, and is what I will do more often, is to start consuming the more expensive, more difficult to obtain, more complete, or “better quality” tobaccos, since I prefer to consume them before they degrade more, and then smoke the rest of the tobacco I have in more quantity and of relatively more decent aroma or “inferior in quality” I am satisfied with the right amount I could collect, more quantity of tobacco at my age, I would never have finished it. Most of my tobacco, I think 80% is in its original tin or pouch. The rest is in glass jars. And I don't plan to transfer it to more glass jars. Although the most hygienic and safe in my judgment, are the glass jars.
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It may work out just fine.
Maybe you lost some of the special sauce but it may be just fine. Even if its diminished it doesnt mean you cant enjoy it.
I salvaged some Stonehaven that had been in a baggie for years. Damned if it still doesnt taste like SH. I imagine its different but if I put it out of my mind its perfectly fine. I think you will discover its not wasted.
Dont over hydrate..if you do let it dry a bit. You dont want to generate mold.
Maybe you lost some of the special sauce but it may be just fine. Even if its diminished it doesnt mean you cant enjoy it.
I salvaged some Stonehaven that had been in a baggie for years. Damned if it still doesnt taste like SH. I imagine its different but if I put it out of my mind its perfectly fine. I think you will discover its not wasted.
Dont over hydrate..if you do let it dry a bit. You dont want to generate mold.
I just started to break into my cellar, and I’m starting with the best stuff first. I had a friend whose dad had a bottle of wine worth thousands and he croaked before he could drink it. Penzance, you’re next!
Seeing your thread, that's what popped into my head. I'd rather consume the best, before it turns into dry, moldy crap. I think that's a good idea. Enjoy the best, be it tobacco, drinks or cigars. Before our health, the age, or the policies (woke Trudeau style smokes bananas), kicks our ass like a fresh cauliflower.
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I made the mistake of bathing them in whisky, and whole jars of bulk tobacco also went to hell, on top of which whisky
was not my favorite. Rookie mistakes without brakes.
From a scientific standpoint, the entropic molecular transformations that occur with aging are radically altered both in type and speed with humidity as a variable. A good experiment might be to divide up the jars and try different humidities.
I have two jars of McClelland bulk Virginia 2000, one straw brown (lower moisture), a little darker than when it was bought, and another deep mahogany, almost black (higher moisture). Quite different, even when dried to similar humidity before smoking.
I have two jars of McClelland bulk Virginia 2000, one straw brown (lower moisture), a little darker than when it was bought, and another deep mahogany, almost black (higher moisture). Quite different, even when dried to similar humidity before smoking.
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