Building Your Cellar - Things To Consider

[karam]

Great post Mr Hoosier, especially for the noobs like me. When I was buying cigars I always bought more than I smoked, maybe triple or quad the amount I smoked each month which results in a nice stash now which I won't touch most being Cuban and still have to mellow down for at least a year or 4. I'm now just buying pipe tobacco at a rate of 750 grams to a kilo a month which will last me also a while, about 20 to 25 bowls a month, never weight it which would be smart in the long run if I want to finetune my purchasing behavior or not and go rampage each month or 2. Being from Europe I generally dont have to wait on tobacco dropping so that's a good thing.

What's your take on storing or even aging in the original tin unopened? Do you recommend it for just a few months to a year or even longer and only yar when opened? I'm now generally planning to buy 2 x 50 gram tins, smoke one and put one aside for a year or so, if I liked it fresh it should be better in theory with some age and buy more. Dunno if there is a guide, but what's your take on date of tins? Macbaren has a clear dating system, dunno if most have a similar one. For my cigars it's easy, as there is a month and year stamp on it.

The smoke one put one aside was recommended to me too here some years ago, it's good advice, I just don't keep it because I'm still searching for stuff to reorder all the time!

Rule of thumb - but confirmed with actually weighing the amount going in a pipe - is for me:

• "normal sized pipe" - chamber size 36x19mm (Savinelli 106) takes 2g of ribbon
• slightly larger - chamber size 40x21mm (Peterson Army 120) takes 3g of flake
• large - chamber size 55x25mm (my homemade pipe) takes around 4.5g
• Chasingembers' monster pipes: half a tin

So by your calculation and assuming 2.5g per bowl, you consume about 50g per month. Yeah a kilo a month will last you a while!

 

[fireground_piper]

Then go ahead and wait 10 years to buy what you like. That is if you think the market will hold that long...
I’d say about 5% of my blends with 20+ years have gone afoul. With many being no longer available, I’d say it’s an acceptable loss ratio.

By being useless, I mean age out of any semblance of being enjoyable. Not going afoul.

 

[Servant King]

The smoke one put one aside was recommended to me too here some years ago, it's good advice, I just don't keep it because I'm still searching for stuff to reorder all the time!

Rule of thumb - but confirmed with actually weighing the amount going in a pipe - is for me:

• "normal sized pipe" - chamber size 36x19mm (Savinelli 106) takes 2g of ribbon
• slightly larger - chamber size 40x21mm (Peterson Army 120) takes 3g of flake
• large - chamber size 55x25mm (my homemade pipe) takes around 4.5g
• Chasingembers' monster pipes: half a tin

So by your calculation and assuming 2.5g per bowl, you consume about 50g per month. Yeah a kilo a month will last you a while!

Thanks so much for this formula! Very helpful for me, since I am assessing what I have and how long it will last. I especially like #4...

 

[karam]

Thanks so much for this formula! Very helpful for me, since I am assessing what I have and how long it will last. I especially like #4...

hoosier estimated around 3g for a bowl earlier in the thread so yeah, along those lines. If your packing is consistent, which I'm sure it is for most of us here, the weight should be too.

 

[Servant King]

hoosier estimated around 3g for a bowl earlier in the thread so yeah, along those lines. If your packing is consistent, which I'm sure it is for most of us here, the weight should be too.

I tend toward smaller bowls, probably never more than 2g per. Being 36, it helps me to put my relatively small cellar in perspective as I near middle age. I don't want TAD in the "cause of death" field of my death certificate...

 

[karam]

2g can give a very nice satisfying 30-45 min smoke, but for me the magic happens in the larger bowls, real drawn out development of the blends.

 

[npod]

This is a very well written and thoughtful post. LOTS of good nuggets of advice based on experience.

 

[rmpeeps]

By being useless, I mean age out of any semblance of being enjoyable. Not going afoul.

This sounds like a pro/con discussion point for marriage!

 

[DanWil84]

The smoke one put one aside was recommended to me too here some years ago, it's good advice, I just don't keep it because I'm still searching for stuff to reorder all the time!

Rule of thumb - but confirmed with actually weighing the amount going in a pipe - is for me:

• "normal sized pipe" - chamber size 36x19mm (Savinelli 106) takes 2g of ribbon
• slightly larger - chamber size 40x21mm (Peterson Army 120) takes 3g of flake
• large - chamber size 55x25mm (my homemade pipe) takes around 4.5g
• Chasingembers' monster pipes: half a tin

So by your calculation and assuming 2.5g per bowl, you consume about 50g per month. Yeah a kilo a month will last you a while!

Thanks for this analysis! I have a bit smaller normal sized pipe (normally smoke flake in it) and a large pipe, which I smoke on a 60%-40% basis so I think a estimation of 2.5 to 3 grams is a good one.

 

[PipesRock]

Thanks for this post. I hadn't even considered the retirement potential bowl increase. Now it's back to cellaring with new ++ calculations.

 

[EssJaySea]

This is great info as I begin restocking my store; I've been fortunate that even my haphazard keeping seems to have worked pretty well. (Air tight and in a small, antique "smoking table" that is basically an old humidor.)

 

[RookieGuy]

So I'm one of those guys who's 41 with kids in grade school, middle school, and preschool and a wife and mortgage and other interests and stuff.

What I've found helpful is constantly steadily adding an extra pound of two with each order just for the cellar. Load up on a favorite, a few tins and bulk ounces of new things to try, a pound of VA Slices and 2 tins of Escudo for the cellar. Doing it that way also almost guarantees a steady supply of [blend] at perfect age once you get there.

If I miss out on unicorns, personally, it's not the end of the world for me. Sometimes Timmy needs braces, sometimes it drops a week after you arrived home to find Mrs. with "that look" handing you your latest box of goodies. I'm 41, plenty of time to get in on different unicorns.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

So I'm one of those guys who's 41 with kids in grade school, middle school, and preschool and a wife and mortgage and other interests and stuff.

What I've found helpful is constantly steadily adding an extra pound of two with each order just for the cellar. Load up on a favorite, a few tins and bulk ounces of new things to try, a pound of VA Slices and 2 tins of Escudo for the cellar. Doing it that way also almost guarantees a steady supply of [blend] at perfect age once you get there.

If I miss out on unicorns, personally, it's not the end of the world for me. Sometimes Timmy needs braces, sometimes it drops a week after you arrived home to find Mrs. with "that look" handing you your latest box of goodies. I'm 41, plenty of time to get in on different unicorns.

Good approach, slow and steady wins the race.

 

[OneGoodBulldog]

I have some of these blends mentioned in my collection now, thanks to a forum member. I keep thinking I'm going to save some, but I know I'm going to smoke it all to see what I want to get more of!

In the meantime though, I have discovered Sutliff makes some capable bulk blends. Their broken flake Virginia and Virginia slices are both excellent and Voodoo Queen is a great English in broken flake. I plan on buying plenty of these blends to serve as every day smokers while my cellar grows. They might even be worth aging! I've also got a bit of 3P in a jar too and that might just be one I have to stock up on too.

 

[RookieGuy]

VA Slice is definitely worth aging. In just about 6 months it's already starting to lose its rougher edges and the flavors are starting to deepen. I'll try more later, but I feel it's going to sing in 18 now months.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I have some of these blends mentioned in my collection now, thanks to a forum member. I keep thinking I'm going to save some, but I know I'm going to smoke it all to see what I want to get more of!

In the meantime though, I have discovered Sutliff makes some capable bulk blends. Their broken flake Virginia and Virginia slices are both excellent and Voodoo Queen is a great English in broken flake. I plan on buying plenty of these blends to serve as every day smokers while my cellar grows. They might even be worth aging! I've also got a bit of 3P in a jar too and that might just be one I have to stock up on too.

Look at Newminster 400. I like it a bit better than the Sutliff Virginia Slices for about the same money.

 

[romaso]

... I have discovered Sutliff makes some capable bulk blends. Their broken flake Virginia and Virginia slices are both excellent and Voodoo Queen is a great English in broken flake.

I don't know the Sutliff broken flake Virginia. Where do you get it?

 

[captpat]

I'd also recommend a means to track your inventory -- I've found after ~100 containers I was losing track of what's in the cellar or how old some of it was. I now use an excel spreadsheet to track the contents of my cellar. Excel is easy to set up and maintain and allows for easy queries and formatting. For example, any tin greater than 5 years of age is automatically highlighted. Before I order tobacco I check to make sure I'm not unintentionally duplicating inventory. In some cases I'll add a few notes in the spreadsheet after finishing a container, usually, this is to identify blends to never order again. Maintenance is fairly easy, each new container is marked with the purchase date and unique serial number (1 ... XXX) and entered into the spreadsheet. I also keep track of other data in the spreadsheet the vendor, container type (tin, mason jar, mylar bag), price, and weight.

I've tried tobaccocellar and another online tool -- I am more comfortable with Excel and it keeps my data on my computer. Regardless of how one does it, I recommend starting while the cellar is small.

One of the more interesting things revealed is my changing taste in tobacco. Early on I favored blends with latakia -- traditional English blends -- over time the purchases shifted to VA's then VA/Pers and most recently predominantly burley blends.

 

[seanv]

I'd also recommend a means to track your inventory -- I've found after ~100 containers I was losing track of what's in the cellar or how old some of it was. I now use an excel spreadsheet to track the contents of my cellar. Excel is easy to set up and maintain and allows for easy queries and formatting. For example, any tin greater than 5 years of age is automatically highlighted. Before I order tobacco I check to make sure I'm not unintentionally duplicating inventory. In some cases I'll add a few notes in the spreadsheet after finishing a container, usually, this is to identify blends to never order again. Maintenance is fairly easy, each new container is marked with the purchase date and unique serial number (1 ... XXX) and entered into the spreadsheet. I also keep track of other data in the spreadsheet the vendor, container type (tin, mason jar, mylar bag), price, and weight.

I've tried tobaccocellar and another online tool -- I am more comfortable with Excel and it keeps my data on my computer. Regardless of how one does it, I recommend starting while the cellar is small.

One of the more interesting things revealed is my changing taste in tobacco. Early on I favored blends with latakia -- traditional English blends -- over time the purchases shifted to VA's then VA/Pers and most recently predominantly burley blends.

I use an app called Arborea. It is very similar and always available on my phone. The app works great but I've been thinking of creating an excel spreadsheet as well. It is important to track your cellar and know what in there.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I'd also recommend a means to track your inventory -- I've found after ~100 containers I was losing track of what's in the cellar or how old some of it was. I now use an excel spreadsheet to track the contents of my cellar. Excel is easy to set up and maintain and allows for easy queries and formatting. For example, any tin greater than 5 years of age is automatically highlighted. Before I order tobacco I check to make sure I'm not unintentionally duplicating inventory. In some cases I'll add a few notes in the spreadsheet after finishing a container, usually, this is to identify blends to never order again. Maintenance is fairly easy, each new container is marked with the purchase date and unique serial number (1 ... XXX) and entered into the spreadsheet. I also keep track of other data in the spreadsheet the vendor, container type (tin, mason jar, mylar bag), price, and weight.

I've tried tobaccocellar and another online tool -- I am more comfortable with Excel and it keeps my data on my computer. Regardless of how one does it, I recommend starting while the cellar is small.

One of the more interesting things revealed is my changing taste in tobacco. Early on I favored blends with latakia -- traditional English blends -- over time the purchases shifted to VA's then VA/Pers and most recently predominantly burley blends.

I created a spread sheet. I created a tab in Excel for each tote and numbered them. I used little neon stickies to number each tote, I put them on two sides and the top. If I'm liking for a blend, I search in the spread sheet and that will tell me the number(s) on the tote(s) that contain that blend.