Buying Tobacco: How Old?

[cosmicfolklore]

If there’s not a date stamp, I just write the month and year I got it on the tin. I’m not about to do decode the tin just ti be within a few months accuracy.

Bulks, I just go by tge date I put it in the jar, because that’s when the real aging begins.
Unless you are wanting to flip the tins later on, there’s really no need to authenticate.

My cellar is over a decade old now. Time will fly by, and at the 10-14 year marks, it doesn’t really matter what exact month it was tinned.

 

[sablebrush52]

Title edited for clarity and caps. -jpm

When one buys tobacco from a store, online etc be it a bulk amount or pouch or tin, how old is it? I ask as folks seem to gage the aging of their tobacco from the point they get it “new”.

There are so many factors involved that the short answer and most accurate is that there’s absolutely no way to know.
Different blends mix components from different years to maintain consistency. Some blenders use aged components. Some blenders store their blends for a year or several before releasing it to consumers. That tin of “Whatsis” that you just bought may be the result of a three to ten year timeline. So, “new” is an inexact term. Very few of us end users have much practical knowledge of such matters.
Once we’ve bought our tin of “Whatsis” we usually begin our personal aging timeline. As others have posted, some tins are stamped with the date of manufacture while others have tracking production codes that need to be deciphered. Some of this info can be found on YouTube.
Once you have your stash of “Whatsis”, will it improve with age? Maybe. Many of us who bought wholeheartedly into aging tobacco have found that it’s a mixed bag. With some blends the results justify the wait while with others it doesn’t. Some really prefer any number of blends better when released to how they change with age.
Blends change, to a greater or lesser degree over time. Whether that change constitutes an “improvement” is for the individual smoker to decide

 

[cshubhra]

When I first started in 2017, I got a bunch of Dunhill with 5+ years age, Capstan with 4+ years from Smokingpipes. It does not happen any more with the popular blends, but less popular blends you may still get an aged tin.

 

[bullet08]

You gonna smoke it, right? Does it really matter as long as it's not all dried up and turned to dust?

 

[JKoD]

In most places you have to be 18 to buy tobacco.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yes! Hadn't thought of that interpretation of the o.p..

 

[dog_park_piper]

I know this thread is about buying online, but I was at a brick and mortar here in Nashville and saw pound bags of good tobacco with sticker dates from over 10 years ago. It would have tasted great, I'm sure.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Whoa! What were they? How come you didn't snap them up?

 

[JOHN72]

I put the date of purchase, I don't care about the date of packaging at the factory.......................

 

[reloader]

When I first started in 2017, I got a bunch of Dunhill with 5+ years age, Capstan with 4+ years from Smokingpipes. It does not happen any more with the popular blends, but less popular blends you may still get an aged tin.

I just received some HH Balkan and its dated Aug 2018. I was surprised at that. Now I need to find out which online retailer I ordered it from and maybe get some more.