196 different blends. Half at home and half at the office. 90% Va's and weighs about what I do. lol
I can see it now. The doorbell rings, and it looks like Ed McMahon. You let him in, he takes off the Ed McMahon mask, and it's actually Russ Ouelette himelf, and he says: "Sir...we have to talk."Dear god ... This is where I'm headed. My wife got a glimpse at my cellar recently and it left her speechless. I think she's planning an intervention.
Buy 7 mil mylar bags and get rid of the zip lock bags. They're next to useless for anything other than short term storage and certainly useless completely for long term aging.I had an unexpected start to my cellaring. I've been piping less than two years, so I would just buy one aromatic tin at a time. Then I saw someone was purging their cellar on Craigslist, so I jumped on it. Mostly aromatics, some straight VAs, a couple VaPers and English blends. Still in tins for the most part (and for God knows how long), and some bulk stuff. That was back in August, and I'm just at the point now where everything but the bulk is jarred. It's hard to get Ball jars here, so I have the bulk in Ziploc bags with Boveda packets.
Anyway, the reason I'm sharing all this is because I wish to thank you for starting this thread! You got me thinking about how I need to do my own audit. I don't even know what some of that stuff is in there. And what the hell am I going to do with 15+ oz. of Captain Black Cherry? Ugh. I need an intern or something.
That seems to be the consensus. Makes sense to me. I plan on selling most of the bulk, but that probably won't happen until the spring. I gave 'em a cursory look-see. Looks like I can use my wife's straightening iron to heat-seal those things. Thanks for the tip!Buy 7 mil mylar bags and get rid of the zip lock bags. They're next to useless for anything other than short term storage and certainly useless completely for long term aging.
Agreed, I moved all my open tobacco to Mylar Bags from Jars and it really compacts the space needed. I basically file the mylar bags in open tupper containers in my cigar cooler. My cellar is on the extreme of modest, for 2 reasons.Buy 7 mil mylar bags and get rid of the zip lock bags. They're next to useless for anything other than short term storage and certainly useless completely for long term aging.
If i had hundreds of different blends in tins I probably wouldnt have taken the time to catalog it. It took me an hour to create the spreadsheet for 69. Gave me a feeing of satisfaction and just may help curtail additional purchases which will be wholly unnecessary. 10-12 pounds will likely last me 20 years.In working from the home office today, this thread inspired me to go check the nooks and crannies in my storage area between calls. I had been thinking "Damn, I need to jump on some Erinmore when it comes back in". I just found five pounds.....five pounds...of Erinmore and three pounds of Bob's Chocolate I had apparently jarred up back in 2019. I have 5 large jars of Salty Dog I'm looking at.....I don't think I remember even smoking that blend.
I could say "boy, that spreadsheet idea is a good one"....but the real lesson is more likely I just need to stop buying pipe tobacco. I'm 42 and I have enough to last me another couple decades. I've had 600+ cigars on-hand in a literal walk-in home humidor and never 'forgot' large portions of what I had. Maybe it's because pipe tobacco is so cheap, relative....but once you start making monthly buys damn this stuff piles up without you even thinking about it. If you are newer to pipe smoking, buying large short-term (and within your entertainment budget) not a bad play for sure....but for me at some point I've got to say "You know, with 100+ blends on hand I haven't even tried yet......maybe it's just time to chill with what I got". But maaaaaybe not quite yet this month. Or exception for the micro-blendors, that's also helping small businesses. Or special releases, because you know....?