Cellaring- How Long is too Long?

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pepperandjack

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 21, 2023
118
147
West Carpathian ToodleOoh
Cellars are of indeterminate size, and are virtual. If you fill up the closet, you can always fill another; however, in doing so you have to accept tobacco's increasing hegemony, as like water it will spread out and fill any space.

But one constant in this is how dedicated you are to living the pipe smoker's dream. With this and practice you will never question ponying up to buy the next 6 blends thrust upon your consciousness after only an hour on this board. You feel thankful that you have made their acquaintance and allocate future spending.

I used to have a backup of 12 cases of jars stacked 13 high in three stacks. Evenings were spent listening to the irregular pings of the lids in the current ambience. Then the good stuff, tins, in a half-dozen boxes, stacked within reach so that I could pull out choice tins and gloat that they were MINE. I owned it, always with its cellaring date in mind, so that I could fantasize how good it would be in another year or five years.

And although it may be that good, the point is that I was trading smoking it now and that pleasure for the tenuous reward when opened in the future, and the future remains unknown. Is aging worth it? What if by keeping my mitts off and achieving the aging goal I don't care about the final product? What if poverty causes me to pawn these aged glories to the members on the board who can be downright merciless, driving my prices relentlessly down? What if informed members who have envied my stash break in, not for my money (ha!) but for my tobacco? We relentlessly project what exists now as the future, but we can never know the future.

As a pipe smoking warrior I swallowed whole every tenet proposed on the board, aging most especially. As it turned out I never got around to smoking two-thirds of my carefully cultivated aged cellar. I could only keep my cellar-spread from evicting me by quitting and selling everything.

More is better is indeed the prevailing ideology that we are quite certain the adepts practice. They of course are knee-deep in 5-yr old delectable VAs.

Consider cellaring some and buying tobacco as you need it. Or face eviction.
 

JackOrion

Can't Leave
Feb 3, 2023
307
2,922
West Yonkers California
I’m starting to think non of it matters. I keep buying more than I can smoke, soon I’ll get into some 5+ years aged tobacco. At that point I’ll have so much stockpiled I won’t care when I come across a dud. All the while the tins and bulk jars continue to age as I keep adding to the coffer. It’s like a wine solera barrel system.
I also know that when I die I’m going to be leaving behind a boat load of tobacco.
 

HalfMadHatter

Lurker
Jun 21, 2023
33
48
30
Ohio
Im out of town for work and a few weeks ago went into a little tobacco shop just to check it out. In the back underneath their pile of tins (a small selection) were 4 tins of dunhill. 1 aperitif, 1 standard mixture mellow, and 2 ready rubbed. All dated from 2011 to 2014 if I dated them correctly. 20 bucks each. Now I wonder what else is hidden among small Indian owned shops that are all around
 
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Pipeoff

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 22, 2021
928
1,558
Western New York
Im out of town for work and a few weeks ago went into a little tobacco shop just to check it out. In the back underneath their pile of tins (a small selection) were 4 tins of dunhill. 1 aperitif, 1 standard mixture mellow, and 2 ready rubbed. All dated from 2011 to 2014 if I dated them correctly. 20 bucks each. Now I wonder what else is hidden among small Indian owned shops that are all around
The only tobac found on Res. Shops near here is Capt. Black with no expiration date !
 

Auxsender

Lifer
Jul 17, 2022
1,063
5,565
Nashville
Worst comes to worst I can just sell them off later for minimal loss or to break even or profit. That's not the goal but always an option
That’s not always an option. You can only sell if you can find a buyer and that buyer is willing to pay what you’re asking. Pipe tobacco is EXTREMELY niche which makes pipe tobacco buyers very far and few between.
 

HalfMadHatter

Lurker
Jun 21, 2023
33
48
30
Ohio
Hey, you’ve been here a year now! Congrats??
Thanks man. I could tell when I started that this would be a lifelong thing. Even got a really good friend into it so I have someone to enjoy it with and a good excuse to get away from the wives. Hoping to start getting into some aromatics soon. Still yet to find a blend I dont thoroughly enjoy!
 

rmcnabb

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 19, 2024
107
530
Most tobacco will benefit from a year on the shelf. I don't think this is news. Some blends are ready to go, but many times blends are made with new tobacco and can reflect the harshness sometimes associated with "green" tobacco leaf. Sometimes the big websites will hold a sale on a tobacco that isn't moving for some reason, which means it could be a year or more old. A while back there was a sale on Peter Heinrichs tins - I bought 2 pounds of one of the Dark Flakes and the tins were 2 years old. On sale!

If you're starting out, but think you'll stick with it, I think it's a good idea to have a year's worth on hand, doing nothing but aging, that you will open in no less than 12 months. Then as you get to it and smoke your older stuff, replace it with new that will also be aged. It's a rolling cellar, rotating the stock forward. Be careful with your spending. Think twice before you chase unicorns. I would MUCH rather have 5 pounds of any of my favorite bulks (many of which are simply amazing) than I would 3 tins of some Esoterica rarity, (and the costs are equivalent in that example). Realize that there are lots of amazing tobaccos available in bulk now that you can buy and store for pennies on the dollar.

If you smoke 10 bowls a week, you may smoke 3 pounds a year max. It doesn't take long for a cellar to contain a silly amount of tobacco unless you're Methuselah. Just because someone on Youtube shows you their pool table covered 10 tins deep, doesn't mean you need to aim for that.
 

HalfMadHatter

Lurker
Jun 21, 2023
33
48
30
Ohio
Most tobacco will benefit from a year on the shelf. I don't think this is news. Some blends are ready to go, but many times blends are made with new tobacco and can reflect the harshness sometimes associated with "green" tobacco leaf. Sometimes the big websites will hold a sale on a tobacco that isn't moving for some reason, which means it could be a year or more old. A while back there was a sale on Peter Heinrichs tins - I bought 2 pounds of one of the Dark Flakes and the tins were 2 years old. On sale!

If you're starting out, but think you'll stick with it, I think it's a good idea to have a year's worth on hand, doing nothing but aging, that you will open in no less than 12 months. Then as you get to it and smoke your older stuff, replace it with new that will also be aged. It's a rolling cellar, rotating the stock forward. Be careful with your spending. Think twice before you chase unicorns. I would MUCH rather have 5 pounds of any of my favorite bulks (many of which are simply amazing) than I would 3 tins of some Esoterica rarity, (and the costs are equivalent in that example). Realize that there are lots of amazing tobaccos available in bulk now that you can buy and store for pennies on the dollar.

If you smoke 10 bowls a week, you may smoke 3 pounds a year max. It doesn't take long for a cellar to contain a silly amount of tobacco unless you're Methuselah. Just because someone on Youtube shows you their pool table covered 10 tins deep, doesn't mean you need to aim for that.
I think I have around 15 lbs give or take at this point. The vast majority are bulk virginias like sutliff virginia slices, newminster 400, and hh pure virginia
 
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