Would you say that there is a noticeable cutoff in quality past a certain number of years, in your experience with aged tobacco?
Do Any Types Of Leaf Deteriorate With Aging?
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It's hard to make generalizations because so many unknowns are involved. For example, the conditions under which a tin has sat.
Latakia does fade over time. That's pretty well known and accepted. It's certainly been my experience. Pease, the Dark Lord, has written about it. There will always be exceptions, but so far I haven't experienced any. Latakias seem to hold their potency for 10 to 15 years before starting to "soften" and are mostly gone by, say, 25 to 30 years.
Burleys seem to go on forever. I've tasted clear Burley in an otherwise disgusting 90 year old tin of "oh hell no!".
Virginias go on for decades, but eventually croak out. I've only had a couple of a 60 year old and older tins where the Virginia wasn't a wraith or zombie vomit. Those were extraordinary.
Orientals seem to be long lived and seem to ripen a bit over the years.
Toppings can fade a bit or completely in a couple of decades.
The other problem with really old blends is that they quickly die when exposed to fresh oxygen. The blend might be terrific when opened, only to go flat a day or two later.
I've had very old Esoterica Tilbury that tasted like dirt. Actually, quite a few of the very old tins of Virginias that tasted a lot like dirt. And, with companies trying new anti-microbials, we may end up with tobaccos so well preserved that they just stay in stasis till opened.
Think of wines... the very refined, filtered wines will not age, in fact they tend to oxidize and taste flat after a year or two. It is only wines that have been fermented on the lees, non-filtered, non-blended, and no preservative wines that will benefit at all from any age... and two years is usually the peak for most of them. Look for lost of sediment in the bottles, which is actually a deterrent for most in the American market that have been conditioned by supermarket wines.
I wonder if that can be avoided by throwing it into a jar and filling the jar with nitrogen, like they do with expensive, opened, bottles of wine?
WineKeeper Disposable Nitrogen Canister NEW #34199
WineKeeper Disposable Nitrogen Canister NEW (P/N 421856). This canister is compatible with WineKeeper systems sold in 2020 and thereafter. Systems built prior to 2020 will require an adapter (part #34279) to use this canister. Each disposable canister will dispense enough nitrogen for 20-24 0.75...
www.iwawine.com
Possibly. Greg Pease's site has an article about vacuum jarring that makes me think that might work.I wonder if that can be avoided by throwing it into a jar and filling the jar with nitrogen, like they do with expensive, opened, bottles of wine?
WineKeeper Disposable Nitrogen Canister NEW #34199
WineKeeper Disposable Nitrogen Canister NEW (P/N 421856). This canister is compatible with WineKeeper systems sold in 2020 and thereafter. Systems built prior to 2020 will require an adapter (part #34279) to use this canister. Each disposable canister will dispense enough nitrogen for 20-24 0.75...
The only truly noticable thing to me from aging my tobacco was the color of the leaf. My virginia's got noticably darker. Other then that, they can be pushed a little harder without biting but I notice no difference in taste.
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