Extreme Aging of Pipe Tobaccos

[charf]

I am buying tins and storing those, while mostly smoking cheaper bulk blends. I am guessing that it’s going to become almost impossible to personally import pipe tobacco into NZ in the next few years. So my tins could be up to 20-30 years old by the time I am done.

 

[peregrinus]

Or maybe the answer is to not let your tins get that old in the first place

In the beginning, 25 years ago, I didn’t intended this, it was the buying faster than smoking that led to a collection of older tins.

As long as I've got tobacco after it becomes illegal, I'm good.

This has become one of the primary goals to cellaring now hasn’t.

I think the general idea is to buy it and enjoy it and go from there.

Ah, it was just that simple once wasn’t.

Except for your Wonder Bread example;

Yes, the example is a metaphor for something ment to outlast humanity!?

I've posted on this to the same effect.

I think it may have been one of your posts that got me to pondering this.

Shitdust, they turn to shitdust.

okay, that’d as good a descriptor as any I can think off!?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yes, the example is a metaphor for something ment to outlast humanity!

 

[SpookedPiper]

Oh crap...
I hope this isn't shitdust!



It's a nice tin though!

 

[crashthegrey]

I don't know. Mike McNiel has shared some of his 45+ year old tobacco with me and I loved it. Granted, it was in tube format, and yes it was different than originally intended, but I personally quite enjoyed it. Not that I want all of my tobacco that aged, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I've never found one to have turned to shitdust, before I open the tin (knock on wood), but if you don't smoke them fast enough after popping them, they turn to shit rather fast. This is why I only ever put my bulk in half pint jars weighed out to 3.5oz. I know I can smoke 3.5 oz within a few days.
This is why the best and oldest aged tins I have bought have always been shared with friends or at the pipe club meetings. Better to make a party of it, then to try to make it last a long time.

 

[crashthegrey]

I've never found one to have turned to shitdust, before I open the tin (knock on wood), but if you don't smoke them fast enough after popping them, they turn to shit rather fast. This is why I only ever put my bulk in half pint jars weighed out to 3.5oz. I know I can smoke 3.5 oz within a few days.
This is why the best and oldest aged tins I have bought have always been shared with friends or at the pipe club meetings. Better to make a party of it, then to try to make it last a long time.

Sharing them makes them a thousand times better.

 

[peregrinus]

I've never found one to have turned to shitdust,

Admittedly I haven’t had many. However, one example was a sleeve of some 25 year old Bengal Slices that didn’t fare well.
I think the other 6 tins are now somewhere in China.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Admittedly I haven’t had many. However, one example was a sleeve of some 25 year old Bengal Slices that didn’t fare well.
I think the other 6 tins are now somewhere in China.

One of the things that my pipe club has done that I have really enjoyed is pitching in and buying aged tins from Pipestud and then breaking them open at meetings. We haven't done this in a few years, but we need to do this again soon.

 

[rushx9]

I have a 30 year old sealed tin of Gold Block I need to crack open. Sludge, Dust, or Angel Droppings??? I guess the surprise awaits!

Let us know!

 

[BROBS]

Do you guys think the type of tobacco or cut makes a difference? I’d figure something like a plug would fare a lot better than say a shag cut.

 

[sablebrush52]

Oh crap...
I hope this isn't shitdust!

View attachment 15617

It's a nice tin though!

Well, no way to know until you open it. I had a tin of this from 1979 that I bought from Pipestud. The lid came right off, and the contents were shit dust like, but I went ahead and rehydrated it. The flavor was a contrast of super sweet and stale. But I kinda still liked it in a weird sort of way.
That's the risk I accepted buying old tins. Now, I no longer do that.

 

[alaskanpiper]

God that would suck if you had been sitting on it. I can just see myself in 2075, opening up that tin of 2014 Christmas Cheer on my death bed, and.......

It would make me want to run towards the nearest living thing and kill it.

 

[sablebrush52]

Do you guys think the type of tobacco or cut makes a difference? I’d figure something like a plug would fare a lot better than say a shag cut.

Burley seems to be the survival champ. It was the only recognizable flavor note in a sample of 90 year old Richmond blend that I smoked a couple of years ago.

 

[mso489]

+1, burley is immortal. Not immoral. Immortal.

 

[sablebrush52]

I don't know. Mike McNiel has shared some of his 45+ year old tobacco with me and I loved it. Granted, it was in tube format, and yes it was different than originally intended, but I personally quite enjoyed it. Not that I want all of my tobacco that aged, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It happens occasionally. I've had some extraordinary smokes from ancient vintages, but far more duds. I don't mind as long as someone else pays for the duds.

 

[mikestanley]

In the later 1990s and early 2000s, I regularly bought old tins of Dunhill and Rattrays Sillivan's etc which were tinned in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Most were magical. I remember being at a NASPC (before it was NASPC) show when a 1948 key can of Edgeworth Ready Rubbed was opened and shared. It was a really pleasant Burley smoke. I like the work time does on English blends. I like the melding of the flavors.

Mike S.

 

[sandollars]

Being fairly new to the pipe smoking hobby, and at my age of 59, I am not going to concern myself with ponderance of over aged tobacco... I will surely be dead before my first cellar item hits 30-35 years old. If not, I probably won't care at that age.

 

[sandollars]

I was party once to the opening of a magnum of 1945 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.

The bottle was uncorked, aerated and poured out. Everyone drew their glasses for a toast and once the toast was over everyone took a sip. Some were extolling its virtues in complexity and tannins..... Others were just gushing over the 10 thousand dollar bottle of wine for no particular reason other than it's rarity and reputation.

After a few moments, The benefactor finally spoke up and said "This tastes like shit!" Everyone laughed and we all were secretly relieved that we weren't going to have to drink a whole glass of that ancient vinegar.

The chef used the remainder on the salad. It was delicious!

 

[dcon]

Like most subjects on the forum, our experiential realities and our opinions may be quite different. I have opened, and enjoyed, 30+ year old tins of several Dunhill blends. Some of these required some rehydration. All were very good to excellent. You can not expect them to necessarily match your memories but, they can be different (usually flavors that were once a melange tend to meld), yet quite extraordinary. I think a recommendation to shit can or sell your old stocks might just be a lure by those who can’t obtain them ?