General Beginner Tips

[newbroom]

To each his own. I buy mostly bulks in bags and keep them there. I use a couple three coolers and keep a variety of varietals on hand to mix to my whim. Some tobacco will do better in a clean, tight jar.
When I started, I was recently retired and this became my new hobby. I bought all sorts of blends and estate pipes for about 2 or 3 yrs...and finally realized that it was time to just enjoy what I'd found.
I love the taste of pure tobacco in a pipe. I can tolerate some aromatics but it's the stuff most won't bother with that I seem to find most satisfying. Simple burley and virginia sometimes with a turkish or perique add, usually.
I usually have near 10#'s on hand, but that is about to change some, not lots, due to impending regulations.

 

[mso489]

I think your questions have been responded to, but an additional suggestion is, don't buy any blend in quantity, not even if you like it a lot. Starting out your taste will develop and change. Anything you don't like, put in a jar and try it in a year or two. Meanwhile, stick with an ounce or two in bulk, or one tin, or one pouch, to see what you like and hold off on larger quantities.

 

[depriest1022]

Follow up. For storage, do I leave in sealed tins or put into jars.

 

[cigrmaster]

I normally keep at least 20-25 tins open at the same time. I use these tupperware like containers to keep my tobacco fresh. In the pic below you will see these opaque containers with the white tops. These containers will keep my tobacco fresh for at least a year and most likely 2 years. If you want to impress anyone with the smell of your tobacco buy some Cult Blood Red Moon and Sutliff Molto Dolce. Both of these blends smell great and taste pretty good as well.

 

[bullet08]

I'm beginning to think Balkan Supreme is all I need. And Peterson House Pipe.

 

[chopper]

I think that I'm around my second month of pipe smoking and thus far it is a very delightful experience for me and I'm coming across some questions.
1. How do you guys store your tobacco? Do you have more than one blend ready to smoke? For now I'm storing mine in their pouches.
2. Should aromatics be dried? Most of you say so and I'm thinking about doing it too.
3. And I've asked a lot for any blends to try but this is a constantly evolving journey for me, so I think that aromatics aren't something I totally enjoy and I'd like to try something more smokey and tobaccoey but still pleasant for everyone around me.

G'day and welcome.


1. Mason jars.

2. I steer clear of aromatics that require drying.
Before I learnt that lesson; moist aromatics usually indicates that it's been drowned in a topping.
Rather than drying I'd blend in Windsail Virginia which comes rather dry so it's perfect for balancing moisture and it tones down the topping.

My preference is for 'semi-aromatics' where topping has been applied with a light touch.
Orlik blends like Racing Green, Golden Sliced, Mellow Mixture are favourites and they don't require any drying.
MacBaren Virginia No.1. and Golden Extra [Burley]
Peter Stokkebye has some great aromatics like Nougat for e.g.
One aromatic that I really enjoy is Butternut Burley. Again, no drying required.

3. Latakia is an acquired taste for many of us. I'm not a fan of 'Lat-bombs' where the Latakia drowns out every other leaf.
Early Morning Pipe Match [Sunrise] is very good as is Count Pulaski. Both have a light topping and are a good place to start with Latakia.

If an English/Balkan blend has too much Latakia, I treat it the same as a too moist aromatic. Simply blend in a straight Virginia like Windsail until you find the right ratio that suits your taste.

My favourite non-aromatic atm is a 4noggins blend; Jesses Own which has Virginia, Maryland, Orientals with just a dash of both Latakia and Perique. It's surprisingly mild in strength and nicotine.
Jesses Own is a very good example of a non-aromatic that has a lot of natural flavour [The original owner of 4noggins was a right dickhead but he knew how to blend tobacco]

My advice is to take advantage of bulk blends by ordering one ounce of many.
Tastes change over time [I went off aromatics for instance until I found semi-aros]
If you're not fond of a blend just jar it and shove to the back of your 'cellar'.
Properly stored tobacco will keep for many years [Virginias improve with age]
In time you'll find that blends that you didn't care for at the start of your journey aren't so bad after all.

 

[Aomalley27]

I jar most of my tobacco, because I haven’t had good luck with modern tins holding seal. My rule of thumb is round flats (the coin open tins) stay as is. Flat Squares/Rectangle like Sam Gawith, Gawith Hogarth etc, get jarred. Square raised like Wessex, Sillems and especially for me, Peterson seasonal Blends, Xmas, St Paddy’s, Summertime, definitely get jarred. They are just containers for bagged tobacco, it’s not airtight. Finally you have talk rounds (canisters like C&D, GL Pease etc) which also get jarred. The only canisters I had luck with are the McClelland and Rattray’s.... those remain in canister/tin. They hold seal as long as the don’t get dented.