I popped a tin each of 5-year old Old Gowrie and HOTW last week and transferred them into Mylar along with the leftovers from two other tins that had been aging in glass jars for the same period of time. The fresh tins has an unmistakable minty smell along with a lot of astringency. (I commented on it in another thread.) I haven't smoked any of it yet. I mixed the "fresh" tobacco with the jar-aged stuff and might let it sit for another 5 years in Mylar. The jarred tobacco was much darker in colour and had none of that minty smell to it; just dark fruit/bread/etc.at times it gets on a minty/geranium leaf nuance
[I also prefer Old Gowrie to HOTW, but they are very similar.]