How long should I cellar?

[bermuda]

I have been smoking Virginias, Virginia/Periques, and English Mixtures for about 50 years and I have concluded that cellaring does wonders for Virginias which improve year by year virtually forever. Not so the case with English Mixtures, the Virginias improve with age but the Latakia will hold its character for several years but after about 5 to 7 years the latakia will start to fade and lose quite a bit of its fullness and drifts toward the bland. A few years ago I popped a tin of Rattrays Red Rapparee that had been tinned in 1970, the latakia was barely detectable. Welcome to the hobby, pipe smoking is truly one of life's little pleasures.

 

[cigrmaster]

youdancer, I never open a tin unless I plan on smoking it. I have also never had a square tin fail on me. I keep my tobacco at a strict temp and humidity. No large swings as that I believe is the reason people may be having issues.
I keep around 20 tins open at the same time and I never jar them up. I keep the tobacco in their original tins and store the tins in tupperware like containers that keeps the tobacco moist for over 1.5 years.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Interrupted aging: It will continue to age, but the results will be different from uninterrupted aging for the same time. Worse? Better? Pretty much the same? Who knows. Different is all.
Without very elaborate procedures, I don't think you can arrest aging. You can keep it from drying out by use of good jars and seals.