How Many Open Blends?
- Thread starter MrWillow11
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I agree with what you was about opener a ti when you do't really need it at the moment. I usually have open two or three Virginia's and a couple of English blends.I have a case of jars (12) with different blends and some other bulk stuff jarred up for aging. Everything else is safely nestled in their tins and I wanted to ask…. When do you decide to crack a new tin as opposed to smoking through your already open selection? I so badly sometimes want to crack a tin to try a blend but can’t bring myself to because I feel I don’t need so many opened and don’t want ( for posterity as well as resale/trade value) open another new one . Anyway wanted to see what the community take is lol and start a little discussion
Totally agree. I’ve got about 25 open tins, and just bought 3 more. I’m still very much in the discovery stage and am not even certain as to what type of blend is my favorite yet. Thankfully I enjoy most of the blends I got! I’m sure over the next 3-4 months a favorite type will start emerging and I’ll start looking to cellar it, and cutting back on buying new tins. In the meantime I’m enjoying continuing to try different blends from different companies.
I probably have a few dozen jars 'opened'. I mean to say that I didn't just jar up a tin, or some bulk, but that it's something that I've dipped into at least a few times.
I like what somebody mentioned about it being like a library that you can reference at anytime you feel the need, I will mention that to my wife if she starts complaining about the growing collection of canning jars full of pipe tobacco.
I will say that jarring up and revisiting blends, I've had some very good surprises as blends really started to grow on me. A few have turned into staples in my rotation, Rattray's Marlin Flake and SG FVF and Ennerdale spring to mind as ready examples. A jar nap has also done wonders for quite a few blends I initially thought were nearly unsmokable for me. I have now rescued so many blends I thought I really hated that I am loathe to throw anything out but will just revisit it from time to time and see what happens.
I like what somebody mentioned about it being like a library that you can reference at anytime you feel the need, I will mention that to my wife if she starts complaining about the growing collection of canning jars full of pipe tobacco.
I will say that jarring up and revisiting blends, I've had some very good surprises as blends really started to grow on me. A few have turned into staples in my rotation, Rattray's Marlin Flake and SG FVF and Ennerdale spring to mind as ready examples. A jar nap has also done wonders for quite a few blends I initially thought were nearly unsmokable for me. I have now rescued so many blends I thought I really hated that I am loathe to throw anything out but will just revisit it from time to time and see what happens.
Ooh! Great question! The answer is...it depends.
I keep my rotation far from my cellar. There's a floor and a half between my rotation, my open tins and jars and pipes, and my cellar in the basement. And 4/5 of my cellar is bulk that's been jarred up. A couple times a year I'll go through my rotation and swap out, put this in the cellar and bring that up. And whenever I get a new order in, of course.
And real quick, I want to mention some of you fine fellas have some beautiful tobacco storage arrangements. If I ever had all my tobacco in one area like that, I wouldn't have a single solitary unopened tin or jar. I'm convinced of that.
So for open tins, I'm counting tins and jars I'm smoking currently. My choices when deciding what I want to smoke. I try to keep that to a dozen. I'm at 15 right now, but I can explain. 4 of those are work blends. I had 4 jars or tins to smoke at work. Mostly dry nicotine heavy (or heavier) or well behaved in the pipe and pleasant smelling. I'm between jobs, so I'll take my 4 out of daily home rotation and I'll be at 11. That's room for that extra one that we all end up with somehow.
But wait! There's more!
In my car I have 3 jars for driving smokes. And 4 in my wife's car. I have a pouch of 5 Brothers in my fishing tackle box along with a cob. I have a dried out pouch of SWRA and a cob in my shotgun case (I should probably switch that out for a pouch of Captain Black or Sutliff).
I suppose these are all open tins and jars. In court a lawyer could probably argue I have 24 open tins, pouches, or jars. But I don't count those last 9 as in my rotation. They're separate, like corn cob pipes don't get counted in my pipes. Everyone's milage varies differently, and this is how Rookie math works, and the Internal Revenue Service can suck it!
I keep my rotation far from my cellar. There's a floor and a half between my rotation, my open tins and jars and pipes, and my cellar in the basement. And 4/5 of my cellar is bulk that's been jarred up. A couple times a year I'll go through my rotation and swap out, put this in the cellar and bring that up. And whenever I get a new order in, of course.
And real quick, I want to mention some of you fine fellas have some beautiful tobacco storage arrangements. If I ever had all my tobacco in one area like that, I wouldn't have a single solitary unopened tin or jar. I'm convinced of that.
So for open tins, I'm counting tins and jars I'm smoking currently. My choices when deciding what I want to smoke. I try to keep that to a dozen. I'm at 15 right now, but I can explain. 4 of those are work blends. I had 4 jars or tins to smoke at work. Mostly dry nicotine heavy (or heavier) or well behaved in the pipe and pleasant smelling. I'm between jobs, so I'll take my 4 out of daily home rotation and I'll be at 11. That's room for that extra one that we all end up with somehow.
But wait! There's more!
In my car I have 3 jars for driving smokes. And 4 in my wife's car. I have a pouch of 5 Brothers in my fishing tackle box along with a cob. I have a dried out pouch of SWRA and a cob in my shotgun case (I should probably switch that out for a pouch of Captain Black or Sutliff).
I suppose these are all open tins and jars. In court a lawyer could probably argue I have 24 open tins, pouches, or jars. But I don't count those last 9 as in my rotation. They're separate, like corn cob pipes don't get counted in my pipes. Everyone's milage varies differently, and this is how Rookie math works, and the Internal Revenue Service can suck it!
Recently updated the spreadsheet and it looks like I've got 105 open blends... 
I open every new variety and move it to a jar... does that stil count? I think I've only got three still in tins, and that's because they were duplicates that I got because they were on sale. Granted, that means there's some jars I've been eyeing for the "For sale or trade" once I qualify...