How do you guys do it? I've got 50 Ball jelly jars of various open tins, bulk, etc. And yet, I have probably 25 tins of stuff I haven't even tried yet! I'm dying to open Escudo, HH Mature Virginia, 3 Oaks Syrian, Haddos Delight, the list goes on and on. I can't possibly stick to a rule of having to smoke through 1 jar before opening another. I like variety too much and the lure of the unknown is always lurking...
How to Fight the Urge of Constantly Wanting to Open Tins?
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I buy two tins of everything.
One tin goes into the 'cellar'.
The other is opened right away and goes into a Mason jar.
I have about 90 mason jars nicely labeled (original tin art printed on Avery 8163 shipping labels) which look absolutely beautiful in my cupboard. Nothing beats getting up in the morning or coming home in the evening after work and having the full selection available at your fingertips!
One tin goes into the 'cellar'.
The other is opened right away and goes into a Mason jar.
I have about 90 mason jars nicely labeled (original tin art printed on Avery 8163 shipping labels) which look absolutely beautiful in my cupboard. Nothing beats getting up in the morning or coming home in the evening after work and having the full selection available at your fingertips!
I usually have 22 plus blends open at the same time. I love variety and could never imagine only having 4-6 open. My open tins stay fresh for months in the plastic tupperware like containers that I use so there is no reason not to have a large variety open. If you go to a Walmart they sell a 4 pack of these things in different sizes, it is only like 5 bucks or so. On the bottom shelf of this picture you can see what I use for my open tins.
I keep about six open jars going at a time. (I open a tin, the tobacco goes in a jar.) Because I dedicate my pipes to specific blends/styles, I only have one open jar at a time of any one type of blend. (So I have jar each for straight Virginias, Virginia/burley flakes, English, Balkan, aromatic, and Penzance. And I have racks of pipes dedicated to each of those blends/styles.)
That said, mikephillips has some good advice:
That said, mikephillips has some good advice:
:
I have a rotation of 9 mains and a few aromatic/english I'll hit once in a while all in easy access small jars. Except for Escudo and Nightcap that are properly packaged, I’m sure there are many more, but a pressed tin and paper lined a must; everything else goes into mason jars, labeled and data based. All flake stored lying down to prevent sag and splitting long term. I also convert everything into grams.
Craig
I have a few unopened tins. I keep myself from oping them by smoking something else when I want to pop the tin and by telling myself "You don't have anything to put that in. Don't open it."
The way I look at it, the longer the tin stays sealed, the better the tobacco is going to be when I finally open it, so I have no problem keeping sealed tins sealed. Plus, as long as it takes me to go through a tin (about a month or so), having more than one or two blends open at one time would give me serious tobacco ADD. I like to spend some time smoking through just one blend so I can really learn all the flavors and nuances of that particular blend. If I need a break Ill dip into my bulk stash for a few smokes then go back to whatever tin I was working on.
I have the same problem, unopened tins and so un tried tobaccos. The question is if one of those unopened tins could be the holy grail/daily smoker but because you don't open it you never know what you're sitting on. That's what mason jars are for- open, sample and throw the remainder in a jar. If its a winner, buy more. If not, store and enjoy over time. That being said, I have quite a few mason jars that have only a few bowls left so I'm making a point of smoking those at which point I will open as of yet untried tins and re-use the jars for the newly opened tins. After that ill either re-order some winners or try some new blends.
There are so many blends out there begging to be tried and I don't want to limit myself to two or three blends at a time. I use those Tupperware/Rubbermaid type containers like Harris posted above. I keep anywhere between 10-15 tins open at a time. They really keep an open tin fresh for months at a time. I buy at least two of everything so I can test drive a new blend to see if I like it or not also. I have some distinct favorites but don't want to smoke them all the time or they won't be quite as special. When I buy in bulk I put a sample of it in a 2 or 4 oz Ball jar so I don't continually open my larger jars. This has worked out quite well for me.
Yes, this is always a gamble! I think I may have only a dozen or so blends in the cellar that I haven't ever tried. . . but I think I know their ingredients well enough to know that they probably wouldn't become "holy grail" tobaccos for me. If so. . . well, I've got 90 or so other blends in the cellar that I do know I enjoy and I'll just have to smoke those if the new "holy grails" aren't on the market at that point.
This approach isn't foolproof, though. I had a 2007 bag of Stonehaven sitting around because I'd gotten it in a trade and everything I heard about it led me to believe it would be far stronger than I like. But a couple of guys here were talking about it a lot, so I decided to open the bag, do some trades, and finally try it for myself. Let's just say: I'm glad I did. It wasn't anything like I expected, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And, yes, now it's incredibly hard to find. Such is the smoking life.
My problem is that if I know I like the blender, and the description sounds appealing, I start with 11 tins: 10 to cellar and 1 to try. This usually works out well for me, but I have encountered a few blends that I just didn't like after that initial tin. I've traded some here. And some I just hold onto, thinking I'll have a different take on them in the future -- either I'll have changed or they will.
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