How Would You Build Your Cellar: A Timing Question?

[geopiper]

Recognizing there's no "correct" answer, I was pondering this concept. Assume the person cellaring has 20 to 30 years of smoking ahead of them.

If you had to build your cellar again how would you do it? Would you buy as much as you could as fast as you could to start the aging clock as soon as possible, or would you spread out the purchases over the course of time?

Another way to think about it is, given the choice what would you choose: build the cellar in 1 year, or over the course of 5 years?

Seems to me building the cellar quickly to start the aging is a good strategy followed by filling in gaps that open every few years or so.

 

[smokiespipesmoker123]

Hey, so for me, aging is a side hustle. I buy stuff that Im intrigued to try, and if I like it I'll buy two. My "Cellar" just grows organically that way. My stuff ages simply because I only smoke 2-3 times a week and smoke smaller bowls. In essence I buy more than I smoke.

 

[mso489]

Like smokies', I think aging is a natural side effect of buying more tobacco than I smoke and doesn't need any grand strategy. Buy what you believe will be a terrific smoke, and smoke it when you like, sooner or later. Too much strategy gets too cerebral. Save that for finance.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Aging doesn't have a day and night difference in flavor it just mellows in some cases and sweetens in others. I've been putting back tobacco for the past thirty years for a time when I could no longer afford it or favorites get discontinued. Aging has never been a goal and is just a case of not getting around to smoking it yet.

 

[haparnold]

+1 on what Embers said. My cellar has developed organically over time. I'm young, and otherwise extremely healthy, so I'm planning on having 50+ more smoking years. For me, cellaring is simply buying more than I smoke and looking for decent value for my dollar.

However, at the end of the day, this is totally a luxury. If a day comes, when for health or supply reasons, I can't burn leaves in a wooden pot, I won't cry.

More to your point, I believe building a cellar slowly over 5 years is a better option. Tastes change, palates develop, and new blends come on the market with regularity, even in these times. It would be a shame to heavily stockpile a certain blend and then lose your taste for it.

 

[sablebrush52]

Herein is the dilemma. Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

Tastes change over time, and what one likes to smoke changes with it. Most of us have built up our cellars patiently over years, cellaring deeply on blends that we have continued to enjoy through those periods of change, and adding others for those occasions when we want something different.
There are cellarers who cellar deeply on a small number of blends that they have come to enjoy on a consistent basis through the test of time. There are others who cellar wide because they like variety, or they don't know what they will enjoy and are in a rush.

On the other hand, we're going through "interesting" times. A number of highly prized blends have gone away. A much loved high end blender closed shop a couple of years ago, growers are turning to other crops, the anti-smoking environment it getting more restrictive, and there is the guillotine waiting for undeemed blends in 2022. Quite a pickle.

I'd still take some time to know a blend before I cellared it, despite the "interesting" times, because I don't find having a cellar filled with blends I burnt out on doesn't seem like a great option.

As for aging, I don't cellar specifically to age. That's a by-product that I may, or may not, appreciate down the road, depending on the blend, as some age in a way that I like, and others don't. Aging doesn't improve tobacco blends. Aging changes tobacco blends. Whether or not that aging is an improvement is up to the individual smoker to decide.

 

[tkcolo]

Cellar VAs, VaPers, and VaBurs. Find the popular ones discussed online and start there. The difference between new and 8 years old FVF is night and day. Other types, not so much. I started my cellar three years ago, and I bought everything I liked at the time. Now, I have a bunch I'll never smoke. Although, I also bought a bunch of the MCC stuff before the announcement. So, I have a lot of valuable tins, but I don't want to smoke them, because I will start to love something I can't replace.

So, not cellaring now may mean you miss some great stuff that will go away in the future, but then again, you will spend less. Six in one hand, half dozen the other. My tastes have changed so much throughout time, I think I'll always be able to find something I like. Enjoy the journey, and don't stress too much.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

What I did... in leaving cigarettes which was a 1+ pack a day, which is about $300 a month. I just budgeted the money that I was saving by quitting cigarettes into pipe tobacco. Pipes and Cigars was the only online pipe company that offered a real discount on quantity. I mean smokingpipes offers a little, but not anything near the price breaks that P&C does.
So, I pumped $300 a month to them to give me 3 to 10 pounds a month, depending on whether it was bulk or tins.

I have reduced the amount budgeted for tobacco down quite a bit, especially since I have topped 400 lbs, but I still buy the new stuff coming out and some things that I want to stock up more of.

$300 a month sounds like a lot, but every other form of tobacco consumption would be close to that. I mean, I could have one good cigar a day for that price. So, it's not really outrageous.

On how and what to stock up on... if you are a newbie, get the things you like now. Sure, some things you will outgrow... for example in the beginning Hobbit Weed seemed like a good idea to my neophyte mind... but, then years later, I end up dumping ten pounds of that shit into the garbage. So, YMMV.

 

[Chasing Embers]

The difference between new and 8 years old FVF is night and day.

But can you be sure it's the age or the crop that it came from? The same blend fresh from one crop isn't necessarily going to taste like the same blend from a different one.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The difference between new and 8 years old FVF is night and day.

Yeh, I don't really see that with any of the FVF in my cellar.

And, honestly, I don't age tobaccos for a huge change in taste. I mean MacBaren's VA#1 will bite your tongue just as bad after ten years in the cellar as it did fresh from the B&M. I mean, I like to age it. But, that is not what drives me to cellar more and more.

I don't believe for one second that in ten years tobacco will be allowed to be sold in any form, especially online. So, if you don't have a cellar, you'll be screwed. YMMV

 

[cshubhra]

I buy more than I smoke, so eventually my cellar would grow.
I re-estimated what I have the other day. Looks like my cellar is between 2.5 to 3 years in depth. I plan to have a cellar which is eventually 7-8 years in depth

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Two big ifs. IF I knew I could buy all the blends I like today 15 years from now, and IF I knew the pricing would be reasonably the same, I'd buy 5 to 10 years worth right away and then I'd essentially replace what I smoke every year after that. Likely buy a little more than that each year to build up the cellar.

Unfortunately, those 2 IFs are at a higher risk than I have felt comfortable taking. So i basically built my cellar in the past 2 years. I built my cellar as much to hedge against future availability and price increases as I did to age the tobacco. Probably a bit more. I enjoy all the blends I bought fresh. I feel like 2 to 5 years will improve them. After that, the improvement is in much smaller increments and may be in the category of point of diminishing returns.

To some degree, I have been building my cellar with at least some hedge against my tastes changing. I am cellaring wider than I really need to and buying more than I really need as a result. This has been done consciously. The tobacco isn't likely to get any cheaper or more readily available. If my tastes change a lot, I will have quality stuff to trade if worse comes to worse. If I die and have several hundred pounds of tobacco left over, perhaps my Granddaughters will take up pipe smoking.

 

[cshubhra]

Unfortunately my cigarettes budget is still $300 a month. Any PAD,TAD and Cigar acquisition is over and above that. That somewhat limits my ability to build a larger cellar.

What I did... in leaving cigarettes which was a 1+ pack a day, which is about $300 a month. I just budgeted the money that I was saving by quitting cigarettes into pipe tobacco. Pipes and Cigars was the only online pipe company that offered a real discount on quantity. I mean smokingpipes offers a little, but not anything near the price breaks that P&C does.
So, I pumped $300 a month to them to give me 3 to 10 pounds a month, depending on whether it was bulk or tins.

I have reduced the amount budgeted for tobacco down quite a bit, especially since I have topped 400 lbs, but I still buy the new stuff coming out and some things that I want to stock up more of.

$300 a month sounds like a lot, but every other form of tobacco consumption would be close to that. I mean, I could have one good cigar a day for that price. So, it's not really outrageous.

On how and what to stock up on... if you are a newbie, get the things you like now. Sure, some things you will outgrow... for example in the beginning Hobbit Weed seemed like a good idea to my neophyte mind... but, then years later, I end up dumping ten pounds of that shit into the garbage. So, YMMV.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Unfortunately my cigarettes budget is still $300 a month.

Wow, so you still smoke cigarettes heavily and add pipes on top of that? That's pretty hardcore.
If it helps you decide to quit the sticks, I can tell you that pipes and cigars will taste so much better to you if you aren't smoking cigs. They really do improve. And, you will taste so much more flavor in tobacco. But, YMMV

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Unfortunately my cigarettes budget is still $300 a month. Any PAD,TAD and Cigar acquisition is over and above that. That somewhat limits my ability to build a larger cellar.

I quit cigarettes completely in Sept 2007. I had a near 2 pack per day habit so even at the prices back then, it was more than $300 per month. I went to cigars exclusively and then got back into pipes a couple of year ago. I'm not sure how to express my recommendation to get off of the cigarettes completely asap. Learn to do without and enjoy cigars and pipes more.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Aging doesn't improve tobacco blends. Aging changes tobacco blends. Whether or not that aging is an improvement is up to the individual smoker to decide.

Truth. Major, big league, truth.

 

[ophiuchus]

Well, geopiper, you got an important point right at the beginning: There's no "correct" answer. This is all supposed to be for fun, right?

There was a time when I would have said,"Take your time. Patience!" That time is gone. As already pointed out, blends are disappearing left and right; more will disappear when long-approaching government regulation kicks in. There is also every indication that, in the near future, many of the avenues of acquisition available to us today will become more difficult, and in some states disappear altogether (online shopping, for example).

Don't break your bank or take out a second mortgage to build a cellar; keep it all in perspective. But keep in mind that it'll never be as easy or as inexpensive as it is now, and the time is coming when a trip to a brick and mortar retailer (or obtaining a retailer license) will be the only way to buy pipe tobacco. Not to mention the inevitable tax increases ...

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

If it helps you decide to quit the sticks, I can tell you that pipes and cigars will taste so much better to you if you aren't smoking cigs. They really do improve. And, you will taste so much more flavor in tobacco.

Lots of wisdom in such a short thread. Also very, very true. The difference is overwhelming after just maybe a week of no cigarettes.

 

[spartacus]

My cellar has a lot of different tobaccos so I am wide. I am also very deep on blends that really enjoy and blends I know may be hard to acquire in the near future.
I do not cellar deep on blends I think might taste better with age. If I do not like it fresh I'm not going to chance that I will like it with age.
I have more than enough tobacco to smoke for the rest of my life assuming I live to be 100.
Some guys with PAD have so many pipes they will never smoke them all. I have TAD and I have tobaccos I will never smoke. Probably some I will never try. A friend on this forum told me once that "My cellar was complete but not finished". It will never be finished. It's hard to explain.

 

[Akousticplyr]

As a new member of this clearly experienced group, my takeaway is that a cellar develops organically over time. There are those who shoot the moon and acquire big stocks in short bursts and those who find something they like, then order a couple extra tins per regular smoking rotation purchase.

My "cellar" is humble, but is slowly growing. I tend to grab a couple extra tins of favorites every time i try something new. I'm slowing dipping into the bulk buys but I'm smart enough to know I'm dumb about what is really out there; I'm just scratching the surface. That's the fun part of the hobby- between pipes and tobacco varieties it's really a collector's hobby, right?