Is It Better To Age Tobacco In The Factory Tin or A Mason Jar?

[Mike N]

Most pipe smokers generally agree that non-aromatic tobacco smokes tastier and smoother after a few years of aging. What is your opinion as to whether tobacco ages better in the sealed factory vacuum tin or in a mason jar, exposing it every year or so to some oxygen? (I’m obviously not talking about tobacco being cellared for resale where buyers on the secondary market obviously prefer the provenance of a factory sealed tin.)

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Factory tin. You're interrupting the aging by breaking the seal to transfer the tobacco. And you do not open a mason jar every year or so, or ever, to introduce oxygen. There is both an aerobic and then an anaerobic process, in the aging. Avoid interrupting them if possible for best results. At least, in my experience.

 

[KruegerFlap]

I always try to leave the tins be if possible. No sense in disturbing a factory seal if you can help it and let nature takes it course. But seals go bad every once in a while or there isn't a tight seal from the factory which then necessitates putting the tobacco in a jar at which point I never open unless I want to smoke the tobacco.

 

[Brad H]

I’m aging in factory tins if they look good and sealed. Larger bags from bulk, I toss them in a mason jar and stuff them tight as possible to get out the oxygen.

But then again I’m nowhere near the smartest!!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Tins aren't designed for long term storage. I'd opt for jars to prevent unseen compromises in the tins.

 

[AirOne]

Depends on what you are after. Aging in tins will allow anaerobic fermentation, aging in jars will break that process (at least for quite some time) and you will have an aerobic oxidation. Two different things, which one is best? Try !

 

[bullet08]

Too lazy to open everything to move to jars. I only move them if I open them. After opening, you want them to breath anyway. You'll notice remarkable difference after two weeks or so. Something like Peterson/Dunhill Navy Roll will completely change in a month or so to deep dark fruit note.

 

[sablebrush52]

First off, aging does not improve tobaccos. To a greater or lesser extent, aging changes tobaccos and whether that change is an improvement is up to the individual smoker to decide. There are tobacco blends that I prefer fresh and others that I prefer aged.

The question of whether it’s better to keep it in the tin, or jar it depends on just how long you intend to age it.

The concern that removing tobacco from the tin to jar it will “interrupt” the aging process is legitimate. What is far less legitimate is whether that actually matters. No one can definitively say that such an interruption will result in a loss of “improvement”. Maybe it will actually result in greater improvement. Nobody knows because aging is unpredictable in the nature of its results.

As an example from personal experience, a little over a decade ago I divided a 500 gram box of Full Virginia Flake and jarred it in 3 new mason jars. The contents went into the jars and were sealed within a minute. The jars sat next to each other, undisturbed, for the next 8 years, when I opened them and smoked them, they had changed in completely different ways. Two had gained a lovely sweetness, not precisely the same, the third had not. Flavor profiles were slightly different.

Greg Pease had evangelized keeping the tobacco in the original tin, until a few years ago, when he wrote a letter to the Briar Blues blog site to say that his view had changed after finding a number of “disappointments” in his cellar, basically tin failures, and suggested jarring as quickly as possible after purchase and aging in jars.

Tins may be fine for a number of years, or they may not. In my personal experience I find the square and rectangular tins less reliable over time than the round tins and I ascribe that to the difference between how round tins are sealed and how square and rectangular tins are sealed.

These days, much of my bulk is stored in heavy gauge food grade metallized Mylar, which has been heat sealed. Round tins are left untouched. Some of the square tins have been decanted into Mylar, some have been left alone for more immediate consumption.

People will make their own choices, but, the argument about the issue of “interrupting” the aging process is sketchy at best.

 

[VDL_Piper]

I think jars are a trap for lesser mortals and the temptation to open is large where as a tin is closed and there is no "let's just take a peak" mentality. The question does tobacco ages in jars or tins better, I'd say they age the same with the only variable being how much air you have removed through filling the jar as opposed to a tin and this only serves to speed up or slow down the aging. After all the whole process is about fermenting sugars at the end of the day.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Better or not, aging is my main option, because I am mostly only smoking from my cellar from here on out. And, aging will be the only option for those who intelligently decide to stash back their favorites as the Vikings pillage the tobacco market.
Many are opting for putting tobaccos in square tins into jars as soon as they get them, and that's a pretty good practice. I just go through and check my seals on tins from time to time by trying to pull the lids off by hand, using all of my strength. A well sealed tin will NOT open, even if you have Popeye forearms of steal.
For all of the tins made by C&D and McClelland, I just leave them be. It could possibly happen, but I haven't seen ne leak yet.

As to jars, once you get the tobacco sealed up, leave that shit alone. Do not be introducing new air in. Sheesh. This is why I would never trust buying someone's jarred bulks or transferred tins to jars. You just have no idea what sort of crazy practices some people who cellar bulks will do. Also, dipping into a jar every now and then to smoke it, IS NOT AGING THE BLEND. If you open it, it's in your rotation now.

 

[Briarcutter]

I'd vote,factory tin. If it's a square tin and concerned about the seal there is always tge option of vacuum sealing the tin.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

I’ve accumulated too many jars but haven’t been ready to shift over to Mylar. That’s my 2026 project and I’ll start with bagging and sealing round tins so I can get learn how to properly heat seal the bags before starting on the bulk I have. Square tins I always jar up.

 

[Brad H]

I am not experienced in this much at all.
In factory tin if still sealed. Jars if bulk like pounds.

Not too sure how Mylar ages tobacco in it.

Or just buy aged tobacco!

 

[9mmpuffer]

Jar is better and guarantees the tin won't be compromised but tin is better for resale value of you every change your mind.

 

[sablebrush52]

A couple of topics in the responses are interesting and worth addressing.

First is the amount of air to tobacco in tins or jars. When one takes a moment to look at how commercial tins are packed and sealed it's clear that from the commercial standpoint it doesn't matter. Hearth & Home tins used to be tightly packed and vacuum sealed, whereas McClelland tins had loose packing and plenty of air in the tin. C&D, GL Pease canister tins aren't hard packed with no air. HU and Peretti paint can tins, loose pack and no vacuum. Either commercial blenders don't give a crap how their blends cellar, are flagrantly incompetent, or it doesn't matter.

So what do you think? Are commercial blenders incompetent, don't give a crap, or does it probably not matter. Also, the quality blenders do their own aging BEFORE blends are released, so you really don't need to be further aging them as far as the blenders are concerned.

Second is the matter of square and rectangular tin seals. These are sealed with a gasket that's never 100% sealed. There's always a tiny amount of leakage, which is why you can smell the contents if you put a tin in a sealed Rubbermaid container for a couple of weeks, lift the lid, and take a sniff. This is why your closets, basement, display case, or underwear drawer, stink of tobacco. These square and rectangular tins use a gasket seal, and as anyone with even a smattering of engineering knowledge knows, the distributed pressure is concentrated in the corners and less so in the centers of the sides, so uneven pressure along the perimeter of the seal. That's not the case with circular screw down lids. Granted, ANY seal can fail, but in my personal experience, seals on rectangular and square tins fail sooner and in higher percentages. So it comes down to how long do you contemplate your tins will have to hold up? A decade or less? You'll probably mostly be OK. Some of your tins will die in glorious service to you, but most will be OK, just as long as you keep storage temperature variations marginal. Longer than that? Consult a soothsayer.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The whole idea for aging tobaccos came from dead pipesmokers, that had stashed a huge supply back to have to smoke. Family would find the dead guy's stash and try the tobaccos to find that they had aged in the tins and tasted better (I know I know.... different).

Honestly, I think that European blenders don't even consider aging of their tins. They all pretty much hate their customers, so... there's that. :::cough cough:::

And, some blenders may pre-age their tobaccos. And, then some may tin very fresh knowing that we are going to age them anyways. I wouldn't say that one blender is better than the others. One just knows the audience better, and the others are Europeans living on the edge of communism.

Yeh, rectangle tins... commies.

 

[Mike N]

This quote from a November 18, 2022, article by Chuck Stanion on SmokingPipes.com is where I got the idea about exposing jarred tobacco to air:

"Air exposure is good for tobacco, though like everything, it depends to what degree. Tobacco that's vacuum sealed will age and ferment, but at a slower rate, and it will experience less change compared to tobacco that's exposed to more air, whether in the original tin or a different container. That's primarily because the microscopic organisms that transform tobacco need air to survive and to continue the fermentation process, ultimately enhancing the flavor.

Years ago when I worked at Pipes and tobaccos magazine, we conducted an experiment, storing a Virginia blend for three years in a vacuum-sealed jar and in a non-vacuumed jar. The consensus of our tobacco reviewers upon smoking them was that the non-vacuum-sealed tobacco had aged more deeply. So, experiment with vacuum seals before dedicating decades to cellaring. They're probably best for tobaccos we intend to store for longer than 20 years, but less appropriate for faster aging, which takes plenty of time itself.

This quote from an old Charles Rattray's of Perth catalog advances this theory:

Contrary to popular belief, the air-tight container is not the best method of packing ... Tobacco is a vegetable that lives and breathes; it does not improve by being imprisoned in an air-tight compartment. Further evidence of this is the fact that the choicest cigars are always packed in a plain cedar wood box from which the air has not been excluded.'"

 

[cosmicfolklore]

This quote from a November 18, 2022, article by Chuck Stanion on SmokingPipes.com is where I got the idea about exposing jarred tobacco to air:

"Air exposure is good for tobacco, though like everything, it depends to what degree. Tobacco that's vacuum sealed will age and ferment, but at a slower rate, and it will experience less change compared to tobacco that's exposed to more air, whether in the original tin or a different container. That's primarily because the microscopic organisms that transform tobacco need air to survive and to continue the fermentation process, ultimately enhancing the flavor.

Years ago when I worked at Pipes and tobaccos magazine, we conducted an experiment, storing a Virginia blend for three years in a vacuum-sealed jar and in a non-vacuumed jar. The consensus of our tobacco reviewers upon smoking them was that the non-vacuum-sealed tobacco had aged more deeply. So, experiment with vacuum seals before dedicating decades to cellaring. They're probably best for tobaccos we intend to store for longer than 20 years, but less appropriate for faster aging, which takes plenty of time itself.

This quote from an old Charles Rattray's of Perth catalog advances this theory:

Contrary to popular belief, the air-tight container is not the best method of packing ... Tobacco is a vegetable that lives and breathes; it does not improve by being imprisoned in an air-tight compartment. Further evidence of this is the fact that the choicest cigars are always packed in a plain cedar wood box from which the air has not been excluded.'"

You can do as you like with your tobaccos, but according to Greg, there are two stages of fermentation. And, off the top of my head, I can't remember what they are called. But, the first one is when the microorganisms are eating up the oxygen, and then the second stag are when the microorganisms have died and the oxygen is removed, setting forth a metabolic reaction that breaks down sugars and complex nicotine chemical reactions that create the sweeter flavors that we are going for.

Greg is who I would turn to for information about aging. He has a ton of writings on his website/blogs.

 

[woodsroad]

I cellar round tins as they are. Sometimes I will open a new tin just to try it fresh, and if I think some time might improve it, I'll vacuum seal it in a Mylar bag. Be warned that Ziplok seals are notoriously iffy. Some will be good for a decade, some start leaking immediately.

It is my understanding that the aging process is just a slow rot. Both bacteria and enzymes, and maybe fungus, breaking down starch chains into sugars and devouring God knows what. But clearly, they are eating your tobacco, judging from the off-gassing seen in some aging blends.

But there are so many variables that we know nothing about. What conditions do the enzymes and bacteria need in order to flourish? Moisture? Temperature? Darkness? Pressure? Will tobacco treated with antifungals age differently than untreated tobacco?

What I wouldn't give to be working in a bio lab and have access to the tools to do real research on this!

 

[sablebrush52]

Years ago when I worked at Pipes and tobaccos magazine, we conducted an experiment, storing a Virginia blend for three years in a vacuum-sealed jar and in a non-vacuumed jar.

Greg did something similar and recorded the results on his site. Results were similar. There are people who try to retard the aging process with blends they want to have on hand, but like fresh.