mysmokingshop.co.uk Selling Aged Tobaccos

[smudgersmissingleg]

I was just checking out mysmokingshop.co.uk and noticed they are selling some aged tobaccos from 2003/2004.
They are £14.99 for 25g so about double what you'd normally pay for 25g. The 4 blends in stock are all Samuel Gawith and are:

Balkan Flake
Firedance Flake
Navy Flake
Bracken Flake

I ordered 25g of the Bracken Flake as I've never tried it and I believe they don't make it anymore.

 

[saintpeter]

SORRY, NO OVERSEAS SHIPPING
ARGH!!!!

 

[karam]

Thanks for the heads up. I hit the Balkan Flake as well as I remember smoking it years ago, and threw in a St James Plug which I think I will like. It'll take a while until I get them as I sent it to my firm's UK office and will pick up the next time me, or a colleague, are over there.

The real question is, and what I've wondered for anyone who collects vintage consumables, when the hell do you open it?! Like having a bottle of wine from the Titanic, or one of the Mayan cigars (ok I am exaggerating a tad here), do I put it in a glass case like a saint's relic for public pilgrimage, do I dress up in a suit and tie and set up the "perfect" conditions for consuming it, do I share it with friends (though I don't have any pipe-smoking friends)? Or - as usual - do I keep it for that one occasion which never actually comes? Oh and when I arbitrarily decide it came, the overblown expectations mean the actual experience is a bit of a letdown (a bit like perfect sex, it is never the "set up" kind, it is more often the middle of the day, kids are out for 45 minutes kind). Or do I load up and smoke it in a day in my torn jeans and sweater, then pulling the tin out of the drawer to look at for many years to come? I am being a bit sarcastic towards myself here, but would like to hear others' opinions despite the off-topic nature of the paragraph. I never smoked "vintage" tobacco, and just started buying more than I can smoke.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

To be honest I haven't got much really old stuff in my cellar, most of it is 4 years old or less. I have got a couple of 20 year old Orlik Golden Sliced and a single tin of Erinmore Flake that dates from the late 1970's, all of which were purchased off of ebay.
I've recently opened a tin of the Golden Sliced because (like you say) otherwise you're waiting for that mythical 'one day' that maybe never comes.
I've seen a couple of the guys on here have to sell their tobacco cellar because they got ill, and I remember reading one of them say he'd wished that he had smoked a bit more of it.
It's a balancing act I suppose.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Aged Firedance Flake... Mmmmm... does it actually improve or just lose some of the nasty taste?

 

[cigrmaster]

I open aged tins all the time. A couple of weeks ago I opened a 100 gram tin of 1998 Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky. The blend is amazing and I am really enjoying it. I could be dead next week so everything in my cellar is available to be cracked, no matter how old it is.

 

[burleyboy]

Thanks for sharing this. This is pretty unique for us Europeans. Another European UK based vendor who has a lot of aged tins, especially McClelland is Larrysson Pipes.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

Thanks for sharing this. This is pretty unique for us Europeans. Another European UK based vendor who has a lot of aged tins, especially McClelland is Larrysson Pipes.

Thanks for the tip mate. I just went over and had a look, he's got a great selection on there hasn't he? Bit out of my price range at the moment but maybe in the future.

 

[burleyboy]

Thanks for the tip mate. I just went over and had a look, he's got a great selection on there hasn't he? Bit out of my price range at the moment but maybe in the future.

You're welcome, my friend! Since eBay started deleting tobacco offerings, which are other than the regular retail price, options to buy consignment tins became pretty rare over here.

 

[karam]

Thanks for sharing this. This is pretty unique for us Europeans. Another European UK based vendor who has a lot of aged tins, especially McClelland is Larrysson Pipes.

Thanks indeed, I had a look too, way too expensive for me. I never had the itch for rare and vintage but understand those who do. I always thought about it in a pragmatic, and not having an endless pot of cash way: why buy one of X when for the same money I can buy ten of Y?