Never-Tried Blends in the Cellar?

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm with you on this I can pretty much smoke anything without "disgust" but that's too low a bar. Why collect multiples of something that is *meh* when you know there are blends you enjoy more?

When I switched from cigarettes to pipes, I had a budget of $300 a month for the cigarettes. So, I just switched to building up my cellar with what I was spending on the death sticks. And, since I had just started, I started buying in one pound hauls, sometimes 5 lbs. And, even back then, sometimes a blend would become available for just a few weeks, so there wasn't time to try a sample and then buy more, because it would be gone. And, sometimes when a tinned something or other was available, you had to buy 10-20 tins, or just get left out.

My only regrettable buy was 5 lbs of Virginia #1. But, even that isn't terrible. I can still smoke it, but It just still stings the shit out of my tongue after 12 or so years in the cellar. Maybe at 20 years it will start to mellow out. Ha ha.

Now, I still have no qualms with buying a pound of a small batch.

 

[pappymac]

This very post is predicated on the notion that folks will blind purchase tobaccos they haven't tried. Some do, some don't. Then those who do usually try tobaccos they get, while some may experience circumstances where those tins hit the cellar and events conspire to prevent sampling... I am in this category.

Yes. We will.

By the standards some of you guys have set, my collection of tobacco blends don't even come close to being called a "cellar." I have roughly 12 lbs. of tobacco in the house. That includes 61 unopened tins of tobacco. This discussion caused me to look at my inventory list and I have 14 blends that I have yet to crack open. (For the record, I have two tins of four of the blends). They are:

Dunhill Apertif (2018)
Dunhill Standard Mixture Mellow (2018)
McClelland Piper’s Choice Black Tie (2017)
Peterson Hyde Park (2018)
SPC Potlach (2018)
Pelican (made by Germain) 2018
Presbyterian Mixture (2018)
Peterson 3P (2019)
Rattray’s Tower Bridge (2020)
Value Sunset Mixture (2022)
Vauen Hawaii No. 10 (2022)
Plum Pudding Barrel Aged (2022)
Mallard DTM (2022)
Norman Rockwell Portrait (2022)

 

[FurCoat]

Too many

 

[Deano]

I have a few and just recieved a few more. Who knows? I might enjoy some of them.

 

[bobpnm]

When I switched from cigarettes to pipes, I had a budget of $300 a month for the cigarettes. So, I just switched to building up my cellar with what I was spending on the death sticks. And, since I had just started, I started buying in one pound hauls, sometimes 5 lbs. And, even back then, sometimes a blend would become available for just a few weeks, so there wasn't time to try a sample and then buy more, because it would be gone. And, sometimes when a tinned something or other was available, you had to buy 10-20 tins, or just get left out.

My only regrettable buy was 5 lbs of Virginia #1. But, even that isn't terrible. I can still smoke it, but It just still stings the shit out of my tongue after 12 or so years in the cellar. Maybe at 20 years it will start to mellow out. Ha ha.

Now, I still have no qualms with buying a pound of a small batch.

Virginia #1 is like eating every time I have tried it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Virginia #1 is like eating every time I have tried it.

A mouthful of yellowjackets.

 

[Heypat]

Opening Night & Union Square. Never cracked a can and I have about 5lbs of each. I have zero doubt that I will like them.

I'm going to wait until they hit the 5 year mark before opening.

Just finished a tin of Opening night from 2011 and it was incredible. Tin was swollen so much I was afraid the seal would break if I looked at it the wrong way. Found it at a local tobacconist Selling some estate tobacco. Never even tried a red v when I purchased but wanted to see if aging lived up to the hype. I was pleasantly surprised and only regret I could not buy more. Currently adding this to to cellar to get some age on it, along with some other c&d reds. In retrospect I should have kept a few bowls to compare to a fresh tin for comparison.

 

[Michigan_Bill]

Been stocking up on various blends going wide so that when I find what I truly like I can go deep but I've been waiting for my palate to stabilize post covid.
I figure there is no reason to crack a tin that could just sit and age if I'm not going to be able to truly taste the contents and make a proper judgment.
I'm using EMP as my benchmark when it finally tastes like it used to as I smoked it every day before covid I'll start cracking tins of all my untried stuff.
Also waiting for certain untried blends to hit marks of age 5,7,10, years since I bought some out of production stuff.
Hopefully by my 50th B day in August, things will be back to normal.
I'm getting hints here and there of them old trusted flavors.

Exactly word for word what I was going to say. (Except I'm older than 50 )

 

[sigaholic]

I have many many tobaccos in my cellar I have yet to try. Someday I will possibly have a new favorite

 

[EvertonFC]

If I had to guess, I probably have about two dozen blends on hand that I've not yet gotten to. I wouldn't say I'm cellaring them per se. They just exist unopened.

 

[Peterson314]

My only regrettable buy was 5 lbs of Virginia #1.

Virginia #1 was my first non-aromatic bulk buy. Years and years ago, I was in a "pipe and cigar" shop with seven hundred billion cigars and four jars of bulk pipe tobacco. Brought it home, lit it up, and my tongue felt like I had spent 30 minutes licking concrete.

I jarred it up and didn't touch it for damn near a decade. I got curious about it one night and went to get it from the top shelf of my closet and I dropped the damn jar and it shattered. Glass and tobacco went into the shop vac.

Oh well. VA#1 and me are not meant to be.

 

[BarrelProof]

I plead the fifth. I buy stuff just because it’s on sale or because the tin art is cool or because it’s kinda, remotely, in a round about way somewhat similar to something I may have liked at one point in a distant past.

Who cares? It’s fun. If it’s a dud I’ll send it to one of y’all.

 

[DesertDan]

"Anyone else have tins of blends they’ve never tried but plan to get to “some day”?

Yes, Many.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

I never cellar anything without trying a tin or two. And preferably trying those tins fresh and with a few months at least on them. Only exception is harder to get releases. Like Hogshead. Bought one tin and smoke a few bowls, immediately went back and bought a couple pounds.
I just don't understand spending that kind of money on something that A) you might not like, and B) could have a bad trade or resale value.

Harris actually nailed this into me. Smoke a variety of blends, and when one really resignations with you, but the shit out of it like it's going out of stock. Ole Harris man, wise dude.

Edit: I just remembered, I have a box full of KBV blends and some over seas blends (Tak, Motzek, HU, etc). Some of those I haven't tried, but I'm also not deep on any of em. Just a big ole tub of variety blends

 

[krizzose]

I have several blends in my cellar that I haven’t tried yet. Based on blender and components, I’m confident I’ll like them. If I love them when I finally open them, I may be out of luck on getting more, and what a classic first-world problem that will be. I’ll console myself with my lifetime supply of what will then be well-aged tins of already identified favorite blends.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I have multiple tins in the cellar that I've never tried. Whether it was a purchase based off someone's review, the description just sounded good, or it was gifted to me. With over 50 mason jars of already opened tobacco to smoke from; I try not to open more tins than necessary. As I smoke through some of the mason jars, I open more tins, so eventually I'll get to the blends I haven't tried before.

 

[trouttimes]

I have several. It’s fun to discover a forgotten tin.

 

[FLDRD]

Oh, about 140 or so looking at me from my shelves that I stare at and choose my "next one" from. Most of those have 1-3 siblings in my basement. Some I've tried and liked and I have 5-10 or so tucked away. They will have some years on them when I next re-visit.

Plus all the samplers I've gotten that are in plastic bags I'm opening and smoking first. This sometimes allows me to take an unopened one from the shelf and place in the basement with it's siblings because after tasting a sample I can save the tin for later.

Plus the aged tins I got from my not-so-secret-santa that I'm obliged to try sooner instead of later.

Plus the mylar-bagged samples I got from forum members that are in another box to grab at will.

Plus the Beast that's on the way. One for the "look at me!" shelves and 3 for the basement. Etc.

That's been my style for a while.

I decided I'd believe the talk about tobacco never being cheaper... so far it's proving true.

 

[ram74]

I have dozens of blends that not only have I not tried but have probably forgotten that I even have them. I like the idea of digging something out in a few years that I didn't know I had.

Same here. I have around 250 pounds in my cellar, and probably 85% I have never tried. I have cellared wide and not deep. I don’t buy aromatics, but other than that I like everything else. I was a cigar smoker and pipe tobacco is cheap in comparison to cigars so I cellared heavy since 2012. If I find I don’t like something I just sell it for more than I bought it for since it is aged. I have never lost money selling tobacco I don’t like.

 

[Coreios]

Never, everything gets tried. And I want it I have bo problem busting into the cellar.