Nostalgia for Vintage Tobacco

[The Amish Tyrant]

I can remember what I smoked 40-50 years ago. I can remember what I was doing while I was smoking it. I can remember the sights, sounds, and smells around me when I was smoking something memorable. Not nearly all of it all the time, but moments that stuck.

Certain songs transcend me to the past. Some memories I remember, while others I'd like to forget.

While I don't wish to return to some of these places, the familiarity brings some comfort as well as knowing I was able to get through.

 

[bullet08]

81 vintage Marlboro Red was superb. Just the right nose for Big Mac.

 

[romeowood]

Laugh all you want, but I've smoked a cigarette from a cutter-top tin of Lucky Strikes circa 1940s that was sublime. Much of the experience is also what you bring into it--set, setting, and frame. It certainly wouldn't be the same experience as the soldier whose ration tin that once was destined to be would've had.

 

[JOHN72]

I suddenly felt like smoking Yorktown, with a glass of whiskey.................

 

[Python 357]

I`ve been saying this for a while.Tobaccos had much more flavor 45 years ago. When I smoke the same tobacco today I smoked in 1975,there is a big difference. Foods taste and smell the same, so I know its not simply a matter of my senses degenerating

 

[Mr_houston]

I’ve been going through some of the mild-med GL Pease blends. Specifically, Chelsea Morning, Blackpoint, Meridian and Drucquer & Sons Blairgowrie.

I can tell from the old reviews that these blends have changed over the years. I believe the VA components are the main culprits, but maybe the orientals as well. So I read the old reviews and then the newest to see how impression have changes. Don’t rely just on the old ones.

I was trying to convey that recently when I wrote the following:
“Smoking Chelsea Morning in a Wiley Galleon bent. This is one of those blends that is good now. Meaning good from a new tin without age, and the components that may have changed are currently good components.”

A case in point - Escudo. I use to like it. I just don’t think it’s that great these days. I’m buying other VApers.

 

[hawky454]

In regards to the original question, "Is it possible to say that the best tobaccos of previous decades were superior to the best of what's out there now?", also consider that, as a general rule, of the millions of pounds of tobacco produced each year by growers all over the world, the tobacco selected for pipes (and of course cigars) is the best of the lot, with the rest being churned into the cigarette and ancillary industries. So, as a baseline, pipe tobacco starts as the best of the best...of each crop, each year.
I would guess that in general, modernization and advances in agricultural science would have trended to improve crop quality overall since "the old days"; that said, each acre grown experiences a unique mixture of variables that make some years better or worse than others. So a short answer would be no; in general, tobacco quality has slightly improved overall in the period between 1900-2022. That said, there are always outlier crops of exceptional quality when the magic of terroir and kismet combine in just the right way.
But that's just one tiny part of the equation. Much of what makes a finished blend is in the hands of the producer, and right now we're in the midst of a decade-plus long uptrend in the market (forecast to continue at least through 2027); increased demand has increased quality, variety, and quantity. That's just business.
I would love to hear blenders and buyers chime in on the quality of product and availability year-over-year (and decade-over-decade) in the trade markets. Russ! Greg! Ted! Per! I invoke ye!
But...
Then there's time. Once a blender has their way with a pile of leaf, and makes something truly special, then seals it away in a time capsule, magical eldritch things happen that can't be calculated or replicated. Aged tins of great blends that have proven their quality while fresh are, like wines of special vintage, paragons of gustatory experience, and sought after for good reason. Special crops like a 1983 Carolina red Virginia that someone had the foresight to mellow out, press into a cake, then tin up a decade later--you can't replicate that experience any other way.

Interestingly posed question that really has me pondering, thank you @pauls456

This is the best response to this question I’ve heard yet. This question, in one form or another, ha come up from time to time over the years and this response has definitely given me a new perspective. Very well said. ?

 

[leonardbill1]

It's worth it if you want to satisfy your curiosity. It's not worth it if you think that you are acquiring tobacco that is superior to what you can buy at retail today (at least theoretically; availably is the issue today).

 

[romeowood]

At one angle, the crux of the question is "Can you buy something today that is as good as something that was great 30 years ago, and has since been sitting in a tin getting better?"; to which the answer is no, most emphatically. Time is inimitable, irreplicable, and largely a matter of chance.
At another angle, some of the fresh blends being created today have already proven their mettle for aging, and are probably (possibly?) of far superior quality to storied blends of yore.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

I think this is a bit like attempts to compare sportsmen from different eras in the hope of finding the answer to “Who was the best boxer?” or “Who was the best footballer of all time?”

It’s an impossible question, without the aid of a time machine to take you back to Johan Cruyf in his 20’s or Rocky Marciano in his prime.

I guess somethings must have been better back then and I am guilty of looking through rose tinted spectacles as much as the next person, but no one turns round and says “Rickets; weren’t rickets wonderful!?!? Or smallpox; you know you had a proper condition when you had a dose of the smallpox…and don’t get me started about the typhoid and the cholera!! They WERE proper illnesses, not like today when people get a cough and that’s it!”

There’s a shop down the road from my house and they had a big sign in the window that said “Now are the glory days of tomorrow - live life” but I still which I had some Gallaher’s Condor or some Murray’s Warrior Plug so what do I know?!?! ?‍?

 

[condorlover1]

@Franco Pipenbeans : Warrior Plug you say. I could be persuaded to sell you some if that would make your life complete!

 

[romeowood]

@Franco Pipenbeans This guy gets it ^^

"Rickets; weren’t rickets wonderful!?!? Or smallpox; you know you had a proper condition when you had a dose of the smallpox…and don’t get me started about the typhoid and the cholera!! They WERE proper illnesses, not like today when people get a cough and that’s it!”

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

They don’t make green beans like they used to.

 

[mso489]

My first stint of pipe smoking was in the late seventies, with my blends coming from the apothecary jars at Tinder Box. Some were pretty good for bulk aromatics, but I much prefer the blends I smoke these days, both premium blends and codger and bag tobaccos.

I'm just having a better experience the second time around. I bet there were some really superior blends and versions of today's blends then, but no better than selected blends today, given any one person's tastes.

 

[Terry Lennox]

I would say the answer to the original question depends. First of all, our tastes change over time and the mind plays tricks over the years to associate certain experiences in memory that may in fact be inaccurate.

Second, I would say if you are a Latakia and Oriental smoker the leaf available now has changed somewhat. The Latakia is smokier with less subtleties. The Oriental leaf is more sour and less sweet, and has less dimension overall.

Third, if you are a Virginia smoker I believe we are still in a golden age of Virginias. There are many outstanding Va's being produced. And the changes due to cellaring will keep them getting better.

Finally, if you are a Burley/Kentucky smoker this is also a golden age. There is no shortage of top shelf burley and Kentucky blends to suit your tastes.

 

[Franco Pipenbeans]

@Franco Pipenbeans : Warrior Plug you say. I could be persuaded to sell you some if that would make your life complete!

It might not complete it @condorlover1 but it would certainly go some way towards completion!! ???

 

[OverMountain]

There was a post on here talking about how consistent SWR has been since it’s introduction with the exception of the 1940s. I like SWR a lot.