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tmcg81

Lifer
May 8, 2020
1,037
16,236
NJ
The oldest I've smoked is 9 year old MacBaren Navy Flake. It wasn't as good as I was expecting, but I'm still enjoying it. I haven't bought tobacco in a while, so everything I'm smoking is about 3 years old, and I find that I really enjoy stuff that's lightly aged. I'm excited to see how my cellar ages in the future.
 

Uguccione

Can't Leave
Jan 22, 2024
339
819
Italy
I have some 20ish year old Jack's Tobacco Firehouse Dog with Syrian Latakia and perique that is pretty good, but it doesn't taste like a Lat blend any more and it's not spicy at all, it is the proverbial "stewed fruit" now.
I think that tobacco, a bit like wine, experiences a qualitative parable, first ascending and then descending, as the years pass.
In the cellar I still have a few bottles of wine from the 50s/60s/70s that my father collected.
Every now and then I open one out of curiosity; they are all still drinkable (as long as you let the wine breathe - with the bottle open - for at least 3 days before drinking it), but his best years are inevitably behind him.
 

Joe H

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 22, 2024
176
1,591
Alaska
I agree with the above comments/consensus; really old tobacco (especially the OTC aromatic blends) can withstand considerable storage, but eventually it loses the flavor and sparkle that made it what it was. As an example, I started smoking pipes in the mid-90s using shrink-wrapped pouches of Middleton’s Cherry my father had bought in the 70s. It was kept in a cool dark basement for 20 years. It didn’t feel overly dry, tasted great to me and anyone who cared to comment on it complimented the pleasant cherry aroma. I recently found some more of that same tobacco, but now at 50 years old, though still in shrink-wrap and foil, it felt crispy and had virtually no pouch note. I rehydrated it with cherry liquor (I could describe the process I used if anyone is really interested) and it’s a very nice, sweet cherry smelling smoke. As you can see from the photo below, my dad was a pack-rat so I have lots of tobacco cans to explore. But thanks to this thread and subsequent research I realized there are matches or clones currently made for a lot of the older OTC tobaccos that are no longer in business. Codger clones! A whole new tobacco niche to explore!
 

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bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
10,340
41,837
RTP, NC. USA
Oldest smoked tobacco should be some ashes by now. Maybe some dottles. Otherwise, it wouldn't be smoked, would it?

Now, if you are asking oldest smokable tobacco, I heard stories about 50 year or so old and others. I think there were some samples sent out by generous members from this forum.

See some post on Instagram about pipe convention where old tobacco is shared by generous individuals. Same about some club meetings.

Everyone says they are smokable. And some seems to enjoy them.
 
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LongIslandPiper

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 8, 2022
261
1,206
The oldest blend I have tried was given to me at a holiday club event. 1955 Sir Walter Raleigh and it was extremely well aged and the taste was amazing. The tin note was very mild but the flavors were still there in their perfectly vacuumed greatness.
 

tanless1

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 14, 2010
692
146
A few years back I bought a cutter top tin of 50 Churchman's No1 cigarettes. I'd say the tin probably dated from about the late 1960's to the early 1970's.

The can was a bit rusty but the cigarettes inside were perfect. Not dry at all. The smell when I opened the can was delicious, very fruity. They were untipped and quite strong but they had a great flavour.

The tin looked just like this:

View attachment 290893
Gorgeous
 
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paulfg

Lifer
Feb 21, 2016
1,632
3,115
Corfu Greece
I went into the Churchmans factory several times in the late 1980,s as part of my work for British Telecom.It was producing cigars by then.It had been producing over 1 million cigarettes a day at one time.The factory closed in the 1990s ,the south stand at Ipswich Town FC was and still is known by older supporters as "Churchmans" as the factory backed on to the ground.
The old Churchmans factory is now luxury flats ,like so many other factories.
The Churchmans stand @ITFC was named the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand after the former Ipswich and England manager.The opposite (North) stand is named after the legendary Sir Bobby Robson,also a former Ipswich and England manager
 
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Yambo

Might Stick Around
Jan 11, 2023
89
136
43
Spain
Last year I smoked EMP from 2005. This year I have opened a tin of Capstan blue from 2006 and last saturday, with some friends, I opened a tin of Dunhill Mild Blend purchased in November 2005 that had at least two or three years more (you can see it here). I have a little stash from the years I started smoking and I'm always torn between selling and smoking them.

EMP was absolutely great. I don't really like latakia blends that much, but I liked this a lot. Capstan is very good (yesterday I smoked a pipeful), but it wouldn't justify for me the price it might have. I tried Mild Blend out of the tin, without airing, so I don't know yet. It was really intense and savory, but I found the unflavored cavendish a little too much sweet.
 
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