Question about HH Latakia storage.
- Thread starter DesertDan
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I think that is a prudent consideration. Jar 'em up.
I cut the pound box flakes in half. One pound will fit into two Ball square wide mouth pint jars.
I just did exactly this with some HH Lat flake. Vacuum sealing the entire box with bog standard PE bags is fine for about 2 years before the tobacco will start to oxidize. Beyond this and the cardboard becomes a liability as it saturates with moisture that slowly transmits out of the internal bag and oxygen transmits in, providing a foothold for mold to set in. If you want to keep the box for future resale, put it in a metallized mylar bag with a 1000 cc oxygen absorber and a 58% RH Boveda. Keeping the relative humidity regulated on the low side and starving the box of oxygen will prevent mold. Don't use a silica gel dessicant, the tobacco will dry out over time. It will be good for around 10 years. If you want longer or don't care to resell, jar it.
I use these 12 oz. mason jars for Mac Baren flake. Each jar fits exactly 8 oz. of flake without smashing it up or anything. They remain perfectly intact.
I use these 12 oz. mason jars for Mac Baren flake. Each jar fits exactly 8 oz. of flake without smashing it up or anything. They remain perfectly intact.
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When I bought a 1 lb box, I split them up into 2 oz increments and vacuum sealed...
First, the only answer is to get it out of that box.
Vacuum sealing is a nice option in small quantites and not bulky like jars. The other stays fresh as you open it. I dont know if it ages much in vacuum seals but Lat flake isnt something I feel needs age to be smooth and good. If you dont have a sealer small jars are a great option.
The best option is putting it in a pacakge and sending it to me
Vacuum sealing is a nice option in small quantites and not bulky like jars. The other stays fresh as you open it. I dont know if it ages much in vacuum seals but Lat flake isnt something I feel needs age to be smooth and good. If you dont have a sealer small jars are a great option.
The best option is putting it in a pacakge and sending it to me
Single layer vacuum bags made of PE can only regulate water content for about a year, they are moderately permeable. They also have more oxygen transmission than even a glass jar with a crappy seal. Will the tobacco go bad overnight? No, it won't. But in the long term, it'll oxidize almost as rapidly as being in open air and the water content will be altered by the environment it is in. Humid places can overhydrate and dry places will let it dry out, right through the plastic. PE also saturates at some point and aroma compounds start evaporating through it. Metallized mylar is some order of magnitude less likely to expose the contents to the open environment or allow aroma components to be lost. Jars are largely impermeable.
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Tall 12 oz. mason jars with vaccum seals are the ideal option. You don't have to cut or damage the flake and it's a near total isolation from the environment. This is what 5 lbs of completely intact Mac Baren flake looks like in tall 12 oz masons.
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You will always get many opinions on this topic, so I'll add my 2 cents learned from my few decades.
Vacuum bags will eventually fail. If you aren't planning on long term storage, that is an option.
But there is absolutely no better option for long term storage and aging than jars. Not all jars are created equal. Bail top jars will fail, single piece lids will fail....
Two piece screw on Ball brand jars have never let me down. Just like Jacuzzi and Kleenex, Mason is being used to describe generic jars on ebay and Amazon. Many sellers say "Mason Jars", but if you look, they are made in China, by a Chinese company.
I have not seen this with the Ball brand at all. The imitation Chinese jars do not have great quality control and many of the jar rims are not flat, so a lid will never seal.
Ive learned over time to use small jars. I use 4 ounce jars. I get 15-20 bowls from a jar. I have several jars open while the rest stays jarred and fresh/aging.
If you pack 8 ounces in one jar, at some point you will need to open 1/2 pound of tobacco, which will need to be put in smaller jars anyways unless you plan on smoking 1/2 pound in a month or so. Every time you open the jar, it dries out a bit more.
My absolute biggest regret in this hobby is packing many pounds of tobacco, many out of production, into pint jars and larger.
Now when I open a big jar, I put it in 4 ounce jars.
Vacuum bags will eventually fail. If you aren't planning on long term storage, that is an option.
But there is absolutely no better option for long term storage and aging than jars. Not all jars are created equal. Bail top jars will fail, single piece lids will fail....
Two piece screw on Ball brand jars have never let me down. Just like Jacuzzi and Kleenex, Mason is being used to describe generic jars on ebay and Amazon. Many sellers say "Mason Jars", but if you look, they are made in China, by a Chinese company.
I have not seen this with the Ball brand at all. The imitation Chinese jars do not have great quality control and many of the jar rims are not flat, so a lid will never seal.
Ive learned over time to use small jars. I use 4 ounce jars. I get 15-20 bowls from a jar. I have several jars open while the rest stays jarred and fresh/aging.
If you pack 8 ounces in one jar, at some point you will need to open 1/2 pound of tobacco, which will need to be put in smaller jars anyways unless you plan on smoking 1/2 pound in a month or so. Every time you open the jar, it dries out a bit more.
My absolute biggest regret in this hobby is packing many pounds of tobacco, many out of production, into pint jars and larger.
Now when I open a big jar, I put it in 4 ounce jars.
Ideal solution.
I took it out of the box, vacuum sealed the leaf and tossed it back into the box and vacuum sealed it into Mylar.
No. That’s only for the bags with the embossed in them or whatever you call them.
However there is Mylar that has the vacuum seal style embossed in them.
I have never used it in a food saver but used in a Mylar sealer and worked fine.
Thanks all,
I was planning to move it to jars. Living in the desert, I jar everything once I open it.
I had gotten this HH box a couple of months ago, put it in the cellar and forgot about it until yesterday. I'd expect it is still okay at this point, but I'll get it jarred asap.
I was planning to move it to jars. Living in the desert, I jar everything once I open it.
I had gotten this HH box a couple of months ago, put it in the cellar and forgot about it until yesterday. I'd expect it is still okay at this point, but I'll get it jarred asap.
All I've been doing is throwing the boxes as-is into mylar and heat sealing the bag. I have not yet opened any but don't have any that have been sealed up for more than 2-3 years.
Is this a bad idea, due to the cardboard/moisture factor?
Is this a bad idea, due to the cardboard/moisture factor?
I have seen people say they had luck using a Foodsaver to seal mylar but I haven't personally gotten acceptable seals from one. I use a mylar impulse sealer.
On another forum, one user reported a box of G&H forming mold on the cardboard after some years. It's fine to put the whole thing in mylar but I would use a 1000 cc oxygen absorber and a 55-58% humidity regulator like a Boveda to ensure that mold cannot form. Without excessive moisture and oxygen, mold simply cannot get a foothold.
The 12 oz. jars are just the smallest size that can hold totally intact Mac Baren flake. If opening up a half pound jar in the future gives you unbearable nightmares, just put 4 oz. of flake into the jar. Seals are largely a non-issue if you use a canning jar vacuum pump, the integrity of the seal can be checked by clicking the top. I have had 1 seal failure out of about 50x 12 oz. jars over the years.
Each to their own.
Like I said, lots of opinions. Most flake will fit in 8 ounce jelly jars too. The point is to not put 1/2 pound in one jar. I'm not even going to guess how many times I've heard pipers who have regretted that.
Mylar, oxygen absorbers, humidity packs are all just fluff. I've used, and talked to literally hundreds of pipers who have perfect success with jars. The only time I've ever heard of issues is with vacuum sealing and trying to store in original packages.....unless they use the jars incorrectly. Ive been doing this for 3 decades and never had a jar not seal, not one....with no vacuum sealing. You need that oxygen if you're trying to age the tobacco. Tobacco doesn't age in a vacuum. If you're just trying to preserve it, great, but if you're looking to benefit from "aging", vacuum sealing isn't the way.
It's just as easy as doing it the tried and true way that has successfully stored and aged tobacco for decades. So many people just want to do something different. And that's great, but many times it ends badly.
Ive got too many pounds of tobacco that has been aging way too long to even worry about this. Recently I've been opening jars from 2005. Unfortunately the tobacco still needs to sit out awhile because it is still AS moist as when it was jarred 20 years ago. No vacuum, no humidity packs, no Mylar......just a clean jar.
Precisely, I don't really care what people do with their jars and bags. We are talking about jars and bags, far too trivial a topic for a pissing contest. I merely wished to illustrate that tall 12 oz. jars fit fully intact Mac Baren flake. You don't have to cut it up, rub it out or smash it. If you want less in a jar, put less in a jar. A canning jar vacuum pump is absolutely incapable of generating a complete vacuum in a jar, its purpose is to generate enough negative pressure to form a secure seal. The jar still contains a considerable amount of oxygen. By this logic, 50 gram round vacuum tins are also incapable of aging. Shaking your fists in futility at Chinese glass doesn't make your pet habits more valid.
Oxygen absorbers and humidity regulation isn't for the tobacco, it's to prevent cardboard or tin from molding or oxidizing if the entire package is sealed in mylar. People choose to do this because they enjoy opening old tins or they want to resell and the original packaging helps retain value.
If you actually look at the graph I posted, it illustrates very concisely how each option performs over the course of 10 years. Your appeal to your own authority by repeatedly stating the length your own experience doesn't negate other options, nor the observed experience of others. This is merely a case of insisting that your method is the only correct one, which is common here.
If you actually look at the picture of jars I posted, you would see that I use jars for long term aging. So I am absolutely unsure what your argument is and I have seen absolutely no relevant math in your posts, just assertions stemming from an attitude of superiority.
Use mylar, use jars... I really don't care.
Oxygen absorbers and humidity regulation isn't for the tobacco, it's to prevent cardboard or tin from molding or oxidizing if the entire package is sealed in mylar. People choose to do this because they enjoy opening old tins or they want to resell and the original packaging helps retain value.
If you actually look at the graph I posted, it illustrates very concisely how each option performs over the course of 10 years. Your appeal to your own authority by repeatedly stating the length your own experience doesn't negate other options, nor the observed experience of others. This is merely a case of insisting that your method is the only correct one, which is common here.
If you actually look at the picture of jars I posted, you would see that I use jars for long term aging. So I am absolutely unsure what your argument is and I have seen absolutely no relevant math in your posts, just assertions stemming from an attitude of superiority.
Use mylar, use jars... I really don't care.
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