Question about HH Latakia storage.
- Thread starter DesertDan
- Start date
For the OTR, I consulted a polymer film manufacturers data. The figures used for the calculation are plain sum averaged.
The surface area used was of an average container of 500 CM^2. This is just a value chosen for ease and falls within a range of realistic scenarios. As the graph info is relatively scaled, should remain relevant for all containers in the size range we are concerned with.
The leaky jar figure assumes a ~1–10 cc/m²/day leak. Obviously, real world scenarios will wildly vary. This represents a pinhole like leak. The purpose of its inclusion was to illustrate that glass with a leak is actually better than a Foodsaver vacuum bag that has a perfect seal. Under light vacuum, the lid will pop up in a few days if there is a leak. There is still oxygen in the jar even when under light vacuum.
A metallized mylar bag is very low transmission material. For OTR it averages <0.1 cc/m²/day.
We can do quick and accurate numbers on Wolfram after plugging in relevant variables and making real world assumprions about variables like RH in the environment and atmospheric pressure (assume sea level). This data was fed to ChatGPT which produced the graph for me.
Accuracy could be vastly increased if I spent an afternoon curating averages and calculating for each variable but I don't have time for all that! What the results do illustrate clearly is the absolutely huge relative performance gaps between glass and mylar, which are excellent, and the poor performance of PE vacuum bags and leaky jars.
That said, I have had jars and tins with minor leaks that didn't get caught for years and they had only lost small amounts of water and pleasant oxidized aromas. Sometimes its a happy accident, sometimes not.
The takeaway is that jars are best. Vacuuming them is better for seal integrity, but not necessary as long as the seal doesn't have debris or a pinhole in it. Vacuuming the jar just makes those conditions easier to identify. It is not the same thing as jarring your tobacco under some extreme absolute lack of any gasses at all.
Mylar is excellent and doesn't need anything else if you just put tobacco in it. Just seal it and its fine.
If you want to preserve a whole tin, toss an oxygen absorber and humidity reg in it. Thats not for the tobacco, which will continue its aging inside the tin or bag. I have done the calculations for this situation and the internal tin will likely continue to age with the oxygen already inside it for between 2 to 6 years before the outer O2 absorber affects it heavily, if the O2 absorber isn't already tapped out. This will prevent the tin from getting external rust spots like some Suliff tins do on the bottom. It will also prevent the box or any cardboard in the package itself from molding. These additional steps are not for the tobacco, they are for the package.
The surface area used was of an average container of 500 CM^2. This is just a value chosen for ease and falls within a range of realistic scenarios. As the graph info is relatively scaled, should remain relevant for all containers in the size range we are concerned with.
The leaky jar figure assumes a ~1–10 cc/m²/day leak. Obviously, real world scenarios will wildly vary. This represents a pinhole like leak. The purpose of its inclusion was to illustrate that glass with a leak is actually better than a Foodsaver vacuum bag that has a perfect seal. Under light vacuum, the lid will pop up in a few days if there is a leak. There is still oxygen in the jar even when under light vacuum.
A metallized mylar bag is very low transmission material. For OTR it averages <0.1 cc/m²/day.
We can do quick and accurate numbers on Wolfram after plugging in relevant variables and making real world assumprions about variables like RH in the environment and atmospheric pressure (assume sea level). This data was fed to ChatGPT which produced the graph for me.
Accuracy could be vastly increased if I spent an afternoon curating averages and calculating for each variable but I don't have time for all that! What the results do illustrate clearly is the absolutely huge relative performance gaps between glass and mylar, which are excellent, and the poor performance of PE vacuum bags and leaky jars.
That said, I have had jars and tins with minor leaks that didn't get caught for years and they had only lost small amounts of water and pleasant oxidized aromas. Sometimes its a happy accident, sometimes not.
The takeaway is that jars are best. Vacuuming them is better for seal integrity, but not necessary as long as the seal doesn't have debris or a pinhole in it. Vacuuming the jar just makes those conditions easier to identify. It is not the same thing as jarring your tobacco under some extreme absolute lack of any gasses at all.
Mylar is excellent and doesn't need anything else if you just put tobacco in it. Just seal it and its fine.
If you want to preserve a whole tin, toss an oxygen absorber and humidity reg in it. Thats not for the tobacco, which will continue its aging inside the tin or bag. I have done the calculations for this situation and the internal tin will likely continue to age with the oxygen already inside it for between 2 to 6 years before the outer O2 absorber affects it heavily, if the O2 absorber isn't already tapped out. This will prevent the tin from getting external rust spots like some Suliff tins do on the bottom. It will also prevent the box or any cardboard in the package itself from molding. These additional steps are not for the tobacco, they are for the package.
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