This whole aging thing has me thrown for a loop. I understand the desire to age tobacco that may be "rough around the edges" from people that buy tins of a blend, and smoke it fresh, and think..hey this could use some time to develop more. "I'll buy a few more tins, and sit on them for 6 months to a year and then see how it is then"
But, there are individuals that buy blends(in quantity) without even smoking them first, and sit on them for YEARS. I've brought this up in other threads, and for the life of me, don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to try the new stuff just out of sheer curiosity. Perhaps get a baseline of what it tastes like new. "Paging the CONTROL GROUP??"
Aging tobacco sometimes improves a blend, but...sometimes isn't ALL the time. I hear it does well with VA tobacco blends, but I've also heard there's occasional diminishing returns when it comes to some latakia blends. I also hear Aromatics don't really benefit much from aging due to the sauces/casing applied tends to weaken.
I've exchanged messages with someone that says they prefer fresh Penzance to aged stuff. To which, I can respect, but at least they have gotten an idea of smoking the new stuff for themselves and know what they like and don't. I guess my issue is I see many people read about the aging thing and put a lot of their faith in reading what others have done and follow suit.
So here's my question:
Are they are any blends out there that you've tried fresh, and then aged them for an amount of time then revisiting the aged stuff found it's flat or not as good as it was fresh?
The process changes too. I've seen people say actually cracking a tin of something on a given day, then letting it sit for a few months and it's much better.
I haven't been smoking pipe tobacco long enough to know if what I'm smoking would benefit from a long winters nap. I recently tried SPC's Plum Pudding for the first time, and I can tell you I've enjoyed the hell out of the many bowls I've smoked over the past few days. I can't imagine(I could be wrong) that age could make this one any better. I'd be interested in trying some aged just so I can see for myself if that holds true for this blend, but all I can do right now is wait.
What are your thoughts or examples?
But, there are individuals that buy blends(in quantity) without even smoking them first, and sit on them for YEARS. I've brought this up in other threads, and for the life of me, don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to try the new stuff just out of sheer curiosity. Perhaps get a baseline of what it tastes like new. "Paging the CONTROL GROUP??"
Aging tobacco sometimes improves a blend, but...sometimes isn't ALL the time. I hear it does well with VA tobacco blends, but I've also heard there's occasional diminishing returns when it comes to some latakia blends. I also hear Aromatics don't really benefit much from aging due to the sauces/casing applied tends to weaken.
I've exchanged messages with someone that says they prefer fresh Penzance to aged stuff. To which, I can respect, but at least they have gotten an idea of smoking the new stuff for themselves and know what they like and don't. I guess my issue is I see many people read about the aging thing and put a lot of their faith in reading what others have done and follow suit.
So here's my question:
Are they are any blends out there that you've tried fresh, and then aged them for an amount of time then revisiting the aged stuff found it's flat or not as good as it was fresh?
The process changes too. I've seen people say actually cracking a tin of something on a given day, then letting it sit for a few months and it's much better.
I haven't been smoking pipe tobacco long enough to know if what I'm smoking would benefit from a long winters nap. I recently tried SPC's Plum Pudding for the first time, and I can tell you I've enjoyed the hell out of the many bowls I've smoked over the past few days. I can't imagine(I could be wrong) that age could make this one any better. I'd be interested in trying some aged just so I can see for myself if that holds true for this blend, but all I can do right now is wait.
What are your thoughts or examples?