Trying to Start Up a Cellar.

[James84]

Hello all. Im new to the forums..and pretty much pipe smoking in general. A part of me just wants to hoard and cellar everything including blends I havent even tried. Probably not thr best route to go. So! What are some key things you guys follow when it comes to cellaring? Pics would also be cool.

 

[Magpiety]

I usually smoke a few oz of a blend before deciding if I should cellar it and how deeply to cellar it. A couple years ago I went through 30 something 1oz samples of Sutliff and Mac Baren bulk blends to see if I wanted to do this.

Keep track somehow, like a notepad or spreadsheet. I yakety saxed my way into a ton of cellared tobacco with no discernible organization, and that... was a mistake.

 

[James84]

I usually smoke a few oz of a blend before deciding if I should cellar it and how deeply to cellar it. A couple years ago I went through 30 something 1oz samples of Sutliff and Mac Baren bulk blends to see if I wanted to do this.

Keep track somehow, like a notepad or spreadsheet. I yakety saxed my way into a ton of cellared tobacco with no discernible organization, and that... was a mistake.

Thanks for the input. Ya I feel like I'm going to jump in to hard and not cellar only what I actualy like. Question for you. On a blend you like, how many tins or oz's of that blend do you put away?

 

[Magpiety]

Question for you. On a blend you like, how many tins or oz's of that blend do you put away?

If I like the first couple of oz, I usually buy a pound or 10 tins. If I keep digging that blend out and smoking through it, I usually order 5 or 10 pounds. Just be a aware that 5 pounds is a lot of tobacco. I usually smoke 3 bowls per day, and most of my bowls are around 2g each, so that's 227ish bowls per lb which would last me 2/3 of a year smoking nothing but that one blend.

For me it's just the feeling of "they could quit production of this blend tomorrow and I could revisit it for the rest of my life."

 

[James84]

If I like the first couple of oz, I usually buy a pound or 10 tins. If I keep digging that blend out and smoking through it, I usually order 5 or 10 pounds. Just be a aware that 5 pounds is a lot of tobacco. I usually smoke 3 bowls per day, and most of my bowls are around 2g each, so that's 227ish bowls per lb which would last me 2/3 of a year smoking nothing but that one blend.

For me it's just the feeling of "they could quit production of this blend tomorrow and I could revisit it for the rest of my life."

Great info! Yeah it seems as tho everybody is telling me buy buy buy cus it might be gone. Im going to start trying as much tobacco as I can and get this cellar going.

 

[Magpiety]

Great info! Yeah it seems as tho everybody is telling me buy buy buy cus it might be gone. Im going to start trying as much tobacco as I can and get this cellar going.

That's my aspiration, but sometimes if there's a sale and I see something that sounds good I just buy a pound and hope. I also whisper "cowabunga it is" when I add it to the cart.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

In general, I cellar blends I like AND that are reasonably popular, quality blend and often, reasonably difficult to come by. If somewhere down the road, I decide I don't care for that blend any longer, should be easy to trade or sell it.

 

[James84]

That's my aspiration, but sometimes if there's a sale and I see something that sounds good I just buy a pound and hope. I also whisper "cowabunga it is" when I add it to the cart.

? ya I think when I get a good amount of the tobaccos I love cellared then ill venture out in some impulse buys along the way for sure!

 

[James84]

In general, I cellar blends I like AND that are reasonably popular, quality blend and often, reasonably difficult to come by. If somewhere down the road, I decide I don't care for that blend any longer, should be easy to trade or sell it.

Ya I see how getting rid of blends i don't like would be easy. Didnt look at it that way. I guess there's a seat for every butt on tobacco blends right. Thanks for the input!

 

[musicman]

If you're still relatively new at this, I'd recommend not doing any seriously deep cellaring before you figure out what genres you like best. You don't want to cellar deep in Burley blends only to find out you really don't like burley as much as you thought. I (and many, I think) did this early on with Latakia. I was an English/Balkan nut in my early days, and I started my cellar with 4-8 oz purchases of many latakia heavy blends. Then I had an epiphany moment with Virginias/VaPers. I still smoke Latakia, but 80-90 percent of the time these days it's a Va/VaPer/VaOr in my pipe, and since then I have chosen to focus on cellaring these types of blends.

Also, for economic purposes, stay the hell away from this forum! You'll end up with a serious case of TAD and an empty wallet. Seriously though, for economic purposes, don't be afraid to cellar bulk blends. They are both easy to try (1 oz samples are cheap) and easy to buy in quantity (the more you buy, the cheaper they are...at least that's what we tell ourselves to sleep at night). One of the first blends I cellared deeply was Match Victoria (the match for the early, Murray's branded Elizabethan. I first sampled an oz, then went back and bought a pound. It's a cellar worthy VaPer if you're into that!

 

[James84]

If you're still relatively new at this, I'd recommend not doing any seriously deep cellaring before you figure out what genres you like best. You don't want to cellar deep in Burley blends only to find out you really don't like burley as much as you thought. I (and many, I think) did this early on with Latakia. I was an English/Balkan nut in my early days, and I started my cellar with 4-8 oz purchases of many latakia heavy blends. Then I had an epiphany moment with Virginias/VaPers. I still smoke Latakia, but 80-90 percent of the time these days it's a Va/VaPer/VaOr in my pipe, and since then I have chosen to focus on cellaring these types of blends.

Also, for economic purposes, stay the hell away from this forum! You'll end up with a serious case of TAD and an empty wallet. Seriously though, for economic purposes, don't be afraid to cellar bulk blends. They are both easy to try (1 oz samples are cheap) and easy to buy in quantity (the more you buy, the cheaper they are...at least that's what we tell ourselves to sleep at night). One of the first blends I cellared deeply was Match Victoria (the match for the early, Murray's branded Elizabethan. I first sampled an oz, then went back and bought a pound. It's a cellar worthy VaPer if you're into that!

Lots of great info here and thanks for that. And yes the way I feel about this hobby im just opening my wallet and letting it fly lol. The only 2 blends that im loving is Orlik Golden sliced and Haunted book shop from cornel & diehl so far. (I know not many ppl like that blend lol)

 

[musicman]

Lots of great info here and thanks for that. And yes the way I feel about this hobby im just opening my wallet and letting it fly lol. The only 2 blends that im loving is Orlik Golden sliced and Haunted book shop from cornel & diehl so far. (I know not many ppl like that blend lol)

Oh I think Haunted Bookshop has it's fans on here, although I'm not one of them.

Last word of advice, find an online merchant that will ship to you, or a friend in a different state. Washington has some of the most onerous pipe tobacco laws around, and if you're cellaring at B and M prices it will cost you a pretty penny!

 

[James84]

Oh I think Haunted Bookshop has it's fans on here, although I'm not one of them.

Last word of advice, find an online merchant that will ship to you, or a friend in a different state. Washington has some of the most onerous pipe tobacco laws around, and if you're cellaring at B and M prices it will cost you a pretty penny!

Well, only 2 online places i found that ship are B&B and JR cigars. Jr's seems pretty cheap but lack alot of blends im looking for. Washington state is killing me ? i do have a couple buddies who live out of state who will help tho. Thanks for all thr info!

 

[musicman]

Well, only 2 online places i found that ship are B&B and JR cigars. Jr's seems pretty cheap but lack alot of blends im looking for. Washington state is killing me ? i do have a couple buddies who live out of state who will help tho. Thanks for all thr info!

Tobaccopipes.com might ship to you. I have a buddy up in Edmonds and he's been able to order from them before.

 

[James84]

Tobaccopipes.com might ship to you. I have a buddy up in Edmonds and he's been able to order from them before.

Oh nice ill check that out now. ?

 

[foursidedtriangle]

Ok James, there are lots of options. I mean thousands. Cellaring is optional and it’s your money do what you want. You can try bulk small samples as a tester.

 

[beezer]

In general, I cellar blends I like AND that are reasonably popular, quality blend and often, reasonably difficult to come by.

This has been my approach over the years as well. I initially took it really slow and easy; slower than most since I only smoked 1-2 bowls a week early on. I came to learn that my slow learning often resulted in a "you snooze you lose" position where I struggled to find half the blends I discovered I really liked. That hasn't been the case for all blends, but for a number of popular blends it has.

Tobacco reviews are your friend. Once you learn which genre you favor you can use the reviews as a sort of signpost for what else you might enjoy. For a season I thought I'd venture out and find the hidden gems that nobody else was aware of and guess what?...I found a few that fell under the radar, but often times I found the blends I tried were unpopular for a reason. There's a difference between band wagon buying and using the more experienced piper as a sort of guide on what's out there worth buying.

 

[wyfbane]

First off, Welcome to the site! I live in Vancouver, Wa, but spent many years in and around Ft. Lewis/ JBLM.



With regards to cellars, as soon as I came to the realization that I liked smoking a pipe in the autumn of 2012, I sort of went ape-shit. Not exactly the direction most people take. I sampled everything I possibly could. I spent so much time in the Tacoma Tinderbox that I would sell pipes for the girls working there while they were attending to cigar customers.

I tried to get to as many Seattle Pipe club meets as I could so that I could meet fellow smokers and share/trade tobaccos.

I bought everything I could find under the sun when it was on sale. I cellared very wide for fear I would miss out on things as my flavor profile matured. There are many here with larger cellars than I have, but most of them make a lot more money that I do, lol.

This topic came up on another thread and Cosmic said he spent $300/mo for 5 years. I have spent a lot more than that total. One of the benefits of a large cellar, as alluded to by hoosier is that the cellar feeds itself. If you can spend ahead of your consumption, you should be able to sell of a lot of your 5 year aged stuff to buy a ton of newer stuff. There were several years where investment in A&C years Escudo outpaced the stock market, but alas, I missed that.

I don't know where you live in Washington, but you need a friend in Oregon. There is no steady stream of tobacco/ nor can you adequately take advantage of sales with a Washington address. The tobacco laws here are f'ing ludicrous.

If you are ever in Vancouver, hit me up, I will let you sample a ton of tobaccos. My cellar is about 95% input, but the 84 jelly jars I have with 1oz or less have not been input yet.

Tobacco Cellar Wyfbane's summary pipe tobacco aging cellar - http://tobaccocellar.com/Wyfbane

 

[James84]

Ok James, there are lots of options. I mean thousands. Cellaring is optional and it’s your money do what you want. You can try bulk small samples as a tester.

Yeah I think one of my problems when getting into a new hobby is overthinking for sure. Thanks!

 

[mikethompson]

Welcome to the forum! Here's my usual welcome picture...



Now as for cellaring, don't feel you need to fill a Rubbermaid container just because some guys on here have. Its not a race of a competition. Some guys don't have a cellar at all. I have many 10 or so tins in my crawlspace.