What Have You Cellared the Longest?

[sablebrush52]

Yeah, I’ve heard about that. I'm somewhat afraid to know, and that's a big reason why I've held off opening it all this time. Other reasons are that I was on the fence about selling it off once BS started to get valuable, and I was never sure if my palate was developed enough to fully appreciate it if I did smoke it.

Classic eyerolling overthinking, to be sure, but I basically decided to sit on it until my next move was clear. Perhaps I'll head down to the cellar when the coast is clear and give it a little shake and a squeeze.

Look CAREFULLY Before You Leap :: Pipe Tobacco Discussion

With all of the crazy "collectible" tin buying action on eBay I've been following a lot of auctions. Several have caught my eye because they are offering something a bit different. Here's one that just completed...

pipesmagazine.com

I strongly suggest that you open the tin and enjoy. If the tin is compromised, this blend will rehydrate acceptably, though not all the way to where it was. Either way, the blend isn't going to be improving.

 

[anotherbob]

It's 18 years old, it's not going to get any better. Tomorrow is not a given, smoke it whenever you feel the urge. Store it in a mason jar and space out enjoying the tin.

wait you're saying that not only does aging not have infinite returns? Which is as crazy as not thinking that if a steak is better rare then raw it must be even better when turned into charcoal. More of a good thing is always better. And physical processes have no way a chance of containing a sweet spot.
Though I 100 percent agree that unless you want to be buried in tobacco, there is no point in having tobacco to hold forever and not smoke.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

wait you're saying that not only does aging not have infinite returns? Which is as crazy as not thinking that if a steak is better rare then raw it must be even better when turned into charcoal. More of a good thing is always better. And physical processes have no way a chance of containing a sweet spot.
Though I 100 percent agree that unless you want to be buried in tobacco, there is no point in having tobacco to hold forever and not smoke.

There's a point of diminishing returns. I'll bet whatever you want that you could not tell the difference between 22 year old and 20 year old tobacco of identical blends. Cuban Cigars start to go downhill at some point and from what I've read, pipe tobacco tends to peak at the ten year mark.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

I have a lot of Kentucky Club from the 60’s and few cans of Briggs from the 50’s.

 

[Mr_houston]

Shortly after switching from cigars to pipes in 2001, I discovered Syrian Latakia and fell in love. The best Syrian blend to me was GL Pease Renaissance, which had recently been discontinued. So I began gathering what I could get my hands on. That was the start of my cellar.

 

[jpberg]

That is, perhaps, the most amazing blend I’ve ever had the privilege to smoke. Greg made art there. (But, yes, I lost tins too due to rust.)

You know, I was smoking that stuff right along when it came out, BS, RW, Renaissance , they were all pretty good, but they were never great until the fire took them out.

 

[sablebrush52]

You know, I was smoking that stuff right along when it came out, BS, RW, Renaissance , they were all pretty good, but they were never great until the fire took them out.

Of the two, I prefer Renaissance to Bohemian Scandal. I haven't tried Raven's Wing yet.

 

[jpberg]

Of the two, I prefer Renaissance to Bohemian Scandal. I haven't tried Raven's Wing yet.

I’d say Renaissance was my favorite, but that stuff was all new, and really nothing special at the time. Just another Pease blend.
I think time and lack of them has been kind to those blends. If I had to choose, I’d pick Odyssey and Westminster over all three of them - but that’s not gonna get you any cred - those two are still available, no cool factor in any WAYS threads.

 

[kola]

There was also that guy/blender by the name of Book. (was that his name?). He was creating blends with 35 year old tobaccos. And he seemed to have quite the following. So again, go figger'

I always wanted to try some of his stuff but didn't. He also passed away not too long ago, RIP

 

[Elric]

My oldest tins at 23-24 years are mostly McClelland and one odd tin of Planta Rum & Maple. At the 20 year mark, a bunch of C&D and GLP enter the picture. After that, it's a mixed bag (except for Lat blends) until the last 5 years where I've been working on VAs.

 

[Misanthrope]

I don’t really deliberately cellar anything, but I’ve got something like…I want to say around 14 pounds of what I call Mystery Meat Blend.

It’s basically a whole bunch of different tobaccos that got boring individually after a while…like, if a blend is smokable but boring or whatever, I just huck it into a 8 liter CVault along with all the other blehdiocre tobaccos already in there, salad toss it into submission, and then park it in a corner so it can have a nice long think about what it did.

I guess it’s kind of like one of those soups or stews that have been continuously cooking since 1938 and people just top them up with whatever random ingredients they have on hand.

Anyway, Mystery Meat Blend has been aging for 3 years now and I haven’t had to wrestle with indecision over what to smoke since then.

 

[rmbittner]

I’d say Renaissance was my favorite, but that stuff was all new, and really nothing special at the time. Just another Pease blend.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. When I tried them, I knew nothing of their history; it played no part in my response to them. For me, it was Greg’s use of Syrian latakia that made them stunning.

 

[RonB]

My oldest are:

• two GL Pease Maltese Falcon tins from 2008,
• a 14 oz tin of Lane Edgeworth Ready Rubbed from 2006,
• 3 tins of HH Vintage Syrian from 2008 (currently up for sale),
• Dunhill EMP and London Mix from 2008,
• a bunch of Rattray's from before 2004.
• 30 oz of jarred Full VA Flake from 2009.

 

[Andre_T]

I have bought some OTC codger blends that are no longer around but I accidentally cellared a Kingfisher from 1998 along with some others. Found them years later. Have not opened them yet.

 

[AroEnglish]

Just one tin of Christmas Cheer 2011. I smoked a bowl of it fresh, didn't like it, and it has sat in a mason jar since.

 

[garageboy]

I've had 20 year old Dark Star and feel it loses a lot of it's personality. It gets extremely smooth but the characteristic tang and complexity is missing.

What would you consider the ideal age? I have some of the butera version I forgot about

 

[troyniss]

My oldest I had was a tin of McClelland Cc from 1998 that I bought. Opened it up last year. I have no reference to what previous or later years taste like but I will say it was tangy and super smooth.

I also bought a first year production of GLPease Stratford which I believe was 2003, and opened it last year .The perique, while just sprinkled in, really shined compared to more current years production and the Va tobacco was very mellow.

As far as what I have bought from when I started smoking in early 2018, I think I have various GLPease tins from then, a few Dunhill and some C&D. Nothing too heavily stocked as I didn’t know what I was doing. I do have however stocks of tins from the latter years that I know will get better with time.

 

[krizzose]

The oldest tobacco I have that I purchased fresh is Mac Baren Club Blend from 2011. I also purchased some Erinmore Flake at a B&M in the same year that had been sitting around a few years. It was in Murray’s tins with STG stickers, so I suppose it’s very early Danish production using the last of the original tins. So probably made in 2005 or 2006.

 

[renfield]

My oldest are a bunch of different McClelland's from the early 2000s. A few tins of many of their blends, a lot of a few. I was just buying it because I liked their stuff and it was inexpensive and easily available. I had some 90s Christmas Cheer but it got smoked long ago.

 

[logs]

What would you consider the ideal age? I have some of the butera version I forgot about

The youngest McClelland/Butera tins are probably six year old at this point, still young enough to have some of that Dark Star edge to them. I'd go ahead and crack a tin and enjoy what you have.