What's Your Cellar Age Sweet Spot?

[mortonbriar]

I have two tins of C&D Bikou that have that suggestion. One is 3 years old, and the other is about a year old, purchased by suggestion from Jeremy Reeves himself on this forum. His thought was “try a fresher tin now so you have a gauge for what kind of difference will happen”. I still haven’t opened it but maybe this summer. I bet i can get the older can to go 10 years.

Really you will need to buy a fresh tin in ten years, so you can try them side by side...can you imagine holding the memory of a tin smoked a decade ago in order to compare? Also it may be best not to compare at all, imagine the potential psychological damage of realising you prefer the fresh tin over the decade old tin you carefully dragged through three house moves!

 

[captpat]

The spreadsheet I use to maintain my tobacco inventory highlights those containers that have >5 yrs of age on them. I'll preferentially open those tins, especially VA or VA/PER blends, when the need arises. Five years seems to be a good spot as most of the improvement has occurred and before the risks of tin failure grow too high. I don't worry too much about the integrity of mason jars. Most of my tobacco purchases these days replenish blends I consumed (and like) from the cellar, that way I have a consistent supply of aged (but not too aged) tobacco.

 

[Singularis]

The spreadsheet I use to maintain my tobacco inventory highlights those containers that have >5 yrs of age on them. I'll preferentially open those tins, especially VA or VA/PER blends, when the need arises. Five years seems to be a good spot as most of the improvement has occurred and before the risks of tin failure grow too high. I don't worry too much about the integrity of mason jars. Most of my tobacco purchases these days replenish blends I consumed (and like) from the cellar, that way I have a consistent supply of aged (but not too aged) tobacco.

I, too, keep a spreadsheet of my tobaccos (I had a sneaky feeling I wasn't the first ), and keep adding columns, including one that lists the production date (if I can determine it), and one that calculates how old the tobacco is. I like the idea of highlighting 5+ year aged tins, but none of mine have reached that point yet.

 

[prairiedruid]

Really depends on the blend. PS LBF, LNF, and Cube Cut benefit from a couple of years aging. Black Frigate, Quiet Nights, and PS english blends are great fresh. Most "plug" blends I like to leave for at least a year for the flavors to "meld" a bit.

 

[jmsmitty6]

Without any real thought or plan I purchased blends that I liked just to have. By happen stance, most of those blends have been VA or VaPer's. I've been backfilling those blends because I've been able to discern that 'change' the most with age. My sweet spot, like Hoosier mentioned, has been about 5 years for those types of blends. This is more just what I have and what I reach for. I also created a spreadsheet in the beginning and have added so many conditional formatting edits that I learned during my MBA program. It's blossomed into full blown that only I can discern

Jason

 

[renfield]

I have a cellar going back almost 20 years. Mostly this was to have things I like on hand if they go away, but some was bought with the intention of aging.

Painting with a very broad brush, predominantly Virginia blends have a personal sweet spot around 10 years or so. Some blends have been better on either side of that number.

Once you’re talking about something other than predominantly Virginia blends all bets are off. Too many variables in the blend recipes to pick a sweet spot for them.

 

[Singularis]

I have a cellar going back almost 20 years. Mostly this was to have things I like on hand if they go away, but some was bought with the intention of aging.

Painting with a very broad brush, predominantly Virginia blends have a personal sweet spot around 10 years or so. Some blends have been better on either side of that number.

Once you’re talking about something other than predominantly Virginia blends all bets are off. Too many variables in the blend recipes to pick a sweet spot for them.

Thanks! That’s very helpful to know.

I personally have a decent number of Virginias and mostly VA blends, and am perfectly happy socking them away for a good 5-8 years while I work through my English and Balkan blends which I got while much more enthralled by those. I still like them and it makes sense to smoke those first in order to let the others cellar longer.