When to Smoke Your Last Tin of a Christmas Cheer Vintage?

[jmatt]

McClelland Christmas Cheer. For recent years I have many tins, and will likely smoke one tin a year until its gone. But for older vintages I've only got one tin each. When would you smoke that final tin? I've got 2005, 2006 and 2007 as my oldest tins. Smoke them at ten years of age? Meaning the 05 and 06 are available to me now? Save the last of each vintage until it's 20 years old? Maybe five years is enough and I should smoke anything before 2011?
What say you all? When you're down to one tin of a vintage, how old is it when you pop that seal?

 

[mikestanley]

For a Virginia Flake? Twenty five years if I was able.
Mike S

 

[jefff]

I just finished the last of my 05 and I am down to 13-14-15-16 and 17. I have three tins of each so I will go through the 13's and then move forward.I smoke so slowly that it should be 2027 before I get to the 17.

 

[prairiedruid]

I'd say 10 years and go ahead and open. Tomorrow is not guaranteed so there should be a limit to how long you wait to enjoy these.
Of course I just opened one of my 2016 tins just to get a pipe full and jarred the rest. It was quite good and I may smoke the rest of the jar but I plan on leaving the rest of the tins for 10 years. Being 46 I figure 10 years should be enough age to really make some magic and I'll still be around to enjoy it. Going out 20-25 years looking at my age 66-71 starting to run into increased mortality and from what I've read the amount of improvement of the tobacco won't be near as much as after 10 years.

 

[clickklick]

I still have some ill sell to you to help opening them easier

 

[mso489]

It's a little like wine. If you can hold onto it for a few years, that's good. Ten years, great. But if the occasion or need arises, go for it, and don't look back.

 

[Chasing Embers]

When the mood hits.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

I have at least one tin from every year of release. I had been thinking I would smoke the oldest (1992) in 2017 (ie 25 year mark) - and then just work down the ladder every year smoking a 25 year old blend. It just seemed like a cool idea.

 

[tmb152]

I was going to buy a tin or two just to see what all the hubbub is about, but when I saw the email just a few hours old and saw that 2016 was already sold out, I said screw it. I can't let anything control my life like that and refuse to play that silly old game. The sad thing is that the folks that bought it all up probably already have 73 tins. Pretty sad.

 

[Chasing Embers]

It's become the new Esoterica. :roll:

 

[jmatt]

It's become the new Esoterica.

Only because it's a "new" blend each year and the FDA has effectively ensured this tradition, which started in 1992, has now come to an end. Even Esoterica should still be available on an ongoing basis. McClelland Christmas Cheer is now gone. So yup - I have a bunch of tins of 2016 and 2017. I'll probably smoke a tin of each this year, then I might wait five years and start smoking a tin a year. I'll die before I can smoke it all. With any luck, long before I've smoked it all. :puffpipe:

 

[tmb152]

McClelland Christmas Cheer is now gone.

Nothing is never gone! I will get a few bowls of it and have a friend run it through his Wassermann chemical analyzer to get its chemical make-up, then blend the same tobaccos with a similar process of toppings to get a similar fruity and spice casing. Folks, you run out and grab this stuff up like somehow tobacco will disappear off the planet tomorrow! Tobacco is alive and well in 99% of the world---
--- except the USA where the Fed never met an idiotic regulation they did not like.

 

[jmatt]

Because that sounds Soooooooooo much easier (and likely ever to happen) than just buying a couple tins. :roll:

 

[rigmedic1]

Classic example of "you can't have your tobacco and smoke it, too". Myself, I will probably smoke the multiples until I end up with one tin of each year, since 2011, at any rate. So, if I play it right, at one tin per year, the 2011 will be opened in 2021, God willing. I have an extra 2013, 2014, and 2016. And 20 pounds of other stuff to quench my thirst until then.

 

[northernneil]

Nothing is never gone! I will get a few bowls of it and have a friend run it through his Wassermann chemical analyzer to get its chemical make-up, then blend the same tobaccos with a similar process of toppings to get a similar fruity and spice casing.

I recommend researching Christmas Cheer. It is a special Virginia specifically selected each year. Every vintage of Christmas Cheer is a different type of Virginia grown in a different region. The idea is not to replicate last year's blend, but make something special in and of its self.

 

[andrew]

There will be plenty of Christmas cheer to come out still, every year is like this

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Am I the only one that visualizes an angry old man shouting whenever I read one of tmb152's posts?
lol

 

[jefff]

Hahahah... No

 

[tmb152]

I recommend researching Christmas Cheer. It is a special Virginia specifically selected each year.

No shit Sherlock. You have totally missed my point.

Am I the only one that visualizes an angry old man shouting

No soup for you. Man are you way off. More likely you are just seeing yourself (it is called projection in the parlance of psychology).

 

[mcitinner1]

What Northernneil said, plus me.