Who Buys Tins to Age Ten Years or More?

[cigrmaster]

Speaking for myself I do have a number of blends that I am waiting ten years to crack. I have no idea where the number ten came from. I must have smoked a ten year old tin and really enjoyed it so I stuck with it. I do smoke some blends over 10 but only a few under ten and those are mostly 9 years old.

I think the biggest reason I like to age for so long is the tobacco melds nicely and the tobacco flavors are smoother and rounder and some times creamier.

 

[mortonbriar]

I am smoking a tin of 12 yr old 3 oaks at the moment, and it was a 12yr old tin of white knight before that. I find that aged is the only way I can really enjoy latakia without it overwhelming all the other leaf.

 

[prairiedruid]

My target is 5 years but with the amount I have in the cellar some will definitely reach 10 years. I agree with you about how age melds the flavors and takes away rough edges.

 

[monty55]

Yes, I do! For all the same reasons. But 10yrs is my goal. I don't cellar for periods longer than that. I have a few that are 12-13 yrs, but I will hit those first when I want to open a new tin.

 

[MarcosEZLN]

Speaking for myself I do have a number of blends that I am waiting ten years to crack. I have no idea where the number ten came from. I must have smoked a ten year old tin and really enjoyed it so I stuck with it. I do smoke some blends over 10 but only a few under ten and those are mostly 9 years old.

I think the biggest reason I like to age for so long is the tobacco melds nicely and the tobacco flavors are smoother and rounder and some times creamier.

Honestly, the only reason I've accumulated more than a decade worth of tobacco is out of concern that purchasing it in the future will be either cost-prohibitive or otherwise impossible. I've had some tobacco over 10 years old which had improved in the ways you mentioned: a nice melding and general smoothing out of flavors. I've also had tobacco that seemed to have essentially gone flat like soda does, losing most of the zing that makes me appreciate it as a fresh blend. Now the trick for me will be figuring out which deeply cellared blends I should start smoking sooner so I hit them during a window of preferred flavor.

 

[cigrmaster]

Honestly, the only reason I've accumulated more than a decade worth of tobacco is out of concern that purchasing it in the future will be either cost-prohibitive or otherwise impossible. I've had some tobacco over 10 years old which had improved in the ways you mentioned: a nice melding and general smoothing out of flavors. I've also had tobacco that seemed to have essentially gone flat like soda does, losing most of the zing that makes me appreciate it as a fresh blend. Now the trick for me will be figuring out which deeply cellared blends I should start smoking sooner so I hit them during a window of preferred flavor.

What type of blends went flat on you? Were they Latakia as I have heard those can lose flavor after so many years.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I've got cigars from the '90s that have mellowed and melded in an interesting way—not always for the better, just different. I like the idea of setting aside tins to age, but, life is short and there's no guarantee I'll live to try those aged tins. My approach is to just smoke and enjoy as I go. If something happens to sit and age, great, but, all we have is the present.

 

[captpat]

Most of my cellar was purchased as a way of future proofing my habit against inflation, legal encroachments or favored blends passing to history for whatever reason. So nothing purchased specifically for aging. However aging is occurring as for several years my additions outpaced my consumption. I recently opened a 12 yo tin of FVF, the seal was intact and the tobacco was okay, not spectacular might have missed the peak. OTOH I opened a 7 yo tin of MacBaren Twist and that was sublime. I keep track of my cellar on a spreadsheet and it's set up to highlight tins/jars/bags as they reach 5 years of age, I preferentially select those older containers when opening for consumption, sort of first in first out inventory management. This plan is suffering a bit as my tastes have changed, early in the cellaring process I smoked a lot of latakia blends, today more burley so the latakia blends are getting more age on them than is perhaps optimum, I guess I'll see...

 

[Sgetz]

I've reached an age where I don't buy green bananas. Planning on ten years is out of the question. But I don't smoke much.

 

[sablebrush52]

Oh, hell no. But because my purchasing far outran my consumption, I've got a lot of tins between 10 and 25 years old. That's a slight problem since not everything gets better with age, though some blends do.

On the other hand, I can still smoke favored blends that are OOP, versions of blends that aren't adulterated with cheap substitute components, or paying through the nose for an OOP blend.

Regarding Latakia, since much of its flavor is the result of a process, the flavor fades over time. My experience is that Lat blends are pungent for 10 to 15 years before I notice significant fading mellowing and that after 25 years the Latakia presence is generally pretty mild. I've had contrary experiences with old tins where the Latakia was still pretty powerful, so there are no absolutes. Anyway, I prefer my Latakia faded mellow. There's less of that camel intestine scent to it.

 

[cigrmaster]

The oldest tins I have smoked are my 1998 Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky and every tin has been awesome.

jesse, what is an OOP blend, I suck with abbreviations.

 

[didimauw]

No. I buy tobacco I know I like fresh. The only tobacco I have aging, is in tins. And that's because I have enough bulk to not open them yet.

 

[jiminy]

what is an OOP blend

I think it is "Out of production", but I too am not known for my abbreviation acumen

 

[bullet08]

I rarely open a tin fresh from the vendor. Smoking maybe one bowl on a good weather means my tobacco lasts long time. I aim to try them at 3, 5, and 10 years. But some might never get opened. Maybe my older son will stick with pipes and get to taste them. He smokes even slower than I do, 15 min here and there when he doesn't feel like studying.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

In one to two more years, the majority of my cellar will have reached 10 years. But, some of that might just float on over to 20 years by the time I get around to smoking it.

 

[Buffalo]

Like others have said, I have inadvertently moved to the stage of aging the contents of my cellar for years, not to improve or change the blend, but as a way to be stocked against supply chain interruptions, price increases or *gasp* an outright ban on tobacco.

Now through this, I've found that my workhorse blend, Luxury Bullseye Flake, is a completely different experience with as little as six months of age, but 5 years of age on those coins makes them a completely different experience.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have a few out of production blends and I went heavy on them as I knew they wouldn't last. For an example Rotary Navy Cut was the only blend in the Rotary line. I knew it was just a matter of time before it got discontinued so I hit it hard.

At the time I was competing with peck for all the Brigham Klondike Gold I quit buying after 150 plus tins and soon after it got discontinued. That was shit luck on my part. I don't know if peck knew as I believe Brigham is a Canadian product and he is a Canuck. The greedy prick didn't even tell me about it till he had his first 100 tins. I was playing catch up the whole time. I got the prick back when I held out the John Aylesbury Luxury Flake till I had at least 100 tins. For some reason that blend was always in short supply, even back in 2012. I would buy 25- 50 tins at a time and stopped buying around 150 tins or so.

 

[kcghost]

Having a cellar of OOP blends can be problematic as hell. Some will have a flavor that is positively divine. On the other hand, it can be absolutely devoid of any flavor at all. The biggest problem of all is once you pop the tin you have about a week to smoke it as the tin will lose its flavor.

 

[MarcosEZLN]

What type of blends went flat on you? Were they Latakia as I have heard those can lose flavor after so many years.

I don't do Latakia anymore. I mostly smoke Va based blends and while I know there have been others, I specifically recall being a little disappointed with some 2008 Luxury Navy Flake. The flavors had mellowed and gotten smoother, sure, but it had also lost that bit of tang which is sometimes what I'm in the mood for with LNF.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Being relatively new to it all and empty nester aged, I’m not thinking of tobacco 10 years out other than acquiring enough of a cellar to get me well past 10 years, more for inventory than aging intentionally. But I’ll keep buying as time goes by and trying new stuff, just putting away what I like.