So I understand that the RH varies from: 1. Taste of the smoker drier or moist; 2. Type of the tobacco. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! Since pipes are more niche and quite rare, I imagine that there are also fewer guides or communities that pass rules along. Most pipe smokers probably learned their practices through trial and error. Obviously, if you leave tobacco in an opened tin without anything containing it, it will quickly dry out.
But would keeping it in a humidor be sufficient? Secondly, can you have too much humidity? However, many tobacco users say that having too much moisture can actually cause mold and mildew to grow. For my case specifically, I guess some important information to include is that the tobacco in question is a moist aromatic.
Anything higher will likely be too moist for pipe tobacco. Of course, what you choose is entirely up to you. Boveda packs of higher levels are usually made with leaky humidors in mind so that they can compensate for moisture that tends to escape. Would anyone be interested in a storage accessory, that would allow you to have more kinds of tobacco in one place without mixing them together?
This could also serve as a travelling tobacco container depending on its size of course and would definitely be more compact, than the one used for storage. Will you be able to do it without there being common air flow through all the different blends? I am thinking that, if there is common airflow among them, the scents from the tobaccos and their casings if any can cross-pollute the different blends and contam1inate their different bouquets.
To avoid contamination, the best thing to do is keep them all in separate airtight containers. For short-term storage, this might not be an issue unless the blends are heavily aromatic.
Tins should be fine, but if they come in bags or packs, I would move them to separate mason jars. I am storing cigars in multiple sealed glass jars with some cedar wood and a Boveda pack. Do you also need to have some cedar wood for pipe tobacco?
Hey Donald, It is not recommended to store pipe tobacco with cedar unlike with cigars. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. See Top Keeping Pipe Tobacco Fresh Whatever your storage plan, the key objective is to keep the tobacco fresh and pleasant to smoke.
Can You Age Pipe Tobacco? Jars For Storing Tobacco Indeed, jars for storing tobacco is a traditional solution and a firm favourite for many pipe smokers. In Cardboard Boxes Indeed, some pipe smokers will simply take their unopened tins of tobacco and place them directly in a cardboard box. Pipe Tobacco Storage Conditions As we briefly mentioned earlier, the key to successful pipe tobacco storage is consistency.
Creating A Biosphere Once you have chosen your storage solution, you may need to prepare it before the tobacco can be introduced. Creating Micro-Climates For Different Relative Humidities Another small trick that you can use in order to consolidate your collection is by creating multiple environments within a storage solution. What Next?
Charles-Philippe November 2, at am - Reply. All the best, CP. Dan November 25, at pm - Reply. Charles-Philippe November 26, at am - Reply. Hi Dan, Vacuum food storage systems should be absolutely fine, yes.
Otherwise, it should prove to be an effective storage solution. Eli Davis November 27, at am - Reply. Informative article. First time i have read about this.
Keep doing great. Best, Eli. Charles-Philippe November 27, at am - Reply. Alex December 8, at pm - Reply. Thanks, Alex. Charles-Philippe December 9, at am - Reply. Wayne J Kozak January 9, at pm - Reply. Charles-Philippe January 11, at am - Reply. MD April 27, at pm - Reply. Thank you! All the best! Charles-Philippe April 28, at am - Reply. MD April 29, at pm - Reply.
Do you agree? Charles-Philippe April 30, at am - Reply. Hi MD, Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! James May 12, at am - Reply.
Regards, James. Charles-Philippe May 12, at am - Reply. James May 13, at am - Reply. Hi CP, Thank you so much for the insight. I really appreciate it! Charles-Philippe May 13, at am - Reply. Jake June 5, at am - Reply. I have an opened tin of Gordon Pym that's been in very good shape since when I bought it I smoke primarily virginias.
Of course, some don't seal as well as others, especially the rectangular tins that many flakes come in. A very effective solution, I've found, is to wrap the tobacco and paper liner in a plastic sandwich bag, close the lid as tight as possible, and then put the whole tin inside one or two freezer-grade zip-lock bags.
I've found that this method will keep the tobacco in very acceptable condition for over a year. With the Rattray's gm tins or the McClelland tins, just transfer the tobacco to a zip-lock bag and put back in the can. I recently opened a jar of tobacco that I had canned last year. I had an impossible time getting the outer ring to unscrew, and eventually had to cut it off with wire snips.
When I did, I discovered that the reason it wouldn't come off was because it and the inner lid had rusted together. I guess there had been some water left inside the ring from when I washed it beforehand. The lid had not rusted all the way through, since it had been sealed only 12 months or so. Had I been more patient, however, and let it sit for several years, I suspect the rust might have eventually eaten through the lid.
I always dip the top of my jars in paraffin, though, so I guess even then it wouldn't have done too much damage. A good point to remember in the "to wax or not to wax" debate, I suppose. My tins are internally coated, as are most tobacco tins.
The rust problem is generally a result of the tins being stored in a humid environment; they rust from the outside in.
I've had very few tins rust from the inside, though it's not unheard of, and even a good coating can fail occasionally. Some tins fare better than others. The worst tins seem to be thin aluminum ones, whose side walls can become perforated with little pinholes from corrosion far too easily. The next most likely thing to be effected is aluminum pull-tops. Examine these frequently for signs of damage, which will normally first appear as a white powdery area.
If you see a problem area, wipe it off with a damp cloth, and keep a close eye on it. If you shake and tap on a tin, and it sounds dry inside I don't know how to really describe this, but there is a difference in the way dry tobacco "sounds" when it's dry You'll lose some of the "bottle bouquet" of the sealed tin, but you'll save the tobacco.
Comment The rust won't hurt you, but it will impart an unpleasant taste and smell to the tobacco, if present in sufficient quantity. A topic which makes some people scratch their head. Nip this one in the bud! Remember, we're not talking about preserving tobacco, but aging it.
Would you freeze wine? No need to freeze tobacco. The things you want to avoid are hot and cold cycles can damage the integrity of the tin's seal and excessive humidity, which can rust some tins. Do NOT store tobacco in your fridge or freezer [in a non-airtight container]. One of the purposes your fridge serves is to remove moisture from the air inside of it. You will end up with dry tobacco. Storing in a refrigerator is not a good idea unless you have absolutely air-tight bags to contain the tobacco.
Tobacco will readily absorb aromas and flavors from anything in the area, and in a refrigerator there is a lot of stuff in the area that you might not want to taste in the tobacco. When water becomes ice, it expands. When it does this, it destroys the cellular structure of the tobacco.
This must have an influence on the character of the smoke. Tin Storage Issues Should I pop the tins and seal the tobacco in another container? Pease elaborates: Open tins dry out quite quickly, actually, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you are smoking it some of us prefer out tobacco in the dry range of the spectrum , but a terrible thing if you are aging it. With others, it's not as overt - a shift in the "color" of the flavor Then, sometimes, there's just the "wow" experience Where a tobacco blend is smoked at just the right moment in its lifetime.
I don't think I could handle dealing with that sort of bliss on a constant basis. You will definitely benefit from cellaring tobacco. Aging a tobacco blend allows the various tobaccos to "meld" together. The tobacco will also begin to ferment as it ages, this improves the blend as well. A significant difference is usually not noticed until the blend has aged for at least six months.
As a rule, many quality, unopened tinned tobaccos can and do benefit from aging. It is fun to check out "hole-in-the-wall" stores when I'm on the road and find a treasure trove of old tobaccos. I find that giving the leaf extra time to marry adds a wonderfully sublime quality.
Once you've smoked natural tobaccos for a while, you can then make more intelligent choices about what types of tobaccos to pursue. I personally found that high-quality natural tobaccos, expertly blended and aged, offer a taste that is infinitely more interesting, complex and satisfying than any artificially flavored tobacco. Your experience may vary.
If you have never seen Cairo or Three Nuns change from light brown to a deep, rich, chocolatey brown then you're missing something. But there are caveats, of course! Sadly, aging isn't always the magic bullet. Here are a few things to keep in mind:. Aged tobaccos may not be to everyone's tastes, but they're worth exploring. When you find a blend you really enjoy now, put a few away for later.
The golden rule is if a tobacco is natural and you like it as it is when fresh, then you're likely to like it even more when it is aged. If it is a flavored one, then the risk of your not liking it later is greater no one can predict the chemical interaction of the tobacco components and the artificial flavoring. Great tobaccos age to become wonderful tobaccos.
Bad tobaccos age to become bad old tobaccos. Though it might become "better" with time, if the stuff isn't pretty darned good when it's young, it never will be. Aging generally mellows the tobacco, creates subtleties of taste, and reduces bite if any to begin with.
Don't know if I would call this enrichment, but it definitely improves it. Yes, and there are even those who smoke serious tobaccos who explicitly don't bother with age. Fair enough!
Personally, as I smoke stronger tobacco, I don't worry about aging because the tobacco is defined less by the subtlety and complexity of flavor and more by the depth of body and strength, which really doesn't change all that much over time. Of course I do put tobacco into a "cellar", but not for the purposes of expecting it to get better.
Pease and a mysterious ASPer known only as "Bob" try to describe how the taste of tobacco changes with age. Some of us have grown to love the "funk" that comes from well aged weeds in tins. Charles Rattray, on the other hand, didn't even believe tobacco should be kept in the tin for any length of time, instead feeling that fresh air was essential to a tobacco's proper life expectancy.
He believed it should be purchased, and smoked as quickly as possible. You can't really go wrong with tinned blends, providing you like them when they are "young. At best, time will yield increased complexity, depth and richness, with some of those amazing surprises that only age can provide.
Perhaps the easiest way I can think of to get some idea of what happens to a blend as it ages would be for you to get some fresh McClelland's [bulk] ; try some now and jar the rest. Then in about three months get some more of the fresh stuff, smoke it and then open your three month old jar and try it.
This is what I did and even though I have nothing resembling a sophisticated palate the difference almost knocked my socks off. After you try that terms like maturity and fullness will mean something to you. Some palettes are even able to observe quite fine gradations. These differences become more pronounced as the fine character of the tobacco emerges with age. Once again, Greg Pease:. The only problem is that tobacco, like wine, being a natural product, inevitably changes slightly from crop to crop.
Steps are taken to hold the flavours fairly consistent, but some slight changes are bound to take place. I recall when I was just learning about Balkan Sobranie in the early 80's. The crop of 79 was different from the crop of 80, from the crop of 81, and so on. The changes were often very subtle, but detectable.
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