Steves Pipe Page


		Steve's Pipe Smoking Page

I keep all my opened baccys in glass rubber sealed containers.

Is there a "best before" on tobacco?

No to most! There are stories heard of some lucky person finding a dusty, 20-year-old tin of their favorite tobacco tucked away in the back of a drugstore somewhere. These aged tobaccos are said to be absolutely wonderful to smoke. So, needless to say, stocked up on several dozen tins of various tobaccos until that special day is done by many. Pipe web site recommending that tobacco be kept from only 1-3 years. Oh, dear. This is not the consensus on the Smokers Forums though.

How to cellar

The easiest part of all is storing the tobacco for the long haul. First of all, it should be noted the opening of a tin will end the natural fermentation process -- and it will not begin again. Likewise, pouched tobacco will not age properly since the packaging is not a perfectly sealed environment. That means that sealed, unopened tins are the only ones to bother aging. These need only be stored in cool, dry and dark place to keep the containers as safe from corrosion and large temperature changes as possible! Once open, your best bet is to keep it moist and smoke it quickly: It will slowly lose its flavors and properties much more rapidly.

Not all tobacco ages the same

How well tobacco ages also depends largely on the tobacco itself. Let's look at the three different categories and two opinions on them.

Virginias

Greg Pease: Generally, any tobacco with plenty of natural sugars will age wonderfully. Virginias, especially those with perique, will age for longer than any of us will, it seems.

Dan Pipe: The flavors will change due to fermentation processes -- tobaccos get milder, smoother with more full-bodied character; flake tobaccos (some blended with Perique) may also get stronger.

English Blends

Greg Pease: English blends seem to fare less well, though 20 years appears safe for just about anything.

Dan Pipe: Natural leaf mixtures in the "English style" (with Latakia) can well be stored for 2 or 3 years.

Aromatic Blends

Greg Pease: It's depends on how aromatic the Virginias are. Three Nuns, I am quite convinced, has a top note added, and it doesn't hurt it in the least. However, even sauced tobaccos won't go "bad" over the period of a few years. The stuff just may not age properly.

Dan Pipe: With Black Cavendish serving as the flavor carrying base the aroma additions are most probably affected and often decomposed by the fermentation process and may change or even spoil the mixture's original flavor.

Your best choices for tobacco aging

At the conservative end it's suggested that tobacco, especially aromatics, could be at risk after a mere year of storage. Yet, interestingly, very few companies actually date their tobaccos. It's anyone's guess how long your one year old of tobacco really is. It's not a stretch for a tin to have been sitting at the manufacturer and then a retail store for a year or two even before you bought it. The most optimistic viewpoint gives these aromatic tobaccos from several to countless years all depending on the blend. Overall, the only thing one can safely say is that these aren't the best choices for cellaring, but should be able to withstand at least a couple of years on your shelf without much harm.

For long-term aging, the general consensus is that Virginias and English blends are the better choices, though even here the opinions vary from 2 to over 20 years. With all this information I'm sure it's as clear as mud how long you should keep your products. In the end, it's up to your own personal experiences and, well guessing as to how long to keep your tobacco around!

Most of the Information on this page has been taken from the web

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