henry
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Post by henry on Feb 26, 2022 13:02:15 GMT -5
Does any tobacco variety have a shelf life? Or does all cured tobacco age well.
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Post by Ronv69 on Feb 26, 2022 13:14:03 GMT -5
Virginia ages best. Aros age worst. To me latakia loses its flavor over time. If you want to stop aging, a deep freeze works great.
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Post by urbino on Feb 26, 2022 15:16:19 GMT -5
Virginia ages best. Aros age worst. To me latakia loses its flavor over time. If you want to stop aging, a deep freeze works great. Don't think I'd heard that before. |
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Post by puffy on Feb 26, 2022 15:22:40 GMT -5
I aged some Latakia blends 5 years..To me it lost a lot of flavor.
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henry
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Post by henry on Feb 26, 2022 15:26:30 GMT -5
The impulse for this thread was in my research for some recent casing I did. The consensus seems to be the longer the better.
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Zach
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If you can't send money, send tobacco.
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Post by Zach on Feb 28, 2022 20:07:48 GMT -5
Large amount of factors here. What moisture it's stored at, what casing or toppings are in the blend, total age, and component tobaccos in a blend. Most blends in my experience and experiments can age reasonably well. I've got 52 year old Velvet here that tastes great, but I've got Peter Stokkebye Luxury Navy Flake from vintage of 2014 that is going sour/acrid from the Danish casings. Well aged English mixtures tend to meld and mellow and where most people tend to believe the latakia sort of loses potency, I think it's more that the smoked latakia tends to bleed out that flavor over years into the Virginias, cavendish, burley, perique components and homogenize. Many aromatics I've smoked with years of age and they still taste great, but some can get funky and the best I can say is it's all a living test and experiments. Some blends with natural fruit, floral, musk essences can just about go rancid and others not. Another thing that throws folks off is Virginia stored in sealed tins or mason jars while moist will heavily ferment if left for 5+ years, and once you pop that sucker open you need to let it off-gas. Initially you pop open a well aged Virginia blend and you get fermented smells of spoiled fruits, decay, almost like a Perique smell which will noticeably smell fermented vs what you recall it smelling like fresh. Once you air these a bit and let the jar breathe and rub some out that smell will go away and sweeter Virginia smell should start to show. Now for the "longer the better" bit. Virginia flakes and mixtures are often touted at peaking between 7-15 years aged. Aging continues so long as you keep it sealed. Say, you have a jar of Sam Gawith Full Virginia Flake you jarred last year and now you want to sample it. Once you've opened that particular jar, you just stopped the aging process. It may continue on aging again if you leave that same jar sealed another 1-2+ years and continue, but it largely has been stopped for many months once you've popped the seal. I've done side by side tests of a jar left completely sealed for 4-5 years, vs a go to jar of the same blend that gets opened 10 times throughout the year, and the jar that gets opened doesn't age. Not nearly in the same way. Which is fine just as well too, as leaving Virginia flakes or mixtures moist and sealed entirely changes them in a few years or more left totally sealed. They ferment. Or obviously, if left sealed in the tin when it's a tinned blend.
Another aspect you have to face is that some blends change so drastically with age that you face a dilemma aging something only to find out you may prefer the taste of it fresh. I find that in general, most of my favorite Gawith Hoggarth taste far better fresh even if they do still age well for years. The toppings on Ennerdale, Bob's Chocolate Flake, Grasmere, Bosun, etc just taste better crisp and fresh.
I've not had too many outright spoiled or mold problems with maintaining a very large cellar of tobacco, but I have had issues and I have mitigated issues with blends known to not have enough Mycoban in them such as with recalled 2016 first release Carolina Red Flake. For these you can just leave them sealed in the tins, or dry them down before storing. I've opened some really old tobacco and then had it rapidly start molding in a mason jar only one time. Some 1944 RJ Reynolds George Washington Flake. I've seen Sam Gawith blends mold up, and entire 100-250g jar worth on a few occasions when left really wet and jarred. For this reason, I also suggest for aging experiments to portion out your 250-500 gram shipment into multiple much smaller pint or quart jars. This way you can isolate opening only 1 "go-to" jar and determine if it starts to mold while wet from opening and closing if you need to dump the next one you open and dry it all the way before re-jarring. Again, if wet it should be able to stay tinned, or stay sealed up from the initial transfer to a completely clean mason jar. What can cause the mold is opening and closing a jar repeatedly while it's wet and exposing it to more spores or feeding it oxygen. For the most part, I leave all moisture in my tobaccos while jarred.
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Post by Plainsman on Feb 28, 2022 20:19:33 GMT -5
Great comments. Many thanks.
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Post by Legend Lover on Mar 1, 2022 6:43:57 GMT -5
I've heard that Latakia, while losing some of its flavour, can become 'smoother' after some ageing. I might be wrong here.
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Zach
Pro Member
If you can't send money, send tobacco.
Posts: 4,042
First Name: Zach
Favorite Pipe: Too many currently, bound to change
Favorite Tobacco: Haunted Bookshop, Big 'N' Burley, Pegasus, Habana Daydream, OJK, Rum Twist, FVF, Escudo, Orlik Golden Sliced, Kendal Flake, Ennerdale
Location:
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Post by Zach on Mar 1, 2022 17:27:28 GMT -5
It does. All tobacco tends to seem to get smoother with some age.
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Post by urbino on Mar 1, 2022 18:25:15 GMT -5
It does. All tobacco tends to seem to get smoother with some age. Like pipe smokers. |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 1, 2022 18:33:41 GMT -5
I'm aging like a fine wine in the attic, or a lat-aro in the garage.
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Zach
Pro Member
If you can't send money, send tobacco.
Posts: 4,042
First Name: Zach
Favorite Pipe: Too many currently, bound to change
Favorite Tobacco: Haunted Bookshop, Big 'N' Burley, Pegasus, Habana Daydream, OJK, Rum Twist, FVF, Escudo, Orlik Golden Sliced, Kendal Flake, Ennerdale
Location:
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Post by Zach on Mar 1, 2022 19:22:58 GMT -5
I'm aging like a fine wine in the attic, or a lat-aro in the garage. Must be that Texas heat. |
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Post by stpaulpiper on Mar 1, 2022 20:28:13 GMT -5
You guys are lucky. I'm aging like a glass of warm milk. Getting more lumpy and sour every day.
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Post by cigrmaster on Mar 2, 2022 15:06:20 GMT -5
2013 Brigham Klondike Gold in a Bruce Weaver Volcano.  |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 2, 2022 17:19:42 GMT -5
2013 Brigham Klondike Gold in a Bruce Weaver Volcano. Nice pipe. Is it aging well? |
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Post by Legend Lover on Mar 4, 2022 8:23:56 GMT -5
You guys are lucky. I'm aging like a glass of warm milk. Getting more lumpy and sour every day. Excellent. You'll fit in well here. |
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Post by trailboss on Mar 5, 2022 18:06:42 GMT -5
2013 Brigham Klondike Gold in a Bruce Weaver Volcano. Nice pipe. Is it aging well? It was originally a smooth pipe, the wrinkles look better than mine. |
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Post by Ronv69 on Mar 5, 2022 18:44:10 GMT -5
Nice pipe. Is it aging well? It was originally a smooth pipe, the wrinkles look better than mine. 👍 😂🤠 |
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