Buying and % of tobacco you smoke and put down to age.

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Behike54

Behike54

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Guys,

One of the things I love about cigars is aging, especially the ones from an Island South of Miami. :)

I typically buy a box to smoke or take the temperature of how a young or youngish cigar is smoking the the second box is my "go to."


When it comes to certain Cuban's, 5 years is great, 10 years is when the magic happens. Can the same be said for pipe tobacco?


The best cigar I ever smoked was an H. Upmann #2 from 87. I was surprised how much kick there was for a tobacco that was so rich, balanced, and complex.

Is 1 to smoke and two tins to put down sound good? Now I am thinking 2 to smoke and 3 to put down?


Can you age bulk stuff that is vacuum-sealed?

Thanks in advance!

Jack
 
The adage is buy one tin to smoke and one to age. Any blend with a 1/3 VA or more can benefit from age. I've read that while burley and latakia don't age, VA and orientals do. In the first two years of aging VA makes its biggest improvement, but 5 years constitutes a complete aging cycle. After that the pace of aging slows, and although VA can improve for decades, it does so slowly.

You can stock your cellar with the intent to age or simply accumulate blends that you know you love. I just added up my store of Dark Plug in my cellar-2100g. Does Dark Plug age-no. But it has been a favorite for many years, and a) I don't know when Mike Rutt won't be able to get it anymore b) I don't know if Gawith-Hoggarth will stop making it or c) if I won't able to afford it.

I buy pipe tobacco by the pound and cigars by the box, most often, whether or not I've smoked it. My average of getting tobacco that I like is about 90%. Tin prices are high and pounds, comparatively, are cheap. For cigars I need to smoke at least five to get an idea of what they're like; that's $40-$50, which is 1/4-1/3 of box. If I had the money I'd smoke a tin or 5 cigars before making the bigger purchase.

Thus it makes no sense to me to buy 150g from 3 tins when for the same price I can buy 264g or 8 oz.
 
Thanks A_B!


Easy to understand, even for someone like me. I especially appreciate the comparisons, when appropriate to cigars, which I "get." Well, at least I think I do!
 
Hey Behike54 (Jack),

As for aging bulk tobacco, mason jars will do the trick.

Cheers,
ruta2
 
I read something that seemed totally screwy. If you want to "quick age" a tin of tobacco just leave it on the dash board of your car in the hot sun for 30 minutes or longer. Let it get good and hot. Like I said, I thought the guy was fruitier than a nut cake but it turned out that he's right. It works. I tried it with two tins of OGS from the same lot. One got the treatment for 60 minutes and the other didn't. I opened both of them and one that got a nice sun bath was smoother and tasted better. He claims that a 30 minute sun bath equals approx. 6 months aging. I still say it sounds crazy but the proof is in the smoking. Thank goodness for reading on the interwebby. :study:
 
I've heard about the heat treatment off and on, and I'm sure it worked well for your tobacco, and I'm glad. But it's too radical for me and produces a result that I would find more acceptable were it produced by the more controlled, less invasive process of abiding in my cellar for years.
 
I understand that. What surprised me was that it worked at all. I didn't expect it to and thought it might ruin the tobacco.
 
This is then a form of rapid aging. Do you feel that the aging result by the rapid method will produce different results from a controlled method, whatever time it takes for the controlled tin to reach the same point in aging that the rapidly aged tin achieves, neither better than other, just different?

Would you agree that the results of controlled aging and rapid aging is like the different aging results obtained, neither one good nor bad, but just different, between periodically opening an aging jar, and on the other hand, never opening it, both aged for the same amount of time?
 
alfredo_buscatti":h1rozq2w said:
Would you agree that the results of controlled aging and rapid aging is like the different aging results obtained, neither one good nor bad, but just different, between periodically opening an aging jar, and on the other hand, never opening it, both aged for the same amount of time?
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The result is different but just as good and is closer to never opening the jar.
 
I've only just entered into cellaring myself...I do have some tobacco with a few years' worth of age on it, but that's entirely due to buying more tobacco that I had the time to smoke (you'll find that to be a common problem!).

So, I've found a few blends that I enjoy above the rest and have decided to age them. My plan is to take four blends and, each time a buy a tin to smoke, I'll buy a tin to age. I'll smoke a tin of the same blend at 3, 4, and 5 years to decide where each blend best suits my taste to know how long I actually want/need to cellar each unique blend.

The way I figure it, at the rate I smoke, I'll have decent collection together by the end of the year...and, by the time I'm ready to start smoking the aged tins, I should be pretty close to only buying new tins for the purpose of aging, always pulling from my matured supply. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men...



I did try the rapid aging thing once. I noticed a definite difference (improvement) in the quality of the smoke and taste, but it didn't last long. Some time after the quick-aging, the VA blend had become almost unbearably sweet (it almost tasted like a heavily cased aro.). Now, this could be attributed to any number of variables, and ymmv...but for my money, I don't plan to take another run at it.



 
I've also tried the solar treatment and I must say that it worked for me. I used it to tame blends that were particularly sharp. Something that also worked well for me was Fred Hanna's method of baking tobacco. I don't use these methods anymore because I only smoke well aged tobacco, but I do recommend everyone to gove them a try, even if only once.

By the way, this didn't work for me if the blends were aromatics or contained high proportions of Latakia, but YMMV.
 
idbowman":mbup07yv said:
I did try the rapid aging thing once. I noticed a definite difference (improvement) in the quality of the smoke and taste, but it didn't last long. Some time after the quick-aging, the VA blend had become almost unbearably sweet (it almost tasted like a heavily cased aro.). Now, this could be attributed to any number of variables, and ymmv...but for my money, I don't plan to take another run at it.
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I've only done it with OGS and it was excellent and consistent. After I saw the first tin came out nicely I did two more tins for two hours. Nice! Perhaps the blend makes a difference. Your phrase "any number of variables" covers that. I do wonder if the rapid aging was the culprit. Hard to tell without repeating the experiment. Do you remember which blend you used? I may take a stab at it and see if the same thing happens if you remember.
 
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