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Ageing without hoarding

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I realised something today. I've stopped browsing. I've stopped having that "itch", that need for something, without necessarily knowing what that something is.

I don't know if it was getting the additional smaller cobs, putting the laid away pipes visible in the drawer, counting up the stashed blends, or all of the above. Whatever the itch was that kept me going back and browsing the suppliers, that underlying feeling that something's still missing, appears to have been scratched. I haven't even been tempted to smoke any of the laid away pipes early either. Just seeing them there, is enough.

The five tin thing is brilliant!

img_20201015_155005_edit_edit-jpg.1168870


That in itself has been very settling. No more "analysis paralysis" of which sample to choose for my next smoke. I even kind of lost track of what was in the tins, till I referred back to this thread - but somehow, it didn't really matter. Just choosing which of those five types I want when I fancy a bowl, is choice enough.

Whichever I fancy, there's a large bowl and small bowl waiting. If the one I want is resting, there's the "wild card" back ups. Every pipe sits, and smokes well. There's filters if I need them, and cleaners if I need them. There's plenty of samples to top the tins up with, and when the day comes when there isn't, there's blends "cooking" in the bottom drawer.

Simple. Functional. Flexible. Affordable.

I think I've cracked it!
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
I realised something today. I've stopped browsing. I've stopped having that "itch", that need for something, without necessarily knowing what that something is.

I don't know if it was getting the additional smaller cobs, putting the laid away pipes visible in the drawer, counting up the stashed blends, or all of the above. Whatever the itch was that kept me going back and browsing the suppliers, that underlying feeling that something's still missing, appears to have been scratched. I haven't even been tempted to smoke any of the laid away pipes early either. Just seeing them there, is enough.

The five tin thing is brilliant!

img_20201015_155005_edit_edit-jpg.1168870


That in itself has been very settling. No more "analysis paralysis" of which sample to choose for my next smoke. I even kind of lost track of what was in the tins, till I referred back to this thread - but somehow, it didn't really matter. Just choosing which of those five types I want when I fancy a bowl, is choice enough.

Whichever I fancy, there's a large bowl and small bowl waiting. If the one I want is resting, there's the "wild card" back ups. Every pipe sits, and smokes well. There's filters if I need them, and cleaners if I need them. There's plenty of samples to top the tins up with, and when the day comes when there isn't, there's blends "cooking" in the bottom drawer.

Simple. Functional. Flexible. Affordable.

I think I've cracked it!
Scratching an itch too much often leads to an infection.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I get the first of my laid away pipes tomorrow, to celebrate completing 47 laps of the sun, so I've been deciding which of the plain Virginias should be chosen and aired out ready.

IMG_20201025_133944.jpg


I'm hoping this one is going to make for a decent Virginia pipe, as there is some taper to the bore. Not easy to photograph...

IMG_20201025_134656.jpg


It's certainly got thick enough walls to take the heat for a Virginia pipe.

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After much umming and ahhing, I settled upon Germain's Medium Flake. Being a finer (less dense) flake, it should dry out quite readily I reckon.

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An early happy birthday! That's a fine looking flake you've rubbed out. And a nice looking bulldog. I see a match made in heaven. I like the rustification on that shank. That should feel pretty good in the hand.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
An early happy birthday! That's a fine looking flake you've rubbed out. And a nice looking bulldog. I see a match made in heaven. I like the rustification on that shank. That should feel pretty good in the hand.

Thanks mate. Would you believe that's not rubbed out? That's just how frayed and dishevelled the flakes come out of the bag. Brilliant for drying. I'll be getting myself a coffee shortly, then taking her for the maiden voyage :biggrin1:
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Well, yesterday's bowl in the new Bermuda Bulldog went well. I don't think I got any additional value in spending £40 instead of my usual £25, I just got a shape I wouldn't otherwise have. It was worth it though. A good solid pipe, that feels good in hand, sits perfectly, and is still light enough to clench while I figure out which pocket I put my lighter in, and use my empty hand to shield the flame from the breeze. It smoked the Germain's Medium Flake very well too.

I have no doubt the Christmas pipes will yield much the same feeling of satisfaction. However, it's still the new small cobs that are getting most attention at the moment, particularly as the weather is cooling, and I don't want to be outside so long.

There are a few tobaccos I'll allow myself to smoke indoors though, and this is one.

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A very nice semi-aromatic (cased Virginia), which is very easy smoking, with an inoffensive room note.

I really need to get some amber glass jars when they come back in stock. So many good British tobaccos are not available in tins. The how and when will require discipline, but so long as I buy at a slower rate than I smoke, so the drawer quantity is descending down to the level it should be at, all is well.

The loose/pouch shortlist (added here for my own future reference) is currently:

Germains:
Rich Dark Flake
Royal Perique
Brown Flake
Plum Cake
Uncle Toms

Gawith Hoggarth:
Coniston Cut Plug Unscented
Louisiana Flake
Reunion Flake
Brown House Roll Cut
No.27 Flake
Best Brown No.2
New Prince
No. 7 Broken Flake

... and will probably keep growing as I progress through the rest of the samples. The tinned tobaccos I'll start opening next year, will need to be very good to warrant being replaced instead of phasing in the jarred loose tobaccos.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
As mentioned in the "what good stuff are you waiting for" thread, I've been naughty.

Sulking at been plunged back into a second lockdown (even though it doesn't affect me much), and needing to order some vape juice anyway, I added some tobacco.

I did, before I went to the payment options, go to the ageing drawer to give it chance to talk me out of it. I didn't just see a plethora of tobacco though. I saw a plethora of tobacco I haven't tried yet, and not much in the way of favourites. That led me to remove a couple of tins of still as yet untried tobaccos, and add the 25g pouches, as I have freed up a bit of space in the small glass jars.

GH Ennerdale (1 x 50g tin)
GH Coniston Cut Plug (1 x 50g tin)
GH Firedance Flake (1 x 50g tin)
Peterson’s Irish Flake (1 x 50g tin)
GH Reunion Bourbon Flake (1 x 25g pouch)
GH Reunion No. 27 Perique Flake (1 x 25g pouch)
Germain's Royal Jersey Perique (1 x 25g pouch)

I had been meaning to age some Lakeland anyway, so don't feel guilty about the first two on the list. I do have some Ennerdale samples in at the moment, which I have really enjoyed revisiting, just as I did a Coniston Cut Plug sample I revisited earlier in the year. They are both old favourites.

Irish Flake is a new favourite for me, after only discovering it this year. I do have a tin of Stirling Flake stewing, which is Irish Flake from a previous blender, but had no qualms of adding one from the current blender too. I don't know which blender my sample came from.

The Reunion flakes, and the Royal Perique are two other new favourites from this year, and are blends I intend to get once I get some amber glass jars anyway. As I had the empty glass jars in that drawer anyway, I certainly don't feel bad about topping them up.

Firedance is the only one on the list I hadn't tried before, but while aromatic, it's composition is entirely Virginia (blended fire and sun cured), just like Condor Long Cut is ... yet another old favourite. It's just blackberry and brandy, rather than Lakeland on the topping

So while I've been very naughty, oddly enough, I feel entirely guilt free about it.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
So here it is, the array of tobaccos chosen for ageing. I couldn't get them all in a pic, so you'll have to settle for a list :001_tongu

IMG_20201101_115421_edit.jpg


I think that's a fair assortment to start the journey with. Just one tin of each, with the exception of one blend to smoke at different intervals to assess change.

I plan on leaving the tried an tested tobaccos alone as long as possible, and focussing on the "new to me" blends first. Any I like will be replaced, and I have a separate list for each category, of blends I can substitute in should I find any that aren't worth replacing. There's all the loose tobaccos that I wouldn't mind ageing too, which I can also substitute in when there's room for them. I really don't want any more than this in the drawer.

That'll nominally give me six aged tins a year, for five years. Which in turn will allow me to add in the occasional tin of shorter life tobaccos (aromatics) should I get the urge. I've also steered clear of ropes, twists, coins and plugs at this stage. It's complicated enough as it is!
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
If I could throw a spanner in your works. Speaking from my own experience, coins take up far less room in a drawer per ounce.

A 50g tin always takes up the same space, irrespective of what's inside it :biggrin1:

Now, when I finally get my planned amber glass jars, and smoke enough tins to make room for those jars, you'll certainly have a point :001_tongu

For now though, tins are the simplest an easiest to lay away. The only coins I've tried that I'd be bothered about smoking again, are Charatan Rolls (similar to Deluxe Navy Rolls), and they come in tins. However, when I add the jars, I'll start considering plug instead of flake where applicable. Same reason you mentioned. I can fit more in the jar.

So for now, that spanner just bounced out. :lol1: Ribbon, rubbed, and flake, will keep me entertained for a good while yet :)
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I reminded myself of something else this evening too. I might get more plug in a jar, but a pipe swallows more up too.

I had about half, maybe slightly more, of a 5g sample of Peterson 3Ps. I cube cut it, and gravity filled my Parker Poker. It just filled to past the halfway point. The same weight of tobacco in flake would likely have filled it. So while I might get more tobacco in the jar, I might not necessarily get more smokes in the jar. The smokes just get more pricey.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
You are coming along just fine! I’m sure you will run across some new blends to try!

I hope not! 🤣

To be honest, I was getting very overwhelmed with choice with the samples, and feeling quite bogged down with it all. The five little "live blend" tins freed me of that. I went from confused and inundated, to just having a simple choice of five tins.

English
Lakeland
Aromatic
Virginia / VaPer
VaBur / Other

I found that very freeing.

Now, I just pick whichever best suits my mood, and then the corresponding pipe, depending whether I want a "full" bowl, or a smaller one. Whatever is in each of the tins, is what I stick with all the time for that genre, until it's gone. Then I refill it with the next corresponding sample.

The same will be done with the full tins, and I'll keep refilling (for example) the small English tin with the same blend till the larger tin is empty. If I find myself wanting an English blend, but NOT wanting to smoke whatever happens to be the "live" English blend at that time, then I know it has no place here, and it might even get dumped in the reject blend jar.

With 7 English blends stewing, 8 Burley/other blends stewing, and the 11 Virginia/Perique blends sharing the same "live" tin, anything else that seems appealing, won't get smoked for YEARS. Aromatics and Lakelands will be bought. As needed for the most part. However, what I DO have, is a separate list for each genre. If I find one that won't be replaced, or has gone out of circulation, I'll replace it with something else off that list instead. Those lists are already well populated though, so any names that get added might never be reached. There's also the tried and tested jarred/loose blends to phase in later as the tins thin out
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
The second lockdown "pick me up" order arrived today. 40 bottles of vape juice, and a few smokeables.

IMG_20201104_121650_edit.jpg


The three pouches were transferred to the small glass jars, and I had to evict a 25g lump of St James Plug to a ziploc baggie in the process (still in its pouch too, so double bagged). The tins were labelled, and then came the challenge of getting them all (except the vape juice) in the ageing drawer.

IMG_20201104_125438_edit.jpg


It doth brimmeth over.

I could swear a Timelord built this drawer with Tardis parts, to be capable of holding that much tobacco. Either that, or an engineer packed it :whistling:

The reject blend has been greatly condensed, which helped. The big bail top glass was booted out, the fairly dry blend was then splashed with the dregs of a bottle of 15yr Ben Nevis whisky, and vac packed. That may form a kind of loose plug in time.

There's comfortably five year's smokes in there now, with barely room for one more GH rectangular tin, should I need to top an order up for free shipping in the future. The GH tins that are in there, are packed in so tight, they'll still stay with lids on, even if they do happen to "burp".

Looks like I'll not be needing the planned amber glass jars for a good while yet.
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
The second lockdown "pick me up" order arrived today. 40 bottles of vape juice, and a few smokeables.

View attachment 1177870

The three pouches were transferred to the small glass jars, and I had to evict a 25g lump of St James Plug to a ziploc baggie in the process (still in its pouch too, so double bagged). The tins were labelled, and then came the challenge of getting them all (except the vape juice) in the ageing drawer.

View attachment 1177872

It doth brimmeth over.

I could swear a Timelord built this drawer with Tardis parts, to be capable of holding that much tobacco. Either that, or an engineer packed it :whistling:

The reject blend has been greatly condensed, which helped. The big bail top glass was booted out, the fairly dry blend was then splashed with the dregs of a bottle of 15yr Ben Nevis whisky, and vac packed. That may form a kind of loose plug in time.

There's comfortably five year's smokes in there now, with barely room for one more GH rectangular tin, should I need to top an order up for free shipping in the future. The GH tins that are in there, are packed in so tight, they'll still stay with lids on, even if they do happen to "burp".

Looks like I'll not be needing the planned amber glass jars for a good while yet.
Amber jars? Are you saying the sun shines in England? 😂
 
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