Ageing without hoarding

[steveclarkus]

Its not exhaling through the pipe, but breathing through the nose does cause are to move slightly through the stem thus oxygenating your ember and assisting in keeping it lit.

Yes doing it now. See what you mean. Never noticed the pipe heating though. I do keep an awfully slow cadence though.

 

[Columbo]

Its not exhaling through the pipe, but breathing through the nose does cause are to move slightly through the stem thus oxygenating your ember and assisting in keeping it lit.

There’s some truth to this. Unless you pull the stem out of your mouth, or are adept at tongue-blocking the airway, you’re going to get a slight back pressure on any exhale. Not quite the same as a backwash.

I‘m not a fan of backwashing my pipes or my drinks. It’s a personal preference. But I knew you weren’t really talking about that.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I lit up a bowl in one of my "full sized" (3/4" x 1.1/2") pipes today. I think it might be the first time since the influx of smaller pipes arrived. Certainly the first time I've smoked this pipe in a couple of months. It seems huge. I only smoked about 1/3 of it, then set it aside for later

It also felt slightly unfamiliar, mainly from how infrequently this pipe gets smoked. All these pipes (10 briars + pearwood and cob), and a wealth of tobacco, and my smoking frequency is largely unchanged. It still feels like an occasional treat, which is exactly how I want it to feel.

The days are getting longer and brighter, the temperature is climbing, and today was the first outdoor smoke for months. Very nice indeed. Yet still something I want to be "special", and a break from the norm. A far cry from my thirty paper wrapped smokes a day of a few years ago...

 

[steveclarkus]

I lit up a bowl in one of my "full sized" (3/4" x 1.1/2") pipes today. I think it might be the first time since the influx of smaller pipes arrived. Certainly the first time I've smoked this pipe in a couple of months. It seems huge. I only smoked about 1/3 of it, then set it aside for later

It also felt slightly unfamiliar, mainly from how infrequently this pipe gets smoked. All these pipes (10 briars + pearwood and cob), and a wealth of tobacco, and my smoking frequency is largely unchanged. It still feels like an occasional treat, which is exactly how I want it to feel.

The days are getting longer and brighter, the temperature is climbing, and today was the first outdoor smoke for months. Very nice indeed. Yet still something I want to be "special", and a break from the norm. A far cry from my thirty paper wrapped smokes a day of a few years ago...

Thanks for using standard measurements for us Yanks Al. That French stuff is a pain

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Having bought so many samples and pouched tobaccos, is now coming back to bite me. More frequently now, I'm having to rehydrate tobacco to smoke it, rather than dry it.

I picked Bosun Flake for today's smoke in a Peterson Barrel. It was crumbling and crispy. I managed to pack a bowl without reducing it all entirely to dust, then breathed slowly down the stem of the pipe, maybe 20 times or so with my palm loosely held over the top of the bowl, to literally breath some life back into the leaf. It worked, and I got a decent smoke, and the rest of the Bosun Flake now has a generous slice of apple residing in the tin. It looks like I'll need to preplan my smokes for a while. Giving each blend, or at least each bowlful, time to reclaim some lost moisture.

3.1/2 months into 2021, and I'm still smoking samples, and will be for some time to come. The start date for opening any of the tins I stashed, seems to creep further and further away.

There's still six sealed 10g-15g samples, and two more barely started. Then there's a 50g bag of loose Louisiana Flake before eventually getting around to five factory sealed pouches. That's not counting what's in the small screw topped glass jars!

There's a strong chance I won't be opening any tins before 2023. Thankfully, there's only seven tins which have any Latakia content, and only four tins of aromatic have any Cavendish, so hopefully things won't be too degraded when I eventually get around to them.

 

[RookieGuy]

As long as the factory seals hold, I think they'll still be good. Just a bit more mellow than you were hoping or expecting.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

As long as the factory seals hold, I think they'll still be good. Just a bit more mellow than you were hoping or expecting.

Yeah, I'm probably going to split the stash into two categories.

The first being mild English blends with latakia, aromatics with Cavendish, and anything in a rectangular tin (Gawiths). These need to stay in the drawer for smoking first. The second pile, non-Cavendish blends in round tins, and any English blends that I now think might have too much latakia for my tastes, will be stashed out of the way as a long(er) term cellar. Not sure yet what the percentage split works out at.

 

[RookieGuy]

I wouldn't worry about the percentages just yet. Not much you can do about it now, the tins need what they need. Once everything is sorted, then you can think about it. Otherwise, you're worrying over nothing.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I wouldn't worry about the percentages just yet. Not much you can do about it now, the tins need what they need. Once everything is sorted, then you can think about it. Otherwise, you're worrying over nothing.

Indeed! I'm just annoyed that despite the restraint and bluster, it now feels like I have actually been hoarding after all.

I had hoped to avoid buying jars, but I think it might be sensible now. Not for any further purchases, but for jarring up some of the pouches, and visiting them later. The blends in some of them will actually store/age better than some of the stuff in tins, once I get it under glass. Also, as I'm finding with some of these samples, glass jars will work better for open tins for keeping them smokable, especially if I have a few open at once. Again, annoying, as I didn't want to do more spending. I should only need about 10 though.

 

[KellyG]

Indeed! I'm just annoyed that despite the restraint and bluster, it now feels like I have actually been hoarding after all.

I had hoped to avoid buying jars, but I think it might be sensible now. Not for any further purchases, but for jarring up some of the pouches, and visiting them later. The blends in some of them will actually store/age better than some of the stuff in tins, once I get it under glass. Also, as I'm finding with some of these samples, glass jars will work better for open tins for keeping them smokable, especially if I have a few open at once. Again, annoying, as I didn't want to do more spending. I should only need about 10 though.

Don't feel too badly, you managed to keep the TAD fairly well under control. I do like your jar idea to keep the pouch tobacco smokable and 10 is minor in the long term scheme of things. Happy smoking!

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Don't feel too badly, you managed to keep the TAD fairly well under control. I do like your jar idea to keep the pouch tobacco smokable and 10 is minor in the long term scheme of things. Happy smoking!

Thanks Kelly. You're quite right that although there's been errors of judgement, it never (thankfully) got completely out of hand. I think even with this delayed start, the stash shouldn't (I don't think) spread beyond 2030. However, even typing that seems utterly bizarre, and somewhat uncomfortable. With my health issues, I shouldn't be trying to plan anything a decade in advance.

Buying too much nasal snuff, was actually one of the things that cut down my use of it. Owning too much, simply put me off using it. Yes, I do realise how ridiculous that sounds It transformed it from something I enjoyed, to something I felt obliged to do, because of how much I owned, and that took all the fun out of it. I just hope the same doesn't happen with the pipe. Hopefully I stopped soon enough for that to not be the case. It's something I really enjoy, and don't want it to be polluted by the negative connotations of my own greed.

Interestingly, I don't have any such "guilt" over the number of pipes I own. I feel totally comfortable about that.

On a lighter note. A bowl of SG Chocolate Flake is going down very nicely right now

 

[KellyG]

Sounds like you are in the sweet spot! Good smoking!

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Yeah, I think I'm in deeper than I thought, and verging on "too much", but it's here now, and still feasible for me to work through it all eventually. The odd thing is, that when I was rolling my own, this much tobacco wouldn't have even lasted me till the end of the year. It just feels... alien... to have this much sat here at once. I'm sure I'll feel happier once I've worked through all the pouched stuff, and everything I haven't started yet is in a vacuum sealed tin.

I nearly had my first garden smoke of the year yesterday. Still not quite warm enough for that though. When the temperature outside is higher than inside, I'll start plonking my arse in the garden, and sitting out with a good book.

 

[steveclarkus]

Yeah, I think I'm in deeper than I thought, and verging on "too much", but it's here now, and still feasible for me to work through it all eventually. The odd thing is, that when I was rolling my own, this much tobacco wouldn't have even lasted me till the end of the year. It just feels... alien... to have this much sat here at once. I'm sure I'll feel happier once I've worked through all the pouched stuff, and everything I haven't started yet is in a vacuum sealed tin.

I nearly had my first garden smoke of the year yesterday. Still not quite warm enough for that though. When the temperature outside is higher than inside, I'll start plonking my arse in the garden, and sitting out with a good book.

I believe we all go through that but with a bit of luck and patience, we find the sweet spot and settle in. I circle around four or five blends of the same genres - codger - and am quite content with that. Don’t fret though. It only took me fifty years.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

I'm quite happy with almost every tin in my stash being different. Who knows what favourites I might find along the way? The last 12 months of exploration have been fun.

I dare say there'll be a few in there I don't care for, but they'll be recycled into some form of franken-blend to make them smokeable. I'm still not overly sold on plain Virginias (though I haven't smoked any aged yet), but made sure I had a few tins in the stash to tone down anything that's overbearing.

I'm hoping I've got the percentages of different types about right too, with about 1/3 being topped/cased or Lat fuelled, and the rest being plain-ish Virginia, VaPer or VaBur. What will be weird though, is attempting to settle into a 50g tin/pouch of something. Anything. For the last year, I've not smoked so much as 10g of anything, without swapping to something else. At 2 to 3 bowls a week, having multiple tins open is going to be a challenge to keep them smokeable, even with Kilner jars. That's something to discover later though

I'm currently just finishing off the small bowl of Chocolate Flake that I started two days ago

 

[RookieGuy]

It sounds like you're right where you should be, to be honest. According to the math you did at the start of this adventure, you're not too far off track. Yeah, there was some variation (like winter), but it wouldn't surprise me to find 5 years from now you are within 6 months of your 5 year plan.

Don't worry about settling into a 50g tin. Unless you're Steve with 25kg of 3 blends, the simple joy and pleasure of the different blends is that wonderful variation with each smoke. But, like with Steve, it takes years or decades to learn yourself and the tobaccos well enough to accurately plan that out.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

It sounds like you're right where you should be, to be honest. According to the math you did at the start of this adventure, you're not too far off track. Yeah, there was some variation (like winter), but it wouldn't surprise me to find 5 years from now you are within 6 months of your 5 year plan.

No, I'll have more left than that For a start, the plan was to start from this year, and I'll not even be starting to open tins until well into next year. Roughly 18 months after the scheduled start date. Overall, that five years is probably nearer seven, or even eight, depending on how much I actually consume a year. So by the end of 2025, I may well still have half (or more) of my tins left. That's without buying any spur of the moment stuff to smoke fresh.

Don't worry about settling into a 50g tin. Unless you're Steve with 25kg of 3 blends, the simple joy and pleasure of the different blends is that wonderful variation with each smoke. But, like with Steve, it takes years or decades to learn yourself and the tobaccos well enough to accurately plan that out.

Oh, I like the variety, but recent events have slapped me across the face, in terms of the reality of keeping things in good condition when you're a low volume smoker. I really shouldn't be opening too many at once, unless I'm going to inundate myself with glassware, or get into the habit of splittling each tin into mylar "baggies" each time I crack a tin.

 

[RookieGuy]

Your numbers I thought were based on how much and of what you were smoking at the time you had the 5 year idea. So it didn't seem like you took any kind of seasonal cycles, or smoking more of the samples when you first got them. Yeah, you based them off an odd time, but the math checked out at the time. It seems a bit like how I was trying to plan a vegetable garden in the rainiest year on record. It didn't quite work out for me the way I wanted, but based on the numbers I was looking at at the time, it would have.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Your numbers I thought were based on how much and of what you were smoking at the time you had the 5 year idea. So it didn't seem like you took any kind of seasonal cycles, or smoking more of the samples when you first got them. Yeah, you based them off an odd time, but the math checked out at the time. It seems a bit like how I was trying to plan a vegetable garden in the rainiest year on record. It didn't quite work out for me the way I wanted, but based on the numbers I was looking at at the time, it would have.

Yeah, the plan with ageing tins was fairly sound and rational. Two things scuppered me on the purchasing plan. Firstly, the "kid in a sweet shop" approach to samples, without taking note of what total quantity I was accumulating. Secondly, the fact that the 5 year quantity didn't actually leave out that many blends that I specifically wanted to try, so I finished the job and bought the rest... and added in some pouches that a shop was selling off cheap. Not a catastrophic lack of discipline, but enough to feel some disappointment in myself.

In terms of the plan being right in the first place, you're quite right about the seasonal adjustments not being considered, and there was also the addition of the smaller pipes too, which significantly drops the quantity needed for smoking at the same frequency. So in total, there was a bit of discipline failure (but not overly excessive), and an overestimation of what was actually needed. Compound errors.

Altogether, it all feels excessive, and I do feel somewhat swamped, but a large part of that is it just being so unfamiliar to own so much. I'm not used to owning stuff I won't need until several years in the future. That said, I have saved a few quid. Most tins already cost more than what I paid for them, and those savings will increase providing I finish it all. Who knows, I might even have some midsummer binges and catch up a bit...

I know this all might sound rather negative, but it's more a matter of my head catching up with what's actually happened, and making sense of it. I will be exploring blends I've not yet tried for the next several years, without spending another pound. The blends I bought which are too potent will have mellowed out. I've discovered that there's so much I enjoy, I don't need to worry about favourites, or having multiple tins/pouches of the same blends.

I have a significant stash, without hoarding. I have some really great smoking pipes, without ever going over £50 (barely over £40 actually). The only thing that's uncertain, is the time left to enjoy it all, but if that runs out, I'll be in no position to grumble anyway Time to just kick back, and work on becoming a writer. I have one novel on the go, with hopes of it becoming a trilogy, and a second project which I would love to make a screenplay out of. If any of them come to fruition, and be something I can leave behind to say "Al woz 'ere", I'll be happy

 

[SHAVEWIZARD420]

I have been stocking up on a few favorites as well as new blends to try. With all this uncertainty going on regarding tobacco availability combined with the recent Prince Albert/ Carter Hall drought I have been trying to put away tobacco quicker than I smoke.

As far as moisture content goes, I have some blends still in the plastic bags from 2019 and they still smoke just fine, jars are nice for cellaring for later on, but I personally prefer tobacco to be a bit on the dry side (think D&R) so it's no big deal. It's all personal preference but I'll be damned if I ever run out of tobacco since we rely on internet sales for 95% of the blends.