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Mission Accomplished - tobacco cellar complete!

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Yeah, I know what you lot are thinking - no cellar is ever complete :lol: I had a somewhat more humble goal in mind though. ;) It's taken me nearly two years, and 50+ pages of boring you lot to tears in my Ageing Without Hoarding thread, but I've finally got it to a stage where I can call it a job well done.

I have one of these for "life" stuff in. and the bottom three drawers are for my pipe stuff.

IMG_2313_zpsrv7pgyln.jpg


Until recently, the bottom drawer was full of tins, but I've been getting a little more organised.

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All these tins, and a few extras I had in pouches, or stashed elsewhere, have been split into small heat sealed 10-15g portions. This lets me open a "part tin", and get 5 to 7 smokes from it, while the rest is still ageing.

The uppermost of those three drawers, is where I keep my pipes. I need to sort some kind of organisation for that drawer though, to keep them from rolling around and clattering into each other, when the drawer is opened and closed.

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The next drawer down, is where I keep my "open" tobaccos. There's a few part pouches in there at present, 9 small jars, and five small tins. I managed to cram around 25 of these newly knocked up pouches in there, to get 2022 off to a good start.

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The bottom drawer is deep enough to let me stand the pouches upright, and I've got a colour coding system, so I can easily find what I'm looking for.

One dot - flake, coin, and plug.
Two dots - broken flake, ready rubbed, and ribbon
Different colours for different blend types. English, VaPer, aromatic, etc.

20211213_223737.jpg

I managed to cram about 85 pouches in that drawer, which along with the 25 in the drawer above, should keep me going for about 3 years...

To be continued...
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Contunued...

Of course, that's not all the pouches. The aim was to set myself up for five years not three. I also bought more than I initially intended ... but even that has been kept in moderation.

The overspill box, gives me a tin of everything else I wanted to try, that's currently available in tins, and a few duplicates of specific blends which I think should age particularly well.

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All these (except for the rectangular tins - they got bagged up), are still in their tins, and will remain untouched till I've worked my way through the drawer stock. They've all gone in a cardboard box, with around 40 pouches of flake and plug packed around them, which wouldn't fit in the drawers yet.

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That left me with around 40 pouches of mixtures/ribbon/rubbed which have been stuffed into one small shoebox for now. Those additional 70 pouches (All labelled and colour coded like the others) will be used to replenish the stock in the bottom drawer, as and when space comes available. That takes me up to my planned 5 years.

The remaining tins, all of which have at least a year of age already, and some up to four years, will continue to stew in their own juices for the next 5-ish years, and then I'll have to go through the misery of splitting them all into the sample sized pouches again. It does mean though, that the original plan of a five year cellar, is now comfortably an 8 or 9 year cellar.

It might not all look and seem like much to the hardcore cellar fanatics, but it's pretty much exactly what I wanted to end up with, and I'm glad it all seems to have taken shape.

Will I buy more? We all have moments of weakness ;) Also, in all that stash, there's only two Cavendish aromatics, and so I might grab a pouch or tin of something fruity along the way. it's not my intention to "cellar" more though. It's already mapped out plenty far enough ahead for me.

Now I can kick back, light one up, and know I have a nice little assortment of tobacco ageing for future enjoyment. :thumbup:

Thanks to everyone who's contributed and cheered me along in putting this together 🍻
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
Yeah, I know what you lot are thinking - no cellar is ever complete :lol: I had a somewhat more humble goal in mind though. ;) It's taken me nearly two years, and 50+ pages of boring you lot to tears in my Ageing Without Hoarding thread, but I've finally got it to a stage where I can call it a job well done.

I have one of these for "life" stuff in. and the bottom three drawers are for my pipe stuff.

View attachment 1377815

Until recently, the bottom drawer was full of tins, but I've been getting a little more organised.

View attachment 1377816

View attachment 1377818

All these tins, and a few extras I had in pouches, or stashed elsewhere, have been split into small heat sealed 10-15g portions. This lets me open a "part tin", and get 5 to 7 smokes from it, while the rest is still ageing.

The uppermost of those three drawers, is where I keep my pipes. I need to sort some kind of organisation for that drawer though, to keep them from rolling around and clattering into each other, when the drawer is opened and closed.

View attachment 1377811

The next drawer down, is where I keep my "open" tobaccos. There's a few part pouches in there at present, 9 small jars, and five small tins. I managed to cram around 25 of these newly knocked up pouches in there, to get 2022 off to a good start.

View attachment 1377813

The bottom drawer is deep enough to let me stand the pouches upright, and I've got a colour coding system, so I can easily find what I'm looking for.

One dot - flake, coin, and plug.
Two dots - broken flake, ready rubbed, and ribbon
Different colours for different blend types. English, VaPer, aromatic, etc.

View attachment 1377814

I managed to cram about 85 pouches in that drawer, which along with the 25 in the drawer above, should keep me going for about 3 years...

To be continued...
Could you use that egg crate type convoluted foam in the bottom of the drawer to keep the pipes from rolling, and to prevent wear on the finish?

SKC-910115-Convoluted_Foam_Cushion.jpg
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Could you use that egg crate type convoluted foam in the bottom of the drawer to keep the pipes from rolling, and to prevent wear on the finish?

View attachment 1377842

I think that would be a big trampoline for them all :lol: It's quite a shallow drawer too.

I'm thinking of something similar though. Closed cell foam, like a camping roll mat or something, with holes cut out. If I make the holes like elongated tear drops, the bowl should sit on the card beneath, and offer enough support to stop 'em sliding or twisting.
 

Kentos

B&B's Dr. Doolittle.
Staff member
Technically it should be “Smoking COULD kill”, but I guess that doesn’t sound scary enough.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Well smoking DOES kill, just not everybody. Kind of like driving, working, running marathons, DIY, eating peanuts... but not as quick as some of those...
 
I just cracked a fresh tin of Full Virginia Flake instead of an aged one. I did it partly to check out the new tin seals and partly because I wanted one less tin that was 75% warning label in my cellar.

I'm happy for you Al, I think.... I'm not sure, to be honest. I never thought I'd see a person say such things. I feel confused. The words..... they're so brave, yet.... so strange.... is there really an end goal?.... my head hurts..... I think I need to lay down...
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Thanks guys 🍻

There was certainly some evolution of the original plan, but that's all part of the learning curve.

I think there's only maybe three tins I wouldn't have bought, with hindsight. Two Nightcap clones, and the tin of Solani Silver. When I opened up the Silver Flake and smelled it, I knew instantly it was more Kentucky than I care for. It might mellow though. Thankfully, the samples I worked through, helped steer me away from more errors. I packed all those away for maximum ageing time. Everything else I opened smelled awesome!
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I sorta wish I had your restraint, patience and organizational skills. I have certainly purchased way more than I'll ever need.

I think having an endpoint in mind, really helped. Clear targets and objectives are not something often seen in cellaring discussions. The simple twin goal of a five year stash, and one tin of everything I want to try aged, made it a fairly simple tick box list, and pretty easy to build at an average rate on one tin per week.

The colour coded pouches were the simplest way I could think of for avoiding glass jars, while letting me smoke a bit at a time. A full 50g tin of anything, is likely to dry out and lead to boredom before it's finished. A 5 to 7 smoke pouch, is more in line with my attention span.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…… oh wait, your serious. 😀

I fall into this category. I’m going to try and go on a tobacco purchase sabbatical in ‘22 and use up some of what I have.

How much of a dent would a year's smoking put in the cellar there?

That's something I need to try and keep track of next year. I think I'll average out around 400g per year, but I didn't do a very good job of keeping track over the last couple of years.
 
So are you going to be replenishing as you go? One tin of something next year to keep everything at your 5 years old (or at least 5 years in your drawer)?

I can certainly see how the end goal has helped. That's something I will need to take a long hard look at myself. You've motivated me to crawl into my cellar to see what I have and how I'm standing. Except where you're hyper organized, I'm that cheap. So it'll be lots of jars of bulk instead of garish warning labels.
 
The 'end goal' is critical, I think, in getting TAD under control. Three years ago, I was accumulating like a mad man and my cellar was growing by pounds and pounds. Only when I decided to figure out howl much I smoked, on average, did some manner of control develop. I built a 'consumption calculator' in my inventory spreadsheet that modeled my tobacco cellar needs. My consumption is based on grams per smoke, which was derived from an exercise in packing several pipes of different bowl size with different types of tobacco and weighing the amounts packed. I landed on 2.6 gms /bowl as a reasonable average. My sheet does all the calculations based on the gms/bowl number, so I can easily adjust the model. It ties into my inventory sheet that tracks all purchases and how much ends up in the cellar. It figures, based on 2,3,4,&5 bowls/day, how many pounds of tobacco/year and the cost of that tobacco, based on my average cost per ounce from the inventory sheet. So, I can, at a glance, look at the sheet and get a pretty good idea how long the cellar will last at my expected range of smoking.
Admittedly, this is all a bit anal retentive and likely overkill, but it did get me to slow my tobacco purchases to a crawl. The only calculation I haven't put in the Consumption Calculator is a 'must live until' date, in order to smoke up the stash; that is a bridge too far, even for my anal retentive self. I won't tempt the gods even further.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
So are you going to be replenishing as you go? One tin of something next year to keep everything at your 5 years old (or at least 5 years in your drawer)?

I can certainly see how the end goal has helped. That's something I will need to take a long hard look at myself. You've motivated me to crawl into my cellar to see what I have and how I'm standing. Except where you're hyper organized, I'm that cheap. So it'll be lots of jars of bulk instead of garish warning labels.

I haven't fully decided upon the replenishing strategy yet, but there will be a goal of gradual reduction. If I smoke the equivalent of eight tins a year, I want to be replacing less than that. Maybe four or five. Maybe less. I also want to gradually focus on the favourites.

I think I've got 17 different VaPer blends at the moment. That might whittle down to 3 or 4. I have 7 or 8 mild English blends for when I fancy something with a smattering of Latakia, and I could quite comfortably get that down to one. Really, I'm just seeing if anything I have will displace Squadron Leader as that one blend.

Fewer blends, less overall quantity, and a minimum age that is yet to be determined, and might vary between blends. I'm also hoping to keep a happy mix of flake and mixtures. They're quite evenly split at the moment, and it's nice to have both on hand at any moment.

In fact, next year might just be Condor Long Cut. That's the only blend so far that doesn't have any real challengers. Even with ageing, I can't imagine any Gawith Lakelands taking it's crown.

Current kings of the other genres, are as follows:

Gawith Hoggarth No.27 Perique Flake and Germain's Royal Jersey Perique for flakes and mixtures in the Perique camp. Reunion Flake for non-Cavendish aromatic flakes, and Gawith Red for aromatic mixtures. Squadron Leader for English, and Germain Brown Flake for plain Virginia.

I expect Peterson Irish Mixture, Irish Cask, and Hyde Park, plus Rattray's Sir William, Wallace Flake, and Old Gowrie to be fighting for a place in the league table too.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
My consumption is based on grams per smoke, which was derived from an exercise in packing several pipes of different bowl size with different types of tobacco and weighing the amounts packed. I landed on 2.6 gms /bowl as a reasonable average.

I've not gone scientific with it, but in round numbers, a "full bowl" (one of my 20mm wide x 40mm deep bowls) takes about 2.5g of flake, or 2g of ribbon. A "half bowl" (Peterson Barrel or Falcon sized bowls), is nearer 1.5g of flake, or 1g of ribbon. That's potentially quite a few smokes from my 10g-15g pouches.

I don't smoke everyday, and sometimes when I do smoke, I'll start a bowl, but won't finish it till the day after. On other days, I might smoke three bowls. Overall, I expect to consume a little under 10g per week. That may vary up to 50% either way though.

The only calculation I haven't put in the Consumption Calculator is a 'must live until' date, in order to smoke up the stash; that is a bridge too far, even for my anal retentive self.

I'm 48 with health issues. If I hit 60, I've done well. Shopping based on living into my 80s would be ludicrous. I don't mind having potentially 8 years stock now, but definitely want it to reduce as the years advance.

Realistically, anything I don't consume, will likely end up in a skip when I check out. Therefore my limits in future, are likely to be based on how much I am prepared for my brothers/nieces to discover and dispose of.

If I got a kick out of shopping/collecting, I might view it differently. However, it's just a necessary evil for me, so I can enjoy a smoke. :biggrin1:
 
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