Below freezing this morning means it's latakia season. Cracked a tin of Squadron Leader.
What tin/jar are you cracking?
- Thread starter Claudel Xerxes
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Just cracked a tin of MacBarens Latakia Rolls
A tin of Old Joe Krantz
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- #524
I think it's some good, no nonsense bright VA. It burned and smoked incredibly well. Starting with the charring light, every puff I took produced a nice full draw of white smoke. The only relight I needed was after a little bit of tobacco got sucked into the draft hole, and I stopped for a few minutes to clear the shank.
The beginning of the bowl mainly had typical bright VA flavors with notes of hay, cereal, a small hint of citrus, and light honey notes. For being seven years old, and with the amount of fine crystals covering all of the flakes, I was a bit surprised that it wasn't sweeter. Don't get me wrong, it had sweetness to it, but for the first half of the bowl, it was a very delicate sweetness. About halfway through the bowl, the flavors intensified and became a little richer. I thought the honey and some slight citrus started shinning more. The last quarter of the bowl, a flavor of cream came through. The aftertaste was good, but pretty short.
I didn't think it was strong in the nicotine department by any means. I might even consider it mild strength. It gave me no tongue bite at all. It didn't heat up too much in the bowl once. Maybe it was just a lucky fluke, but it was probably the most well behaved bowl I've ever smoked. I'm curious to see how much it changes, if it all, now that the tin is open, and it will have a chance to breathe a bit. All in all, I think it's a great smoke.
Thank you!
Really appreciate the effort.
I enjoy comparing personal notes with other folks impressions and your write up is detailed and informative!
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- #526
It's my pleasure, Phil. I enjoy chatting about hobbies and pastimes that I have.
Cracked a tin of Missouri Meerschaum Lord Morgan. 60% Latakia. Mmmmm.
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- #528
Six and a half year old Solani Aged Burley Flake
Opened a Mylar pint bag of Kramer’s Father Dempsey from June of ‘20. Tasty! pulled out an ounce and zipped it up.
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- #530
I just opened a tin of near 9 year old C&D Joie de Vivre. It's supposed to be peak between 8 to 12 years old. I remember when I got it thinking that it seemed such a far ways away. It's far less smoky than I thought it would be, and has a slight orange/mango essence to it. I'm sure it won't show its true colors until a couple of weeks from now, but I might try to smoke some in a couple hours.
I’m starting my cellar and have a few questions.
When someone is smoking a well-aged tobacco, do you “set it and forget it” for several years, open, then consume it all? Or do you periodically open for a sample smoke? Does opening throughout the aging process degrade the tobacco?
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- #532
Setting it off to the side and not touching it will aid in producing the greatest amount of change from aging. Every time you open a tin, it will slow down and slightly change the aging process. Generally, the biggest change from aging will happen within the first few years. After roughly ten years or so, the differences in aging beyond that will become marginal. All of this depends on the tobacco and how it's stored though. Plus, some guys out there might not want certain blends to be aged.
My cellar is big enough, and is getting old enough, that I don't have much of a desire to pop a tin just to check on a blends peak age. Some guys do though, and there's really nothing wrong with that. I feel like it's a watched pot never boils type of situation though. If you check on a tin or a jar four or five times throughout the course of ten years, it's just not going to have the same aged goodness that it would if you were to just let it sit for ten years and not have opened it.
I should also mention that some guys will have 10, 20, 30+ blends open at a time. For a few different reasons, I only like to have about two to eight blends open at any given time. If I had dozens of blends open at once, then I would probably be more apt to just sample stuff here and there and possibly age a jar beyond what it was when I first cracked it open.
Not necessarily "degrades the tobacco" but it degrades the process.
The aging and fermentation process is interrupted when you open the tobacco. The little ecosphere where everything was happening is disturbed and ended for all intents and purposes.
Better therefore to split your aging tobaccos into smaller jars or packages so that the process isn't interrupted for the whole batch.
Thanks for taking the time to share your well-thought response.
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- #535
It's a terrible picture, but I'm opening a sample of C&D Bourbon Bleu that came with an order back in May '16.
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- #536
This, to me, is part of the fun of pictures and posting. This was my haul when I got this sample.
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- #537
Some almost 29 year old McClelland Virginia No. 24. I was thinking about a different McClelland tin, but this was bulging more than the others. So, I figured why not?
To celebrate Thanksgiving I cracked a 2015 tin of Gatsby Luxury Flake from Drew Estate.
So today was a busy day
2015 tin of Balkan Sobranie
2021 jar of Peretti Tashkent
2022 jar of Peretti English 110
2015 tin of Balkan Sobranie
2021 jar of Peretti Tashkent
2022 jar of Peretti English 110
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- #540
Just by merit, that's a nice selection. I have a handful of Balkan Sobranie tins, but I just haven't tried the stuff yet (at least not that I can remember offhand). I really liked Tashkent when I had a few bowls while cellaring some.
