Cellaring Woes

I would still have to say that the best storage is the glass jars with the rubber seal i believe they keep the tobacco at its best and they can be purchased in a hardware store or a suppermarket-FC.

I second (and third) the comments above, but the glass jars can get expensive for cellaring if you store a good deal of tobacco. Yard sales are a good source and you can get new rubber rings in volume pretty cheaply.

I, too, would recommend the glass jars, but it depends on how long you think you’ll keep the tobacco in them. Plastic of any kind can “bleed odors” over time and not only do I not want my tobacco smelling like plastic, I don’t want one blend to flavor another blend in a nearby jar. Glass solves those problems. And they don’t cost an arm and a leg, either (but I realize that you’re getting the plastic ones for free). The downside is that the glass jars are heavy and breakable. This hasn’t been a factor for me . . . yet.

– Doug Pearson

An easy way to store and cellar tobacco in such cans is use an electric heated glue gun(~$20) to seal around the edge of the lid and container. The glue dries to a soft rubbery consistency and is easy pull off. I use black electrical tape to seal a tin that I have opened to test smoke but don’t intend to put in my main tobacco jar. In this case the tobacco should retain it’s moisture level for several weeks to a few months if not opened up too frequently.

I have a concern about long term storage in plastic no matter how tight the seal. All plastics are petroleum based and break down in various ways on differing time tables. Some as short as one year.
Many are not aware that some “USE BY” or “SELL BY” dates are not based on the storagability of the product but, instead, on the quality of the container.

Anyone who can afford a tobacco worth cellaring can afford wide mouth pint mason jars from Wallys. Buy’em by the case or get’em from grandma. Their forever.

Don L. Johnson

Hey guys, I really am appreciating all the helpful feedback and many thanks to all of you. But, I think that there is some misunderstanding, probably brought about by the way I worded my request. I believe that I misused the term ‘cellaring’ at the end of the request and seriously apologize for that. I am not worrying about long term storage and aging here; this is my use everyday stuff and it isn’t seeing that much storage before it gets smoked. I just puff on so many things currently that I have to keep some organization in smaller containers for ready usage since I usually buy in bulk and cannot organize well in huge plastic bags. The Folgers cans I described are small and, on the average, only hold less than 8oz. of baccy. I keep the aging stuff in large, wide mouth mason jars.

However, I have learned from the comments submitted and really do want to thank you all again.

Claud

I’m 37 and have smoked a pipe since I was 17; consequently; I’ve gone through any number of “favorite” regular tobaccos over the years. I prefer storing mine in those quart fruit canning jars with the locking wire mechanism on the top, the ones with the rubber gaskets. The jars can be obtained quite easily, and of course, the live rubber gaskets can be had for a very little money. I find these work well for my current Top Four: Esoterica Tobacciana’s Ramsgate and Penzance, Altadis’s Black Cordial (Z-50), and Cornell and Diehl’s Aurumn Evening. These all need to be kept fairly well humidified, and the glass canning jars work well. Of course, if one is not concerned with real “cellaring,” (i.e., storing tobaccos like wine) and smokes half a pound in a couple of months or so, I like the glass humidor jars with the porous clay disc insert in the lid (most are labeled “AZTEC”). If these are kept saturated with water, they’ll do the job just fine, too.

A thick plastic jar with an absolute airtight cover is ok for daily smokes. The drying that will take place is the result of opening the tobacco jar frequently allowing new air in which eventually dries your tobacco. A small misting spray bottle of good tasting water or distilled water will restore if not too dry. Once, too dry, it will never be the same. However, for long term storage of a month or longer don’t use plastic. Always use a glass Mason jar with the Mason jar cover. This is fool proof as long as you don’t drop them.

Well, I am not cellaring to any great extent (except for a few unopened tins), but I am smoking many kinds of tobacco in my quest for the ideal. To prevent them all from drying out (some in open tins, others in ziploc plastic bags), I keep them in their respective containers and then put them in two foot high plastic jars (separated by blend type) with the ubiquituous rubber gasket and locking clip. I also added a metal humidor disk to each jar. I put decorative paper around these cylinder-shaped jars to prevent sunlight from baking the contents, as they sit on my dresser. All stays pretty moist for months if I am careful, and I cannot detect any bleeding. If I was to cellar bulk tobacco for years, I would use the glass jars.

Somewhere online I read that you can sort of reseal pop-top tobacco tins by rubbing wax along the rim, pressing on a cover of aluminum foil, then snapping the plastic lid back over the whole thing.

If that’s true, then you could do something similar with large coffee cans that have been thoroughly cleaned, and deodorized with a baking soda scrub and/or soak. (You might even try letting the tobacco pick up the coffee odor to see if you like that.)

Corrosion might be a problem for the very long term; even stainless steel doesn’t last indefinitely.

Second problem: the wife might accidentally brew a really nasty pot of “coffee”

I find glass mason jars to be the best. They don’t have to be mason just thouroughly clean.

I do use mason jars because once you get them they are going to last a long, long time as long as you don’t break them.

They are readily available new at grocery stores or hardware stores. Many can be found at yard sales or flea markets and so forth for very cheap. You can buy the lids and rings together or seperatley at wherever the jars are normally sold new.

If you know someone that used to can many can be found freely that way too. Many attics have a few boxes in there somewhere.

I think as you progress as a somker you will find glass the best long term storage method.

Your tobacco will taste better with age on it and currently you are replenishing it quicker than ideal. Stock it up a while faster than you can possibly smoke it and before you know it you will have some aged a year or more.