From: "R.C. Hamlin"
Subject: Tobacco Article

Tobacco, worth the wait

Tobaccos should be purchased for both immediate consumption and for
their long term cellaring potential. In some cases the same blend
can be used now, with additional supplies put away for the future.

The single most important reason to acquire a tobacco, be it for now
or for long term storage, is the fact that you enjoy the taste of
the tobacco. This brings us to the obvious problem of how to find
the best tobacco to suit your taste. The answer is that you probably
will not find just one "best tobacco", but several. In addition, no
matter how perfect your current blend, chances are very good that
you will continue to search for something even better. Chances are
also very good that over your pipe smoking history you will fins
tobaccos that you will like, those that are okay (but not great) and
those that you do not like at all. 

Pipe smoking and tasting are after all part of the enjoyment of the
total experience. The more you know about the basics of tobacco
mixtures and blends, the better chance you will have in find only
those tobaccos that fit your needs. The golden rule of tobacco
tasting, which by the way is the exact rule used in wine selection,
is if you like the taste, smell and general character of the tobacco
(or wine), then it is a good blend. This rule will stand for the
least expensive tobaccos and the most expensive. It is true for the
simple mixtures and just as true for the most exotic blends - if you
like it, that is all that is important. A small problem comes into
play when the tobacco you are cellaring starts to change, as its
taste will change over time. The trick is to taste the tobacco young
and project what it will become in six months or six years.

Let's back up for a moment and redefine the basic types of tobacco
blends. Without going into a basic primer on Virginia, Burley,
Latakia and the like, we will go a step further and define tobacco
mixtures as a) mass produced aromatics, b) true cavendish (or type)
processed aromatics, c) Oriental "natural" non-aromatics and d)
Virginia based natural blends. Without exception, all of these
general types or styles of tobacco will change over a period of
time. 

Since mass-market styled aromatics use low character base tobaccos
and spray their top note or sweeteners, these tobaccos will actually
decline in character over time. Heavy cased aromatics, both in bulk
form and in packed form (pouch or tin) should be used "fresh" and
not left to cellar. True cavendish processed aromatics, usually
Danish produced, can be smoked now, but will continue to improve
over a period of time of up to a year. After the first year little
additional change will occur in the base tobacco of Danish
Cavendish, although the flavor, sweetness and character will "hold"
for several additional years under proper storage conditions.
Oriental natural blends (also English blends which are similar) will
continue to change for several years if left to cellar under proper
conditions. Virginia based flakes, cakes and loose blends will start
to change the day they are packaged and continue for many years. 

The degree of change in non-aromatic tobaccos depends more on how
"raw" the tobacco contained in the finished product. There are many
types of Virginia tobacco. Virginia is used in everything from basic
aromatic mixtures to pure navy flake tobaccos. In general only high
sugar content Virginias is used in premium tobaccos. Pressing,
heating, steaming, stoving and many other processes are used to
modify the basic raw Virginia, each plays a part in both the
immediate product taste and in the maturation process.              
The only way that you can project how a tobacco will change with
time is trial and error. The trick is to improve the odds in your
trials and reduce the errors part of trying new tobaccos. Each of us
has certain types of tobacco that we enjoy, some that we experiment
with and a few that we just do not like. You already have a head
start on your future trials and errors, just with this basic
understanding of personal taste.  If you can not stand American
styled black cavendish, avoid those blends that contain black
cavendish. You should understand that "English styled Black
Cavendish" is a completely different product than that found in
Captain Black or bulk types of American black cavendish (BCA, ZBC,
RLP-6, etc). If you hate latakia, avoid blends that contain this
tobacco and concentrate on the other types of tobacco. There is
nothing wrong with occasionally trying blends that you "think you
won't like" based on the types of tobacco they contain, just don't
expect miraculous results. Now comes the hard part...

Two additional hints concerning the "proper" aging of tobacco are: 

Rule #1 Cool, but not cold, storage conditions will allow your
tobacco to mature in a slow, even manner. The proper range is
slightly less than room temperature (55 F to 65 F) for slow, steady
maturation of tobacco. Tinned tobacco that is stored at a slightly
warmer range, say 75 F, will mature quicker with only a slight loss
in the overall final product. Remember that heat is used with steam,
some types of pressing and stoving of tobacco, but these processes
are used during manufacturing rather than the long term maturation
of the "finished product".  

Rule #2: Long term maturation is best achieved through the use of a
slightly loose packaging that contains some air. Vacuum packed tins
are typically used for Virginia based flakes and some Oriental
mixtures. Packaging that contains no "loose space" or air will still
mature, however the time needed to completely mature these vacuum
packed tobaccos will be much longer. The sealed, slightly loose,
packaging (tins) used by A & C Peterson and McClelland are the
perfect long (but not too long) term cellaring containers. 

I recently read a statement that said "tin tobacco was never meant
by their manufacturers to age in the can...". The remarks went on to
say how a few lucky individuals had discovered that tobacco does
change after tinning and that all you had to do enjoy mature tobacco
was to acquire your favorite blend and put it away for a period of
time. 

Since the writer was not a seller of tobacco I can understand why
this popular misconception was written. The actual facts are that
mass producers of "popular blends" (ie: drug store grade aromatics)
hope that their products do not last long enough to start to change.
Producers of quality leaf do expect their products to change after
tinning, and in many cases will hold their finished (tinned)
tobaccos for a period of time before releasing them to be smoked. 

Almost all of the standard McClelland tin tobaccos, especially
Virginia based blends, are held for at least 12 months before being
released to resellers. Several McClelland blends are held at the
factory for 18 months before being considered a finished product.
A&C Peterson states several times in their tobacco information
sheets that blends are "held to age" to fully wed the tobaccos
during their manufacture. 

Tobacco goes through many different stages before being released as
a final finished product fit for smoking. What should be understood
after saying this, is that just because the manufacturer of a blend
has released a finished product does not mean that the "finished
tobacco" will not continue to change. Tobacco manufacturers are
aware of this fact. Depending on the type or style of the blend
offered, manufacturers will take steps to either retard or enhance
these changes after release.

Exactly how a tobacco will mature is hard to tell without having
tried a five or ten year old example of a current production brand.
There are several basic guides that will hold true in projecting the
future taste of a newly purchased tobacco. 

#1: Highly processed, mass produced "drug store style" aromatics
will hold for up to a year and then begin to lose what little base
character they have. 

#2: Quality aromatics, such as those produced by Stokkebye,
McClelland, Charatan, John Sinclair and the new PCCA USA Series will
age well for 2 to 5 years. 

#3: Oriental style blends such as Rattrays original blends, Ashton
original blends, Dunhill, Sobranie and McClelland will need at least
1 year to soften with almost an indefinite period of time offered if
you would like to hold these. I know of an example where a member
has had a quanity of Rattray's Black Mallory for over 20 years and
it is still maturing and changing. The virginia content of an
English/Oriental mixture has more to do with long term maturation,
than the Oriental or Latakia content of the blend. Orientals and
latakia will mature and "wed" the blend during the first several
years, however the virginia tobacco in an English/Oriental mixture
will continue to change for many years.

#4: Virginia based mixtures, especially pressed Virginias (cake,
flake, spun disks, etc) offer the most drastic improvment with time.
What will start out as a hot, biting, sharp tasting tobacco will
change to a soft, smooth, mellow flavor with the addition of many
years of maturation. A good example of how to tell how old a
Virginia based pressed tobacco is, will be the color. 

If you open a tin of new Escudo you will see a definite contrast in
the bright yellow Virginias and the dark, almost black Perique. This
defined contrast in Escudo will change over time to almost a
monotone dark color on a well aged tin of just opened Escudo. Three
to five years will be a minimum age for softening Virginia based
pressed tobaccos. While pressed Virginias will age well for 10 or 20
years, few of us have the patience to hold these tins for this long.

Stoving  tobacco  is a way  to shorten the long term maturation
period of high Virginia content blends. The process of stoving a
tobacco is basically to heat the final blend under controlled
conditions as you would cook on a "stove". Gentle and controlled,
even heating, will cause the tannic acid breakdown and accelerate
the changes in sugar/starch content of the leaf. You can not replace
the long term maturation of Virginia tobacco with stoving, although
the process will remove the harshness of bright Virginia. Proper
stoving of Virginia based blends will accelerate the aging process,
but will not replace term maturation. 

Generally a stoved tobacco will be darker in the tin without the
contrasting bright and dark leaf of a non-stoved mixture. The
stoving process much more than just heating a finished blend, as too
much heat will break the character of an otherwise excellent
Virginia based tobacco. McClelland tobacco Company has had
outstanding success with stoving tobaccos. Many of the McClelland
produced Personal Reserve Series tobaccos and all of the
McClelland/PCCA USA Series tobaccos enjoying the added benefit of
stoving.

It would be almost impossible to suggest the perfect cellar
inventory for "your tobacco cellar". The perfect cellar selection
would depend more on what you prefer in taste and tobacco style,
rather than the aging potential of aromatics, orientals or
Virginias. Once you understand what you can expect from these
different styles of tobacco, you will be able to select your choices
for your cellar. Once thing that should be remembered is that a one
dimensional tobacco cellar is about as interesting as a single
selection wine cellar, or eating the same dinner every evening.
There are many excellent tobaccos on today's market, in every style
and taste. A properly mixed tobacco cellar will include a selection
of various styles and types with the heaviest selection being your
favorite. Do not limit your cellar selection to only one type or to
a small quantity of your favorite mixture. 
You will want to open and taste your tobaccos, tin by tin, as they
mature. A limited number of tins, especially your favorite types,
will limit your taste testing and offer you only a small amount of
mature tobacco once aging has worked its magic.

Make sure that you date the tins in your cellar with the month and
year of purchase. This can be done by writing on the label or using
a marker on the underside of the tin. As of 1991, all Personal
Reserve tobaccos and the soon to be released USA Series of tobaccos
have the year of manufacture already stamped on the tin. I would
still suggest that you month/year date all tobaccos you decide to
cellar.

As a final step in tracking the progression of tobaccos that you
cellar, you should keep a log. Your cellar log can be as simple as a
3X5 card with dates and tasting comments or as complex as you like.
Your log should list the dates that you added to your cellar, by
type and brand of tobacco. You will also find if very helpful to
keep tasting notes based on either a point scale (taste, bite,
sharpness, softness, sweetness, etc) or just a text based reaction
to each tobacco as they mature. This written history will serve you
well when you track the other tobaccos in your cellar. A cellar log
will help you learn to recognize the progression of various types of
tobaccos, especially those that you decide to add to your cellar
selection in the future.


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