Grab you a case (12) of half pint kerr canning jars for about $10 or so at your local grocery store. Take em home clean them up real good, drop your samples in them and just be sure to screw the lids down tight after dipping into them each time for a smoke! Should last pretty much indefinitely for the most part. (well maybe only a few years of opening & closing the jars multiple times a day!) Be sure to label them!

I've learned the canning jars are wonderful storage devices. The canning jars will keep your samples pretty much exactly like they were the day you put them in until they are gone. No need for a vacuum sealer at this stage! Open, Close, Enjoy!

:-)
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My method was similar for long term storage:
1. Buy small cooler that could hold a 12 pk
2. Buy tons of tins of tobacco
3. fill cooler
4. Vac seal cooler
5. place cooler somewhere where I'll never find it :-)
6. wait a few decades
7. smoke
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Most excellent, thanks!
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Wouldn't this be redundant since the tins are already vac sealed?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for overkill. I just don't want people thinking they wont age properly without vac sealing the cooler. :-)
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You can't be too careful when waiting a few decades.
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Overkill, perhaps for short term storage but for longterm you need to better stabilize the aging space and two levels of vaccum is just layers of protection. Ask me how many tins I've found from years ago that are unsealed due to time...:-)
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Old Farts:

Is there a way to increase the flavor of pipe tobaccos? I want to get into pipe smoking, because I love the tradition, the ritual of preparing and keeping up a pipe, and particularly the feel of the actual smoking of it, but I've noticed that I can't really taste it. I went to the B&M yesterday because it's Pipe Week and they had a bunch of tobaccos for sample, and I must have gone through dozens, both tinned and house blends. It tastes like water, with a hint of general flavor on the nose exhale. From pure Virginia aromatic to the heftiest perique and latakia blends (Irish Flake was supposed to be pretty...robust...and it definitely was, but still didn't taste).

I found just three which I liked (all house blends, believe it or not - "Proper English," "Night Cap" and "Champagne"), but they still aren't all that flavorful. They just happened to taste more at all than the rest. I got the Night Cap and I enjoy the flavor a lot, but I wish there was just more of it. Do I need to quit cigars for a bit before the flavors of the gentler pipe tobaccos "pop?" Thanks guys.
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Do you mean a cooler big enough for a case of beer, or a case of jars?

Love that method though! :-)
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You have to temper your pallate to the taste of pipe tobacco. When first starting out, you won't taste much at all. Smoke one bowl a day, and at about week 3 or 4, you'll realize you taste the tobacco like you never have before.

So, time and patience. The very reasons why we smoke a pipe in the first place.

WWhermit
:-):
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Ba da bing, above. Smoke slowly, too - fast puffers are hot-tobacco puffers and hot tobacco evaporates flavor.

Your picks were very good, flavorwise, IMO.

If all else fails and you just can't find the zing - and I mean ALL ELSE - try some 1792. If you can't taste that stuff, see a neurologist for a tongue and brain scan.
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Awesome, thanks! I shouldn't have a problem smoking a bowl a day, haha. I've been doing that anyway, because I'm breaking in my new Peterson and I love it.

Patience I can do - I can wait for a reward.

I've been smoking slowly I think; I don't think that's my problem. I learned that lesson already, haha.

Mister Moo - who makes 1792? Sounds like something I want to try :-)
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http://tobaccoreviews.com/blend_deta...PHA=1&TID=1004
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http://tobaccoreviews.com/blend_deta...PHA=1&TID=1004

Personally, I love the stuff. I makes a lot of people want to give up pipe smoking, though.
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Also try this one.
http://tobaccoreviews.com/blend_deta...PHA=B&TID=1008
or this
http://tobaccoreviews.com/blend_deta...PHA=S&TID=1837

they are rope style tobacco's but have tons of flavor and really robust. If you do get some ropes post again for advice on how to prepare it to smoke; they aren't that hard.
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You tried dozens in one day? No wonder you cannot taste anything, your taste buds are fried.

Seriously. How can you expect to taste anything if your they are so over-taxed.

When I smoke more than 5 bowls in a day, I don't taste much.

I have found that the best flavors for me appear when I haven't had a smoke in a couple days and I sit back and relax - not try and taste things - just sitting back and contemplating life.

Give your palate a chance to recoup and then try again.
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If I smoke a cigar even earlier in the afternoon and then try a pipe in the evening I find the pipe to have little flavor. So I have chosen either one or the other for a day. Is this common? Does anybody mix the two successfully. Is it because I am still very new to pipes?
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@Mister Moo
Ah, thanks. I'll look for it!

@Nick
I'll look for those, too - they sound pretty awesome. Full-flavored is what I'm looking for; I could care less about the nic kick. I don't "know" how to smoke rope, but wouldn't you just slice off some "coins" and rub them like a flake?

@RevSmoke
Haha, no. I didn't smoke dozens of bowls. I took a little pinch and smoked it for a minute, then dumped it.
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Pretty much you are a smart cookie.
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That's no way to taste a tobacco, you don't give it enough time to develop. Seriously!

Fill a pipe and smoke it. But, don't overtax your tongue or your taste buds. Try new blends on a fresh palate - just like tasting wines. If you smoke more than one blend, start with mild (less flavorful - burleys or VA) and work your way to more flavorful.
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Total Newbie piper question... Bear with me :-)

What is the approximate humidity that tobacco should be kept at?

A buddy gave me a pipe and some tobacco and I tried it for the 1st time at a herf tonight.

The general consensus was that the tobacco was too dry.

The bright side is that the wife kind of like the smell :-)

cheers,
Rudy
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