How Tobacco Ages

I know how I age: Resentfully. But tobacco ages more gracefully, and every pipe smoker should take advantage of that process to attain the pinnacle of what pipe smoking offers.

Historically, blenders did not invest much consideration in what happens to tobacco after tinning. It was manufactured to be sold and smoked right away. Tobacco cellaring is a relatively new phenomenon, and the advantages of aged tobacco have been widely noticed only in the last 30 years or so. Other blenders undoubtedly noted the tobacco aging process, but McClelland Tobacco Company seems to have been the first to truly utilize it for quality purposes, storing Virginia tins for up to three years before making them available to retailers. McClelland's Millennium was a straight Virginia tobacco designed to be aged five years before opening in the year 2000, and all the company's Christmas Cheer renditions are well known for their aging characteristics.

The Effect of Aging

The impact of aging is unique to the type of tobacco. Most feel that aromatics don't particularly improve with age, though the flavors may marry and become smoother if the base tobacco has good sugar content. However, tobaccos with relatively low sugar content are typically used for aromatics because higher grade leaf doesn't improve in flavor with the addition of flavoring agents (because it's already sweet), but lower grade leaf does. That doesn't mean high-quality, lightly flavored aromatics don't exist, but it's unusual for flavoring to be added to high quality leaf. The main component is usually Black Cavendish, in which Virginia and/or Burley are steam heated and impregnated with flavorings, so Black Cavendish is more of a process than a type of tobacco.

English and Balkan blends age better than aromatics. These blends contain Oriental or Turkish leaf, including Latakia, but they are fairly stable after processing and you shouldn't expect large improvement. Virginias will show the most improvement during the aging process. A basic rule to remember is that the higher the sugar content of the leaf, the better it will age. Burley and Maryland tobaccos average just 0.2 percent sugar, while Turkish averages about 12 percent, and flue-cured Virginias average about 22 percent but can climb into the mid-30s.

Curing Makes All The Difference

Part of the reason for the disparity in sugar content is the way different tobaccos are cured. The aging process we're interested in is fundamentally an extension of the curing process. Plant leaves build up high levels of starch to store carbohydrates through the course of their lives. When the leaves start dying, those starches begin converting to sugars.

Burley is hung in barns to slowly age and die over the course of months, during which starches change to sugars, and the sugars eventually convert to carbon dioxide and are released into the air. The final sugar content of Burley is low because the curing process takes the starches through the sugar stage and directly to CO2 without adding additional sugar to the leaf.

For Virginias, which are mainly flue-cured, the chemical process is different. We wouldn't like Virginia straight from the field because it's high in starches. High-starch leaf would be acrid and very harsh to smoke.

In flue curing, the temperature in the barn is raised quickly, accelerating the conversion from starch to sugar and then drying the tobacco, halting the enzymatic activity that would then convert the sugars to CO2. Without that respiration, sugar content is stabilized, often at 25% or more. Flue-curing reduces starches and increases sugars, with the aim of stabilizing the leaf at a high sugar content.

The Magic of a Tin

After processing, blending and tinning, even though the blends have high sugar content, they are still comprised of a combination of sugars and starches. Those starches will continue to convert in the tin at a much slower rate. The tobacco can continue to improve for decades, much as wine does. Wine and tobacco both become more complex with age, marrying flavors, continuing to ferment at a reduced rate. And like wine, tobacco will stop aging after you open the container because respiration resumes.

Tobacco leaves have tiny, hair-like structures that produce terpenes, which are compounds responsible for aroma. Different terpenes include menthol and pine pitch. The terpenes produce duvatrienediols, which are the compounds responsible for the unique flavor and aroma characteristics of tobacco. What we recognize as tobacco when we sniff the air is identifiable partly because of the breakdown of duvatrienediols. That breakdown provides more flavor and more aroma, and it continues year after year.

When proteins, such as amino acids, break down, they leave short-chained fatty acids, which are significant flavor compounds. Those fatty acids produce ketone compounds that interact further and produce the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is so important that I'm surprised no one has named a pipe shape after it yet. It's a chemical reaction that produces an amodoric compound that is found in food and enhances flavor. It also produces pyrazine, which is associated with aromas such as popcorn. Pyrazine is what human beings are physiologically sensitized to in order to perceive odor and flavor, and it takes only minute amounts to have a profound affect.

As tobacco ages and carbohydrates are converted to sugar, other reactions are also taking place that generate further Maillard reactions. Nicotine, amino acids and organic polymers called lignin react with sugars and other compounds for additional Maillard reactions, further enhancing flavor.

That's what is happening in your tins as they sit idly on shelves for years, and it's worth the wait. My favorite tobacco is a Virginia/Perique blend, and I don't smoke it until it has aged at least two years, and preferably five, because it's a different tobacco after that process. I don't even like it before it's aged. The first time I bought a tin of it, I threw it away after one bowl. But the aged version is sublime.

If you like Virginias, and even if you don't, you should consider putting some away for the future. They'll only become more valuable, and the flavor profile will continue improving. Aged tobacco is sweeter and mellower; the flavors are deeper, more married, smoother, and the potential for tongue bite is reduced. Cellaring takes time, but it's otherwise free, and the inherent enhancements will gratify and excite.

References

Stanion, Chuck. "Older is Better," Pipes and tobaccos Vol. 3, No. 4, pages 32-36.

Conversations with Dr. David Danehower, University of North Carolina

Conversations with Dr. Wes Weeks, University of North Carolina.

Category:   Tobacco Talk
Tagged in:   Literature Tobacco Tobacco Locator

Comments

  • ProbateGeek on July 2, 2018

    Fantastic article. I’m primarily a Burley and Perique smoker, as I find high VA content blends tend to bite me. Perhaps I’ve just not aged them long enough? Escudo is a good example - I love the flavor, but not the bite. I do have one tin aging, so will revisit in a few years. Could you offer some other blends you find age well?
    Again, love this much science in a tobacco blog post.

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  • Garreck Goldberg on July 2, 2018

    Nice article! I really discovered this with Dunhill's Ready Rubbed. I didn't really care for it out of the tin. I put it away for a year and tried it again and it was mellower and much more enjoyable. Now I cellar everything!

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  • Chuck Stanion on July 2, 2018

    Hi ProbateGeek:

    Anything that is primarily Virginia will age nicely. Carolina Red Flake, Escudo, Capstan etc. You can use our Tobacco Locator to specify Virginia or Virginia/Perique blends for a list of good potentials. You also might experience a little less tongue bite by drying your tobacco before smoking if you don't already (but not too dry or it'll be worse).

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  • David on July 2, 2018

    So; the question on everyones lips, or at least mine, is what is this favourite VaPer your referring to? I would love to cellar more vapers but not many people are talking about whats worth the effort, id love a starting point? :)

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  • David W on July 2, 2018

    Information like this is indeed fascinating and only adds to the enjoyment of the wonderful diversion of pipe smoking.
    Two questions for Mr. Stanion regarding the following: "And like wine, tobacco will stop aging after you open the container because respiration resumes."
    1) Does this mean that we should not transfer tobacco from tin to jar for cellaring?
    2) Would using the canning method make any difference if we do choose to jar tobacco?

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  • Alain L. on July 3, 2018

    Great article. Thanks !👍🧐👍

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  • Chuck Stanion on July 3, 2018

    Sadly, my favorite Va/Per is gone: McClelland's Beacon. I'm looking for a replacement. Orlik Golden Sliced seems to have some potential for me. A colleague shared some nine-year-old OGS and it was spectacular, so I'll be aging some of that.

    Regarding the opening of tins to store tobacco in Mason jars: I wouldn't recommend it. It's fine to jar bulk tobacco; it will resume fermentation. Tinned tobacco will too, but not to the extent that it would in the tin. You'll get better results by leaving those tins be until it's time to smoke the contents.

    Fred Hanna has a method of quickly aging tobacco. He places tins in an oven at 200 degrees for four hours, if I'm remembering correctly. There was a time when all I had was currently produced Beacon and I cooked it like that for a period. It was better than fresh, but not as good as naturally aged, though it was a good temporary compromise.

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  • KevinM on July 4, 2018

    I had a tin of MacB Plumcake that I kind of forgot about for ten years. I opened it and — Wow! — it was delicious. For a couple of bowls. Then it went flat. Doesn’t even smell like Plumcake now. I guess it went past the aging mark for aros. I started to add a pinch of Conniston to it, and it became a nice summer smoke. It doesn’t taste or smell like Plumcake at all, but it’s nice with a little G&H help.

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  • John Dockinson on July 5, 2018

    Looks delicious

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  • Sherman on July 6, 2018

    I went on a pipe / tobacco binge from 1983 till about 1998. I had to give up the pipe but I still have near 60 pipes and various Rattray's in in-opened tins. I ptonably have around a dozen un/opened tins but the prise of the collection is two un-opened of McClelland’s Christmas Cheer 1992. I’ve seen some lively discussions on Ebay about it and it seems that the 1092 bintage is the holy grail of Christmas Cheer. It was great in 92’. One of my favorites. One tin spent years in the attic. I found it when I sold my house and cleared out the attic. I really want to open one and smoke it but I bet it’s worth alot of money. I will probably never get another chance to smoke 26 year old premo tobacco again as I am nearly 65 years old now. I wonder which one I shoulf open. The ome from the attic or the one aged in a climate controllef house?

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  • Mark on July 7, 2018

    Thank you. What a very informative and knowledgeable article. I learned a lot from it.

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  • Jussi on July 17, 2018

    So, the tobacco curing is like mashing the malts when making beer. Same enzymatic processes turn starches to sugars, and where mash needs to be boiled to end the process the tobacco is dryed in a high heat, not destroying all the enzymes so it can start the process again when environment is right. Really interesting.

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  • Chris on September 28, 2018

    I’m so glad I found smoking pipes!

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  • Alain L. on June 1, 2019

    Seriously informative 👍👍👍

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  • Casca on June 30, 2019

    Very informative. Had to read it twice just to soak it all in. Thanks, Chuck, for explaining the unseen mysteries of a sealed tin. By the way, where can one obtain the tobacco jar displayed in the photos? It's gorgeous!

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  • Bill Haley on August 22, 2019

    EXCELLENT, SUPERB INFORMATIVE. Great article, learned a lot looking forward to put it into practice myself. Thank you greatly


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  • Michael Cherry on July 5, 2020

    Sir Charles;
    Thank you for more great information.

    Your Obedient Servant;
    Mike

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  • Jeff Geist on August 15, 2021

    Just picked up a 17 year-old tin of a Cornell and Diehl Virginia/Perique at a Pipe Show. I smoked it in an only-once-smoked Dunhill from 2000 (also purchased at the show). Super smooth smoke, and the perique was piquant, not biting. Intend to pair subsequent smoke with a fine Scotch.

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  • Wally on January 15, 2023

    My question is does the sugar content in tobacco have an affect on a diabetics blood reading? Or is it like sugar in a wine fermentation that is expended when the fermentation reaches 0 Brix, indicating no sugar? Especially interested as it affects aromatics that are cased with a sugar based addition for flavor and bouquet. Thanks for great educational information.

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