The Crap Shoot

A Perth-blended, cutter-top tin of Rattray’s 7 ReserveWhen it comes to vintage tobaccos, most people seek out the marquee names–the vintage tobacco equivalents of Bogart, Bacall, Flynn, or Davis. The hunt has led to prices spiraling into the stratosphere for tobaccos like Balkan Sobranie, 759, or Sullivan and Powell’s Gentleman’s Mixture. No doubt in the future we’ll see the same scramble for G.L. Pease’s Stonehenge that we see for his Bohemian Scandal. People seek out the legendary.

Me? My tastes run to the more obscure. Personally, my favorite vintage tobacco is Rattray’s 7 Reserve. My love is as blind for this tobacco as Bogie’s was for Bacall in Casablanca. A mature Virginias-based blend with condimental latakia, 7 has that tangy sweetness with just a trace of latakia’s signature herbal smokiness, and the fairly recent is almost good as the original, Perth-blended version. I know that because of the lucious leaf from the tin you see at the top of this post.

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Dating Sullivan Powell's Gentleman's Mixture

Sullivan Powell’s Gentleman’s Mixture is one of those venerated vintage tobaccos about which connoisseurs wax poetic. Because so many good things have been written about the blend, it is rare. When one finds a tin, it usually sells for more money than I’m confortable spending for a tin of tobacco. If one is lucky, one spends $125-$150 for 50 gram tin. The tin depicted above had an asking price of $300, and I’m surprised that it wasn’t snapped up before I purchased it from a friend on Sunday night at the Chicago Show.

When a couple of ounces of excellent pipe tobacco can be purchased for $10 to $15, why are people willing to pay 30 to 50 times more for a decades-old tin?

Certainly, rarity plays a part. Things in limited supply tend to sell for more. Curiosity also wields power. If you have heard thought leaders like Tad Gage or Greg Pease rave about a blend you’ve never experienced, it is understandable that you would want to have that experience, yourself, if only to create a more educated palate. Romance and nostalgia also come into play. Many of us remember smoking storied blends like Balkan Sobranie and Gentleman’s Mixture way back in the day.

We wonder: “Is that tobacco as good as I remember?” or “I loved it then, but I wonder if my palate has changed?” We’d love to smoke an old favorite blend again.

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How to Rehydrate Tobacco Successfully

Updated on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 6:52AM by Neill Archer Roan

A recent run of bad luck with valuable vintage tobacco has nearly put me off buying it. But, thankfully, in both cases I will discuss here, I was able to rehydrate the tobacco for jar storage. In both cases, the tobacco is extraordinarily delicious, and I am looking forward to a series of very special bowls.

Imagine paying $300 to $400 for a tin of very special tobacco and discovering, upon opening the tin, that the tobacco had completely dried out or, worse, had become rife with mold. At the time - having had this happen twice within the span of a couple of weeks – these events feel catastrophic. However, unless mold has attacked the tobacco, chances are that most, if not all, of the tobacco can be saved through rehydration.

As much as we might wish it were otherwise, chance favors an old tin’s compromise, especially with larger tins. And square tins are also especially vulnerable to compromise. These tins were not manufactured with long-term storage in mind. When this tobacco was sold, most people opened the tins to smoke the contents. The notion of cellaring tobacco was alien to the times. While one occasionally lucks out, buying these old tins is risky.

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Sharing

Like many pipe smokers, I enjoy vintage tobaccos, especially those storied blends like Balkan Sobranie, John Cotton, G.L.Pease Stonehenge, Renaissance or Raven’s Wing, and Sullivan’s Gentleman’s Mixture. Thanks to Fred Hanna, I’ve added Marcovitch Black and White to this list, though I admit I’d never heard of the blend before Fred told me about it and let me experience some of his tin.

Of course, there are many blends that I could write about here. A discussion of Dunhill’s wonderful vintage blends could go on for pages. I am convinced that age ramps up the character of tobacco while it smooths it and endows it with more nuances. Tobacco is not unlike a person of strength, character, and intelligence in that age can transform the effects of these traits. There is truly something magical about how good tobacco becomes great with aging.

My vintage tobacco collection is quite modest, really. Unlike some people who acquired cases of these tobaccos and then cellared them, I bought only what I thought I might smoke. I have only started to cellar tobacco with some intent over the last five years or so.

As a result, I rarely open vintage tins. In fact, I only open them at shows or at gatherings where I can share them with my friends. I believe that sharing enhances the experience of a fine tobacco. I feel so much joy watching my friends revel in the experience. Sharing endows these moments with grist for comparison, conversation, and reflection.

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