The sad decline of pipe tobacco merchandising.

I love old tin art. I’ve concluded lately that the older a tin is, the more likely I am to like its art. Maybe it’s some nostalgic yearning for better times, or maybe it’s that I appreciate that pipe tobacco manufacturers and blenders of old took obvious pride in how their blends were packaged and presented. It shows up in those grand old tins and logos.

Why is it, as time passes, that tin art worsens and worsens? Take for example the minimalistically elegant tin designs of Marcovitch? To me, the cutter top was a better tin design than its later coin-twist version. Still, we wouldn’t see this kind of brand consistency across decades now, let alone the maintenance of production values.

The imaginative and winning Baby’s Bottom tin.For those who would reflexively tell me how expensive packaging is and how it is a waste, I would love to have that debate. The cost of packaging in the good old days was cosiderably higher proportionately than it is now. Nope. I don’t agree.

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Keep your favorite tobaccos optimally fresh

In working on my book, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time focused on tobacco blends of late. While I can determine whether or not I like a particular blend by smoking it, I’ve discovered that I can learn a lot more about a blend’s character and finish by comparing it and contrasting it to other blends within the same genre, e.g. Orientals, Virginia-Periques, etc. It is a lot of fun and quite interesting to smoke two or three tobaccos simultaneously. Among other benefits, I’ve started improving my taste-memory by this process.

There is a downside, however. Opening all these tins has presented me with challenges in preserving the condition of the tobacco since it is virtually impossible for me to smoke through these tins before they begin to dry out. At this point I think I have opened some 30 or so tins of tobacco some of which are quite rare and expensive, not to mention very tasty.

Coin twist-type tobacco tinWhen I’ve opened some of these rare old birds - some have as much as 50 years aging in the tin - I have been astounded at the perfect condition of many of the tins’ contents. Conversely, I have also cracked a tin to find nothing but moldy tobacco dust inside. These anxiety-filled moments have instilled no little determination in me to steward the condition of these great old tobaccos when I find them.

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