Storing whole leaf vs shredded leaf

[Old Gasman]

Dear group, I have some Virginia, Burley and Oriental leaves that I intend to shred for cigarettes in a few months after I've finished my stash of shop bought tobacco.
My question is this, what are the advantages or disadvantages of shredding my leaf now and storing it in a Mason jar in low case as opposed to storing them as whole leaf. Certainly they would take up less space shredded than whole but would it continue to age as well as whole leaf?
What say you chaps.

 

[Alpine]

Tobacco ages if there are the right humidity and temperature conditions, shredded or not. Of course, there are subtle changes if you store whole leaves, shredded leaves, pressed leaves (in a rope, for example) or whatever. The point is: tobacco ages (like we do) unless you store it bone dry and under a vacuum (and even under such extreme conditions, I suspect that it will age anyway, but at a much reduced pace).
I store my leaves in the attic, strung on ropes, but only because I’m too lazy to do something different. When I’m out of space, I simply throw a couple handfuls of leaves in a cardboard box, and let the baccy do its thing.

pier

 

[furryfreek]

I'm not sure about well aged baccy but my homegrown seems to benefit more with age after shredding. The downside is that if you play it safe and keep it very low case, it can get dusty pretty quickly, even with quite infrequent handling. If, on the other hand, (part of) it's too damp and goes moldy, chances are it's all mixed up by the time you find it. If I were to shred a significant amount for long term storage, I'd definitely prefer to store it in several smaller containers rather than one big one (edit: and keep all but one at a time tucked away somewhere undisturbed) .

 

[deluxestogie]

Tobacco crumbles to dust with handling when it is out of case. That is, when it is bone dry. In low case (still somewhat flexible), it will not mold and will continue to age. I am unaware of any biochemical mechanism whereby aging would differ between intact leaf and shredded leaf.

Bob

 

[furryfreek]

Tobacco crumbles to dust with handling when it is out of case. That is, when it is bone dry. In low case (still somewhat flexible), it will not mold and will continue to age. I am unaware of any biochemical mechanism whereby aging would differ between intact leaf and shredded leaf.

Bob

Shredded baccy does crumble more easily, even at low case. It depends a lot on how fine the shred is, though; I cut very fine for RYO. I'm sure shredding leaf makes some difference to something, but less so with prior age. My best guess is that it allows some undesirable volatile compounds to dissipate more readily and exposes more surface area to oxygen which maybe does something.

 

[tullius]

My practice is: shred up a good amount of each tobacco used for blending and vacuum seal it in mason jars more towards medium case: that way I always have a ready supply in good case (to me) for smoking or mixing if the muse calls. Zero problems with any mold, and also has the advantage of being able to store the tobacco outside the humidor for very long periods of time. There's a reason commercial manufacturers vac seal tins.

Just popped the lid on this jar of WLT Red VA from 3 years ago: the tobacco was in perfect case, so I compared it to the smell of same whole leaf stored in the original pack folded over but not sealed in my humidor at ~70% RH. The shredded and vac sealed jar has a distinctively different aroma: much more raisin, some orange peel, and that signature McClelland vinegar tang, overall more interesting and complex to the nose. The unstripped whole leaf in the bag had some raisin, but more distinctive hay field and white pepper, and no vinegar.

I say shred away and jar, vac seal if you can: it should keep indefinitely in the appropriate case.

 

[Old Gasman]

Thank you all for your answers, much appreciated. It's certainly given me food for thought.
In the absence of the facility to vacuum seal the jar could you pop a Boveda bag in the jar?

 

[tullius]

I think a Boveda might be oversized for a mason jar, plus it would be hard to separate it from the shredded leaf. Dunno though, never tried that. If you can't vac seal, I would just let it go more towards low case, put the lid and ring on, and store it in a dark temperature stable place

 

[Old Gasman]

I think a Boveda might be oversized for a mason jar, plus it would be hard to separate it from the shredded leaf. Dunno though, never tried that. If you can't vac seal, I would just let it go more towards low case, put the lid and ring on, and store it in a dark temperature stable place

Sounds like a plan, thanks very much.

 

[SlamFire]

Dear group, I have some Virginia, Burley and Oriental leaves that I intend to shred for cigarettes in a few months after I've finished my stash of shop bought tobacco.
My question is this, what are the advantages or disadvantages of shredding my leaf now and storing it in a Mason jar in low case as opposed to storing them as whole leaf. Certainly they would take up less space shredded than whole but would it continue to age as well as whole leaf?
What say you chaps.

In my opinion, aging will continue at more or less an even pace regardless of the physical form of the tobacco. Shreds will dry out more quickly because they have a larger surface area.. If it were my tobacco, I would store it in whole leaf form, if only for the reason that spotting any mold would be much easier on whole leaves then in a jar of shreds...

 

[deluxestogie]

On the matter of increased surface area of shredded tobacco, the finer the shred, the more significant the increase. At my typical 1/8" pipe shred, the cut surfaces are insignificant. With an infinitely narrow shred, the increase in surface area approaches infinity.

Bob

 

[BristolBaccy]

I've been pondering the need for this myself now, with another delivery of leaf on the way. My thinking would be alongside @tullius ; shredding first in low case, blending then leaving to mature would be equivalent to marinading food or spice blends - bigger surface area for cross contact. Also, if the leaves are varied in case, shred & blend would even out the moisture level.

I haven't got any vacuum setup, but I have dozens of 700ml 'locknLock' air-tight food containers, each holding about a month of tobacco when packed in tight. These seem to be a decent 'dose' for storage, easy to check for signs of mould.

 

[BristolBaccy]

Well, my 8Kg order arrived today, about a week earlier than expected. This lot will probably take the whole of January with my manual shredder so, as discretion is the better part of valour, I'm going for a halfway house.

I'm going to de-stem it all (saves weight/check every leaf, etc), then weigh it up into 8x 1Kg total premixes (2:2:1 V:B:O) so I should get *some* flavour exchange. I've ordered a stack of vacuum bags from Amazon for a tenner, I hope they can do a decent job.

Whenever I get a free day, I'll shred a kilo bag for longer storage in the 700ML pots.

 

[Robncars]

Dear group, I have some Virginia, Burley and Oriental leaves that I intend to shred for cigarettes in a few months after I've finished my stash of shop bought tobacco.
My question is this, what are the advantages or disadvantages of shredding my leaf now and storing it in a Mason jar in low case as opposed to storing them as whole leaf. Certainly they would take up less space shredded than whole but would it continue to age as well as whole leaf?
What say you chaps.

I read somewhere that it ages better/ different with the stem intact. Something about the contents of the stem helping the lamina maintain some of the flavor.

 

[BristolBaccy]

It occurred to me today that heating the leaf ~ 80/100C (killing mould spores) then packing into air-tight containers of choice while 'hot' (on cooling, would create it's own vacuum, like jam) would be a good option for storage

 

[deluxestogie]

Temps above about 55°C (~130°) will alter the taste and character of the tobacco. If you like the result, then no problem. Dry heat at 100°C will kind of toast the leaf, while sufficient moisture at that temp will Cavendish-cook the leaf.

Bob