Blog by Steve Laug

Some of you will remember reading of my classic antique mall find in October of 2013 of a tin of Balkan Sobranie Virginian No. 10. I have written previously about the excitement of finding it and discovering that it was not empty. https://rebornpipes.com/2013/10/22/the-pipe-hunt-rule-3-check-out-every-tobacco-tin/ I brought the broken flake tobacco home with me and jarred it in a Mason jar. I ran the jar through my dishwasher and while it was still hot jarred the tobacco. I pressed the lid in place. Over the months since finding it I have smoked quite a bit of it. When I first put it in the jar I pressed in tight. By the time I wrote about this disappointing discovery the tobacco was loose in the jar.

I have had the jar sitting on my desk in my study since I found it and regularly opened the jar to imbibe of the aged leaf. It was a great smoke and one that I was rationing out to conserve it for as long as possible. I had not had a bowl of it for about a month or more so with my time off of work over Christmas I decided I wanted a bowl of the Balkan Sobranie. I was working on rebornpipes blog, doing some maintenance work and figured a pipe of this would be just the ticket. I reached for the jar and opened it so that I could stuff some in my bowl. The first thing that hit me was a musty, mouldy smell. I don’t know about you but when I am writing something I often don’t pay much attention to the tobacco that I reach and stuff into my pipe. This time though the smell caught my attention. It was off and I immediately stopped what I was doing and brought the jar over under the light. Sure enough there was light green fuzz all over the top of the tobacco. I could not believe what I saw. The mould had taken over the tobacco. All of the smells of aged Virginia and cigar leaf were gone and in their place was the smell of moulding vegetables. It smelled awful. In all the years I have been smoking a pipe I have never had a jar go mouldy on me. But there is a first time for most things and it here it was. I was incredibly disappointed. I took the photo below with a zoom lens to capture the effect of the mould on the tobacco. I set up a magnifier and took the photo below through the lens to give you a better look at the mould. I put the lid on the jar and shook the tobacco to see if the mould went all the way through the lot. It did. Even the tobacco in the very centre of the jar had mould. The entire jar was covered in mould with it growing on the sides of the glass and on the lid as well. I took the jar out to the compost bin and dumped the aged tobacco into the compost. To say that I was a bit disappointed that I had lost this tin of aged tobacco is an understatement. It was one that I enjoyed and was looking forward to smoking again. I scrubbed out the jar with boiling water and a scrub brush. Then I ran it through the dishwasher again – twice for good measure. I threw away the lid and ring and used a new ring. I am still dubious as to whether the next tobacco I put in the jar will do the same thing. I guess time will tell. I wracked my brain to see if I could recall anything I had done differently in preparing either the jar or the tobacco to pack in it. I did not rehydrate the tobacco so I added no moisture to the mix. The jar was airtight the first time I opened it because the seal popped with a whoosh. I suppose it is possible that there was mould in the air in my study but I have never had a problem with that in the past. So the mystery remains.