# Long Term Storage of tobacco products



## unregistered29228

I was wondering - we don't smoke, but if we wanted to keep cigarettes/tobacco as bartering items, how long would they last? I'm thinking they'd last a couple of years if they were vac sealed, but maybe cigarettes go stale quickly?

I know that chewing tobacco would be a popular item to trade in my neighborhood. How well does that store?


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## Bob_W_in_NM

Well, here's the word from an old cigarette machine operator. (Boy, is that an
extinct business model!)

Cigarettes, still in the package, will normally go for about 6 months under "normal" conditions of storage before they dry out. (Six months is the standard that the tobacco representatives use when pulling "stales" out of a supermarket for instance.)

They should go longer refrigerated or frozen. In fact, the manufacturers sometimes "blast freeze" cigarettes right at the factory for longer term storage (usually brands that aren't the top sellers).

Unless it gets too damp and molds or something, what happens to tobacco is that it just dries out. I've never tried this with cigarettes, but I actually "re-invigorated" some pipe tobacco that was several years old. It seemed to 
be ok - smokable for sure.

I don't know what vacuum storage would do to prolong the "life". I'm sure it would have a positive effect.

But while tobacco might be good trading material until people figured out how to "grow their own", unless you can buy them someplace with very low taxes you're talking about investing a LOT of money. What might be a good item and would cost less, take up less space and have an unlimited shelf life would be cigarette rolling papers.

Bob


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## unregistered29228

Thanks for the info, Bob, that's very helpful. Hubby received some cigars and a small humidor as a gift once, and with a small wet sponge to keep it moist in there they lasted over a year. I suppose you're right about the expense - I was just thinking of people having withdrawals from their ciggies, and being willing to trade for other things. Cigarette papers would be useful, but I'm afraid it would only appeal to people who smoke weed.


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## stranger

Back when i did smoke many years ago, i smoked ciggs in the 50s that was packed in the early 40s. for WW2. we opened those old C-rations and enjoyed them all.


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## Bob_W_in_NM

Mom_of_Four said:


> Thanks for the info, Bob, that's very helpful. Hubby received some cigars and a small humidor as a gift once, and with a small wet sponge to keep it moist in there they lasted over a year. I suppose you're right about the expense - I was just thinking of people having withdrawals from their ciggies, and being willing to trade for other things. Cigarette papers would be useful, but I'm afraid it would only appeal to people who smoke weed.


Well, what do you suppose people did before they came out with "ready rolls"
(factory cigarettes) as dad used to call them? Dad lived through the Great Depression as an adult and his normal smoking materials consisted of a tin of 
Prince Albert and a package of papers. It was a "treat" to get a factory cigarette. And, as far as the weed smokers, they'll still need their papers too!

Dad used to tell this great story. He was driving through rural Oklahoma in the early thirties and found himself out of tobacco. In those days, Prince Albert sold for 15 cents a can or two cans for a quarter generally. He pulled
over at a general store and there were but two cans of P.A. on the shelf.
He was going to take advantage of the two for a quarter pricing, but the old 
man running the store would only sell him one can. He told dad "Somebody else may come along out of tobacco before I get more."

Bob


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## horselover.com

As a smoker, I gotta add that I would most likely be willing to trade for cigs regardless of their age, and feel pretty confident that most unprepped smokers would be also...JMO


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## SCRich

I am quitting but the thought crossed my mind. I am just south of you "Mom" and yes taxes are I think as low as you can get around here. My wife purchases the legal limit for her family in NJ where a pack I have been told goes for over $6!!! The Indian reservations are no longer the deal they once were.

I have gone from 2 packs a day to 1 every 3 or so days, sometimes 4 so if I had to I can go without. Back in my early years when I went to college I would take several cartons to school coming from home and held them in the freezer. Freezing does help, does not hurt, have had them frozen for several months but a vacum pack before freezing for an extended period would probably help. 

I vacum pack a lot of things including many "objects" in my safe that I call my "Safe Queens".

Rich


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## Guest

Tobbaco is much like food. It's sensitive over time to oxygen, heat, moisture, and light. The moisture part is a problem because if it's too dry it doesn't burn properly (it's supposed to smolder so as to makes lots of smoke). Vac-sealing will help a lot as well as storing it in the coolest possible location. If it gets too dry it's not that hard to remoisturize once the package is opened.

Bob_W_in_NM makes some excellent points though. The taxes are mighty steep and it's not a product you yourself are going to use if you never have any opportunity or need to barter with it. No matter how you store the stuff it won't keep forever so it'll be a dead loss if you can't trade or sell it before it goes over.

.....Alan.


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## Grace&Violets

Bob_W_in_NM said:


> Well, what do you suppose people did before they came out with "ready rolls"
> (factory cigarettes) as dad used to call them? Dad lived through the Great Depression as an adult and his normal smoking materials consisted of a tin of
> Prince Albert and a package of papers. It was a "treat" to get a factory cigarette. And, as far as the weed smokers, they'll still need their papers too!
> 
> 
> Bob


You don't _need_ papers, as long as you have a pipe or hooka (water pipe, bong, whatever).


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## Freeholder

What might be a better prep item (in addition to the cigarette papers -- I remember my great-grandfather rolling his own cigarettes), would be to grow a small patch of tobacco every year and save seed from it. Tobacco does have some medicinal uses, and is a good pesticide, also has been used as a wormer for livestock, so even for us non-smokers it would be a good crop on a very small scale.

So, who can tell me what the growing season is for tobacco? I don't know if it will grow here at our elevation. I know it does grow pretty far north -- was surprised to learn that the early settlers in New Hampshire grew their own. But our growing season is only 90-110 days at best.

Kathleen


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## unregistered29228

My mother smoked all my childhood, and she always kept her cigarettes in the freezer. And Dad smoked a pipe at one point, and kept his loose tobacco in a metal tin. I'm guessing that people will go back to hand rolling or a pipe if commercial cigarettes aren't available. 

I noticed that cigarettes are much cheaper here in NC ($4 pack?) than they were in Connecticut ($6+), but Alan is right that I don't think I will want to stock up on anything we don't use just in the hopes I could barter with it.


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## WolfWalksSoftly

I run a smoke shop, and the current expiration time for Cigs is one year from manufacture.
I think it would be a good idea to stock up and put in the freezer. (I smoke too)


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## TexasArtist

the traditional 'tobacco' isn't the only thing that can be smoked as a cig. You can use the leaves of the mullien plant


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## auctioneer

Lack of moisture destroys tobacco and paper.

Tobacco beetles/eggs are a fact of life. Freezing won't neccesarily kill the eggs. They will eventually turn your stash into bug poo at room temperature. Even worse, if you keep your tobacco near your food.........well tobacco beetles aren't stupid. They *prefer* some other foods like chocolate and will migrate to it leaving the tobacco behind for tastier pastures.


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## auctioneer

A.T. Hagan said:


> Tobbaco is much like food.
> .....Alan.


Overall most factual post!

Tobacco seed is *very* expensive and *almost* microscopic if you've never seen it.


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## Pelenaka

Few years back went to a local Village fair were there was a civil war camp that met every weekend - the ladies had a small garden with tabacco growing. Zone 4/5 just outside of Buffalo, New York. 
Something to think about even if just to keep my chain smoking, materialistic, Hummer driving relatives quiet while fry them up some g.p. 

~~ pelenaka ~~


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