{"id":112,"date":"2016-05-09T02:53:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T02:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thepipetool.com\/blog\/?p=112"},"modified":"2016-05-09T04:10:39","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T04:10:39","slug":"building-your-tobacco-cellar-before-the-tobaccopocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepipetool.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/building-your-tobacco-cellar-before-the-tobaccopocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Your Tobacco Cellar before the Tobaccopocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the recent FDA ruling<\/a> on tobacco (if you hadn’t known its been impending for a couple years<\/em>) many people are considering \u00a0how to stock up on tobacco before the tobacopocalypse<\/span><\/em> occurs.<\/p>\n

It’s been said that for as long as I can remember “now\u00a0is the time to buy to deepen your cellar because pipe tobacco prices will never be as cheap.” \u00a0That is almost always the case though, the exception now is that soon any blends that came out after 2007 are in danger of disappearing completely with the over-bearing-nanny-state regulations by non-elected officials at the FDA.<\/p>\n

For some good background I’ve sourced a great post by blind samples on reddit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FDA has said that they expect pipe tobacco manufacturers to use what is called the Substantial Equivalence pathway to gain marketing approval for products introduced after February 15, 2007. The industry has complained that the FDA massively underestimated both how many of these applications must be made and how much it costs to make them. FDA estimated that between cigars, pipes, waterpipes, and e-cigarette liquid there would be 7,869 SE applications, out of an estimated 13,745 products. The cigar industry estimates that it has up to 20,000 SKUs all by itself. You can see the disconnect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further down:<\/p>\n

FDA has offered the pipe tobacco industry a closed, locked, and barred door and said that they should somehow walk through it. Substantial Equivalence is not a realistic way to get a post-2007 product approved. It will be burdensome enough to file and maintain SE applications for minor changes to pre-2007 products, as is clearly seen in the FDA\u2019s documentation of those. There is no current path for post-2007 pipe tobacco products to market, unless FDA changes the way that they handle these applications.<\/p>\n

In 3 years, FDA has successfully managed 8 SE applications involving tobacco or nicotine for post-2007 brands, 3 of which were only packaging changes. Now they want to take on 8,000 of them, most from small companies who have never dealt with FDA before. This is simply not realistic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With this crazy regulation should you be worried? Yes. \u00a0Basically they are trying to regulate the industry’s out of business, and will essentially cause only a few larger companies with deeper pockets to absorb the rest of the pipe tobacco market. \u00a0All of the small boutique companies, will be out of business, and we may see local retailers close as well with rising costs.<\/p>\n

Where to start?<\/h3>\n

Consider if you were no longer able to get your favorite blend tomorrow. Do you have any of it?<\/p>\n

Do the math. \u00a0On average a pipe bowl is 3 grams<\/strong> of tobacco. \u00a0That’s about 10 bowls<\/strong> of tobacco per ounce. \u00a0How many bowls of pipe tobacco do you smoke a day? A Week?<\/p>\n

If you smoked a bowl a day 7 days a week that’s around 2.4<\/strong> pounds a year.<\/p>\n

If you plan on smoking for 30 more years you need 72 lbs of tobacco<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

HOLY CRAP!?! How am I ever going to buy that much?<\/h3>\n

Now after you’ve calmed down from the freak out, consider that you start the same place you would anywhere, set a budget, and look for opportunities to expand. \u00a0Keep an eye out for good opportunities from your favorite retailers that offer discounts and coupons throughout the year.<\/p>\n

If you have an option to buy in bulk take it. \u00a0The quality is the same, and storing it in mason jars will allow you to cellar forever. \u00a0Check out this article<\/a> about storing tobacco in mason jars as far as how much you can get in what size jar. It’s about as technical as you can get to make sure you are starting off on the right foot for deepening that cellar.<\/p>\n

The Big List<\/h3>\n

I’ve got my own favorites list of online retailers that I patronize and I’d thought I’d share so you can price, compare and set a game plan. \u00a0Disclaimer: Sure, there are other sites out there and I may not have listed yours, sorry about that. \u00a0I’m listing US retailers because currently that’s the cheapest place to get tobacco in the world… except straight from the field that I know of.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
www.smokingpipes.com<\/a><\/td>\nHands down, one of the best shipping and customer service teams (US based). Frequent discounts.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.pipesandcigars.com<\/a><\/td>\nBig volume, frequent deals, owned by Cigars International<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.tobaccopipes.com<\/a><\/td>\nGreat service, also lots of good video interviews and knowledge.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.cupojoes.com<\/a><\/td>\nBeen around over 20 years, does international.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.4noggins.com<\/a><\/td>\nSimilarly frequent discounts on specific tobaccos. Really.. really good on shipping internationally.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.pipeandleaf.com<\/a><\/td>\nCarries select blends, occasional deals.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.thepipeguys.com<\/a><\/td>\nDistributers of Semois tobacco in the US, known for their bacpacks.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.vtpipes.com<\/a><\/td>\nKnown really as Pipeworks & Wilke, custom blends, boutique<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.pipetobacco.com<\/a><\/td>\nTexas vendor, good selection<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In Summary and final nuggets of goodness:<\/h3>\n