@hooked - That looks like an interesting product for bulk purchases.
Yeah … i didn’t know we could purchase oxygen absorbers for our own use. @hooked … how long, for example, would you keep one of the 100cc packets in a one pint mason jar with snuff … indefinitely? Or for 6 months then replace? Awesome … thanks for the information.
ok I am a snuff newb but not so with pipe tobacco. In storing pipe tobacco you want some atmosphere in the jar to allow proper fermentation/aging to occur. Is this not true of snuff as well? If so, it seems to me like we’d all be better off vacuum sealing our cellar stash and leaving the jars and tubs to pipe tobacco.
I will say that I recently bought a 6oz vacuum sealed bag of GL Pease Raven Wing. I was worried about that tobacco, especially at the premium I paid for it, because I have been indoctrinated to believe that nothing but a mason jar was trustworthy for long term storage. However I was very impressed with how fresh that tobacco was when I opened the bag and transferred it to mason jars. I suppose if one wasn’t interested in the benefits/detriments of aging vacuum sealing would do an alright job of keeping fresh tobacco in that state. At least that was my impression with my 10 yr old sample of that tobacco.
The brand packet that I have turns hard when done for, they start out feeling soft like a pack of salt. Other brands on the market, I believe, actually have a color strip that changes when over exposed. There is no doubt that glass jars are the way to go to store snuff, but you still would have to vacuum them every time you dip into them, which a vacuum sealer does an excellent job of that with the plastic storage bags they sell with them, but it isn’t as fast and cheap to use as these are. These oxygen absorbers do the trick for me, without drying out the snuff like a desiccant would.
These oxygen absorbers arent iron based dessicants?
To my knowledge, which is pretty limited, they are not considered desiccants. They only act on the available oxygen not moisture, but it does seem to me that the materials in the packages “rust” for lack of a better term. When I went looking to learn more on the subject,this is one of the first links I found.
http://www.captaindaves.com/foodfaq/ff17-oxy.htm
What about those plastic, lets say 4-8 ounce tubs where the lid with a valve slides down into the jar to push out most exess air? You see people use them for pipe tobacco.
Here. http://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Absorbers-Package-Capacity-Absorption/dp/B0028AG8RO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330835500&sr=8-1 Pretty cheap.
They have various sizes for food storage etc. The CCs is what volume of O2 it absorbs… so I am not sure how to figure that. Atmospheric is what? 16%?
I didn’t know the definition of dessicant, I just always assumed those packets were iron for oxygen absorption. As it turns out, thats exactly whats in oxygen absorbers.
https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information\_center/food\_storage\_faq/oxygen\_absorbers.htm
This was the best read I could find on how many to use at a time.
thanks, @hooked … that was a helpful link.
Update on the oxygen absorbers, I really didn’t even try to use these on snuff until a week before I posted on it. Basically afraid to use them without some feedback from any of you guys and gals. Any who, I also didn’t realize just how far gone the ones that I had were. I got a fresh batch in on Friday, and was tickled to start hearing the lids pop as they sealed the mason jars. This batch of absorbers will stay sealed up tight while waiting for their opportunity to keep my snuff fresh. If your metal lids don’t pull in check the lid, it may need replacing, or it’s time for a new absorber. They cost me 9.2 cents a piece, so that’s some really cheap peace of mind. Ting!