VNK - Vereniging Nederlandse Kerftabakindustrie

Last updated: 4 mei 2011

Fine-cut tobacco as you know it

Fine-cut tobacco usually reaches the consumer in the Netherlands through the wholesale trade and the retail trade. Sales to foreign customers usually go through importers in the countries in question.

Chewing, pipe and hand-rolled cigarette tobacco

This story has followed the tobacco from the minute seed to the final product. To close let's add some information about the three different types of final product. Each type of tobacco, whether it is pipe, chewing or hand-rolled cigarette tobacco has its own user. Obviously some combinations occur. Many a hand-rolled cigarette smoker will also appreciate a pipe. And somebody who chews tobacco will frequently be a pipe smoker as well.

Chewing tobacco

Chewing tobacco comes from fire and air-cured tobacco and is obtainable in a rough and medium cut. Most tobacco is chewed in rural areas. Interest in chewing tobacco is declining.

Pipe tobacco from Hollandse Baai to flavoured mixture

Pipe tobacco can be divided into the following types depending on its nature.

Hollandse baai
Halfbaai
Mixture
Flavoured Mixture

Hollandse Baai is the most traditional way of smoking a pipe. This pipe tobacco is mixed from blends of air-cured tobacco from South America and Indonesian origin. Hollandse Baai burns freely and is smoked in cut widths 'baai' of 1 mm and 'krul' about 2 mm. A pipe with a wide bowl is best for Hollandse Baai tobacco. The modern 'halfbaai' also has the characteristics of Hollandse Baai but burns somewhat slower through the addition of a little flue-cured tobacco. This tobacco is smoked in a somewhat smaller bowl. The mixture is of a completely different composition. It may contain flue-cured, fire-cured and air-cured tobacco. The mixture has a rich colouring of golden yellow Virginias, dark Burleys, Orient, South American and double fermented tobaccos. The mixture burns slowly and is best appreciated in a pipe with a small bowl. The flavoured mixture is a tobacco blend to which natural aromas have been added which lend this pipe tobacco its appreciated individual taste and aroma. Generally speaking the modern mixtures are made using the Cavendish process.

Fine-cut tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes

Fine-cut tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes is by far the most important and most familiar form of fine-cut tobacco. There are four types depending on the blend:

* 'zware shag' (heavy), mainly comprising fire-cured tobaccos, such as American Kentucky

* 'halfzware shag (medium)', a blend of flue-cured and fire-cured tobaccos

* mild or American, a type of tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes comprising different tobaccos, mainly flue-cured Virginia and Burleylue-cured Virginia en Burley

* 'lichte shag' (light), for hand-rolled cigarettes with mainly flue-cured tobacco

In the Netherlands 'halfzware', is the most popular type of tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes followed by 'zware' hand-rolled tobacco. In actual fact the 'halfzware' was discovered by Dutch smokers themselves. For a long time there were only two types of tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes, the heavy and the light, but more and more roll-you-own-smokers resorted to mixing the two types and thus the 'halfzware' or medium was born. Rolling your own was regarded for a long time as a typical idiosyncrasy of the Dutch which foreigners always looked at a little askance. Rolling your own has never been quite as popular in the UK as it has been in Holland. But thanks to its unique taste 'halfzware' and 'zware' have become familiar words throughout the world inextricably linked to Dutch roll your own tobacco.

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