Amsterdam::Day 2 – De Olifant & Cigars (April 13th 2011)

Well the day has come, we all struggled to get up. The plan was to try and get to car rental for 9am. We finally started looking for the car rental at mid day, we almost gave up looking for the SIXT office. We finally found the place and we where off! Thankfully the Golf had sat nav, so we made it too Kampen within an hour and half.  Then we just kind of came across the factory, while looking for somewhere to park.

De Olifant

Wow what a place, round the front of the factory there is a shop & coffee shop. I wasn’t aware that tea & coffee now play an important role to the business. All of the coffee is hand roasted and blended in store, you can even see them in the back. Me not being a coffee drinker, i had some of there tea. I do have something to say about the Dutch “Black” tea, but thats for later Even so, it was a very light and refreshing Ceylon. The Teas and Coffee’s are sold as De Eenhoorn, very good, natural drinks.

Now back to the main reason for all this. The cigar store stocks all of the De Olifant range, 3-4 sizes of Flor De Selva and some Habanos/Dominicans. The De Olifant range was extensive (obviously). 2-3 sizes we dont get, the new Mini Cigarillo in a sleek white tin and many Brazilian lines. Among these sat some numbered, limited lines. I grabbed my self a box of Brazilian Corona Panatella (€2.75) and some Vintage DS Valentynes (€28.50, made with 7 year old tobacco) and a Flor De Selva – Robusto (€7). After that little transaction the tour began.

First we saw the blending and roasting room, raw beans come in and are blended. The roasting is done by hand on a small scale, the beans are then sold fresh throughout the day. The teas are blended in another room, filled with labelled draws full of teas(un blended). Then we began on the tobacco factory. The factory has been located here for hundred of years and you can smell it! Tobacco, cedar and more tobacco, it’s intoxicating. The process was shown, from cured leaf coming in to quality control. The leafs come in, packed in bales. The filler leaves (Cuban & Java) are left to settle before being graded and loaded into the shredder. By this point the tour took us to bins full of shredded leaf. The blends are made and taken to the size specific machines.

The rolling machines are memorising to watch, not 100% autmated though. The older machines need 2 people, one to position the wrapper leaf for cutting the other to remove the cigars. I didnt count but the machines must make 20 a minute, defects are removed at this point. The cigars are then taken to age and settle for at least 2 weeks before being ready for packing. The aging room was a form of heaven. Stacked from floor to ceiling with cedar boxes full of cigars.  As with many premium cigars the packing of cigars takes a skillfull eye. Colour matched they are hand packed into the boxes.

After we saw the machine made factory, we where taken to meet Tinus Vinke. He has been working at De Olifant for over 70 years and being at the spritely age of 84, his hands can create some wonders. The process of hand making Dutch cigars, differs from Cuban/New World one. The use of  Short Filler(shredded tobacco) over Full Filler (whole leaves) means the tobacco is rolled more like a roll-up cigarette. Rolled up cigar is them placed in a mould and put under pressure for 2 hours. The wrapper is de stemmed and cut, 2 per leaf (one left, one right). Again unlike (the only!) other way i have seen cigar made, the cap is cut as part of the leaf.

WATCH THE VIDEO

The moist Sumatran wrapper is stretched and a virtually tasteless (yes i tried it) natural glue is used to seal the tip. After we saw him roll a few cigars and explain the process (with the help of very good guide), he then pulled out all of the stops. After i gave him a sample pack of my/gauntleys blends, he asked if i wanted to see the pipes he makes!

Thinking he ment “Not only do i make cigars, i also turn pipes” but no. I will upload the video later, all 10 minutes of it. At first i didnt see what was going off. He began rolling a BIG cigar a good 70 gauge plus. He then chose the largest leaf he could find and made a long thinner 40(ish) gauge cigar. He then cut the larger cigar so half the filler had gone and the wrapper cut in three.  With 2 other leafs covered in glue used to cover the entire thing. By this point the cigar looked very much like a pipe. I videoed the entire process, it was something else.

If you are over here and want to do something different, head over to De Olifant and have a tour. If you do PLEASE make sure you book in advance, we and others (online) paid a 10 euro fee each. Well worth every penny, no i mean cent.

After we left the factory, i found another tobacconist. I ended up spending a load more again on tobacco, cigars, cigarettes.

• Troost – Special Cavendish €6.90 for 50g
• Neptune – MellowMixture €7.15 for 50g
• Vasco da Gama No2 – Caribbean (Yellow) €4.50 for 5
• De Vier Oogsten – Sumatran Cigaillo €20 for 25
• Adipati – Slim Panatella €6.00 for 10
• Vrijburgh – Cigarillos €5.75 for 10
• Handlesgold Cigarillos (Cherry, Vanilla & Peach Flavour) €1 for 5
• Neos Mini – Reserva (Orange) €0.90 for 5
• Neos Mini – Java (Blue) €0.90 for 5
• Surfside – Pina Colada (Cigrettes) €4.60 for 19

Had a great selection of cigars, some budget Dutch cigars 100 in a box for €20 sort of thing. Looked in a good nick too! So many Dutch cigars in small packs to 500/100 varnished boxes. If you come out of the De Olifant turn right and its a 2-3 min up the road. Has a lucky strike sign above the door.

Reviews and images to follow.