Cigars, Amsterdam

The House of Hajenius is a superb cigar shop located at the Rokin since 1915.
Dutch VIP's have their own box of favorite cigars stored in the shop's climate chamber.

It all started when Pantaleon Gerhard Coenraad Hajenius opened his cigar shop in 1826 and his only goal was to offer the best cigar possible. Soon he moved to a new shop at the Dam square, but even that shop grew too small, so in 1915 the Rokin became the home for Hajenius Cigars.

Just visit the store with it's art-deco interior and Italian marble; it's amazing.

Business hours:
Mo: Noon - 6PM
Tu-Sa: 9:30AM 6PM
Su: Noon - 5PM

What to buy: Cigars.

What to pay: High prices (for #1 quality!)

Having visited Hartman's and bought out their stock of Gauloises I then hang a left and head for here. This is another little gem of a shop and having been a tobacconists for over 100 years (founded 1902) the aromatics are ingrained into its very fabric. Service is always cheery and welcoming and more often than not I get a freebie lighter or two.

What to buy: Gauloises Tabac a Rouler

What to pay: Now 5.50 Euros for 48.5g - going up in price!

Ever since the French government decided to up the tax on tobacco products I have given up on going to Calais for my, roughly quarterly, visits to pick up my tobacco, opting instead for Amsterdam - well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

If I'm only there for a 24 hour trip then I usually have to scour several shops to pick up my 3 Kg (ish) quota but Hartman's usually manages to provide the bulk, keeping a reasonable stock of most common tobacco's ( and some less common ones ).

This little dark wood-panelled haven is everything that a tobacconist should be, the aroma of the cigars and loose tobacco permeating its very fabric. The glass-fronted shelves and wooden drawers contain everything possible us nicotine addicts could ever desire, add to this a cheerful guy serving it's always a pleasure to part with my couple of hundred Euros in the 2 minutes it takes the transaction, smiles all round!

What to buy: Gauloises Tabac a Rouler

What to pay: At 5 Euros for 50g - do I care about the French economy?

This store has been Amsterdam's leading purveyor of cigars and smoking articles since 1826, first with a store on the Dam and then since 1915 in its present elegant headquarters. Cigars are the house specialty and the stock includes a room full of Havanas. Hajenius sells the long, uniquely Dutch, handmade clay pipes you see in old paintings and that are a good gift idea, and ceramic pipes, some painted in the blue-and-white Chinese-inspired patterns of Delftware. You also find lighters, cigarette holders, clippers, and flasks. Open Monday through Wednesday and Friday and Saturday from 9:30am to 6pm, Thursday from 9:30am to 9pm, Sunday from noon to 5pm.

What to buy: Since 1915, the Hajenius House has been one of the best-known cigar houses in Europe and boasts a stately location on the Rokin. Hajenius sells cigars, but also offers a stylish acclimatised room, a special cigar try-out tool and private lockers where specialists can store their expensive cigars under perfect controlled conditions. The shop has the scent of tradition, of gentlemen and good taste. Those who enter the art deco interior will breathe in the deep smell of tobacco with great pleasure.

What to pay: You can spend as little or as much as you want in this store, but the selection is what you go for.

Wow, this store sure is a time capsule into the past! I felt quite out of place for I for sure am not a distinguished cigar smoking male!

The interior of this cigar shop is museum approved....just wonderful.
In the back of this shop is a little cigar museum at the right, it is just a little stairs up.

The air is kept humid in this shop in order to keep the cigars at their best.

At the left back is a huge cabinet-like block. On it in copper name plates with names of well known cigar smoking Dutch....not all men :-)

The front part of Hajenius is the shop. Walk through and you find yourself in a live museum with a climated smoking room, a library, a smoking chamber, a cigar sampling cabinet where you can see 200 cigars on display.
For Dutch people I think the main attraction is the locker cabinet where the personal stock of many famed customers is kept. From royalty to business people, from politicians to artists and lawyers. It's a mystical fame gallery because you wonder: which cigars do they smoke?

Even if you don't smoke, you should drop by Hajenius and admire the Art-deco interior from 1915. The Hajenius website says that on entry you are transported to earlier times and this is indeed so, with the original oak panelling, the leather chairs and smell of tobacco. Not tobacco smoke, mind you, but the tobacco itself.

What to buy: I had a look at the collection of pipes. There were jars of pipe tobacco and I lifted off the lid of a few to have a sniff. Delicious.
The Hajenius brand, founded in 1826, is one of the finest Dutch cigars although personally I prefer Olifant.

What to pay: Tobacco products have a fixed price. But at Hajenius the range is large as the finest cigars are sold here.

This is an old sigar and other tobacco shop. Apart from selling all sorts of sigars, pipes and tobacco it has a small sigar museum.

What to buy: Sigars