In 1782, Johannes Van Nelle and his wife Hendrik opened a coffee, tea and tobacco shop in Rotterdam. After their death, the work was continued by their son Johannes Van Nelle Jr., he also added a small factory to the store, and after his death, from 1845 Van Nelle completely passed into the hands of the Van der Leeuw family. That was the origin of Van Nelle cigarettes.
Van der Leeuw established his own plantations in the Dutch colonies and built workshops for roasting coffee, processing tobacco and tea. At the turn of the century, coffee and tea became more and more important. The company was rapidly gaining momentum. The period of the Second World War was difficult for Van Nelle, but from the fifties there was a rapid development. The introduction of the first freshly ground coffee called Supra in 1962 contributed greatly to this. It preceded the success of Van Nelle cigarettes.
In 1998, the company was taken over entirely by Imperial Tobacco, after which the branches in Drachten and other cities were closed. In 2016, the owner changed the name of the company to Imperial Brands. Van Nelle is sometimes confused with Van Melle, a manufacturer of sweets (known especially for its Fruittella brand). The building of the former factory in Rotterdam, where production was stopped in 1996, on June 21, 2014, this building of the Van Nelle factory was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
What are Van Nelle cigarettes? Today, we discuss the phenomenon of Van Nelle cigarettes. The tobacco of Van Nelle cigarettes is Halfzware, the version for Duty Free is called Stevige Shag. The Van Nelle cigarettes smell is fragrant, sweet, slightly smoked, smoky with notes of prunes. Very nice. Halfzware, the tobacco of Van Nelle cigarettes, is a mixture of dark and light tobacco varieties. It is the leader of sales due to the specific aroma and shade of taste. The word Halfzware, which means “light heavy” in Dutch, is a combination of Light and Zware tobaccos. The Halfzware is loved by millions of smokers.