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“Natural” cigarettes containing tobacco with no chemical additives are becoming quite trendy in Europe. And where allowed they even may contain hemp, as a small Swiss company irrefutably proved.

By Thomas Schmid

At last year’s InterTabac show in Dortmund, Germany, some tobacco companies might have foamed at the mouth with envy over the throngs of visitors constantly beleaguering the quite unassuming booth of a small Swiss cigarette manufacturer, Koch & Gsell. The firm’s Heimat (Homeland) range of cigarettes created a veritable sensation. Not only because it exclusively uses additive-free Switzerland-grown tobaccos but also because the company managed to – legally! – launch the world’s first commercially-manufactured hemp cigarette brand in 2019.

A schoolboy’s dream

Our story first ventures back to the year 1987, when a young schoolboy, Roger Koch, together with his cousin developed entrepreneurial spirit and started blending oak and chestnut leaves with fir needles to create his own “cigarette brand”. In order to earn some extra pocket money, the two boys subsequently offered their product at the local flea market. “With little success, as the smokes tasted absolutely horrendous,” recalled Roger Koch. But the exercise also nursed the determination in young Roger to “someday work with real tobacco”.

It would take quite a few years before he – now an adult – picked up on it again. In 2009, he began growing burley, virginia, and oriental plants in his garden. Yet all self-styled “experts” consulted by Koch advised him to drop the idea. Swiss-grown tobaccos, so they said, were only suited as cheap fillers, nothing more. But Koch stubbornly clung on to his dream, eventually even obtaining an official permit that would allow him to continue with his experiments.

ALSO: Switzerland’s SOTA system

Not an April fools’ joke

Tobacco has been cultivated in Switzerland for at least 450 years, although only burley and virginia grow reasonably well in the country’s Alpine climate. “I knew that would prevent me from creating a typical American blend, but I resolved just to make do with what I had,” Koch said. He soon also realized how incredibly over-regulated the Swiss tobacco market was – and how expensive professional cigarette machinery turned out to be. It took Koch, who in the meantime had formed a company, a further seven years before he could finally launch his first two marketable brands, Heimat Blonde and Heimat Dark, on April 1, 2016.

Despite that curious roll-out date, it certainly wasn’t an April fools’ joke as skyrocketing sales would soon prove. In its first year, Heimat sales jumped incredibly. They again doubled the following year. And between 2018 and 2019 sales turnover rose 30%, while for the current year Roger Koch projects yet another increase of 50%. Koch’s hunch that Swiss smokers were eager and ready to try out a product wholesomely made from additive-free local tobacco panned out beautifully.

Heavy financial requirements

Yet what took Roger Koch quite by surprise were “the enormous financial expenditures to start a tobacco business in Switzerland.” He found out that it was a far cry from collecting fir needles and oak leaves in an Alpine forest. “Apart from the extraordinarily costly machinery we also needed to obtain a production license and had to secure a guarantor for the compulsory tobacco tax security deposit,” he said.

Luckily, the company ultimately was successful in sourcing a local insurance company willing to put up that large security. That wasn’t the end of the gauntlet, of course. In addition, we had to invest to make our factory conform with food laws, workplace safety, and what not.” Although Koch initially had half a million Swiss francs at his disposal, “in the end that turned out to be barely sufficient.”

Fewer farmers, dropping yields

With Heimat exclusively using Swiss tobacco, is there enough to go around? Indeed, the country currently only has some 160 tobacco farmers left, and their numbers are thinning out year after year. Total annual production hovers around only 1,000 tons. “It surely is more than enough for our production,” said Koch, “unless we start exporting vigorously.” Heimat uses only lamina and no stems whatsoever,” asserted Koch. But he believes that the brand’s biggest challenge is “to completely avoid any and all additives in the blend such as glycerin and flavorings”. And that perhaps is Heimat’s most important selling point in Europe’s present “go green” social climate. “It is just such a difference when as a manufacturer you are able to offer your customers a product that is entirely natural. As a smoker myself, I certainly don’t want to smoke stems or inhale all kinds of chemical additives.”

Swiss oriental in the making?

Koch & Gsell also painstakingly plan for the future. While Koch has experimented with burley and Havana plants since 2017, “they are not quite ready yet to find their way into our blend.” Instead, he has tried a Macedonian oriental varietal last summer and was absolutely delighted. “It was the best tobacco I ever had the pleasure of smoking,” he insisted. “We have now begun growing this type here in Switzerland, and again had to apply for a special permit, of course.”  Koch’s dream is to eventually roll out a Heimat cigarette “that solely consists of oriental tobacco.” Luckily, the Swiss authorities have so far been very supportive. “Everybody loves our project, except the Federal Bureau of Public Health, perhaps,” he laughed. Heimat is now distributed across the country and available in major supermarket chains including Co-op and Denner, but also at gas stations and “Valora” kiosks.

After taking his native Switzerland by storm, Koch of course also would love to launch Heimat in other European markets. Unfortunately, Switzerland is not an EU member, so export is out of the question. “We’d have to pay a steep tariff of 57.6% [on the declared goods value] when exporting to the EU, which is the main reason why we restrict ourselves to sales in Switzerland at this point,” Koch explained. “But we are actively looking for investors to help us build a factory in the EU.”

The world’s first (legal) hemp cigarette

But that brings us to Heimat’s hemp versions. Yes, you’ve read that correctly! Hemp. “In my opinion, Switzerland has handled the legalization of CBD products very smartly,” Koch said. As cannabis smoking became increasingly widespread, the government reacted rather pragmatically by decreeing that it was now immaterial whether hemp would be used for manufacturing ropes and fabrics (which always had been perfectly legal) or whether it would be smoked recreationally as cannabis -- as long as the THC content didn’t exceed 1%. “That solution served everyone; the users as well as the government, which could now collect taxes on cannabis products,” explained Koch. Switzerland’s relaxed cannabis legislation directly led to Koch & Gsell developing their Heimat Tobacco & Hemp blend, indeed the world’s very first commercially produced hemp cigarette.

The range was recently expanded by Heimat Pure Hemp (which only contains cannabis but no tobacco), and Heimat Hemp Buds (using cannabis buds).

“Big Europe Tour” imminent

Heimat Tobacco & Hemp remains the company’s bestseller as far as its cannabis range is concerned. Yet the trend is gradually shifting. “Many Europeans prefer cutting their cannabis with tobacco, but increasing numbers of consumers are now moving to pure cannabis products,” noted Koch, but he also added that his company is stringently adhering to the legally prescribed 1% THC threshold. “To be on the safe side of the law, we generally even observe a 15% buffer, which adjusts the de-facto THC content in each cigarette to 0.85%.” Since their introduction last year, the company’s hemp products are now legally retailed alongside the regular Heimat range everywhere in Switzerland. And since July 2019 they have also been sold in Luxembourg. Ironically enough, the Grand Duchy is, of course, an EU member, and as we have heard, the EU is off-limits for Koch & Gsell’s regular products due to the exorbitant import tariff on non-EU tobacco. Hemp cigarettes, on the other hand, appear to be no issue at all. And Koch & Gsell certainly are seizing that moment. Sometime this year, the company is going to roll out its hemp cigarettes in Belgium. For 2021 we plan to make our hemp products available in Austria and – hopefully – Germany and Italy, too,” Koch said.

And to think that it once all had begun with an enthusiastic schoolboy crafting revoltingly tasting cigarettes from fir needles and chestnut leaves.