3OFT 3ECRETS
iÊ > « À }ÊEÊ `iÊ/Üii`iÊ > iÀ]Ê ÃÌiÀ`> Ê 4EXT BY +RISTIE 3ZALANSKI 0HOTOS BY -ONIQUE *ANSEN
335+ RECENTLY HAD THE PLEASURE OF SPEAKING AND SMOKING WITH 0AUL OWNER OF THE 4WEEDE +AMER AND $AMPKRING TWO BASTIONS IN THE HAZY HISTORY OF !MSTERDAM S COFFEESHOPS )N OUR NEW SERIES ON COFFEESHOP ENTREPRENEURS 335+ DISCUSSES CHANGING #ANNABIS LAWS AND NEW SOCIAL CLIMATES WITHIN THE INDUSTRY 7E ALSO LIKE TO TAKE A LOOK BACK INTO THE HUMBLE ORIGINS OF THE NOW FAMOUS #ANNABIS CAFES
"NEEDDRGNO $MSQDOQDMDTQ R >À ÞÊ >âi In 1985 a star was born. Nestled into a bustling alleyway in one of the more quaint neighbourhoods, the Tweede Kamer introduced a new level of quality into the smoking scene. The shop quickly gained in popularity due to being the first to cut chunks of hash off a fresh block (instead of pre-weighed bags) and allowing customers to purchase small quantities of many different varieties. By January of 1993 a little sister called the Dampkring was on the way, completing the pair. So what made a guy called Paul and his friend Jeroen decide to open a coffeeshop? Paul: “We started the coffeeshop because of the obvious thing: we are smokers! I was very young then; around 21. Instead of hanging out in a coffeeshop every day, we started thinking, you know, we’d better start our own. It was a very, very small place…. All my friends and relatives said, don’t do it, you know, it’s impossible to make money. So we hired a building….” Some coffeeshop owners start one up in order to prove their growing prowess, but not Paul. “I was a smoker. I prefer to smoke hash. It took a while to find out about Dutch grass, the Oranje Bud.
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owners are in it for different reasons and that Cannabis is not actually legal in the Netherlands. This means that technically coffeeshop owners are criminals; therefore the mentality behind their business is important to know. What motivates each individual entrepreneur has a direct effect on the quality of their menu. For some it’s money alone; for others, the simple idea of being able to supply their own tastes as well as those of the neighbourhood with reliable products. Paul certainly fits into the latter category. “You know, I’ve been a smoker for 30 years now, and if it were only about the money, I could sell cars, or houses…! It was also nice, in the early years, that the people you met were all really nice people. They’re almost all gone, you know, the old hippies, they’re not here anymore. I always felt comfortable with those types of people.”
Ê ÌÌ iÊL> Ê vÊ >Ã Ê} iÃÊ>Ê }ÊÜ>Þ So we know that Paul prefers the scene from “back then,” but what about the smoke? It was primarily the menu that set the Tweede Kamer apart from its competition in the early days, achieving
! LOT OF SMOKERS FROM THE 3TATES OR %NGLAND DON T REALISE THAT COFFEESHOP OWNERS ARE IN IT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS AND THAT #ANNABIS IS NOT ACTUALLY LEGAL IN THE .ETHERLANDS 4HIS MEANS THAT TECHNICALLY COFFEESHOP OWNERS ARE CRIMINALS We sold it for five, six years. We were so successful; the Tweede Kamer was (I think) the most famous coffeeshop in Amsterdam for the locals. So we were ‘living in an ivory tower,’ you know, we didn’t know what was going on around us.”
ii« }ÊÕ«ÊÜ Ì ÊÌ iÊ iÃià Known for their large selection, the Tweede Kamer and Dampkring must have quite a difficult time keeping things interesting. Paul was introduced to the Haze family in the early 90’s, and remembers, “I think it was in ’94 that we heard about a coffeeshop that was selling weed for 18 guilders (€8,20) a gram. The Oranje Bud we were always selling at nine or ten guilders. So we picked up a bag, and that was the first Haze I ever smoked. …That’s how we found out that other people were, you know, also developing their coffeeshop and growing skills! We really had to come out of our ivory tower and realise that there was a
a perfect balance between price and quality. Paul recounts, “The first product that really helped us out was a Moroccan type of hash… they brought it in olive cans, the hash was in a condom, and the shape was a ball, like a big olive. That was quality. Price wise, I think it was the best hash in Amsterdam at the time. From the moment we sold the “Balletje” (little ball) hash, the Tweede Kamer became famous among the local people. After a few years, you know, because it was so successful, rival coffeeshops started faking them. You’d get all these different types of Moroccan shaped into a ball, and they’d sell it everywhere as a Balletje.”
ÊvÀ i `ÊÜ Ì ÊÜii`Ê ÃÊ>Ê vÀ i `Ê `ii` We already know how popular the Oranje Bud was, and it was pretty much the second success on the menu at the Tweede Kamer. “It was a very good
4HIS YEAR ) THINK IT WAS *ANUARY OR &EBRUARY $UTCH COFFEESHOPS EXPERIENCED THE BIGGEST #ANNABIS CRISIS ) VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE ) THINK IT WAS WEEKS THAT THIS JAR WAS EMPTY lot going on in Amsterdam. We saw that the coffeeshop scene was changing, and we weren’t the only ones with quality weed and hash.”
friend of mine who grew it, and this really was a coffeeshop owner’s dream. In those days everything was being grown in big greenhouses.”
A lot of smokers from the States or England don’t realise that coffeeshop
Remember, these are the days before hydroponic cultivation really took off,
