Dan Pipe Says Goodbye!

Oh no!
As some of you know I have a soft spot in my latakia-black heart for German tobacco manufacturer DTM and their selling company Dan Pipe. I visited the factory and antique shop many times over the years. Whenever owner Heiko Behrens was available he would give me a tour through the building, I would chat with (former) masterblender Andreas Mund and hang out in the store with walking pipe/tobacco encyclopedia Michael Apitz. I also always went directly to their stand at the Inter Tabac Fair for a cup of coffee, smoke and some small talk. So you can imagine my horror when I recently read this on the Dan Pipe website:

Dan Pipe says goodbye!
Dear customers and friends of Dan Pipe Dr. Behrens KG, In the 51st year of our company, significant changes are coming our way. Starting from May 30, 2023, we will cease our shipping operations. We will, of course, fulfil orders placed until that day, as long as the requested items are available in the short term. In the future, you will be redirected from our online shop to the website www.cigarre24.de, if the respective item is available there. Cigarre24.de is the online shop of the long-established tobacco specialist Oliver Fries from the neighbouring city of Geesthacht, who has been running a well-assorted speciality store there for many years in a prime location on the pedestrian zone. We have had a longstanding business relationship with Mr. Fries and hold him in high regard. Most of the items from our online shop will be available for ordering there, and you will also be able to purchase many items directly from the retail store “Zigarren Fries” at Bergedorfer Str. 46, 21502 Geesthacht.

Many of our customers are familiar with our particularly cozy retail store at Hafenstraße 30, 21481 Lauenburg and have enjoyed browsing through our incredibly extensive range of pipes in the past. However, the retail store will close its doors in the future, so please take advantage of the time until July 31, 2023, to benefit from the excellent advice provided by Mr. Michael Apitz. You can still view your previous online orders in your customer area on the Dan Pipe website. However, ordering through Dan Pipe is no longer possible. You will find links on many of our product pages with the destination www.cigarre24.de. Please note that you will need to register as a new customer there, as we will naturally not disclose our customer data.

We would be delighted if you continued to remain loyal to the products of DTM – Dan Tobacco Manufacturing GmbH and placed your trust in Mr. Oliver Fries and his team in the future. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all our customers and business partners. Thank you very much for the trust, praise, and recognition we have received over the years. We wish the “Zigarren Fries” team all the best, much success, and hope that you, dear customers, will become as good and longstanding partners to the “Zigarren Fries” team with their online shop www.cigarre24.de as you have been to us.

Best regards,
The entire team of Dan Pipe Dr. Behrens KG

R.I.P. Heiko Behrens
On top of that, just a day later, I saw the news that good old Heiko passed away. With him, the industry has lost a pipe specialist, tobacco expert, employer, entrepreneur who stood up for his industry, musician, culture enthusiast, philanthropist, family man and husband. Personally I loved Heiko. He was such a sweet and generous guy. When I first came to Dan Pipe together with good friend Ed for the creation of the forum tobaccos and met him, I called him “sir”. I was raised well and he was a big name in the industry. He immediately countered with “Please call me Heiko, everyone does.”, and took us out for lunch on his expense. That time and every time after when we walked through the factory, he asked if I knew a blend that was lying around there. If I said “no” he would give it to me. And books and even more tobacco. The last time I saw him, just before covid hit, he already was very fragile. So his death did not fully surprise me.

One last visit
When I read all this I immediately decided to pay one last visit to the Dan Pipe shop, the least I could do. I booked a hotel-room in Lauenburg (it is too far away for me to go back and forth in 1 day) and went on my way. After a pleasant ride without Stau (traffic jams) I arrived at the old former grain malting house of DTM. Built of red brick into the steep slope of the Elbe river banks more than 100 years ago with a construction solid like an ancient castle. In the shop Michael Apitz was not back yet, it was around lunchtime. I chatted with another employee when I felt some hands on my shoulders: Der Michael! First of all, I offered my condolences on the loss of Heiko. “You know, I am not religious, but the death of Heiko and the news of the impending closure of the store are very coincidental.” Michael said.

Track & Trace
Being a curious man I asked why the brick and mortar store and webshop were going to be closed. “First of all this plan has been known to us for half a year. It is only now that we decided to bring out the news. The reason? (Anti) tobacco legislation; track & trace and other upcoming regulations.” Michael sighed. “Sorry? Track & trace, like in, what’s on packages?” I asked. “Nono, track & trace on tobacco itself.” Back home I did some research on the subject: Tobacco tracking and tracing involves the identification of the origin and subsequent monitoring of a tobacco product until it is sold. Each product is assigned a secure and distinct ID, enabling its traceability from the manufacturing stage to the point of tax payment. In the event that these products find their way into the illicit market, their path can be retraced to determine the source of the issue and their original place of manufacture. And this not national legislation, it is European Union legislation! To understand this for the Americans who read this, kind of see Europe as the USA and the countries as states.

Tobacco Products Directive (TPD)
So sooner or later every EU country will have to deal with this. And not only with track & trace, with all kinds of anti-tobacco regulations! Also with the prohibition of internet sales of tobacco and related products. In Germany it isn’t that far YET, but here in The Netherlands it is (we always try to be the best boy in the EU class). If I for example I want to buy some pipe tobacco, I can’t do it online any more. I have to drive to a tobacco shop and buy it there. Last years many of those specialist shops closed down due to all the strict regulations. In other words, if I want to buy some (heavily taxed) pipe tobacco I have to drive 32 km to get to the nearest shop. And this because of TPD. The Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) was implemented on May 19, 2014, and became effective in European Union countries on May 20, 2016. This Directive establishes regulations concerning the production, packaging, and sale of tobacco and associated items. Such items encompass cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigars, cigarillos, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes, and herbal products intended for smoking.

Tobacco-free generation
But it goes even further. Now the EU has a goal to have a “Tobacco-free Generation” by 2040. Which is set in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. A noble plan in itself, but they say tobacco is known as “the single largest avoidable health risk in the EU”, with 27% of all cancers attributed to its use. And they are also coming for your alcohol, see point 3.3., “Reducing harmful alcohol consumption”. Beware! To make matters even worse (It can’t be worse! Yes it can..), there are a whole lot of nutcases who want to achieve a tobacco-free environment and the first European tobacco-free generation, not by 2040, but by 2030. A so called “European Citizens’ Initiative”. Well, if you look on their website you see about every European anti-smoke organisation there is. What annoys me the most is that pipe tobacco and cigars on the one side and cigarettes and roll-your-own on the other side, are measured by the same standards. More or less. In Germany they have made a clear distinction. Pipe tobacco tins look reasonably normal, the tax isn’t enormous. Here everything is lumped together. I would love to show you how a Dutch pipe tobacco tin looks like nowadays, but due to the new legislation tobacco shops are not allowed to show pictures of products. Also we aren’t allowed to smoke indoors anywhere, except for your own home. No smoking lounges, no cigar bars, nothing. So it doesn’t matter if I only smoke 1 or 2 pipes/cigars per week to de-stress, not inhaling the smoke. It’s tobacco! Bad!

Michael Apitz and me

Dankeschön!
You can imagine the extra costs and work this all brings for pipe tobacco manufacturers. All packaging has to be updated, loads of extra administration etc. For bigger corporations like MacBaren and the Scandinavian Tobacco Group it is pretty annoying, but they will survive. Smaller companies like Dan Pipe are struggling. So they have to make ugly but necessary business decisions to survive. Like closing the brick and mortar store and webshop. Don’t worry, the factory will still be making tobacco. But poor Michael has been cut down to only 1 day work per week. He’s taking it like a man, but deep inside.. After an afternoon of chatting, trying out some blends and buying a whole lot of stuff it was time to leave. Michael and I did not shake hands, but hugged each other, knowing an era has almost ended. When saying goodbye we both got misty-eyed. I thank Dan Pipe / DTM very, very much for all the years I visited their shop, factory and Inter Tabac Fair stand. I wish them all the best in the future, I hope they will survive. And if you, dear reader, want to make a last visit to the shop, hurry up!

Luxury tobacco from Lauenburg

Lauenburg

This year the destination for the summer holiday of Ellen and myself was Germany. Instead of staying in one location we opted to make a week-long trip from the North of Germany, Lübeck, to the Middle-East part; the Ahrtal. In between those two locations we resided in hotels and B&B’s. Of course I planned to visit several tobacco-shops and even a tobacco-factory: DTM in Lauenburg, situated on the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. Lauenburg is just a lovely old town with a picturesque historic centre alongside the Elbe. Small, enchanting streets up the hill lead to what is left of the once mighty Lauenburg castle. Also the view from there is stunning, you cannot only see the beautiful river Elbe and the old town, but also the flat marshland of Lower-Saxony. Lauenburg has one café/restaurant where you can smoke inside: the Alten Schifferhaus, where I left Ellen so I could visit DTM without her beautiful but prying eyes.

2015 Dan Pipe catalogue cover

2015 Dan Pipe catalogue cover

First of all, there are 2 separate business entities: Dan Pipe and Dan Tobacco Manufacturing (DTM). Dan Pipe is a retail and catalogue company. Dan Tobacco is a tobacco production facility. The history of Dan Pipe began in 1972 when, after a holiday in Denmark, teacher and enthusiastic pipe smoker Heiko Behrens decided to sell the creations of then unknown Danish pipe makers. In a small catalogue handmade pipes by Former, Emil Chonowitsch and Poul Hansen were presented together with factory pipes from Tabago, Torben Dansk, Danmore and other Danish producers. Soon also pipe tobacco was added to the catalogue, including Dan Pipe‘s first own-brand Torben DanskThe quality of the pipes and tobaccos from the Dan Pipe catalogue provided good word-of-mouth advertising amongst the German pipe-smokers so gradually the customer base grew.

Holger Frickert

Holger Frickert © Pipes & Tobacco Magazine

By 1976 the business was growing so rapidly that a new location was necessary. Behrens contracted craftsman (and aspiring young dentist) Holger Frickert to construct and design a showroom. Frickert was leading a class in art and design and that class rebuilt the shop in the form of a boat. It was an extraordinary design, with sails atop the room. Sadly I could not find any pictures of it.. Frickert’s passion for handicrafts, smoking and pipes led him to abandon dentistry and join Behrens’ business in 1978. He began repairing pipes as well as designing his own plus he became responsible for the catalogue presentation. The company was renamed for legal reasons in Danske Pibe“.

© Pipes & Tobacco Magazine

© Pipes & Tobacco Magazine

In 1985 Danske Pibe had grew so large that a much more spacious home had to be found. The Grashof”, a large farmhouse with thatched roof from the 18th century offered ideal conditions. There was space in abundance and on top of that the in 1987 lovingly restored old house, which also housed the store, had a special rustic charm. Over the years it became a magnetic pole in the northfor tobacco and pipe enthusiasts from all parts of Germany and the surrounding countries. Since the beginning of the 1980’s one of the specialities of the company were the house-brand tobaccos, which soon covered a wide range of flavours. But quality and delivery problems became a threat so decisive action was necessary. A new supplier who was able to cover the entire range of house-brand tobaccos was not in sight. Because of that the decision was made by Danske Pibe to establish their own tobacco factory. In 1991 a suitable building was found in Lauenburg and that was the beginning of subsidiary Dan Tobacco Manufacturing. Simultaneously the parent company returned to its old name Dan Pipe.

dan tobacco buildingThe DTM building is kind of special. It is an old former grain malting house, built of red brick into the steep slope of the Elbe river banks more than 100 years ago with a construction solid like an ancient castle. Enclosed by anywhere from several feet to several hundred feet of rock, the temperature and humidity in it varies no more than 2,5%. The ideal place for storing and producing pipe tobacco. The inevitable start-up problems were soon overcome and thanks to the creativity and experience of the employees of both companies they succeeded in a remarkably short time to generate a sizeable range of tobacco products. Those tobaccos were of such excellent quality that they gained a high international reputation. Thus exports to, for example, USA, Italy, Russia and Japan followed.

Pfeifen Timm

Pfeifen Timm

In 1994 Dan Pipe acquired 4 stores of the Pfeifen Timm chain in Hamburg’s city centre, a pipe-specialist well-known throughout Germany. Thus, the tobacco assortment now included many Timm house-brands. Even a fresh wind went through the cigar assortment and it was greatly increased. Sadly in November 2001 a fire laid the Grashof in ruins. Luckily in Lauenburg at DTM enough space was available, so it became the new home of Dan Pipe. The years during and after the financial crisis were difficult. The shops in Hamburg suffered losses and had to be closed. Dr. Heiko Behrens realised he needed help and so Maria Sousa became the other director. New sources of income had to be found in which the company succeed. Nowadays besides pipe-tobacco, high class water-pipe tobacco is made in Lauenburg.

Part of the Dan Pipe shop interior

Part of the Dan Pipe shop interior

I visited Dan Pipe / DTM several times now. But the first time (like so many things) was special. In 2012 I was busy with the quest for forum tobaccos. It was arranged that good friend and chauffeur Ed and myself would stay there for two days and visit the DTM factory. When we arrived we immediately noticed the sweet smell coming from the building. Someone was making a batch of aromatic tobacco for sure! Inside the Dan Pipe store shop assistant Ralph Kaschwich looked at us a bit questioning. “You come here for two days? Netherlands? Forum tobaccos? Let me make a phone call..” After a brief conversation things were cleared out and we were asked to wait for Andreas Mund, the master blender. That waiting certainly was not a punishment! The store has a beautiful interior from 1920 which is made from solid mahogany and comes from an old Hamburg pharmacy. It has many drawers and shelves where besides pipes about 140 DTM tobaccos are displayed in sample-jars. There also is a table with a bench where you can quietly sit, have a drink, take a piece of cake and (of course) smoke.

Andreas and me in the DTM warehouse

Andreas and me in the DTM warehouse

Soon Andreas greeted us. An ordinary looking man on first sight, you could take him for a construction worker if you saw him. Later it turned out that he actually had been a construction worker before he became involved in DTM. In 5 years he learned the tricks of the trade from former master blender Jürgen Westphal, who created almost all original DTM tobaccos and was going into retirement. The tour around the factory started at the top floor where the raw tobaccos are stored in lots of crates, boxes, bales and barrels. I do not know how many tons exactly but with a turnover of approximately 60.000 kg. per year you can imagine the scale of the place. DTM has to buy their leaf tobacco on the same terms as the big companies; by the container. So lots of tobacco have to be stored for quite a while before they are completely processed. Not bad, on the contrary,  it can slowly mature and improve its rich aromatic characteristics day by day. The tobaccos come from all over the world. Virginia from Brazil, India, the Philippines and Zambia, oriental tobaccos from Lebanon and Bulgaria, burley from Mozambique and Malawi, latakia from Cyprus, Kentucky from India and perique from the USA.

Andreas and a barrel of perique

Andreas and a barrel of perique

What surprised us was the transparency and openness business-wise in general. “I have so many tons of this and buy it for about that price so and so, etc.” The bottom line is that Andreas is also responsible for the purchase of raw tobaccos. For some of those he must wait nine months after ordering until they are finally delivered (eg. latakia), so he must carefully calculate whether his current stock is sufficient. It was remarkable that the dry, raw unprocessed tobacco indeed had no remarkable smell (long live casings). Well, except latakia and of course perique. Talking about that last one, DTM has a couple of barrels of the stuff, standing in a dark corner. Apparently perique and light are not a good combination. The smell of it is just… Whoaaa….Malevolent..

DTM_09In the next hall upstairs were the ready tobaccos waiting in large boxes to be further processed. Also here nothing was too crazy. Much was made open, it was grabbed, sniffed at. Delicious! I wished I had a couple bags of this tobacco I thought several times. I noticed that most employees smoked shag or cigarettes and no pipe. “Yes, we smoke pure Virginias here and no garbage made by Lucky Strike for example with 70% tobacco and 30% wood chips.” Andreas said. Incidentally he smokes a pipe but with the daily work cigarettes are just easier. Plus he uses cigarettes to try out new raw tobaccos. A trick he learned from Jürgen Westphal. If it does not taste in a cigarette, it certainly does not taste in a pipe.

Andreas and me before the flavour extracts

Andreas and me before the flavour extracts

On the lower floor in the building stood the old machinery which until recently was used for the production of tobaccos. Plus there were lots of shelves stacked with all kinds of aromatic extracts. “We are lucky.” Andreas said “The centre for flavour extracts is Hamburg, which is close to Lauenburg. There are many companies which make this stuff so it is very easy for us it acquire.” It was a very strange experience to smell some extracts. Sometimes it smelled so strong, so concentrated, that you could not figure out what exactly was inside a bottle. Also some flavours had several subcategories, for example Butter Vanilla, Crème Vanilla etc.

DTM_16When we walked around the corner to the next room we saw the mighty flake presses made by famous company Robert Legg from London. Stately red-black devices that looked like they were forged from ancient iron. 2 presses could be heated in order to make Virginia cavendish. However, this was not done because apparently it is cheaper to buy ready-made cavendish. The slabs of flake coming out of the machine are 9 kg. Nice to see that some of those slabs were for Hans Wiedemann’s HU Tobacco, who lets several of his offerings make by DTM. On another wall were so called postpresses. They are needed because the tobacco that comes from the big press has a tendency to expand again. The reason for this is that DTM wants to use Arabic gum (adhesive for the flakes) as little as possible.

Metal tobacco cylinder

Metal tobacco cylinder

Then we came in the big factory hall, the place of the large, new machine. An impressive sight, especially the big metal cylinder in which the raw tobacco is moistened and cased. Almost everything coming from the DTM factory is cased with honey. Large buckets of the naturally sweet stuff stood beside the machine on the sticky floor. The hall looked slightly blue of the vapours and smoke from the whole process. I will not describe in detail what happens because Ed made a short film about it.

Measuring the cut tobacco

Measuring the cut tobacco

But, in short: The tobacco is moistened/cased, then it gets compressed, cut, the moisture level gets corrected and eventually it all ends up in large boxes. However, the machine which had to cut the tobacco (made by German machine factory Winicker & Lieber who also make the machines for Mac Baren and Pöschl) did not (yet) function optimal. Therefore a little bit of the batch was cut and measured by hand so the machine could be recalibrated. This continued until the cut was right.

Packing department

Packing department

On to the all female packing department. I expected the work was done by machines but nothing could be further from the truth. Everything was done by hand! The tobacco weighing, putting it in tins/pouches, closing the tins/pouches, putting stickers on it.. I have so much respect for the women who do this work. When we were there they were mainly busy with pouches for Switzerland, a very large market for DTM. I had to laugh when Andreas remarked that those pouches contained a blend with 50% oriental tobaccos.Not good, not good..” He said, and pulled a dirty face. “Up to 30% in a blend, nothing more. But the customer is king.” Also the ladies were packing an aromatic blend of DTM. You could tell right away because the whole room smelled like candies were packed in stead of tobacco. The tour continued in the repair workshop. Pipes are being fixed here by boys who are still quite young. Some pipes shown to me belonged to a man who monthly needed new mouthpieces because he chewed them up.Pipes are to smoke, not to eat”, Andreas sighed with a smile. From the repair workshop we went to the tobacco warehouse of Dan Pipe. The place where everything in the catalogue (and more) is stored. Impressive to see all those tobaccos and pipe smoking paraphernalia.

Michael Apitz

Michael Apitz

Through the tobacco warehouse we came back in the store where Michael Apitz had joined Herr Kaschwich. He is responsible for creating many of the aromatic tobaccos of DTM. And is a walking encyclopaedia of everything that has to do with pipes and tobacco. Plus he is not afraid to share his knowledge and give his opinion, an intense man. I knew little of aromatic tobaccos so it was about time to speak to him. “Herr Apitz, may I ask something…” “No! First I have a question for you! How many tobaccos can one taste and judge on one day?” “Ehrrr, um… Three?” “No! Only one.” And a whole explanation followed. He showed and let us smell a lot of tobaccos together with an explanation of them. Very informative. With one of the first tobaccos which he took from the shelf he asked us what we smelled. As in, you never going to guess it. I smelled it.. And again.. Ehrr, aniseed? He looked at me with big eyes. Correct! *Phewww* Every time we were in the shop and there were no other customers he came up with another topic to talk about. Once again, very informative.

IMG_3357The last time I was there we spoke with each other non-stop for about 1.5 hour until I really had to get back to Ellen, who I left at the Alten Schifferhaus. Just before I went Herr Apitz asked me what I liked to smoke the most. “Well, a good Balkan I guess.” I answered. He then rushed to the tobacco warehouse and came back with a pouch of Bill Bailey’s Balkan Blend. “Here, this is for you, enjoy it!” Which for me characterizes Dan Pipe / DTM. Warm and passionate people with the typical “no-nonsense working hard and effective” German mentality.

Here are some DTM-made tobacco recommendations:
BiBo (Buddies): An ultimate aromatic statement created by Michael Apitz. The absolute pinnacle of sweetness. Forget the sweet American, Danish and Dutch blends, this one tops them all. It tastes and smells like Jaffa cakes, but then into the extreme. I once smoked this one in the evening in my living-room and asked Ellen what she thought. “Well, not bad” was the answer. Until she came downstairs the next morning.. “Whaaaat!? What is this odour? It smells like a friggin’ candy shop in here!” It took a week before we could not smell BiBo any more.. “I rather have you smoking latakia!” Ellen sneered in my direction.
Bill Bailey’s Balkan: A bit strange, Kentucky in a Balkan, but it works out well and results in a cool and satisfying smoke.
Midnight Ride: A rich, full flavoured classic English blend. If you want to know how Perique can work its magic in a latakia-mixture, try this one.
Old Ironsides: A latakia lovers dream. Dark and strong but also cool and creamy this flake makes you come back for more.
Skipper’s Flake: A no-nonsense straight Virginia flake. Pure unadulterated bright leaf heaven. ‘Nuff said.
Smooth latakia: One of the newer offerings, created by the wife of Andreas who also works at DTM. Black cavendish combined with latakia make this (like the name says) a smooth smoke. It reminds me a bit of McClelland’s Frog Morton.
Sweet Vanilla Honeydew: One of the few aromatic tobaccos I really like. Tastes like creamy vanilla and smells like those divine butter biscuits grandma used to bake. A real crowd pleaser.

Thanks go out to Paul and Ed for a lot of the pictures you see.

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