Nicotine-free tobacco

In more than 300 years of Swiss tobacco tradition, a lot has been refined, but one thing never existed: a herbal cigarette developed and made in a Swiss manufactory. We changed that.

The Schwiizer Chrüterzigi is made in our manufactory in Steinach on Lake Constance from carefully selected Swiss organic herbs, without a single tobacco leaf, without nicotine, without artificial additives. Made as pre-rolls in packs of 20, with the same craftsmanship that has made our tobacco line the most talked-about manufactory brand in Switzerland.

Honesty before sales: to avoid any misunderstanding, let's be clear. Our classic Heimat tobacco products (cigarettes, rolling tobacco, tube tobacco in Hell and Dunkel) contain nicotine. They are natural tobacco products made from 100% Swiss tobacco, milder in character than industrial products, but not nicotine-free.

One difference matters to us: our tobacco contains no additives. Industrially made cigarettes often contain additives such as ammonium compounds or sugar, which change the pH value and increase the share of freely available nicotine. Our tobacco is natural and does without such additives, so there is no artificial boost.

For many people, that's exactly why they switch to Heimat. If you already smoke and want to choose more consciously, Heimat offers an alternative that gives you more than just tobacco in a pack:

• Made regionally: Grown in Switzerland, made in our manufactory in Steinach on Lake Constance: short distances instead of anonymous world-market goods.
• Manufactory quality: Natural, without additives, processed in small batches rather than by the million.
• Value that stays in the country: Every purchase strengthens the Swiss economy instead of international tobacco groups.
• Local farming: We source our tobacco directly from Swiss farming families and support them with guaranteed purchase prices, in a targeted and long-term way. That keeps tobacco growing alive as a craft in Switzerland.

In short: If it's going to be tobacco, then one where you know where it comes from and who earns from it.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a completely nicotine-free product, you'll find it in our herbal line: the Schwiizer Chrüterzigi, with no tobacco plant at all and therefore naturally free of nicotine.

"Nicotine-free" is not always "nicotine-free". There are two fundamentally different product categories, and the difference determines what you're actually smoking:

Why denicotinised tobacco isn't the answer

Technically, tobacco can be denicotinised. In practice, it fails on two counts. First, price: extraction is an industrial process with high costs for solvents, equipment and manufacturing. Spread over a single pack, a denicotinised Swiss manufactory product would end up at a retail price hardly anyone would be willing to pay. The effort is out of all proportion to the result. Second, taste: the usual processes remove not only the nicotine but also some of the volatile aroma compounds that give tobacco its character. So you pay more for less aroma.

That's why the maths is clear for us: instead of stripping real tobacco of its nicotine at great expense and damaging its aroma along the way, we developed a herbal cigarette from scratch that contains 0.0 mg nicotine by nature. With its own, deliberately crafted taste instead of a weakened tobacco imitation. That's why, for us, the herbal cigarette is the best alternative: not as a stopgap, but as the more sensible category.

For many people, the most valuable part of smoking isn't the nicotine at all, it's the ritual: the break, the hand movement, the moment. That's exactly where nicotine-free alternatives come in: the ritual stays, as a change of pace without nicotine.

If you want to stop smoking altogether, the cantonal advice centres and the Swiss quitline offer sound support. Nicotine-free alternatives can replace the familiar moment along the way, as a change of pace, not as therapy.