HET BALLONNETJE TIMELINE

END OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE

After the swinging sixties, Amsterdam welcomed its first coffeeshop in 1972. In those days it was called teahouse.

The Mellow Yellow

The founders of the first teahouse, made history without even knowing it. They dared to gamble and opened a shop called Mellow Yellow.

TOLERANCE POLICY

ALTHOUGH CANNABIS WAS ( AND STILL IS ) NOT LEGAL IN THE NETHERLANDS, IT STARTED A ‘TOLERANCE POLICY’

OPIUM LAW CHANGE

Since November 1st, 1976 the law was not enforced anymore in relation to the retail sale of small quantities of cannabis in coffeeshops

Het Ballonnetje open its doors

Het Ballonnetje Koffiehuis, already active since a few years with a few in-house dealers, become officially a Coffeeshop in 1978.

Old School Cannabis

In those days menu’s were plenty of exotic stuff such as Thai sticks, Durban Poison, Acapulco Gold, Hawaiian, Nepalese, Manali Charas, Ketama Gold, Lebanese but weren’t first class products anymore

A new beginning

Het Ballonnetje focused on a different audience, not anymore the old fashioned hippies, but the normal people such as workers, employees, housewives, students, teachers, young rising artists…

A place for connoisseurs

The idea was that Het Ballonnetje had to be a place for “connoisseurs” where you would be able to buy quality products in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere

Budtenders

Het Ballonnetje was a sensation: with top quality products, cut up and packed right in front of you, started a new way of Coffeeshops customers service, no longer drug dealers but budtenders

Indoor Growing Culture

Then the 80’s come. Around this time the first really good homegrown weed varieties came on the market: Orange Bud, Superskunk, White Widow, Northern Light conquered Amsterdam

War on Drugs

While a world war against drugs started, in The Netherlands the amount of hard drugs addicted went significantly down and literally millions of weed connoisseurs from all over the world visited Amsterdam every year

Coffeeshop culture

Year after year Dutch coffeeshops have gained a unique social identity with a mix of locals, expats, tourists and quite often celebrities from all over the world only looking for a good time 

Coffeeshop Law

In the 90’s in The Netherlands, the selling of marijuana is officially declared ”illegal, but not punishable”, so the law is not enforced in establishments as long as coffeeshops are following a constantly increasing number of nationwide rules

And now…?

Today just 175 coffeeshops remain in Amsterdam, half the number that existed in the Nineties. Amsterdam has still more coffeeshops than any other city in the Netherlands

Het Ballonnetje turns 40

Yes, the Budtenders behind the bar are still serving top quality cannabis and hashish, we’re still pleasing weed connoisseurs from all over the world, we’re still having fun…and the best has yet to come.