About Herbal Holland
Our story, and the standards we keep
The Amsterdam coffee-shop tradition of a warm welcome and knowing exactly what you're offering, rooted in Southern Africa's own landraces and growers.
Our story
Dutch heritage. African soil.
Our name nods to Amsterdam, where many of Southern Africa's landraces became famous. Our roots, and our growers, are here.
Dutch heritage is the coffee-shop tradition of hospitality: a warm welcome, and knowing exactly what you're offering. African soil is the bigger half: South African growers, makers and places.
In store and online, that means CBD wellness, functional coffee and protein, skin care and collagen, all lab-tested and batch-traceable, for members aged 18 and over.
Why a windmill?
It's two things at once: a Dutch windmill and a four-petal flower. The ring is open at the bottom, where the tower stands. We drew it from our first store-window poster.
Our heritage
Shaped by hillsides, kept by growers
Long before Amsterdam's coffee shops made them famous, Southern Africa's landraces were shaped by generations of growers on the hillsides of KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, Malawi and the Wild Coast.
A landrace is a local variety that has adapted to its place over generations: the soil, the sun, the rain and the hands that kept its seed. That's what we mean by African soil.
A landrace is a library. Every seed carries a season's worth of decisions made by the people who grew it.
- Durban Poison Hills behind Durban, KwaZulu-Natal
- The one that travelled: its seeds left South Africa in the 1970s for the United States and Amsterdam's seed banks, and it became a global benchmark.
- Swazi Gold Eswatini highlands
- Traditionally dried in the sun on the mountain slopes, which gives it the golden colour in its name.
- Malawi Gold Salima, Malawi
- Famously patient: it can take around 120 days to flower, and was traditionally wrapped in maize leaves.
- Mpondo Gold Pondoland, Wild Coast
- From one of the country's oldest growing traditions. Some growers believe Durban Poison partly descends from Mpondo lines.
Licensed cannabis is supplied only through lawful channels. Today that means registered patients, through a pharmacist.
How we work
Standards you can check
The same rules in every store and online, written into the platform our stores run on rather than left to memory.
Every batch lab-tested, with a public result
Before a batch goes on sale, an independent laboratory tests what's in it and runs safety panels for microbes, pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins and, for extracts, left-over solvents.
Every pack carries a batch code and a QR code that open the certificate for that exact batch: what the lab measured, who grew it and when it was packed. Only batches released after testing can be sold. If one is put on hold or recalled, its page says so in plain language and our tills block it.
Members only, and ID every time
We sell to members only, online and at the till. Joining Herbal Holland Rewards is free, and the key terms are shown in plain language before anyone accepts them.
Every member is an adult: we check ID at the till and again at every collection and delivery. Membership keeps our records straight and lets us trace a batch to the people who bought it if we ever need to recall it. It never makes anything lawful that isn't.
CBD wellness, within Schedule 0
Our CBD wellness range is sold under Schedule 0 (Government Notice 586 of 2020): there are limits on strength per pack and per day, and only a short list of modest, approved claims.
We use approved wording only and never make medical claims, and our marketing is screened against the advertising code before it's published. We sell CBD to adults 18+ only: our own policy, stricter than Schedule 0 requires.
Licensed medicines, through a pharmacist
Cannabis medicines that contain THC are supplied only to registered patients whose doctor has obtained a Section 21 authorisation from SAHPRA, and only through our pharmacists, after an ID check.
They're never advertised, never discounted and never earn points: the Medicines Act prohibits incentives on medicines. We record what the law needs to dispense lawfully, and deliberately never a diagnosis.
Good neighbours
Nothing is consumed on or outside our premises. We keep the pavement clear, the lights on and security at the door, and every store gives its neighbours a direct line to the manager, with a reply within one working day.
We meet the neighbours before we open: the businesses and homes around us, the local police station and Community Policing Forum, and the ward councillor.
We choose poster and board sites with care: none within 500 m of a place where young people learn, and no events at or with one. That's our own rule, and it's stricter than the law. We don't sponsor sport or link our name to it, the only thing we say about driving is never drive impaired, and we stay out of politics and religion.
See for yourself
Come in, or shop from anywhere
Our stores in Pietermaritzburg and Durban are open now, and our online shop opens soon: get first access, and we'll tell you the day it does.