Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory Forums

Qemic wrote:Just a quick (and potentially noobie) question.. Bought some Dr.Grinspoon a few weeks ago in Mellow Yellow (I know this is about Barneys, so dont hate..) whilst in the Dam. Upon the budtender weighing it up, he began to explain that the bud of Dr.Grinspoon comes in little buds that have to be scraped off of the stalks due to the flower and way it grows, which they had already done and scraped. I took a look inside the tub of Grinspoon as I thought he was giving us the scrag ends of the last bits of bud and trying to mug us off, but the tub was almost full of these little tiny buds (the only way I can describe what they looked like is; imagine puttin bud in your grinder and only turning it once...end result = tiny little buds). So my question is, and if its already been explained in the forum I apologise as i havent had time to read through, Is this really how Dr.Grinspoon comes, and if so, how and why? :S

geoffk wrote:Hopefully I'm not derailing too much, but I picked up a pack of GH's SSH a few years ago, passed the seeds 'round and the resulting phenos looked a lot like the "stringy" sativas I've seen here. An example from 2008.

codejd wrote:

Qemic wrote:Just a quick (and potentially noobie) question.. Bought some Dr.Grinspoon a few weeks ago in Mellow Yellow (I know this is about Barneys, so dont hate..) whilst in the Dam. Upon the budtender weighing it up, he began to explain that the bud of Dr.Grinspoon comes in little buds that have to be scraped off of the stalks due to the flower and way it grows, which they had already done and scraped. I took a look inside the tub of Grinspoon as I thought he was giving us the scrag ends of the last bits of bud and trying to mug us off, but the tub was almost full of these little tiny buds (the only way I can describe what they looked like is; imagine puttin bud in your grinder and only turning it once...end result = tiny little buds). So my question is, and if its already been explained in the forum I apologise as i havent had time to read through, Is this really how Dr.Grinspoon comes, and if so, how and why? :S

Yeah man, this is how is should have looked from afar;



I agree with Uncle Ron though; it is ridiculously priced yet hard to pass up .

Smirks wrote:

geoffk wrote:Hopefully I'm not derailing too much, but I picked up a pack of GH's SSH a few years ago, passed the seeds 'round and the resulting phenos looked a lot like the "stringy" sativas I've seen here. An example from 2008.

Were they any good? Long lasting, clear and soaring? How did they smell?

geoffk wrote:Hopefully I'm not derailing too much, but...

CDee wrote:Hello all ...

I am a new member of the board, and I joined in order to both profit from and contribute to reviews of strains and coffeeshops, so as to increase the amount of information that is available here. This is my first thread, and it's kind of an irregular one, so I'll briefly sum up my point here:

A little less than a year ago, I was in Amsterdam for the first time since probably five or six years ago, and I have been there four more times since. I think it was the second time that I dropped by at Barney's and saw they had a pure sativa strain called Dr. Grinspoon. (Incidentally, I do know a little bit about its namesake, Lester Grinspoon, and so I was pleasantly surprised that there was a strain named after him.) I decided to try it out and bought a gram of it, and I was absolutely amazed! It smelled like weed, but it didn't smell like any weed I had tried so far: it was a much lighter smell than the usual "heavy" smell from an indica, and it was intensely lemony. Very pleasant. The high was interesting, and actually somewhat different from a "typical" high. I then went back to Amsterdam some time later and bought five grams of it; it was exactly like the first batch I had: expensive weed, but totally worth it. On that occasion, I took a picture of it that I posted below. Purchasing date was 29 October 2011.



Then, a little more than one month ago, I was once again to Amsterdam, and I directly went to Barney's in order to grab some Dr. Grinspoon. I didn't even have the weed shown to me because I assumed it was the same weed that I had gotten last year. When my product was weighed I did notice that it looked somewhat different in the plastic box, but I didn't really think much of it. Only when I was back at the hotel did I notice that my weed wasn't anything like the Dr. Grinspoon I had the times before: it was the same strain with its characteristic sativa look (very thin buds, thin stems, etc.), but it smelled extremely weak, and you could basically tell from the smell that it was wack weed. This impression was confirmed when I smoked it, and I promptly threw away what was left of it. This was not about a minor variation of quality - it was essentially a rip-off that consisted of selling schwag at 17€ per gram. Back at home, I went to Barney's website and sent them a message describing my disappointment, but I didn't hear back from them. If you are familiar with the legislation regarding cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands, you know that growing at a commercial scale is by no means legal, and operates in some sort of grey area at best. I concluded that maybe they had a grow not gone correctly or that had to be aborted, or some other force majeure. At any rate, I was back at Barney's last weekend and I asked to be shown the Dr. Grinspoon. The one they had now did look slightly better, but the smell was almost the same. I nonetheless bought two grams to make sure this wasn't just a false impression, but indeed the quality was as bad as last time. Again I took a picture that's posted below. Purchasing date was 17 March 2012.



In this thread, I don't really want to discuss the Dr. Grinspoon strain in itself, but rather I would like to document the evolution of this Barney's product. The good news here is really that, if you know a little bit about weed, you won't have any trouble telling whether the weed on offer is good or not. I find the difference between the two pictures really startling, and even relative noobs to cannabis would be able to distinguish them. But it's probably still easier to go by the smell. The good batches had a full, aromatic and characteristic scent. The bad batches had this smell of bad weed that is impossible to describe, but that you'll immediately recognize as soon as you smell it. So, my recommendations are the following: firstly, if you have had Dr. Grinspoon at Barney's before and you liked it, be careful if you want to buy more of it. Have the weed shown to you, smell it, and maybe compare it to your memories of what it was like the last time - this will tell you whether or not to buy it. Secondly, if you haven't had Dr. Grinspoon at Barney's but are intrigued to try it by positive reports on the web, be careful as well. Closely inspect the weed, and go with a small amount before buying more. If your schwag senses are tingling, don't buy it at all. Thirdly, if you have had Dr. Grinspoon recently for the first time and thought it was schwag, you're absolutely right, but that is not the actual "real" Dr. Grinspoon strain. I'm mentioning this last point because I found a different thread in here that said the strain was very "polarizing", and I want to point out that that may actually be due to variations in quality rather than the specific profile of the high it produces.

I'll be going to go to Barney's everytime I'll be in Amsterdam in the near future, and I would like to use this thread to document how the quality of this particular strain is going to evolve. Of course, I am doing this with the aim of spreading information about the strain, and maybe someone at Barney's is going to see this. (However, the guys at Barney's are far too experienced with weed to claim that they are somehow not aware of the drop in quality of this strain. They are deliberately ripping people off, and that's what bothers me.)

Lastly, you guys see that this is only my second post in this forum, so I would like to point out that I have no intentions whatsoever to bash Barney's or the Grinspoon strain. Barney's is always on the list of shops that I go to in Amsterdam, and this is because, until recently, they have always provided absolutely excellent products. Yes it's expensive, but the money is totally worth it. This is even more true for the good batches of Dr. Grinspoon that I had. So, this thread here is not about giving Barney's a bad rep - in fact, you could call me a Barney's fan. And the Grinspoon genetics are one of the most interesting strains out there, no question about that. However, I find it completely unacceptable that Barney's now uses its legitimate good rep to sell weed that is clearly schwag. If their grow op didn't go right, I want them to cross out the Grinspoon strain on their menu and say "back in six months" or something like that. If Barney's wants to have the privilege of being considered a shop selling premium products, it has to live up to its own standards. Selling schwag for 17€ a gram is not living up to that standard.

I would also like to invite other members who go to Barney's to check out this strain, even if you have no intention of buying it. If you do buy it, please take a photo and post it in here, that would be greatly appreciated!

That's all for now. If you have any questions on this topic, just post in here!

CDee

kkchome wrote:I bought a couple grams of it from Barney's on April 20. It was very similar to the batch I had last year. Love the stuff.

woodenhead wrote: I bet they keep cloning her and everytime u do that it weakens the strain, good tip tho i m gonna b there soon and its good to know whta to look out for! Thanks for sharing! PEACE<LOVE<GOOD TOKING