Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory Forums

Simple, if you want good, consistently strong, reliable and well priced weed, you go to a traditional locals place that will sell things like orange bud, white widows, good strong solid dependable reliable weeds. If you want SSH and mind blowing highs or stones, you need to visit the Grey Areas, the Greenhouses etc. A lot of locals may use them, but they are not locals shops.

The thing is you always know what you are going to get in a locals shop, very good weed, but if you want something special, something that will make you go WOW then a locals shop won't hold those kind of lines. They only have a few lines which hardly change because their regulars come in to buy their regular weed.

Try this for size, although it will probably come off really badly...

You go to a restaurant regularly, say a curry house. Now there are 2 curry houses you like. The one that you go to regularly and often, because its good, it's reliable, it's well priced, and you know you like the food.

Then you have the £80 a head restaurant around the corner. It does fantastic food, stuff that your local place doesn't do, but there is a trade off. It is very expensive, and pretty much an unknown quantity, because you don't go there that often. It is reserved for special occasions, because the food, and it's price, mean it is a special occasion thing. Same goes with weed. You can go to the Greeenhouse et al and buy the newer weeds that have come out since your last trip, then to the locals shops where you know you get your regular reliable everyday weed.

Does that make sense? I love locals shops, and personally after this trip, will pretty much only use local shops in future, but I'll explain all that when I get this diary finished

SoulRider wrote:Simple, if you want good, consistently strong, reliable and well priced weed, you go to a traditional locals place that will sell things like orange bud, white widows, good strong solid dependable reliable weeds. If you want SSH and mind blowing highs or stones, you need to visit the Grey Areas, the Greenhouses etc. A lot of locals may use them, but they are not locals shops.

The thing is you always know what you are going to get in a locals shop, very good weed, but if you want something special, something that will make you go WOW then a locals shop won't hold those kind of lines. They only have a few lines which hardly change because their regulars come in to buy their regular weed.

Try this for size, although it will probably come off really badly...

You go to a restaurant regularly, say a curry house. Now there are 2 curry houses you like. The one that you go to regularly and often, because its good, it's reliable, it's well priced, and you know you like the food.

Then you have the £80 a head restaurant around the corner. It does fantastic food, stuff that your local place doesn't do, but there is a trade off. It is very expensive, and pretty much an unknown quantity, because you don't go there that often. It is reserved for special occasions, because the food, and it's price, mean it is a special occasion thing. Same goes with weed. You can go to the Greeenhouse et al and buy the newer weeds that have come out since your last trip, then to the locals shops where you know you get your regular reliable everyday weed.

Does that make sense? I love locals shops, and personally after this trip, will pretty much only use local shops in future, but I'll explain all that when I get this diary finished

Yes mate, that makes perfect sense. You could also use the same analogy with pubs if you drink ale. Your local has say 6 beers on tap which are always on, of which maybe 2 or 3 are Ales/ You can walk in and order your usual without even thinking really. Thats a locals pub. Then you get beer festivals and specialist ale houses, where the cost may be higher, but you get a bigger selection of more exotic beers, which may be stronger or weaker - you dont buy them on strength, like a good bud - but on flavour etc...

Sure I see your logic. However, I've found that most pot tourists don't know/give a fuck and will buy almost anything with the frame of mind that if it's expensive it's gotta be good. I've found Greenhouse's weed to be spotty; sometimes good or sometimes average. I'm glad you got to enjoy some good stuff.

Friday 1st August

Got up and had a couple of Diesel spliffs to get me going, then off into the big wide world...

First stop was Stones Cafe coffeeshop for another Stones Amnesia 10e bag. What a wonderful refreshing morning smoke

Back to hostel to update Diary. Only got as far as Sunday :p This whole live diary thing is really hard work. There is so much I want to say, but I don't have the writing ability and concentration span to put down everything as it is in the wonderful clarity of being high. This gives an overview, but is not really giving you any of the actual experience, sorry about that.

Polished off the brainstorm, again another nice weed.

Although I voted AUH#2 as last weeks winner, Davide's winner, Greenhouse Seeds - Super Silver Haze 11.50g was the true winner by far. So far that I didn't include it in my voting!

The story has been the same in week 2 so far, and I am desperate to find a contender to challenge the SSH. As much as I love Diesel, it is without doubt one of my favorite weeds, it is not a contender at this level. I needed to find something that was at the SSH level, I was driven.....

or rather walked to my next stop. Abraxas Corner, Spuistraat for some Amnesia Haze e13/g. Could this be a contender?

The Amnesia Haze was wonderful to behold and so beautiful and earthy in smell. The high was a brain deadening haze, really beautiful. It does not reach the heights of the SSH, and it's here that I begin to make some realisations about my own relationship with weed, what I want, what I get, and what I'm missing out on.
This seems strangely odd, but was the first of many great insights into myself that was had from the weed. One of very many positive aspects to the Marijuana high. It's not just about getting wasted, there are lots of other unconcious benefits to marijuana which often get overlooked.

I was still correct of course, nothing yet has got me as high as SSH, but does that mean it was the strongest? This Amnesia Haze has a glorious deep high, rather than the bright shining silvery high, of SSH, but the realisations and revelations, and appreciations to the senses of the body that were caused by the some of the other buds, Amnesia included, were potentially stronger. This left me in a quandry, for there is no doubt that the high for SSH is as high as you can get at the moment, and that also negates the effects of trying the Indica's like Cheese and Blueberry, because they can't pull you down against the high from the SSH, but it doesn't mean they are less potent.

Made the short trip to Grey Area and openly asked them to find me a Sativa that can compete with the SSH I have been having from Greenhouse. They put me onto Silver Bubblegum, this is Silver Haze crossed with the original Bubblegum. This is a very strong heritage so I am hoping for a good weed

The Silver Bubblegum did not disappoint. It was a wonderful buzz, a truly memorable experience, but not as high as SSH. Was my obsession in trying to find something to get me higher than SSH meaning I was missing the point? Or was finding a bigger high than SSH the whole point, as i set out to find the best weed? Don't get me wrong, when I say these weeds are not as High as the SSH, this does not mean they are weak compared to the SSH, the difference isn't huge, but it is noticeable.

Where to now?? Let the feet decide...

I ended up sitting facing a very Crystally Bud of Resin Haze which had just caused 14€ to leave my pocket. I must admit, it was a beauty to behold. There were a fair few large crystals around the outside of the bud, but not much smell. That all changed when you broke open the bud. You saw so many more crystals and unleashed this delightful citrusy smell, again veering towards the lemony side of the citrus scale

As I sit here rolling the Resin Haze I am being assaulted by the Silver Bubblegum. It is VERY good, but not as high as SSH.

With smoking all these citrusy hazes I keep forgetting I'm drinking Tea and not Fruit juice :p

The flavour of the Resin Haze is a little disappointing. It can only be described as that standard haze taste. if you smoke haze's regularly, you'll know what I mean, they just taste fruity genrically, although they have various other flavours mixed in to create their unique flavour, this just tastes of the background haze flavour. I was expecting more.

I put out the spliff and was just getting ready to put my stuff together after the spliff when from nowhere I was ensared in this 360.1 surrond sound. Sound was enhanced and the accuracy with which i could pick out exactly where a sound was coming from without looking. it was amazing, and as I wondered at this amazing amazement, a fully sensoric euphoria locked in and I was awash with joy in every cell of my body. It passed after about 5 mins, although probably less time, just seemed like 5 mins :p I think this is worthy of a challenge with SSH and will go into the face off challenge towards the end of the week, but it did not get me as high as SSH.

I recommend Resin Haze from Resin Coffeeshop. Although please note I am fully aware, that the Silver Bubblegum and the other weeds I had smoked over the last 2 days contributed towards that experience. I'm not saying it will happen to you after a gram of Resin Haze, but I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed after the gram with the quality of the smoke, just maybe the flavour

1e Hulp on Marnixstraat was the next stop for some Super Haze. This was very nice looking with lots of crystals on the outside and the Amnesia Haze tyype earthy smell floating out of the bag. Breaking the bud gives the citrusy hazy smell you expect. When it comes to smoking it, the taste is pure fruit. The high is very good, much like the sugar rush you get initially after scoffing some fruit, but I can't tell if this is the buds getting stronger, or just me starting to feel the toll of this holiday.

Again, today got more and more hazy and less and less actually got written down. I was definitely going slower than yesterday, although not by a huge amount. I avoided the temptation to do any 1g spliffs, well almost....

The other Rokerij, not by Barney's Greenhouse et al. I am so wrecked as I write this I forget where this coffeeshop is. I've not updated this diary for about 3 coffeeshops so I'll start here, wherever that is, but I've already covered that.. oh dear..

Only option here was Amnesia Haze. Nothing else came close. It's just like all the other Amnesia Hazes I have smoked, very good, but not as high as SSH, but better in many other ways. I'm going for another walk.

Caramello at El Guapo

That's all my diary says on that visit, but luckily, i can remember that bit when I got there...

I popped into El Guapo to get some caramello. i was on a pure weed day, so had no tobacco. Used tobacco substitute. Overall not very successful. Put whole gram in, smoked it, and left. Didn't really get on with the taste combinations, while tobacco substitute has no flavour when used with weed, the greeness stands out against the hash. I was also already completely bolloxed, oh and then smoked that whole gram and went straight off again.

Stopped off lost in Amsterdam to drop in another stones Amnesia Haze I had bought from stojnes cafe into one of their water pipes. I forgot how long those things last. I was smoking orange flavoured goodness for a long time

Then it was off to finish with the "winner". It looks and smells wonderful. Despite all I have said, the high from this is just so fantastic, it has to be the winner.

I have 6 other bags here of weeds I haven't yet mentioned, but as i was too stoned to write in the diary, I was also too stoned to name them, so I have no Idea what they are or where they are from, but they are all very very good.

It's been a good 2 smoking days, and I have to declare SSH from Greenhouse Seeds Haarlemmerstraat as my winner on these 2 crazy days. Let's see what happens over the next few days

Saturday 2nd June

Man, started off with a single pure spliff and it killed me.

had to go back to bed. When I got up again I was a bit of a mess from the previous 2 days. While I could still walk and function normally, i was like a punch drunk boxer, slurring my words. If any of you have ever had to take really strong painkillers that cause you to lose the ability to talk properly, slurry, almost like your mouth muscles have become anaethestised.

There was only one thing for it, carry on smoking..

Took a trip to hill street blues and had some of their hill Street Special. It's a sativa for €9g but you can get 1.2g in a €10 bag. It's a nice little bud.

Today was really about flitting in and out of reality :p

So calmed it right down during the course of the day, using tobacco substitute instead of pure spliffs, but while perfectly normal in function, I was just like someone who has taken too many painkillers, and is having trouble speaking, it was really weird and surreal, but i could communicate with people who spoke english without any issues, but I struggled with people who's english wasn't as good, overall not a bad time, but not the nest I've ever had..

Picked up some very nice G13 haze from Amnesia, this was beautiful. I also got some very nice cheese from Homegrown fantasy. I've got lots more gear I can't place again, didn't really tone it down as much as I was hoping. Sure i was smoking spliffs with substitute, but I wasn't putting in any less gear

Monday 4th June

No I haven't lost a day, I just settled into a nice rythym of smoking and exploring Amsterdam and generally chilling out yesterday, so I decided not to take the notebook as I needed to just wander. I wanted to enjoy each moment, rather than trying to recall everything.

Today was the big one. Myself, Nikita (originally from Ukraine but living in America) and Johnny (originally from S Korea, but now living in America) went out around some coffeeshops to have a smokeoff. There were a few limitations.

We didn't want to walk hundreds of miles, so we excluded a lot of shops by just choosing damrak and and behind to haarlemmerstraat. The idea was to go out and spend around €100 on weed, then have a contest. As usual, we ended up spending more like €200 between us.

Unfortunately, because we were doing this on the quick, we forgot to write down the prices of the weeds, so if people want to fill in the blanks, that would be great. All blues brothers bags were bought in demoniations of 10 and 20 €. The actual price per gram is advertised, so you get the corresponding amount of wieght for your bag. Biggest bag they sell is €40.

Let's start with the list of weeds and an Important note. SSH is not in this line up because Greenhouse is out of stock. This could mean a batch change, and possible change in quality, will try and give as much as I know, as I find out.

1 Nevilles Haze (420) €13g
2 Shiva (420) €9g
3 Resin Haze (Resin) €14g
4 HP13 (Resin) €12g
5 Sour Diesel (Rokerij)
6 Amnesia Haze (Rokerij)
7 Laughing Budda (Rokerij)
8 Arjan Ultra Haze #2 (Greenhouse Seeds) €12g
9 Blue Cheese (Barney's)
10 Mako Haze (De Dampkring/PF)
11 White Russian (De Dampkring/PF)
12 Power Plant (De Dampkring/PF)
13 Orange Bud (Blues Brothers)
14 Cannalope Haze (Blues Brothers)
15 Desert Bud Special (Blues Brothers)
16 Santa Maria (Blues Brothers)

The idea was simple, overly simple as it turned out, and the thought process behind it was even simpler, the idea of the contest sprang to mind as we were out getting all this.

We decided on 3 categories to judge each bud on. Each category is marked with a score of 1-10, 1 low, 10 high. There was always a minimum of 3 judges, but most of the time there was 5 judges. There were often more people, but only 5 allowed to vote, or it would have taken too long to do, and half the world's rainforest would have to be chopped down to provide the neccesary paper.

Categories:

Smell/Appearance

The idea was to judge the bud on how it looks and smells. unfortunately that didn't pan out during testing as some people weren't even bothering to take it out of the bag and were judging on smell alone.

Flavour/Taste

The idea was to judge the flavour of the weed and rate it. This is purely subjective, as it's about whether there is a strong flavour and if it is nice.

Potency/High/Effect

Just different ways of describing the same thing. This was our third and final category.

There was a cross section of smokers, from fairly new smokers, to the odd veteran. As some judges dropped out, others took over, so the judging panel isn't even consistent. we feel this is about as representative as your going to get anyway, as everyone's opinion will vary... or will it.

Here's a brief explanation of the system. You will see:
31 (5) 60%

The first number is the total number of votes. The second is it's number of judges, and the final is the percentage of maximum points it got.

Lets hook up with the results of the first test initially:

Smell/Appearance

1 31 (5) 62%
2 25 (5) 50%
3 21 (5) 42%
4 16 (5} 32%
5 25 (3) 83.3%
6 16 (3) 53.3%
7 16 (5} 32%
8 15 (5) 30%
9 43 (5) 86%
10 30 (5) 60%
11 25 (5) 50%
12 30 (5) 60%
13 21 (3) 70%
14 10 (3) 33.3%
15 12 (3) 40%
16 15 (3) 50%

So this gives us:

1st - Blue Cheese (Barney's)

To be perfectly fair, I think this won on smell alone. Blueberry and Cheese, 2 fantastic Indica's, and absolutely beautiful combined. What a smell, truly must be smelled to be believed.

2nd - Sour Diesel (Rokerij)

Diesel is a favorite of mine, I absolutely love the smell, and so do the other guys, although not quite as much as me it seems

3rd - Orange Bud (Blues Brothers)

Yeah, none of us can work that one out either. Sure it looked nice for Orange Bud, but that is not one of the prettiest weeds. It certainly didn't smell that strong. Oh well, what can we say, we had already got through 12 other varieties first :p


Flavour/Taste

1 26 (5) 52%
2 27 (5) 52.2%
3 34 (5) 68%
4 17 (3} 56.6%
5 33 (5) 66%
6 35 (5) 70%
7 41 (5} 82%
8 29 (5) 58%
9 40 (5) 80%
10 33 (5) 66%
11 32 (5) 64%
12 40 (5) 80%
13 10 (3) 33.3%
14 22 (4) 72.5%
15 20 (5) 40%
16 24 (5) 48%

1st - Laughing Budda (Rokerij)

After finishing 14th in the smell test, imagine our surprise when we smoked this and found it to be the tastiest of all the weeds on trial. This was beautiful.

2nd - Blue Cheese (Barney's) & Power Plant (DampKring/PF)

Well the Blue Cheese really needs no explanation here, as it's magnificent smell translates into a magnificent flavour. Power Plant was a bit of a surprise. just bought as an 'extra' to the premium competition, we were certainly shocked by the flavour of the power plant. it is very powerful. Absolutely wonderful.

incidently, these 2 are the only sets of votes anywhere where all the judges gave the same score, 8 in each case. This is why they were tied, and there is no other instance of this happening anywhere else in the test

Potency/High/Effect

1 19 (5) 38%
2 28 (5) 56%
3 30 (5) 60%
4 18 (3} 60%
5 27 (5) 54%
6 33 (5) 66%
7 33 (5} 66%
8 35 (5) 70%
9 38 (5) 76%
10 32 (5) 64%
11 35 (5) 70%
12 41 (5) 82%
13 14 (3) 50%
14 22 (4) 72.5%
15 30 (5) 60%
16 24 (5) 48%

1st - Laughing Budda (Rokerij)

Where on Earth did this come from? I was trying to think of the best way to describe the high from this weed and here it goes in two words:

Laughing Budda

Really, it does exactly what it says on the tin. You are laughing so hard and smiling so wide, but it's also a mental clarity in there, a knowledge of things, it's an amazing experience. This is definitely one to be smoked with a group of people.

2nd - Blue Cheese (Barney's)

Well what can we say, top 2 in every round. This really is good consistent smoke. I do love this too

3rd - Cannelope Haze (Blues Brothers)

This one scored very consistently in both the flavour and high results, 72.5% in each test puts it very highly up the board.

I must admit to being very disappointed in general by the quality of the highs, but maybe we expected too much from the weed we have purchased.

I was going to do an overall table, but then thought hang on, because some people don't care about the look and smell, only the flavour and high, so how can we award the overall winner?

What I have decided to do is publish the results for the combined flavour and high, and the combined overall, then I will announce my winners from the groups. The weeds I think you should try, and the one's to steer clear of

I'm going to bed now so will update the thread with the results soon

Damn, that's some hard work there. I've learned it's really hard to compare types of weed by strength for me. For example I prefer effect to overall strength. On my last trip, the Black Widow was the strongest, but I found the effect to be very unsocial and therefore I didn't like it all that much. Taste can be tricky too. Some weeds don't taste that great to me inna joint, but are great inna bong. Only the Black Widow and SSH tasted really good inna joint (pure of course). I really enjoy Cheese, but preferably inna bong. The taste doesn't seem to come through to me inna joint. Sounds like you had blast. Thanks for the hard work of reporting, I enjoyed the read.

Some fine note taking and reporting there. Some good heads up ahead of my upcoming trip too which is helpful. Thanks for posting your findings.

Don't mean to argue though but I do find 50g in one day hard to believe....a gram every half hour for over 24 hours!

geoffk wrote:Sure I see your logic. However, I've found that most pot tourists don't know/give a fuck and will buy almost anything with the frame of mind that if it's expensive it's gotta be good. I've found Greenhouse's weed to be spotty; sometimes good or sometimes average. I'm glad you got to enjoy some good stuff.

thats me i guess , as going to dam is a special occasion everytime anyway, i am happy to buy from barneys menu. i could probably get 2 grams elsewahere for the 1 gram i buy, but fuck it, im on holiday and ive got cash to burn, quite litterally.

SoulRider wrote:Monday 4th June

So this gives us:

1st - Blue Cheese (Barney's)

To be perfectly fair, I think this won on smell alone. Blueberry and Cheese, 2 fantastic Indica's, and absolutely beautiful combined. What a smell, truly must be smelled to be believed.

2nd - Sour Diesel (Rokerij)

Diesel is a favorite of mine, I absolutely love the smell, and so do the other guys, although not quite as much as me it seems

ha ha ha, thats a fantastic little competition idea you had there.

cheers for doing it and sharing the results.

barneys blue cheese and rokerij sour diesel are in my top 5 smokes. cheers for confimring that i have fantastic taste in smoke

the WINNER is the WINNER...in this moment the best sativa trip...SSH....
the city of tricoms..............

Davide, the winner is no more the winner.

Upon returning to Greenhouse on the Tuesday before I left for home they had some more SSH in. It was very good, but it wasn't the winner. This was on a par with the SSH from Amnesia, which was still good, but not quite the same.

@Valo

You must come out with me next summer, as this binge smoking is saved for once a year, all my other trips are normal smokes. You'd be surprised how easy it is to smoke that much, especially when you are smoking sativa's of that strength, you just keep on and on.

1 gram is 2 spliffs. This was being smoked pure. It is very easy to do once you get started. I would smoke my gram and be out of most coffeeshops within 20-30 mins. This wasn't about enjoying the smoke, just about smoking as much as possible

Great reports! Really enjoyed them.
Good to see Laughing Buddha doing so well, it's one of my favourites but rarely seems to get any 'props'. There's something about it that just 'clicks' with me and I can't really put my finger on it.
Can't wait to get back to 'dam!

Here are a couple of the pictures I managed to get on this trip before my batteries died.

we have to start with the winner, Super Silver Haze from Greenhouse Harleemerstraat. I have not seen anything like this before, and possibly never will again.

The size and quantity of the crystals were out of this world. Unfortunately, despite taking several hundred photo's on every other trip, i've never taken bud photo's. Excuse the quality, in fact this is the only usable pic, but it gives an idea of how amazing this bud is.

Once this was opened, the large crystals you can see around the edge, were packed inside, this really was a City of Trichomes. The high was unbelievable as I may have mentioned somewhere else in this thread....



Here's a picture of the Route99 Caramello. Looking back on this now, towards the end of my trip, I took more of shine towards this Caremello, as the 420 seems to be a bubble hash :p

This is cut so fine, and it crumbles in, so i don't know if this is too, but Caramello never used to be a bubble hash...



Here's the poorly rolled spliff I mentioned on the first day, after the Caramello and Orange Bud..



and here is the offending Orange Bud...



Hope you enjoyed it all. Unfortunately I had much better plans for the diary, but hey, I got stoned

SoulRider wrote:Simple, if you want good, consistently strong, reliable and well priced weed, you go to a traditional locals place that will sell things like orange bud, white widows, good strong solid dependable reliable weeds. If you want SSH and mind blowing highs or stones, you need to visit the Grey Areas, the Greenhouses etc. A lot of locals may use them, but they are not locals shops.

Regarding the Locals/Tourist shops debate, I believe that the truth is, as is usually the case, somewhere in between.

A local is working from his or her normal budget, and is not going to want to pay boutique prices. So in general, the boutique stuff will be at the tourist shop. However, from time to time, the local shop will have some of the "grower's personal stash." This is reserved to staff and a select few local friends of the staff. And not found at the more commercial, albeit boutique, tourist shops.

Although not a local shop, I believe I came across some of this grower's stash at Grey Area in '06 -- from none other then the DNA Seeds guys own stash, the Martian Mean Green. This stuff was off the charts. Grey Area has a habit of getting very select stuff at times.

The trick is to be at the right place at the right time. For us non-locals/tourists, that is something that we can't control.

!!jOhnnY J!!