Last week.Jesscass wrote: ↑Tue 8th May 2018 06:36 pm While browsing through all the posts on this board regarding this upcoming joint venture I'm wondering what all the fuss is about? Roughly some cry about a mediocre shop lost and others expect the wares to be much better there only because of someone owning a social cannabis club in Barcelona is soon involved.
The most interesting thing to me is not fantasising about what quality is going to be offered here for satisfying the needs of the average selfish druggie and their one dimensional as anti-social ways too often but what sort of impact that will have on the scene/pseudo-industry locally. Crystal clear it's gonna be zero impact for obvious reasons most probably.
Those druggies only thinking about their personal satisfaction are seriously overlooking some quite obvious cognitive bias and barking up the wrong tree. Go figure out for yourself though. Oh my.
In the meantime I say my farewell to Utopia and think they went downhill after that one budtender left ; otherwise it's an average place as I stated before in this thread and I have seen hundreds.
What I find amazing in retrospective is that said budtender back then realised about the signs of times and promoted that place on this board here and probably elsewhere on Social Media so this coffeeshop gained some reputation but taking a closer look it is definitely not unique.
I though remember again their best classic Moroccan when it was introduced as well as their supposedly imported Californian outdoor some years back. Have been in April but didn’t buy so my last purchase was their heavily overpriced Kashmir Dream(20€/g)which was good but not amazing.
So with this joint venture they will become a place like Voyagers and Grey Area and some others for a special offer every now and then ; which to some point they were already before of course but now it's a sorta new brand and people like brands. No essential change though. Would like to be proved wrong so time will tell. Will have a look there soon and report back. Though I have strong hopes for the pilot program of dutch government regarding legal growing for supply of coffeeshops as this is one step in the right direction.
Your thoughts are spot on again, lad! Even though you are obviously no insider but just use common sense to point out certain contexts when others seemingly are a bit stuck in their ways and don't like to think outside of the(ir) box.
However, first thing I noticed when entering was less daylight and a bit of gloominess, always a bad point(exception: Cool Running/ Maastricht). and before it was way better.
Thought there were a few more seats as well which looked a bit cramped in. More seats more money to make I guess.
Noticed they had about 25 strains of weed on, let alone 10 of supposedly 'Cali Flowers'. Hash were about 5-6 items. At the two counters in the back that guy with the beard(and glasses?)showed me what felt like half of the menu although I particularly asked for his recommendations as there was a bit of a que building up ; not that I would care about this too much but I wasn't familar with most of the trendy names.
So he took his time, appreciated.
After six or seven tubs this started to get annoying as I still haven't seen proper gear at this moment yet. Barely remember names but Blue Sherblato, ODV 3, ODV 4, Headbanger were almong them.
Finally decided for some Blue Muffins(15€/g) only beacause of the smell though.
By the way guy at first shoved tubs straight and close under my nose until I told him to stop that as I need to look not only smell as well but I take this as (unconsciously)bad conscience because of the look of his wares.
Saved this for a wake and bake but even though there were weak notes of blueberry and some other more pronounced taste it did not last long tastewise. Other taste I would describe as indeed freshly baked. Effects were only average, too. Well, that could all be autosuggestion/placebo/what ever but that is what I pulled out of my ass that moment of smoking. Back home I wasn't too wrong about it
as it is supposed to be Blueberry x Afghani. What a crazy cross, isn't it?
Although it was a special flavour but not grown good enough I would stick to the BlueCheese(BigBuddha)or Jackberry(Sannies)any time for a full blast of blueberry and other flavours(proper growing considered though)but wait this was from our personal grows.
Especially as this taste wasn't lasting that long let alone too mild in general.
Probably a sign of things to come: it was likely bred for vaporizers so I'm not allowed to judge this, huh? Maybe they soon sell vaporizers as well there and if I buy 5gs I'll get a generous discount of 5%?
Also he showed those supposedly imports from California or fuck knows where across the pond ; Skittelz, hilariously named by the way, and something else. Former one indeed had a unique sweet smell but not powerful and buds looked average – never pay I those prices for such averageness let alone if it was outstanding, get real.
Didn't look at the hash by the way as on one hand trying their supposedly high grade was priority and on the other already got enough elsewhere.
Agree with what Marok21 said about too many strains on when thinking of the limit of 500g allowed in most communities, thought the same when I read the menu ; now been there and almost thinking maybe that spoilt for choice moment when you look at their menu is again sales psychology at its best like 'If you don't find your favourite weed here then probably nowhere else' – my suggestion would be to focus on a couple of strains instead of many average grown stuff by today's coffeeshop standard.
Conclusion: when he showed the first few boxes I already suspected they are fishing in similar waters as other shops in town and after all he showed to me my suspicion was confirmed.
Scraggy, tiny and weak smelling(in a tub, in a tub, in a tub!)and carelessly grown weed too often but up to the standards of today's so called high grade at coffeeshops. I at least expected some nice enough looking and smelling respectively tasting buds
for the first weeks of promotion, oh my.
Background if anyone cares:
So again for understanding my 'disappointment' I have to point out again that we grew our own wiet for our circle(no profit involved as who shares wins) since ages, firstly oudoor and then indoors. Classic curriculum vitae when it comes to my generation.
Well, at least if one was a bit more into it and so sick of black market gear than the
average consumer of said drug. Since I don't have access anymore or anyone of our circle can safely grow since already some years now(safety over improvidence any time!)others and me distanced theirselfes from semi-industrial black market weed.
Reasons are simple as if you consume since a long time, got yourself into that matter in general and experiencied a lot of hassle it is hard to go back to square one and buy random mediocre shit which is so massively available.
Personally for me it is no option(and this thing alone is from my general experience enough for some random people I sat with in a session and not even laughing at their low grade weed to take offence.). Though we stick to mid-top grade imported resin mostly from Morocco until then which is a lame compromise I know but you can't have it all I guess.
Before growing experience coffeeshop wiet was the business to us but only with about one or two indoor grows we were already on par with it and soon left it behind as to grow this little plant is by no means rocket science. Just get your hands dirty a bit and it works out for sure.
Then at the latest in 2010 coffeeshop wiet went down significantly while prices kept on rising until today for a product in our context you produce for 1€(organic by the way which to us not only means using soil as coffeeshops tend to proudly promote, help me.)so is way cheaper with industrial sized grows.
From there on it was only visiting primarly for hashish and some inspiration every now and then weedwise to grow it with dedication then. For sure you can rarely find some nice weed across Nederland but at best it is then as good as the stuff from the era of pre-2010 and so in fact not worth the price they are asking now on the average, let alone it is unregulated stuff of dubious origin.
All and simply enough I'm looking for is in this particular order: potency as I want to get high, pungent taste lasting a whole spliff or what ever no matter which size as well as a smooth smoke thanks to real curing for a few weeks which especially is something I rarely experiencied at coffeeshops if at all but this again make sense as a proper cure needs some time(time varies as straindependent) and time is money – well, at least to them.
Though most of the average customers at coffeeshops in general seem to not notice it anyway and seemingly 'just want something to get high on'.
Especially as the majority of them seemingly have no deeper knowledge and as said before too one can compare this a bit(illegal/legal drug) to beer where a lot of people consume but have no deeper knowledge either(history, brewing and stuff)but are convinced for some reasons while they are plain consumers mostly. Especially as this drug became even more mainstream than before and so a lot of new people now get this low standard of gear and they grow up with it without knowing better if they don't look things up.
Which is the point to me.
As I stated before I roughly distinguish between different opinions regarding available quality:
1. people going for their(annual)holiday with a bit of money involved while personally have been what feels as a hundred times. Also their main point isn't gear and those tend to be not that strict on their reviews ; bit biased as they tend to whitewash their holiday in retrospect as otherwise they had to admit that 'we visited a lot of shops but only got mostly average weed'. They are personally least interesting to me but useful if you want to know what is new on a menu and shit.
2. Tourists with a somewhat dedication to this plant. They're a bit of hit and miss as it of course depends on their general experience as knowledge alone isn't enough and maybe even grow experience helps.
3. Locals living there. In fact the most trustworthy group but unfortunately people are creatures of habits and especially if they have to consume for what ever reason daily(addiction, medicine) they're in my experience too biased as well, especially again if they never grew good wiet themselves as a reference point. They tend to get used to the new standards ; they want to consume so they have to take what's on.
Personally in my experience it's a great advantage not 'having' to consume and being an occassional consumer as while it is annoying to get offered mediocre gear, especially when coming with a shitty price, it is on the other side funny to see the reacion of a dealer when I come up with 'No way I buy that,I rather prefer sobriety. Maybe i come back in a few weeks as I'll try others or just wait until new shit turns up, take care'
For the record, I'm not saying it is essential to have grow experience to judge good weed but it helps a lot. Though – oh shit this world is so complicated and not black&white – I experiencied and met a bunch with varying approaches. One can fuck up everything.
One recent story springs to mind: been to a show lately and at the aftershow party I met a mate who grows since ages and funnily was given some Special Queen#1(Royal Queen Seeds)of his most recent harvest. While talking with him I suddenly remember a 'classic situation' probably every grower can relate to if living where this drug is illegal when I realise that figuratively half of the room is giving me the eye. Varying again from 'Arsehole', 'I want some!', 'Can I get some?' to 'Enjoy!' whille I was thinking 'Buzz creeps up but taste is funny'.
That happened in a big town not a village we were travelling to for the show. Just saying as some people think villages don't doing it drugwise but in my experience they are often flooded because of boredom(no offence intended)there in opposite of oh so trendy and lively big towns ; latter ones only have better infrastructure for some reasons and a few of my best old school connections now living in the countryside.
However, I commented on the weird taste but good potency he admitted that something went a bit wrong when dried. Was pissing myself laughing when I thought about it was still more pungent than what most of the others greedy looks considered(and another sign of their experience when they can't smell the difference)were smoking. Or indeed not smoking.
The weed itsself looked simply not good just because of the fact that mate(genuine drunk but such a positive human being nonetheless and not desperated yet ; must have to do with he makes no secret out of that fact and such honest people I hold in high regard. )grows since ages, even still outdoors and indoors.
Unfortunately he isn't up for a collaboration since years and wants to do his own thing with his closer circle. Pity but appreciated and can relate nonetheless.
Truth is also his weed is always similar to that and what I want to show is that even experience doesn't mean shit as he is doing this since ages. Conlcusion: to err is human and growers are still human beings, right?
Funny fact as well: we too grew that strain as well and it was roughly an ok enough strain ; favourite cut we turnt into a mother smelt and tasted of fresh fruity cake base(not praising this copy cat by the way but in my humble opinion you can almost turn any strain into something worthwile. It may not look amazing and the taste may be boring but at least it can be strong enough and a smooth smoke. It probably then still rivals most of the gear at coffeeshops. Well, our cut would have been on par with most of it and as said it is nothing special regarding lineage.)
Again the world is so complicated when a grower is not growing top gear and a coffeeshop is not selling high grade, oh my.
So of course this is only my opinion and subjective but it is all about tendencies, right?
Another point: been to Spain more than two years ago as too mentioned on here, guided by locals(big city, hint, hint). The gear I tried there reminded me of pre-2010 dutch weed at coffeeshops, prices were ok, most of the stuff going for 7-8€/g, oldschool strains and newer ones. 10€ was the most expensive one and back then this was considered rightly expensive. Only the more tourist ones were already more expensive I was told by growers and people involved but again that 10€ appeared already insane to the locals. Right so!.
The same thing ran its curse what started ages ago in Nederland: more and more tourists visited and brought the money so prices were going up. Locals were pissed off.
So it is a similar situation when it comes to illegal supply in Spain as in Nederland and it shows that you can still produce nice enough gear in an illegal context(though politie in Nederland hunts down grow operations big time since about ten years and is part of the problem but should be not overrated). Though coffeeshops get away with it and as long as people buy it why should coffeeshops not sell it? Looks like in Spain it could be a similar scenario as in Nederland as I see prices rising and all that.
Thats it. So you can say if I even most politely come up with 'Thank you, I don't want to smoke it' when you offer certain wiet to me you shouldn't take it too personally. Of course you can say I'm an
arrogant prat as I obviously think that offered weed isn't good enough to me or I might even think you are a sad desperated creature smoking it as my refusal can imply this(by the way: I'm stating those things since I'm on here and some people seem not to like it but a few of said people state the same and recieve kudos for that. So I say thanks for spreading this very message of decline of quality as it is what counts in the end. Wouldn't mind you grow up though one day.)
Could all imply this for sure as no matter how hard I argue and show different views, at the end you have to accept a different point of view than yours. Though that indeed is the nature of the beast when it comes to language.
For sure it is an opinion and it might not agree with yours about what ever topic so we can talk about it and/or agree to disagree.
In my humble opinion everyone deserves best quality or what he decides for hisself what is his personal idea of quality but in either case just relax.
15-16€ for such weed is just insane considering history as for such a price it just has to be outstanding and particularly looking amazing(may sound ambivalent again but look isn't the most important part to me as other pointed out factors are more essential in the end but at such prices the gear has to be perfect or indeed significantly cheaper!).
Over and out!
Last and least:
Looks like SnelleJonge was rapped over his knuckles. Nice one! Even though I personally regret the motivation. Thanks for the chat archive ; his pussyfootings are too cute as childish as usual, oh my. Also his bitching about others behind their backs there either from coffeeshops or seedbanks only probably because they didn't give out freebies or sandwiches to him yet is classicDeLekkersteNUGS16 wrote: ↑Thu 24th May 2018 10:14 am [...]
Edit: before any fucking delusional whiny bitch (redacted) self-appointedly pious meth-heads try to imply anything, no I'm not just giving props because of the free goods, that dude doesn't even remotely need my help promoting - his business is well taken off already! #PSFuckYouJesscass(hole).
Edit: people's born health conditions are no laughing matter apologies to those offended by my lack of any judgment in the pre-edit comment, that was an inconsiderate and dick move move my part. I sincerely hope eventually bygones will be just that, and if not I've said my piece and there's nothing further that can be done and we'll leave it at that.
but he, as others on here and me included, is obviously no insider. He is such an aggressive and careless person too keen on rubbing salt into the wounds while holding a lot of grudges it seems.
Wonder what caused this fallback regarding his too well known behaviour patterns again? He seemed mentally stable for a while.
Ok, you could say his probalby usual breakfast of a sixpack of Jumbo's cheapest(+one beer as you should have one with every meal!)along with a dab here and there – spiced up with any other drug if money allows - caused all this on a maybe bad day but to me this is too easy as addiction is always only part of a deeper problem.
I would suggest some sort of behaviour therapy again but he seems to still be very against it which is of course part again of his diagnosis and people say people like him should be dumped until they realise they need help but personally I find that quite harsh, especially as he seems so young.
Or is homesickness the reason for not one single sober night in Europe yet? Or is it even…?
Anyways, hope he will find his way and if he needs help I'm ready to give directions this is needless to say as a social fellow citzien and too am a forgiving god as well!
✌
and it´s also not the same vibe as before. When I was there in the early evening it was packed. Even in front of the entrance were a lot people staying around... it wasn´t possible to get a seat so I made a buy and fly. I only saw new staff there but I heard from my mate that he already saw James and Ingie working there so thats a good thing.
I asked the friendly dealer to show me some not so common strains like the EL Chapo (16€/g), Blue Sherblato (16€/g), Thin Mint Cookies and OG#18 (15€/g wich I didn´t saw on a menu for longer while). All looked/smelled pretty good but I decide to try the El Chapo.
