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This question is age old, and you can drive yourself mad trying to figure out indica vs. sativa vs. hybrid vs. bio vs. organic vs. outdoor.

1. I highly suggest using Leafly. It will give you a general idea. After all, your chemical composition in your body is different than anyone else's chemical composition, so what will make you giggle will make another person contemplate life.

2. After use try to use Leafly a few times, you will realize how utterly hopeful it is to use. You will sit at a table for 15 min. trying to read about different strains, and all the time you could have been enjoying them. Keep Leafly to read about AFTER you smoke.

3. Ask the BT to purchase in .5 g increments. Then you get a wide, wide sampling. Try different strains. See what they do to you. The people with you will also have an effect on you.

4. Chat with the BT. They are generally nice and helpful. The woman at CS Yo-Yo seemed pretty distant until I started chatting with her. Then, what is this??? She just got a big bowl of Northern Lights in fresh from drying, and I could pick some good buds out of it if I liked while she sat and packaged it. The boyfriend of one of the owners at La Tertulia was fairly distant until I chatting with him selling geodes at Noordermarkt. Then he was super friendly and strangely enough remembered me. Chat with the BT. After establishing that you are friendly and nice, the BTs I've met will generally tell you either (1) they don't smoke [like the big dude at Rusland]; or (2) XYZ is very good, like the female BT at Paradox when chatting with me about the pre-rolled haze joints; or (3) XYZ is new and really popular. Make a new friend.

5. Enjoy. You are smoking freaking weed that is offered on a menu like a restaurant. It is a rare experience that I find hardly anyone who has not visited AMS will appreciate or understand. YOu will be in a rare group of people. Be prepared for it to diminish your future purchases when you return to the UK or wherever. There is just something special about ordering off of a menu and knowing it all is just a bit different in a very, very good way.

6. Return to this forum and share your experience. Take photos b/c we are all junkies that like to live vicariously through one another's experiences.

Thanks LLMReb. Some interesting advice there.

Chatting in the way you describe to the budtenders, friendly, curious, respectful, is pretty much exactly what I'd hoped to be able to do. Especially if I go down early in the day when it's hopefully not too busy and they have a bit of time.

I like the idea of .5 g increments. Like weed tapas

Pintxos. I'm more of a Bilbao person.

edit: never mind

HighTonePlaces wrote:
Chatting in the way you describe to the budtenders, friendly, curious, respectful, is pretty much exactly what I'd hoped to be able to do. Especially if I go down early in the day when it's hopefully not too busy and they have a bit of time.

Great advice from LLMreb.
Just don't expect a convo at green place, those guys will bare faced lie to you about strains. I tested them twice this time asking questions I knew the answer to. Both times they have me an answer I knew to be incorrect about the genetics / breeder / seed bank of a particular strain. I asked a leading question that they simply agreed with - knowing it was wrong.

Asshats. Each and every one of them

Are you sure they actually knew it was wrong? I've often thought that there must be a rule book for budtenders somewhere that requires them to agree with customers at all times when asked about anything factual. It drove me mad, particularly on my last trip, when I was trying to find out something about the mystery of the sticky AM Block.

Unfortunately yes - I asked two different bud tenders about the Alien Technology and whether it was the strain from Ocean Grown Seeds in California that's becoming one of the up and coming trend-setters on the west coast. They both replied yes - which isn't true at all.

The OGS strain I was referring to is actually called Alien Rift.
The Alien Tech is supposedly some Afghani landrace strain brought back by an American GI.

I think they (here at GP) definitely agree with customers just to make a sale.
It's just lazy and merciless profiteering. "I don't know" is just as informative.

OneHighMofo wrote:

HighTonePlaces wrote:
Chatting in the way you describe to the budtenders, friendly, curious, respectful, is pretty much exactly what I'd hoped to be able to do. Especially if I go down early in the day when it's hopefully not too busy and they have a bit of time.

Great advice from LLMreb.
Just don't expect a convo at green place, those guys will bare faced lie to you about strains. I tested them twice this time asking questions I knew the answer to. Both times they have me an answer I knew to be incorrect about the genetics / breeder / seed bank of a particular strain. I asked a leading question that they simply agreed with - knowing it was wrong.

Asshats. Each and every one of them

Sad to hear.

In my experience am with FatOldDwarf, sorry. Outside of Dam they tend to laugh at you if you're asking for certain highs, been there done that a lot(as laughed back at them)by the way. Trial and error then just go with your instinct, good luck!

If you don't know a budtender personally for a long time never forget this, too: DC, who was/is member on here was budtender and then later manager of Nes(Rest In Peace! viewtopic.php?t=498 )expressed it well:

DC wrote: Example. The owner comes in with the restock, hands you a bag of haze, it's shit haze......you know it and he knows it, but it's you that has to stand there and convince the customers otherwise. The question is...are you a stoner, or are ya gonna do yer job?.

(from: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11294&p=123086&hilit#top )

Jesscass wrote:In my experience am with FatOldDwarf, sorry. Outside of Dam they tend to laugh at you if you're asking for certain highs, been there done that a lot(as laughed back at them)by the way. Trial and error then just go with your instinct, good luck!

If you don't know a budtender personally for a long time never forget this, too: DC, who was/is member on here was budtender and then later manager of Nes(Rest In Peace! viewtopic.php?t=498 )expressed it well:

DC wrote: Example. The owner comes in with the restock, hands you a bag of haze, it's shit haze......you know it and he knows it, but it's you that has to stand there and convince the customers otherwise. The question is...are you a stoner, or are ya gonna do yer job?.

(from: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11294&p=123086&hilit#top )

Thanks for the input Jesscass. I suppose there are always going to be commercial pressures working against customer service, especially in a transitory, tourist-intensive market where repeat custom is less expected.

I think I'll have a go at asking a few questions and getting some advice as I'm looking at it as kind of an experiment now. I have a little more knowledge to back myself up now and I'll make the final (reasonably informed?) choices myself.