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Sorry that wasn't directed towards you personally, but I concur I could have worded it a bit friendlier
Anyway, I think if you'll take time to read it, you'll see that I have some pretty valid points.
As I said I do largely agree with what you said about hash outside of Amsterdam, but the Dutch as a nation, just are not as into cannabis culture as are many of the "cannaseurs" who flock to Amsterdam as tourists and expats alike, that alone enough is to drive a superior product in Amsterdam, I would say. But having smoked in other Dutch towns, I've always managed to find something I was impressed with, but honestly nothing that surpassed Amsterdam bud in quality or even more underwhelmingly price/value, which I thought for sure would be the case.
Example, the best hash or weed I've procured outside of 'Dam was some "000" hash from coffeeshop t' Grasje in Utrecht (one of my favorite CS in all of NL btw), but it still cost a whopping 17.50 a gram. And granted 'twas great stuff, but I definitely could have got something more potent, and exotic in 'Dam for a few euro less on the gram.
No offense was intended, so apologies please disregard the opening statement as I said.
At the end of the day the best weed in NL is not in Amsterdam or any other city, it's all over, just not in any coffeeshop, but rather somebody's closet, oh so heady garden - I think we can all agree on that, no? ...can't we all just get a bong?!
lol shit bro, I am one moody motherfckr at 8am, thought you were talking directly to the comment I just left about it being cheaper further south. I should probably have backed that up with some examples lol...
I can only speak from experience and what I found is that it's cheaper the further south you go but that the quality goes down along with that unless you find some awesome old A5 or Nevs or similar. For the most part you still see a lot of PP and WW.
Hash quality is better overall (but perhaps not absolutely) in some southern places (like the port of Rotterdam which is also home to a freaken huge Maroc community ) so like in 85% of shops as opposed to Adams 10% you will find good, fairly clean, old school Maroc ...but often nothing special until you start digging, it is there though The best rocky I've had in all of NL was from a co-worker from R'dam, it could barely support the weight of itself at room temp and was seemingly not adulterated at all. You will still find potentially higher grade hashish in Adam as there are still some real hash heads there, many have moved on though to Spain and other sunny places. There is higher grade still in Rotterdam, but even some of the Dutch locals probably arent getting that.
I personally dont trust any squidgy import from asia and havent seen anything in a shop that compares to the real deal paki and affie blacks from the mid 90s, charras here (the real thing, not that waxy black shit that sells as charras/malana/whatever the fk else theyre calling it) doesnt exist anymore, or again I havent seen it since the late 90s (when we still had a huge traveling community that would bum taxi it back to us). I do know a guy who is a private seller who had the best import I've seen in year with some Nepalese he had recently, he's a known member on here too so not too hard to locate.
I notice your thoughts on driving standards, it's a 2 part deal that bro, I have this conversation time and time again (with buyers for shops) if it were left to the coffeeshop industry, there would be no movement in quality, more than half of the industrial scale growers here are not cannabis enthusiasts, theyre just money men. So, what drives quality is the well informed tourist coming into town and asking everyday "got cookies, got cookies, got cookies"? Now the bread head CShopWanker will invariably rename some bland nondescript weed (probably PP) cookies or something shady like power cookies or whatever... but people will come and they'll pull the "bah face" (lol I'm having that) so now whats happened is, there is a cookies demand but no actual cookies... thats where small time growers have a huge part to play. They are the ones making those things available (in very limited quantities) but it's those guys the shop owners are desperate to talk to.. which is what I was trying to say earlier even though my brain was still on Wednesday time
Anyway, I'll chalk this one up to not enough coffee and being a moody c*nt
Would be nice to catch up one day and chat, maybe see where we end up, if we can't find a point to agree on, we should be at least be very toasted.
edit: having re-read your entries for this entire thread, I dont even know how we came to exchange words. Are we not actually saying more or less the exact same thing? lmao - small time growers are ace, they bring the fire, c-shops are money making organisms, hash quality is wildly inconsistent depending on who you know, where you go, there are exceptions to those rules. I do stand by the "slightly" cheaper statement. rents outside Adam are cheaper, locals wont pay more than 12/13 even if its fire, wholesale the fkrs still want to pay 5 euros.
Didnt really need to edit this further, but wanted to leave that groovy timestamp
Great response, glad we could leave that as water under the bridge!
Your point are quite valid, but yes in the end the home-grown garden, treated with tender loving care and on a smaller (re: manageable) scale, yield the best final product...
As far as the "hashman" that's around, as a local I would certainly be highly interested in making his acquaintance (I think I already know who and have put some feelers out, but got no bite back), but don't wanna push bounds in this tight-knit community. But if anybody could vouch for me, that would also not go unappreciated in the least
If you're ever around Amsterdam, feel free to give me a shout, I'm always around and keen for a nice heady chat over dab, joint or vape sesh (I'll gladly supply the "coffee").
BTW, sorry if that's too forward for this forum, not sure how things go around here, on ACD where I often reside, it's quite open given the recreational-oriented nature of things, but for obvious reasons more caution is necessary here...
Thanks again for looking past my poorly worded intro earlier!
Interestingly enough again in the nature of friendly debate on the matter, I was chatting with an ACD lad I met up with from the UK. He's been coming to NL and Amsterdam since '89 he tells, been in coffeeshops all across the country - just in this trip he was in Den Haag, Leeuwarden, Amsterdam, Hoorn and Zaandam - so he's got some milage that's for certain.
That being said, I proposed to him is there anywhere right now that can sell weed any cheaper than Boerejongens at the moment - (nice hazes for 9.50 a gram, these new potent block hashes for 8.50 and up a gram, with some of the best being only 9 a gram)? And he said not really, only the other shops which were owned by Boerejongens such as Blue Tomato in Hoorn. That being said the Boerejongens in the centre around Rembrandtplein did up the price on their 9.50 hazes to 11 euros. But the block hashes still remain as cheap as all their other locatons.
I'm curious to here more of your opinion @Jamieshoes aside from Amsterdam, which town do you think has the best coffeeshop scene in NL? Or is there perhaps one single coffeeshop (outside of Amsterdam) that stands head and shoulders above the rest?
I think my favorite that I've been to outside of Amsterdam would have to be t' Grasje.
Awww fuck me still don't have editing privileges, that's a bit of a bummer. I'm high so I realized I'm recycling arguments a bit hehe whoops
Anyway, I don't doubt that Boerejongens is likely dependent on some commercial grows for their weed, so it's still better to stick to the private sources; although I do quite like the block hashes for pressing into rosin!
Today's presses included some Cheese Pollen from Bluebird, she gave a nice yield of a golden brown, very terpy eerl, taste translates decently, though if I'm honest I expected a bit more - jammer! The potency is sure is shit there though!
I love that the Bluebird still has the high grade man, the guy there has always been a hash aficionado of the highest order
My favourite scene outside of Adam is probably Haarlem, and Nols shops. I always loved Haarlem though, the pace of the city, it has everything Adam does but is just a little bit "classy" somehow. The scene in the city near me kinda killed itself a few years ago when the whole tobacco smoking ban came in, most of them (I think under the mayors direction) stopped people consuming entirely in the coffeeshops (some had volcanos but no one was really using them) so its a funny little scenario there, the best shops to hang out in aren't necessarily the best ones to buy from. Strangely, I don't like the city anyway so seldom visit unless I must. A top of the menu haze will set you back up to 13-15 euros there these days too, though if you're local/half local and know the guy he'll often steer you towards an 10 or 11 euro option (which is often better).
Den Haag and R'dam have good old fashioned Moroccan places that carry some fairly decent hashes but not necessarily my scene in terms of places to hang out. Tilburg and Breda have some nice places but most of them won't let us in anymore (wietpass tossers). Toermalijn for example have some nice genetics (I met the lad that works there and got the scoop lol) and even picked up an IC cup last year (for Nicole from Serious Seeds, I think).
Nah bro, the fact remains that for actual "scene" nowhere competes with Adam. You literally have a coffeeshop for all kinds of headspaces... the older I get, the more important this seems to be as well...and as you pointed out in your post, thats where most of the knowledgeable folk (and not so) gravitate.
btw have you noticed if Boeres are still doing the Jungle Haze? and do you have any clue what it might be? - That is the best coffeeshop in all of NL imvho, that and Bij. I remember when the White Choco was 6.50 p/g seriously unbeatable value and (I said this in a thread the other day, hope it wasn't this one) I once took some G13 Cheese from there to meet with people at IC cup (2010 I think) and they couldn't believe it was shop bought.
To be fair, my interest in coffeeshops is slightly different these days, I'm self sufficient so unless it's a diamond piece of imported hash or hanging out with friends, whats on offer has become less and less important. On the rare occasion I am stuck for something, I know a few places I can usually pick up something pretty decent...otherwise I just buy odd buds as a kind of a gauge to see where the market is at.
I'm often in Adam, so I'll definitely give you a shout next couple of weeks...I'll check with that guy if he's around too if you haven't already sorted that.
p.s your mate who's been coming since 89, have you ever had the chance to sit with him and chat about how NL has changed in that time? it's a pretty incredible journey to where we are now... in the last 15 years NL policy is moving backwards :-/ When I first came in 92 (I was such a pup) I was literally mind blown by people openly smoking from foils in the street and on trams, gangs of street dealers who would try to shepherd you into dark allies..walking past cafe IT on a hot day when they had all the doors and windows open and you could see the melee of manflesh orgy right in front of your very eyes... not for the feint of heart lol but you sure as shit knew you'd landed in possibly the most freaky deaky city that there ever could be.... a common sight was 200+ smokers sitting on Dam square, plumes of ganja smoke rising up and policeman on horseback offering you a light...and something called the "The Cannabis Castle"... I'll have to stop now, I'm getting misty... oh yeah, Positronics Misty... how I miss her
Excellent response man! What is "Nol shop" btw? Be interested to learn more about that.
Also I think I have heard things about the Breda and Tilburg places - any specific ones worth checking out (I have a Dutch residence permit at the moment, so hopefully could get in)? As stated don't do coffeeshops aside from hash for rosin pressing, but would be nice to have somewhere to venture off to for the odd cheeky purchase.
Don't think I've tried either of those Boer strains you mentioned but I'll be sure to keep an eye out for 'em next time I go to pick up some block-hash.
That would be great to catch up here in Amsterdam, please do give me a shout, I much look forward to it.
Lastly, about the glory days of Dam, what it once was, you should take look over at the ACD forum site, somewhere buried in there, there's a thread for all the old timers to post their stories of the debauchery of Dam in the 70s, 80s, 90s and even early 2000s, and it is an excellent read - if you're in search of a bit of Amsterdam nostalgia that's your place, does not disappoint!
sweet, I'm off to bury myself in memories for a couple of hours then
p.s a Nol shop is one of the shops owned by activist and hemp plastic producer Nol van Schaik (check him on FB etc) he started the Willy Wortels Workshop back in the day. I think at the moment he has Willy Wortels Sativa, Indica and Hash shops (theyre just named that afaik, each one sells a variety of all 3) - just to give you an idea of what a great scene they were/are creating. I as at an anniversary celebration (at the old workshop) Nol was walking around handing out dried branches of plants (probs 10-20g each) there was a hooker pipe with like 15 tubes coming of it that never went out all night and the amount of merch just tossed on the tables (grinders, skins, pipes, edibles, all kind of crap) was immense... one of the biggest giveaways I ever did see... didnt put my hand in my pocket all night
Ha nice, I sincerely hope you enjoy the read good sir!
Ah the Willy Wortel's shops, I was planning on passing through one of them on my last trip to Haarlem, but my time was cut short so I only made it to Birdy where most of the offerings were meh, but I managed to get some very nice "Sour Diesel" (was something else I think but lekker nonetheless), for around 10 per gram, so I was happy with that purchase.
I'll make a point of checking them out the next time though, any specific hash or weed staples to their menu worth checking out?
TBH I havent been down to Haarlem for maybe a year or so, but they did have a really nice Blue Cheese cut... not devastating strength, but really lovely flavour profile, not sure if it's still kicking about...
The other thing I meant to mention was that another place in Haarlem called Regina (probably under the same ownership) carries most/a lot of the same menu as Boeres.. they used to have the Jungle Haze too... I never did find out what that was..
Ahhh Regina that's the one I was scouring my brain for the name of, indeed it is allegedly owned by the same people that own the two Boerejongens, de Bij and the recently opened and even more recently already closed Coffeeshop DNA in Amsterdam Zuid.
Apparently shots were fired at the property (don't think anyone was there), so the Gemeente decided it was a public-safety hazard and gave it the chop!
Some bullshit, but yes also dumb - their house-brand seedbank is "Amsterdam Genetics" why not call it Coffeeshop Amsterdam Genetics or some shit, but anyway is what it is...
Me? I take it you're already done with that topic according to what you and Amsterdab16 discussed in the meantime. Thought you were caught on the wrong foot before you mentioned it yourself.
Hats off! Sincere and very helpful character then which was my impression before judged by your posts in this thread/section of the forum.
Sorry, can't show any pics as I'm a somewhat digital neandertal and don't like to waste too much lifetime online. So can't really prove anything but am more than okay with that !
My standard looks like this just to give you an impression: organic grown weed(soil), two weeks flush, as less fertilizers as possible and a couple of weeks cure is obligatory.
Weed smelling in a baggy like most of said weed in a tub and not only two or three tasty puffs but pungent taste 'til the end of the reefer of what ever!
Not rocket science to grow proper weed. Agree about the fact you hardly can compare semi-industrial attemps with homegrow operations, especially if in an illegal context.
Just forgot to mention that this time(Have mentioned this a couple of times before though: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7174038&postcount=33 ). As said so bored of this topic.
Visited the Netherlands first in the mid ninetees and agree again with most of what you guys wrote. Cheers for the input!
Think there is rarely a shop selling proper weed and hash, mostly it's leaning to one side in my humble opinion and experience.
Don't know about one at the minute. Rotterdam offers good hashish indeed in general but you won't find any rifman-like stuff there but solid gear at reasonable prices(under 10€), at least at coffeeshops.
what I was originally asking is if any other folk living in NL but not in Adam had anything good or bad to say about their area as sometimes there can be little pockets of excitement that we don't hear about...sometimes...
we did at least mention a couple of shops along the way, Boerejongens came up at least 3 times
When i lived in Den Haag i used to go to meneer Jansen, DizzyDuck, and Creamers...have some more shops there also where you can get real good marrok, but they aren't coffeeshops lolz.
I don't know how is quality overthere now, but i was big fan of dizzyduck for a long time, sometimes i would go to DH from Dam just to "visit: a friend and then pass at dizzyduck...nowadays i can't guarantee anything..more then 2-3 years not really going there...All i can say it's when the coffeeshop get hyped it's gone...it happened to boerejongen, i remember the times when they had White Choco in the menu and you would be lucky to get some if you weren't there on time. For me was paradise, i used to live near so i got the time schedule from the delivery guy and i was always there on time to score my 5 g White Choco...can't say it was hte best weed ever, but who smoked know what i am saying, and it was the White Choco that bringed all the fame to Boerejongens, besides the low prices and quality of products.... Nowadays i don't go anymore to boerejongens...sometimes i give a shot and i always regret my self for doing it. Bij used to be better then boerejongens for a short time....i just think coffeeshops are going to the wrong direction, together with dutch politics.
You mentioned Massawa before, but do you ever give any of the other "classic Maroc" shops in West a go. For example De Bommel, Flashback, Millennium, Bronx, El Massra, etc.?