Voyagers

[Marok21]

Amsterdam Coffeeshop scene changed over the years... I visited Amsterdam for the first time around 2005-2006 and at this point (or a bit before) the coffeeshop scene went downhill. It´s too commercial now... well coffeeshops were always commercial but now it´s on a new level. All these coffeeshop chains for example and how you get treated by the staff many times shows that it´s only like a soulless money making mashine now.

The problem is made by the dutch goverment self... there is no real safety for a coffeeshop owner he can only hope that the goverment let him run his business. With all that Wietpas shit, hunting the growers and so on it was no wonder that many coffeeshop owners said like it´s getting more and more risky so I try to sell my license as long as it is still worth something
So it happens that many of the good shops sold their licenses to for example coffeeshop chains... furthermore the good growers stopped working or have emigrated to countrys with a better law on growing.

What's left are very little good growers and coffeeshops, bigger coffeeshop chains and less quality because many "real criminals" are now involved in the coffeeshops weed game.

All this is made by the dutch goverment itself

For me as a hash guy Amsterdam still offers some great varities and there is no place for me where I have a better selection but as said before the shops are too crowded (also made by the goverment), too comercial and with all that it is another experience than years before. Well it´s still super nice because you simply has the freedom to smoke cannabis open in the city but it is a different than before.

A few shops still try to be a real good coffeeshops for the customers so I don´t want to talk too bad

I miss places like Pinkfloyd, de Graal, Anyday which had a different vibe

[OneHighMofo]

Last time the purple haze was not purple and had really no smell everytime i looked at the lemon bubble it just smelled like "haze". But the haze problem is overall, you can take a look at amnesia,ssh,lemon,s5 or amg haze it has all the same smell. Years ago all the hazes had a different flavor but since years its dead. I would love to smoke cali but thats too expensive

Yeah all hazes do just smell like haze. Though the Purple Haze recently did have heavy purple tinge and reeked of a shoreline type smell. When you consider the Cali against what you get from a shop these days it's not that expensive imho.

I'm surprised at this conversation - one of the primary reasons I still buy haze regulary while in AMS is precisely because I enjoy picking out the various nuances in the available examples.

SSH tastes distinctly metallic to me; sometimes with a subtle strawberry like top-note. SLH - well, lemons of course. Amnesia has an interesting fruity, candy-like marshmallow and sometimes almond/marzipan property (especially the core cut). While Mako haze is on the astringent cat-piss end of the taste spectrum. If I was looking for 'straight' peppery and spicy herbal haze - I'd hunt out a decent Nevilles.

[Marok21]

If I was looking for 'straight' peppery and spicy herbal haze - I'd hunt out a decent Nevilles.

True if it´s grown well it´s THE HAZE for me. Crystal clear head high but to be honest I didn´t saw any really good batch in the last years... just mediocore quality... but there must be somewhere the good stuff

Most people dont know what i mean
Normaly every haze got his own unique flavor. Maybe not the new ones but the old ones like amnesia,silver or supersilver and lemon have there own flavors.

Has it come this far? Seems like I smoked too less weed from coffeeshops in the last time I know that problem from the coffeeshops near the german border but in Amsterdam it was much better in my opinion. There were always a few places that sell weed like it should be (real strain, good taste maybe not enough cured but it was ok)... really sad Hopefully that is only temporarily...

[Nuggz]

Last time the purple haze was not purple and had really no smell everytime i looked at the lemon bubble it just smelled like "haze". But the haze problem is overall, you can take a look at amnesia,ssh,lemon,s5 or amg haze it has all the same smell. Years ago all the hazes had a different flavor but since years its dead. I would love to smoke cali but thats too expensive

Yeah all hazes do just smell like haze. Though the Purple Haze recently did have heavy purple tinge and reeked of a shoreline type smell. When you consider the Cali against what you get from a shop these days it's not that expensive imho.

I'm surprised at this conversation - one of the primary reasons I still buy haze regulary while in AMS is precisely because I enjoy picking out the various nuances in the available examples.

SSH tastes distinctly metallic to me; sometimes with a subtle strawberry like top-note. SLH - well, lemons of course. Amnesia has an interesting fruity, candy-like marshmallow and sometimes almond/marzipan property (especially the core cut). While Mako haze is on the astringent cat-piss end of the taste spectrum. If I was looking for 'straight' peppery and spicy herbal haze - I'd hunt out a decent Nevilles.

Meh, I just get varying degrees of candied lemon-ness from all of them with the exception of a true legit Neville's which is a bit more akin to the true old-school hazes (from what I hear) and certainly to the "East Coast hazes".

Edit: and as say that as someone with a pretty sensitive and refined sense of (weed) smell. I actually can see more variance in appearance/bud-structure. SSH has the most developed calyx formation typically and is slightly pointed/spear-shaped; Amnesia seems to have more rounded buds with medium calyx development; Super Lemon is the most spear-shaped with with dense, not at all swollen calyxes - but they all mostly taste and smell the same to me these days.

[DjShaggy]

I’m going to put my two cents in
1. Amsterdam/Netherlands is the only place you can walk into a shop buy and consume pot or hash in the world
2. When I started smoking 50 years ago pot was named for the region it came from, granted the breeders have created some quality stuff it’s still a name and unless your buying from a controlled market in a legal market you don’t know what your getting.
3. Pot has not gotten any stronger the breeders and growers just eliminated crap pot, the best pot I’ve ever smoked was in Jamaica with a Rasta guy pure black buds no seed his private stash wouldn’t let the other guy I was with have any, he didn’t respect the pot he was in it for the money

try Barcelona it’s sick! Yeah you can’t walk in but you can be walked in, one your in you can fully legally get weed hash and extracts then smoke them all you want. I walked in with a coffee and pastry and got offered a plate while I smoked top shelf for €12 a gram.

Amsterdam is dead and the Dutch government killed it

[DjShaggy]

And they don’t waste our time putting the same buds in different tubs and naming them amnesia,lemon,silver...

[RoMoney]

All these coffeeshop chains for example and how you get treated by the staff many times shows that it´s only like a soulless money making mashine now.

This in my opinion is part of a wider cultural shift. Bars, Cafes, Clothes shops etc. are all becoming chains and due to the economies of scale you get from such large operations they can push smaller more independent outlets out of business. Every city now has the same shit in the city centre, H&M, Starbucks etc. etc.

[RoMoney]

1. Amsterdam/Netherlands is the only place you can walk into a shop buy and consume pot or hash in the world

This one is always the last line of defence I think it no longer applies.......in Spain, you can arrive and get into a club without any hassle. It's literally the same amount of effort as booking a table at a restaurant. US and Canada are also changing the game so I think we need to retire the longstanding, last line of defence

That said I think Amsterdam is still great, people forget the cost of living and average wage in Amsterdam is way higher than Barcelona and while there's a lot of rip off prices there's still value to be found and it's a unique city with a storied history of cannabis tolerance which there's a lot to be said for.

[macky]

@Romoney Canada has long way to go before we have CS (buy and smoke shops)
Can,t figure why a small shop does not go all hash all the time Beside Christiania you will not find any place with that much hash .Think they should have hash cups and take advantage of there strength,s ,leave the seed banks to the Brits and the weed growing to country,s with better climate

[Willjay]

I’m going to put my two cents in
1. Amsterdam/Netherlands is the only place you can walk into a shop buy and consume pot or hash in the world
2. When I started smoking 50 years ago pot was named for the region it came from, granted the breeders have created some quality stuff it’s still a name and unless your buying from a controlled market in a legal market you don’t know what your getting.
3. Pot has not gotten any stronger the breeders and growers just eliminated crap pot, the best pot I’ve ever smoked was in Jamaica with a Rasta guy pure black buds no seed his private stash wouldn’t let the other guy I was with have any, he didn’t respect the pot he was in it for the money

try Barcelona it’s sick! Yeah you can’t walk in but you can be walked in, one your in you can fully legally get weed hash and extracts then smoke them all you want. I walked in with a coffee and pastry and got offered a plate while I smoked top shelf for €12 a gram.

Amsterdam is dead and the Dutch government killed it

I’ve been following Spain here and one day I will travel there and when I’m in the planning stage I’ll PM you for specific info
But as you said you need an invite, doesn’t allow for the spontaneous coffeeshop experience a traveler can have in Amsterdam

[Willjay]

1. Amsterdam/Netherlands is the only place you can walk into a shop buy and consume pot or hash in the world

This one is always the last line of defence I think it no longer applies.......in Spain, you can arrive and get into a club without any hassle. It's literally the same amount of effort as booking a table at a restaurant. US and Canada are also changing the game so I think we need to retire the longstanding, last line of defence

That said I think Amsterdam is still great, people forget the cost of living and average wage in Amsterdam is way higher than Barcelona and while there's a lot of rip off prices there's still value to be found and it's a unique city with a storied history of cannabis tolerance which there's a lot to be said for.

Won’t argue that things are changing but nobody else is there yet, Massachusetts May be the first, however New Jersey’s draft calls for consumption shops, other states are wrestling with consumption while trying to keep the tobacco laws in tact. One of the provenances in Canada states that where tobacco is allowed so will pot

In one year things will be WAY different but we all owe thanks to Amsterdam and the Netherlands for being first and ahead of the times in Cannabis consumption openly and honestly

[Hitthepanda]

as far as Barcelona goes, I literally walked into a club in a very touristy area(Zanzibar club) and was able to go in without an ID, was told I could bring my passport tomorrow

it's a shame to hear everyone is so dissapointed in the general quality nowadays in Netherlands though :\

[Kermit]

Voyagers has certainly upped its Christmas light game this year.

[samuraiwriter]

Voyagers has certainly upped its Christmas light game this year.

Saw that, looked great. Just about two weeks left until I get to see it in person!

[OneHighMofo]

it's a shame to hear everyone is so dissapointed in the general quality nowadays in Netherlands though :\

I never know what all the fuss is about when I hear people bemoaning the loss of the 'good old days'. Honestly I think there's a huge amount of romanticism about it that should perhaps be taken with a pinch of personal perspective and nostalgia laced salt.

I've been travelling to AMS for over 15 years and quite honestly I've never thought that the quality of the weed was up to much for the most part. Quality is up and down like panties in the RLD. Very rarely is a single shop or strain consistent across batches. It's always been that way and always will be. I used to be disappointed by that too. But hobbies over the past decade have taught me that to some degree the variance is to be expected. All growers have their skill levels and their issues - it isn't like following a recipie. Quality varies dependent on the part of the plant the flower is taken from nevermind how well it's grown, kept; or how sensitive the judge's tastebuds are that day.

'Quality' is all in the eye of the beholder in any given moment.