So I am sitting in Houston right now waiting for a connecting flight and wondering if those kids that got pulled out of the customs line in front of me are shitting a brick right now, I saw them in Amsterdam hopefully they were smart enough not to fly dirty. O.K. so here it is, I finally made it to the cup, and after tasting 90 percent, if not more of all the coffee shop entries and many of the seed entries I have so much to say, good and bad. I will start with the good things.

First, the weed in Amsterdam is about 50 percent better than it was two years ago. Every shop had great weed and there were some good flavors to be tried. Many places were ten times better than before, both in service and in smoke. I know its hard for the Dutch to deal with so many tourists at times, but one must always remember the hand that feeds them, so being the kindest to traveling patrons should be a no brainer, but I was surprised my first time how pompous and straight dick-headed most people were (at the shops). Luckily I did not have the same experience this time, I met some really cool Dutch people, in and out of the shops, and I will be going there again soon, but not for the herb as much as the place itself, which is a whole different topic. So with that said, oh I guess I didn't mention how beautiful the women are, wow! I love Dutch women, long and blond. Now for the bad.

I assume that most of the bad things are a part of the commercialism and subsequent money involved in the canna industry, so I will at least blame part of it on that. The biggest annoying thing was the mislabeling. I mentioned this before, but holy shit nothing had the right name. Except for the Haze's, they were plentiful and all sucked! I'm sorry if you disagree, but from 3 different Amnesia Haze's, 2 super silver Haze, the Lemon haze that one last year, all tasted crappy, almost moldy.....and that was not only my consensus. Next, every American strain is mislabeled, every single one....trainwreck, og kush, bubba kush, purps, sour diesel, all the strains we pride ourselves on here in the states were horribly represented out there. Shit if I didn't know that og is the best herb out there, and my only experience with it was from a Dutch shop I would think that its shit. I did see some REAL trainwreck there, it was entered under "fishermans kush", but really is the Arcata cut....to a tee. I actually took a gram to a couple of the shop dudes and showed them what trainwreck really is, they all said they have never seen or smelt wreck like that before.......I blame Arjan, don't know him but he obviously doesn't know trainwreck either. The only problem with the wreck, like most of the herb I tasted out there is that it did not possess the flavor it does here, I blame this on the assumed quick flushing in order to have dry product from the cup, but I could be wrong. They did have some og but same deal, not flushed well. Now I am worried about this female seed business and the entire seed business all together. I am so thankful for this site, as besides some of somas I would never buy any dutch seeds....EVER! The people I spoke with at the Cup for the most part had no idea what they were talking about, my favorite question was : "is this the same parent stock that you used ten plus years ago?" Always got a lot of nervousness with that one, so I guess the answer is no. And this question was asked to every seed company, only Swerve from Cali Connect, The Underground dudes from U.k., SOMA, and the big buddah cheese dudes were confident in there response. Basically our industry has a shit load of rip off artists, from the biggest corp like High Times to supposed amazing Dutch breeders. I heard a lot about how these people are trying to invent seeds that feminze and herm to a point of making them unbreedable, but I don't know. THSeeds SUCKS! They had nobody at their booth or store that could answer serious growing questions, and their entry was the worst one I smoked, Dark Star, I gave away all that I had after one hit! It sucked, especially with all their bad press they should be fixing shit. Well I should stop bitching now, so American of me. I will name my five favorite smokes and my three favorite coffee shops.
1. Tahoe Og Kush (Cali Connection): You all know, it was the fire. Only thing that bummed me out was that I did not get a bag to roll around town with, but whatevs it was the shit.......knocked my German friends dad out after one toke, and he was puffing tough all week!

2. Blue Cheese (Big Buddah Seeds): These guys are cool, I dig there vibe and they are all about the best tasting strain. I think there best work is seen in their big buddah cheese, and especially the blue cheese, which I was lucky enough to purchase from them while I was there.

3. NYCD: The biggest problem with this strain is the name, I spoke about it with SOMA and he swears that his product has nothing to do with the Sour Diesel that many of us know and love. Since Jason King ripped on him so hard I have to retort a little after smoking it. Had Soma named this Soma's Grapefruit, or NYC Grapefruit, it would be a sensational hit. This stuff is awesome, it smells so good and tastes amazing! I went back to this strain as much as the cheese........so good and if I were to ever buy Dutch seeds they would be of this from Soma, who swears that the parent stock is still in use and that he won't lose it.

4. Acapulco Gold: Wow, probably not the real Acapulco but it was the shit and only Barney's had it. So sweet and well grown, it was one of the only joints I finished entirely every time I smoked it.

5. "Fishermans Kush" a.k.a Trainwreck. Like I said earlier this was actually real wreck and real good too.

Honorable Mentions: The Cheese, L.A. Con, the "Chem" from Greenhouse that was actually a watered down og. The L.A. con and Strawberry Kush and Kushadelic are all very similar and taste much like the so cal "masters" or bubba.
Coffee Shops:
1. Barneys: They had the most unique herb in Amsterdam the Acapulco and Honey B as well as the Blue Cheese. And the judges pack was full of their sample for free, much more than most shops.

2. Damkring: The Cheese, Blue Cheese, NYCD were all amazing. I did not care much for their cup entry, but whatevs. They have a great atmosphere and good herb abounds.

3. Green House: If only they would stop trying to claim that they have all these amazing American strains, they might of been number one. Really good NYCD and Cheese to be found there.

I must say that beyond Cali I was really impressed with the U.k. It seemed to me that the dudes from Underground and the Cheese dudes are trying to keep their shit straight over there, and I would buy their seeds anytime.