We had no difficulty picking this year's winners. As soon as I tasted the King Hassan Supreme hash from the Green House I realized I was smoking perhaps the finest hashish in the world. Besides the smooth draw, the sweet exotic taste, the high was the best I got during the week. By the end of the week I was smoking mostly King Hassan. This hash was brought in especially for the Cup, and was in very short supply, only enough for the judges to taste. When I turned Stephen Gaskin on to it, he kept wanting more! Who wouldn't! The small judge's baggie had a two inch thin thread of dark reddish brown hash. Fortunately after two or three hits you've had enough for a while. It was the crowd favorite winning the Cannabis Cup for the best imported hashish. Now about that trip to Morocco, there's this valley in the Rif Mountains we need to visit....
Of course someone else (Red Bud) prefers grass. Again the preference was for a Green House entry, the Super Silver Haze. Again we picked a winner as it won the Cannabis Cup for the best hydro entry. I must say that we didn't get to sample everything. I think that would take at least a month to do justice to all the fine entries.
I met a guy from B.C. (British Colombia) who was disappointed that none of the Dutch sensi knocked him on his ass. He admitted that he only smokes bio which means he didn't try any of the great hydro that Holland grows. Of course he was implying that Dutch cannabis isn't quite as good as what is grown in B.C.
We must mention that the Dutch have finally mastered the art of making hashish. The number and quality of the nederhash entries attest to this. Varying from a light blond, almost white hash to dark black, these rank with the finest imports and are as potent as any cannabis product can be. They are almost pure THC. A word of warning; there are greenish nederhashes which are of poorer quality with more plant matter, avoid them. My favorite comes not from the Cannabis Cup, but from a small coffeeshop in Haarlem (15 minutes from Amsterdam) which I stumbled upon one evening when I got lost. I spent a couple of hours trying to find it again, then I remembered I had a card from the shop. Their nederhash was the lightest and tastiest I have found.
The fierce competition among the coffeeshops for the best cannabis was exceeded only by their enthusiasm to be voted best coffeeshop. This honor is bestowed taking into consideration the many factors that make up a coffeeshop including the decor, the ambiance, the friendliness and knowledge of the staff, the music, the other delectibles including food and drink, and of course their cannabis products. After our visit (and several follow-up visits) to the new Green House Centrum in the Red Light district, we were very impressed with the design, ambiance, staff, and friendliness of the place. I was most impressed with the in detailed rap I got on each of their entries in my judge's kit. Once again we picked the winner as the Green House was voted the best Coffeeshop.
We
would like to commend all the Dutch coffeeshops for providing safe environments,
quality products and friendly service. They have had to put up with
a lot of shit from governments, including everchanging laws and arcane
licensing systems,
We hope that this report has made your lungs water for some of this wonderful smoke that we enjoyed here. It is unfortnate that the Dutch can't share this cornucopia of cannabis with the rest of the world. Perhaps one day it will be freely traded in a world without borders. Until that time you can always plan a trip to Holland, visit Amsterdam and re-live this event for yourselves.
Hippyland does not encourage any illegal activity. We do advocate that know your local laws concerning cannabis and that you get involved in changing those laws. As Stephen Gaskin says "We are the people, we pay taxes, we have families, we are law abiding in everyway, except that we smoke cannabis. What gives the non-smokers the right to dictate our lifestyle?"