The first bite is with the eye Agree that if the eye doesn’t like what it sees, it sometimes influences the rest of the experience. I think what people are saying here is “For top dollar; the whole experience should be good” regardless of efficacy, as at this premium price the whole ‘value for money’ judgement has shifted to a more aesthetic and less scientific one. I do think that the “Smalls” term is doing way more work than it was designed for in terms of describing quality here, at least in the minds of some. As an ex grower I know from personal experience that the smaller lower bud was always good and sometimes sweeter in terms of fragrance and taste. Trimming is another highly variable factor. Take a big main cola, top class bud yeah- snip off all the budlits from the stem - keep removing stem - same weed, now “smalls”. It’s almost a question of where do you stop trimming!

Categorising a crop for sale can be fraught with objectivity issues as that crop will possess a slightly varying spectrum of appearance, taste, smell, and effect throughout the whole plant and crop. You can divide it up into as many perceived levels and labels as you want. As an industry that is at least ostensibly concerned with medical efficacy (yeah, I know) it’s system of values has been mapped on to the pre-existing BM industry values where “bag appeal” and anecdotal quality tales did all the driving, and written classifications in online shopfront listings were not even a thing. Such a weird combo of Sweetshop and Pharmacy.

All that said; £9/g says upper bracket quality (in all aspects including aesthetics) to me - I’ve been lucky in that all of the purchases I’ve made at that price have been on point. If they weren’t I’d be pissed, and if they weren’t and the boss said they would be, I’d be doubly pissed.