Favorite: Coffeeshop Club Media

During our last trip to Amsterdam, we discovered a coffeeshop we'd never been to before: the Coffeeshop Club Media. To make a long story short, this was the highlight of our trip to Dam, and we wanted to share it with you for several reasons.

To explain why we enjoyed this coffee so much, we need to take a look at the current situation of the coffeeshops. The existence of coffeehouses is tolerated today and the sale of cannabis is permitted there, up to a maximum of 5 grams per person. However, the coffee shops are supplied through the black market, forcing owners to deal directly or through intermediaries with an unregulated criminal market. Furthermore, Amsterdam has recently cracked down on coffee shops in the city center and closed about a hundred of them, including the Baba for connoisseurs, which has reopened in the western part of the city. The reasons given were to clean up the Red Light District—and, on a larger scale, downtown Amsterdam—and to make way for more «acceptable» businesses.

All this is to say that today, it’s really the customer who’s paying the price for this situation, with product quality that isn’t necessarily improving (since the market isn’t regulated, coffee shop owners don’t always have a say in which products they carry) and prices that, on the other hand, keep going up. We’re seeing menus more and more often with prices between 12 and 16€ per gram of weed, whereas five years ago it was generally between 8 and 12€ (and it already hurt to shell out 12€ per gram back then, but hey, it was Dam).

So how are the coffeeshops responding? They’re doing everything they can to stand out. Some are bringing in big brands (like GreenHouse or Barney’s, for example), while others are choosing to offer high-quality products at prices lower than those in the city center. That’s how we discovered the Coffeeshop Club Media, which likely embodies the future of Amsterdam’s «good» coffeeshops.

The Coffeeshop Club Media is located in the «De Pijp» neighborhood, a former working-class district, not far from the famous Albert Cuyp Market. “Off the beaten path” isn’t quite the right phrase—it’s a 5-minute walk from the Heineken Experience and a 10-minute tram ride from the train station.

The owners of the coffee shop are no strangers to the cannabis market. Jeroen and Gio are the former top executives at Sensi Seeds, where they worked for over 10 years. Gio is also the son of Ben Dronkers, founder of Sensi Seeds and a pioneer in the hemp and cannabis industry in Europe.

Their experience in the industry is evident on the menu. Their main priority is to offer their customers high-quality products at reasonable prices. Most of the weed and hash on offer are organically grown. Prices rarely exceed €12 per gram for weed and €9 for hash. Exceptions are made for premium-quality products or’Ice-O-lator. We recommend Pineapple and Champagne Haze, as well as Pure Kush Hashish (reserved for «regulars» 😉 ).

Jeroen and Gio are also concerned about their clientele. Club Media offers a bright, clean, and relaxed atmosphere—a world away from the cliché of a dimly lit coffee shop with throbbing reggae music. This is also because most of their customers are locals from the Amsterdam neighborhood, and they care deeply about them. Locals must be members of the Club to enter, which is a good way to attract a clientele that comes back daily—or almost daily. Tourists are welcome, provided, of course, that they respect other patrons and are «presentable.».

And that’s what we’d like to see more often: cozy coffee shops with high-quality products and attractive prices. People often say you get what you pay for. So this proves that you can get good weed without breaking the bank.