For me the smell is the tell. If I sniff a bud, and it smells strong, then I crush it for a blunt/bowl, and I'm surrounded by goodness (or foulness, lol), I expect it to smoke like fire. No matter how good buds, look, if they don't smell, I don't expect much from them.
I remember going to Newark ~95, and the best buds were called "Pep". I never knew why till I smoked on some SSH #2, and it tasted like black pepper and cheese and skunk

Another case of a name jsut being thrown out. I'm sure someone had peppery buds, and someone else took the name and ran with it. The buds I was seeing were killer - very much like (if not the same , it WAS 13+ yrs ago) the buds from across the river (uptown NYC).
For me, even growing, the smell is the tell. My fave plant is the one that smells like pif. Oudoors, my faves were the plants that smelled like bubblegum haze (shit x ssh), the roadkill plant (Shit), Skunky McTropicalfruit (Spice), and tropicalfruit/pencil shavings lime haze (spice x ssh). I also liked (but not as much) the vanilla/incense (Aurora B), mango funk (Mango Widow), and purple earth (spice x ssh). I had a Spice that I didn't mind the smoke, tasted a lil like hairspray. But chewing on the stems as you roll was like spraying a can of aqua net in your mouth for ~2-3 seconds. Enough for a firm, all day hold.
The smell is the tell
