AAA vs AAAA Weed: What the Flower Grades Mean

AAA vs AAAA weed comes down to bud quality. AAAA is the higher grade, with denser, frostier, more closely trimmed buds and a stronger smell, and AAA is one step below it at a lower price per gram. The letters are seller language, not an official standard, so each store decides what earns the extra A.

Are weed grades official?

No. Canada has no government grading system for cannabis. Under the Cannabis Regulations, the label on legal dried flower has to show Total THC and Total CBD in milligrams per gram (180 mg/g is 18%), along with the net weight, the lot number and a health warning. Health Canada’s guide to reading a cannabis label lists every required item, and none of them is a quality grade.

The letter scale, four steps from A up to AAAA, isn’t an official standard. It’s a sellers’ scale that many online stores use. Each seller grades its own flower by look, smell and trim, so one store’s AAAA can be another store’s AAA. None of that involves a lab test, so a grade tells you nothing certain about THC.

Flower also gets sorted by type, strain and form, which different kinds of weed covers.

AAA vs AAAA side by side

Quad weed is slang for AAAA, four As, and trips is slang for AAA. Some sellers add AAAA+ for what they call their best batches. With no standard behind the scale, the plus means whatever that seller decides.

What sellers mean	AA	AAA	AAAA (quad)	AAAA+
Bud density	Small, loose, airy buds	Firm, medium to large buds	Dense buds, heavy for their size	The seller’s pick of its AAAA
Trim	Rough, some leaf left on	Neat, a few small leaves	Tight, close to the bud	Same as AAAA
Trichome coverage	Light	Even frost	Heavy frost, buds look sugared	Same as AAAA or heavier
Smell	Mild	Clear strain smell	Strong as soon as the bag opens	Same as AAAA or stronger
Price per gram at Baller Club (baseline)	Not sold here	$2.86 to $4.29	$3.57 to $5.00	Not sold here

At Baller Club, every AAA and AAAA strain is indoor grown and slow cured. That puts the difference between our two grades in the buds themselves: their size, their density and how much frost they carry. The AAA flower and AAAA flower pages show what’s in stock in each grade.

What the step up costs per gram

These are our baseline prices. A few strains in each grade cost more, and every listing shows its own price.

Size	AAA	AAA per gram	AAAA	AAAA per gram
7 g	$30	$4.29	$35	$5.00
14 g	$50	$3.57	$60	$4.29
28 g	$80	$2.86	$100	$3.57

AAAA costs about 71 cents more per gram than AAA at every size. Moving up one size, from 7 g to 14 g or from 14 g to 28 g, saves the same 71 cents a gram. So a 14 g of AAAA costs the same per gram as a 7 g of AAA, and an ounce of AAAA costs the same per gram as a half ounce of AAA.

We sell both grades side by side in 7, 14 and 28 g. If you can’t decide, a 7 g of each lets you set them next to each other and run the checks below. For what flower costs across Canada and how to compare by THC, see how much does weed cost?

How to judge flower yourself

These checks work on any bag, whatever letters it carries.

• Look: dense buds, a close trim and a coat of frost. That frost is trichomes, the tiny glands where the plant makes and stores THC and terpenes. Dull, brown or faded buds are past their best.
• Smell: a strong, clear smell when the bag opens. A faint, flat or hay-like smell can mean the aroma has faded with age or poor drying. What does weed smell like? covers the smells themselves.
• Mould: a musty, damp smell or white or grey fuzz can mean mould. Don’t use mouldy flower.
• Cure and moisture: a small stem should snap rather than bend. Buds that feel spongy are too wet, and buds that crumble to dust are too dry.
• Stems and seeds: thick stems add weight you pay for. Seeds mean the plant was pollinated, and top-grade flower shouldn’t have any.

Which grade should you buy?

A grade rates how flower looks, smells and is trimmed, so the choice comes down to how much those things are worth to you. At our baseline prices, AAAA costs $5 more than AAA for 7 g, $10 more for 14 g and $20 more for 28 g.

• AAAA: our top grade, for dense buds, heavy frost and a strong smell as soon as the bag opens.
• AAA: for firm, neatly trimmed buds with a clear strain smell, at a lower price per gram. An ounce is $80 at baseline, against $100 for AAAA.
• A strain in mind: start there. Every flower listing has a Product Details table with its grade, grow method, cure and flavour notes.

How to keep flower at its grade

Smell is one of the things a grade is judged on, and it fades faster than THC. In a 2020 study of stored cannabis, the average level of terpenes, the compounds behind the smell, fell by more than half within four months, and ground samples kept less than whole buds. Storage can’t stop that, but in the same study whole buds kept cool held up best.

• Keep buds whole and grind only what you’re about to use.
• Store them in an airtight glass jar somewhere cool and dark.
• Leave the humidity pack in. Every order with flower ships with one, and it keeps the buds from drying out.

Does weed expire? covers jars, humidity and why freezing flower is a bad idea.

Exotic, za, gas and mids

These words show up beside grades, but none of them is a grade.

• Exotic, za or zaza: za is short for exotic. Sellers use these words for strains they present as rare or new, and they can sit on AAA or AAAA.
• Gas: a sharp, fuel-like smell. People also say gas weed to mean top-shelf flower.
• Top shelf: the best flower a seller has, so it changes from store to store. Ours is AAAA.
• Mids: middle-quality weed, around the AA mark on the letter scale.

A bag called za still has to pass the checks above. More terms are in our slang for weed guide.

Common questions

What is the difference between AAA and AAAA?

AAAA, or quad, has denser, frostier, more closely trimmed buds and a stronger smell than AAA. AAA, or trips, is one step below it and costs less per gram. No official standard sets the grades, so each seller decides where the line between them falls.

What does AAAA mean?

AAAA, or quad, is the top grade on the four-step letter scale that Canadian online sellers use for flower. It means dense, closely trimmed, frosty buds with a strong smell, as judged by the seller.

What does AAAA+ mean?

AAAA+ is a label some sellers add for what they call their best batches of AAAA. There’s no standard behind the letter grades, so the plus means whatever that seller decides. AAAA is the top grade we sell.

What does AAA grade weed mean?

AAA, or trips, is the grade one step below AAAA. It means firm, neatly trimmed buds with even frost and a clear strain smell, as judged by the seller, at a lower price per gram than AAAA.

Is AAA weed good?

AAA is the second highest of the four letter grades, above AA and A. Next to AAAA, its buds are less dense and less frosty, and it costs less per gram. Every seller grades its own flower, so run the checks above on any bag.

Is AAA weed mids?

Not usually, because mids means middle-quality weed, around AA on the letter scale. AAA, or trips, sits one step higher, with firm, neatly trimmed buds and a clear strain smell. Sellers set their own grades, though, and some do call AAA mids.

Is AAAA weed stronger than AAA?

Not necessarily. Grades rate how flower looks and smells, not its lab-tested THC, so a AAA strain can test higher than a AAAA one.

What is zaza?

Zaza, or za, is slang for exotic weed: strains a seller presents as rare, new or premium. It’s a sales word with no fixed meaning, so judge the buds the way you would any other flower.

What is AA weed?

AA is the grade below AAA, with smaller, looser buds, a rougher trim and less frost, and it sells for less. We don’t carry AA. Our flower starts at AAA.