The catnip plant is not uniformly potent. The buds and flowering tops hold the most oil, the leaves hold a fair amount, and the stems hold almost none. When a product just says "catnip", the honest question is which of those three you are paying for.
This matters because cheap catnip is often mostly stem and coarse leaf, ground up so you cannot tell. It looks like a full bag. It behaves like a weak one.
Why the parts differ
Nepetalactone, the compound cats respond to, is stored in glands on the surface of the leaves and, in higher concentration, on the flowering tops and the buds around them. The stem is structural. It carries water and holds the plant up, and it carries very little of the oil.
So the ranking is not marketing. It is where the plant chose to put its chemistry.
Buds and flowering tops
This is the potent part. As catnip comes into bloom, the concentration of oil peaks in and around the flowers, which is exactly why growers harvest at first bloom rather than waiting.
Buds also tend to be the part that holds up best over time, especially if they are kept whole rather than crushed, because more of the oil is sealed inside intact glands.
If a product specifies buds or flowering tops, that is a good sign. It is the most expensive part to supply, so sellers advertise it when it is there.
Leaves
Leaves carry a decent amount of oil and are the standard component of most dried catnip. Good-quality leaf, dried in the dark and kept sealed, works perfectly well.
The catch is that leaf is easy to degrade. Dried in sunlight, stored warm, or crushed to powder, it loses its oil quickly. So "leaf" can mean a strong herb or a tired one, depending entirely on handling.
Stems
Stems are filler. They add weight and volume without adding much scent. A bag heavy with chopped stem looks generous and does very little for the cat.
This is one of the ways low-end catnip pads out its numbers. Grinding the whole plant, stems included, makes a cheaper product that measures the same on the label and underperforms in the toy.
How to read a bag or a toy
- Named part beats no name. "Buds", "flowering tops", or "leaf" tells you something. "Catnip" alone does not.
- Look at the mix. Visible woody bits and long fibrous pieces mean stem content. Fine green material with flower clusters is a better sign.
- Colour and smell still rule. Bright green and sharp is potent. Brown and hay-like is spent, regardless of which part it started as.
- Powder hides everything. Once the plant is ground to dust, you cannot see what is in it, and dust fades fastest anyway.
Why this decides how a toy performs
Two toys can both say "filled with catnip" and behave nothing alike. One holds 30g of whole buds. The other holds a few grams of ground whole-plant, stems and all. The label does not separate them. The cat does, immediately.
That is why we are specific about it: Le Croissant is filled with organic catnip buds, plus Silver Vine fruit, kept whole and packed at 30g or more inside reinforced OEKO-TEX cotton. Buds because that is where the oil is, whole because that is how it stays there, and enough of it that the toy has something left to give in six months.