There are a few tips to looking fo the best asparagus. 1. Look for uniform size. When the bundle at the store has some thin and some thicker ones, it's hard to cook the veggies evenly. 2. Look at the tips to make sure they look crisp and fresh. No wet ends, no soggy looking tips. 3. Look at the bottom and make sure that there isn't too much of the stalk that you will be cutting off. As noted above, you will cut off the white section so if there is a lot of the white, you are going to be cutting that off and tossing it. Move to the next batch if that's what yours looks like.