Stone Worktops - Too Much Choice

Today Jan and I visited Bristol Marble to choose a stone worktop for our kitchen.  We went there once before, and looked around their showroom at the paving-slab sized pieces in the display shelves, and the 4" square sample blocks.  Today was a different ballgame.  Now we are confirmed customers we were invited to don the high vis and get into the yard where the real slabs are.  Each piece is around 2.5m by 2.5m square and there must have been over 50 to choose from.  We were accompanied by a very patient man from the office who took on board our likes and dislikes and gave us the guided tour.  I should point here that we were not here to choose a style - these are the actual slabs that could be used to do our kitchen.  if we had chosen one for certain (which we didn't on this occasion), they would have slapped our name on it there and then.

Each slab is 30mm thick, and they have 2 or 3 slabs of each type.  They are cut from the same block so you can see the grain change subtly from one to the next.  After an hour or so we had a list of 12 between us.  After 2 hours this was down to 6.  I photographed the contenders at this point, but with a camera phone, so the pictures really don't do them justice.  I was very systematic, and took a picture or two of the slab, then a picture of the sign with the name.  At this point I was asked if I was an Engineer.......

From these 6, we took home 3 tiny unrespresentative samples to help us decide :

Fantasy Brown
Juparana Persa
Australia Juparana

My favourite is Australia Juparana as it has a satin finish and is therefore not shiny and reflective.  One of my concerns is that we will see reflections of under-cabinet lights, though I am assured by many people that in practice this is not an issue.

Jan's favourite is Fantasy Brown, which I must have secretly known, as it was the only one I took two pictures of.