I’m having such a lovely weed Renaissance this week. I have my ID card back, and I’ve had reasons to be in very different parts of town. That means I’ve been able to visit shops that I haven’t seen in a long while. Unfortunately, I’m between cannabis gigs, meaning I don’t get a discount. On the plus side, this makes me go to all shops regardless of their discount policy.
I had a lovely morning with my friend Neil in the cannabis industry. He is very well versed in what’s going on because he is not only a decades-long personal enthusiast but a very savvy industry insider who works in sales. Neil talked about his projects, which span from event planning to organization crafting. I’m hopefully joining him to help with “Queers of Cannabis”, which he started in the interest of promoting LGBT interests in the industry. Neil and I have created LGBT organizations before, so if we get our ducks in a row this will be a snap.
During this extended conversation about the industry, our personal projects, and cannabis in general, we were walking around Fremont. Fremont is an absolutely lovely area in Seattle. It’s one of my favorites to bring people to because I’m so familiar with it. When I first moved to Seattle, I was three minutes away from my favorite Fremont coffee shop by car. I was there almost every day. Not just for coffee, of course. Across the street was one of the best pot shops in town. Have a Heart had a very well stocked and friendly location there for years. Last year it was replaced with a Satori, which I have also had very good experiences with. However, when it was Have a Heart, I was there all the time. The budtenders knew me and we’d have lovely conversations. It was probably what moved me closer and closer to actually joining the industry. The surrounding area is gorgeous, and wonderful to walk around. It’s dotted with cute, independent shops that really show off the local color. There’s also a lovely walk along the water that I take people on. Neil and I wandered this usual path with a great cartridge of Mango Tango passed back and forth.
The end of this trail almost perfectly lines up with Satori. After vaping and gabbing about weed for more than an hour, I really was hankering for a new joint or gram. I said goodbye to Neil and popped in.
Strawberry Cheesecake
Strawberry Cheesecake has been on my radar for a while. I love strawberry strains, specifically Strawberry Cough. Unfortunately, Strawberry Cough has ambiguous genetics. It doesn’t have a for-sure heritage from every grower. I think Strawberry Cough is underutilized for breeding, because I rarely find strains that relate to it. Most strains that are called Strawberry-something aren’t related to ‘Cough in particular.
Anyways, Strawberry Cheesecake is one of those misnomers. It’s made of Chronic, White Widow, and Cheese. I thought I would give it a go. White Widow works with me well and I wasn’t super familiar with how Cheese strains made me feel.
I found this strain completely unremarkable. That is to say, I barely have anything to say about it. I don’t think this profile does much for me, personally. Grinding this flower up didn’t produce much of an attractive smell, it only had a little bit of low-key sweetness to it. No sour or skunky notes. It didn’t smell strongly of weed, so it didn’t excite me. Loading it into my bubbler and smoking it was fine. I think the consistency of the actual flower is good. House of Cultivar is a great brand that I trust. They are actually grown in Seattle in the “SODO” district! I’ve bought many a gram from them, which all looked like very healthy flower. Strawberry Cheesecake was pleseant when I smoked it. The smoke wasn’t particularly sour, smelly, or acerbic. I see how the smell profile of “Strawberry Cheesecake” comes through. The slight cheesy tang mixed with the sweet berry smell does kind of remind me of strawberry cheesecake. It was very slight, though. When I buy a strain for a smell profile, I expect it to be more of a whizz-bang in your face kind of flavor. This was too subtle to fully appreciate.
After smoking, I felt pretty sober. It didn’t’ resolve some of the usual issues I have that are treated with smoking. The way strain profiles effect people vary from person to person, so maybe this would be perfect for someone who totally isn’t me. I’ve been having more anxiety issues recently, and this strain did not relieve them. I tend to have some body pain from anxiety, and I was fully aware that it was still there after smoking. It was very frustrating to not have relief after smoking, when I usually get to feel a lot better. What this strain did do well was keep me focused. I felt very clearheaded. I wasn’t losing focus as much as usual. That really wasn’t what I wanted out of this experience. I got bored really fast. The THC quotient wasn’t strong enough to throw off the lack of interest I felt on this strain.
Thicket Wicket
I really like SubX as a brand. I’ve smoked most of their tasty-sounding strains. I wanted a change, so I picked up a weird-sounding/unappetizing strain instead. Thicket Wicket sounds like a wicker basket. It doesn’t allude to a smell, potency, location, or grow method.
SubX’s Thicket Wicket is made of OG Kush and Trainwreck. I like other Trainwreck strains, like Narnia. OG Kush is relaxed/happy/euphoric, while Trainwreck will give you in-your-face sativa energy and happiness. This should be a cool combination. I think that the OG Kush levels it out a bit too much for my tastes. OG Kush is such a basic strain to use in a new strain that I’m not surprised or excited by the feelings I associate with it. Trainwreck is much more fun, but doesn’t have legs on its own. It’ll slap you in the face, but for a well-rounded smoking experience you will also need a stable terpene profile that amplifies the medical benefits brought on by that sativa-ey-ness.
This was much more interesting than Strawberry Cheesecake, but I was still a little bored. There was a little bit of a buzz to it, but I mostly felt normal and a bit melancholy. I’ve been feeling more bored in general, but weed usually amends that quickly. If I smoke a bowl before a conversation, I’m usually the only one talking for the next 5 minutes. After a bowl of Thicket Wicket I was able to go about my quiet, non-gabby day. I had enough interest in my activities, but no BURST of energy or kick in the ass to get going. Maybe my tolerance is too high to appreciate the classic effects of OG Kush. Maybe I’ve had too many Trainwreck strains to appreciate a calmer version. Either way, I’m not going out of my way to buy this again.
One site writes that the strain is meant to be very effective for medicinal use and can be sedative. I would like to posit that getting high and feeling better is a medical need too, and a stable minded high is just a bit too much like being sober. This didn’t hit many spots for me, but I’m sure people who are more used to this kind of indica would be more into it.
Blue Roots Cannabis Sugar
The only sugar product I have tried before this one was Phat Panda’s Hot Sugar. Companies use different binding techniques to put the THC into/onto sugar, so the products really do vary. I’ve had a good time putting Hot Sugar into my coffee before, but I can never find it when I want it. Satori only had this kind of sugar.
I asked the budtenders what they thought about Indica vs. Sativa when it comes to edibles. Budtenders and industry people know that when you get the THC to put in an edible the plant is stripped of it’s natural terpene profile. Anyone who is selling you an “Indica” edible or a “Sativa” edible is lying.
So I like hearing what budtenders have to say about this and seeing if they lie to me. Satori’s budtenders did well. They said that they don’t think that there is a difference but people who trust the placebo effect of TRYING to get products that make sense for their individual uses is valuable. I can hang with that.
So I bought these two sugar packets, intending on putting them on my morning coffee. I kept forgetting to use them, until one particularly hard day. I was stressed and anxious for no real reason, and I decided that adding a few milligrams of THC would probably help. It was late in the evening, so I opted to put the sugar on my ice cream. A little crunchy, but it’s all dessert, right?
WRONG. Blue Roots Sugar ruined my ice cream! It was truly a gross experience. I soldiered on and ate a full bowl (there’s weed in there!), but I did not have a good time. The “flavor” of the sugar is very lightly sweet, with an overwhelming chemical-weed-garbage flavor. The garbage flavor was so pervasive that it was absorbed deep into the ice cream, contaminating the first half inch. Have you ever had ice cream that tastes bad? I was super motivated to finish the plate because I wanted the full experience of the edible, but it was beyond empty calories. I felt fat and stupid for eating a very high calorie garbage snack.
Let’s check out Blue Roots Cannabis. They seem to be a big producer. Their website lists 19 different strains, including classics like Granddaddy Purple and new trends like The Sweeties and Wedding Cake. The site allows you to sort them by terpene profile, which is a really neat idea! Blue Root’s site also has a page for extracts and edibles. These pages don’t list the individual products they sell, but explain why whatever they make is going to be great. There’s no concrete facts about why, but there are a lot of cannabis words and “quality” is in there a few times. There are different pictures of concentrates on the page, which also let me know that many of the kinds of concentrates used a propane or propane/butane extraction method.
This can be potentially problematic. Butane extractions can be safe, but there is an added risk of residual butane staying in the extraction. It is definitely something to avoid, or at least look out for. When choosing a concentrate, you should always look at the label for as much information as possible.
The label on Blue Roots Sugar also lets me know that it was made with a Butane/Propane extraction system. Maybe that is the major difference in flavor. I’d be interested to know Hot Sugar’s extraction process. Either way, Hot Sugar doesn’t taste like weed garbage and has my vote for “most edible edible sugar”.
Thank you so much for joining me this week. In the coming week there will be many changes to the website. I found another website with an almost identical name, so I’d like to rebrand. I was thinking of “Hot Air”. I like how it sounds. Anyways, that shouldn’t terribly delay next week’s article. It will probably be another haul from a pot shop, but I’d also like to get back to paraphernalia articles.
Thank you for reading!
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