A Look Back at Standout Strains
The first edition Pot Talk ran back in May of 2015, which means we’re coming up on my two year anniversary of writing for the Emerald Magazine! In honor of both this personal landmark and the fact that this is the strain Issue, this edition of Pot Talk is a look back at some of my favorite strains featured in the column over the past two years.
A bit more about the column: Pot Talk is a regular feature where I review cannabis flowers and extracts. I make it a point to feature some background info in each column — ideally, a bit about the farmers, their philosophies, gardening practices and extraction methods (if applicable). Plus, I try to get a bit of background on the strain(s).
Thanks to the Emerald Magazine crew for providing such a great forum to showcase so many of the talented folks and excellent products in our cannabis community. And thanks to all the farmers and extracts artists that have put themselves out there over the past two years for Pot Talk. I have to say, I can’t get enough of meeting farmers and experiencing their products first-hand.
First Up: Overlord from Loompa Farms (Featured in May 2015)
Loompa Farms is a group of boutique growers located in rural Northern California, near the Humboldt-Trinity county line. This Emerald Triangle brand was established by a community-oriented and massively experienced group of “mom and pop” farmers that have been involved in the cannabis industry from the get-go.
Overlord is the hydroponic version of Loompa’s Underdog, their prime OG Kush strain. It’s super OG in appearance and smell, and it’s a knockout — a full-figured indica super model with a fresh, rich and spicy smell — diesel fuel with a hint of ginger and citrus, a sharp and zesty shot of grapefruit with peppery overtones, akin to fresh bay leaves.
The chunky, pyramid-shaped Overlord nugs sparkle like precious gemstones. The color is a lime to pale sage-silver green, like the piercing eyes of the Yeti as seen through a snowstorm in the Trinity Alps. The flavor is rich and musky with hints of mustard and berry. The aftertaste is rich and chocolatey. The effect is a quick and powerful body high. It’s exemplary, if you are down with a brawny hydro OG.
Loompa Farms is online at LoompaFarms.com and on Instagram: @Official_LoompaFarms.
Next Up: Sour Tsunami from Lost Coast Botanicals (Featured in September 2015)
To this day, I rave about that Sour Tsunami sample from Lost Coast Botanicals because it’s a profoundly CBD-rich strain. The ratio of CBD:THC is 20:1, so it doesn’t really get you high. Ginger Anderson from LCB calls it “one of those unicorn strains” because of it’s epic high CBD content.
Oh, how I love the Sour Tsu. That particular sample was gorgeous. The flowers were a rich emerald green that looked wet with trichomes, although the aroma was somewhat unremarkable — citrusy and reminiscent of Pine-Sol with a hint of vanilla. Regardless, a joint of this beautiful, organic cannabis was smooth as silk. That citrusy aroma carried over to a nice flavor, and yeah, it didn’t get me high!
The Sour Tsu brings more of a warm and fuzzy feeling, with no paranoia, excessive tiredness or intense psychoactive effect. I believe it’s a perfect daytime/productive cannabis, the polar opposite of a one-hit-rock-your-world strain. It makes you more present, more calm. In this era of super powerful, mind-altering weed, that is a unicorn trait indeed.
LCB is online LostCoastBotanical.com.
Yet Another Gem: Loopy Fruit from Sunboldt (Featured in October 2015)
Loopy Fruit (Blackberry Kush X Willie’s Wonder) is a proprietary strain from the Sunboldt Grown Cooperative, a Humboldt County farm based in Holmes. It’s glamorous cannabis, bright green and frosty with tufts of hairs ranging in color from rich tawny orange to a bright crimson. The flowers are well-formed, the calyxes almost look braided, there is a symmetry there. The nugs are firm and snappy with the right amount of give.
It smells sharply of fruity blackberry, citrus and pungent kush aromas. The taste is reminiscent of sweet raisin and apple, like a bread pudding. The effect is loopy to the max — an instantaneous lucid inebriation. It gives me a sense of bravery, a desire to go out and behold the world and its natural beauty. It’s creative, happy cannabis — a mind-altering kush blend that does not bring you to fogginess. You gotta try this strain…
Sunboldt Grown is online at sunboldt.com and on Instagram @SunboldtGrown.
Finally: Kaluptos Kush from Terravida Farms (Featured in May 2016)
Terravida Farms is based in the Mattole Valley of Southern Humboldt, between Petrolia and Honeydew. They grew their Kaluptos Kush outdoors from seed right next to a beautiful Eucalyptus grove. Indeed, “Kaluptos” is the Latin name for the little cap that grows over every eucalyptus flower to protect it from the elements. Farmer Jessi B. Rockenbach says, “We think the Eucalyptus smell comes through in this plant, so we named it that to give it that piece of place.”
Kaluptos Kush is Jack Herer crossed with OG, then crossed with Petrolia Headstash. It’s dominant terpenes are Terpinolene, Carophyllene, Myrcene, Limonene and Humulene. The flowers are a light asparagus-to-yellow green in color with lots of sparkle and sparsely distributed brown-orange hairs. It smells like bubblegum and vanilla with an earthy-mint base note, yes, like eucalyptus. The flavor is powerful on the uptake too. A healthy hit of Kaluptos Kush cleared my lungs and left me with a delicious, resinous aftertaste.
The immediate effect made me feel charged and thirsty, then I found myself getting totally sucked into whatever caught my fancy throughout the afternoon and evening. Ultimately, I felt relaxed and carefree.
Terravida Farms is on Instagram @Terravida.farms.
If only I had more space to revisit the slew of great strains featured in Pot Talk over the past couple years, like XJ-13 from Sunnabis (January 2017), Nigerian from Shine On Farms (March 2016), Purple Dogbud from Little Hill Cultivators (September 2016) and Blue Ogre from Happy Day Farms (June 2015).
Thanks again to everyone that’s helped produce this column each month. Here’s looking forward to many more!
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