Giant Fuyu from Turtle Pie Co via Catalyst Downtown Long Beach on 7/22/2022. THC tested out to 28.95%. This was about $35 out the door with Catalyst’s #weedforthepeople discount, normally it goes for $75 out the door. The Turtlepie/GreenDawg/BluePrint gang made their way down to Catalyst Long Beach for a meet and greet and to run a killer promo with Catalyst. They were a solid group of folks and I had a great time chatting them up. I asked @barneyhastheblueprint out of flavors Catalyst had in stock which one he would recommend, and without hesitation he said “Giant Fuyu”, so I decided to roll with it and see what’s good.

The surface of these semi-dense mini-trident shaped buds are a patchwork of tea and emerald greens that rapidly shift into deep rich aubergines, coupled with sporadic bursts of ginger orange pistils snaking their way across the budscape in small spurts, all of which is heavily frosted over in a vision obscuring blizzard of mellow yellow triches. 

The nose out of the jar is extremely fruity sweet, but has these grungy and minty aspects as well, which when taken together gives the scent a bit of a sweet yet spiced quality. I admit, I have never smelled a fuyu persimmon before so I have no basis for comparison when it comes to this experience, but I will say that there’s something in this scent profile that is mildly reminiscent of the shell of a Peruvian granadilla which is one of my favorite foreign fruits. Breaking open a bud the sweetness takes it up a notch, it’s a bit difficult to describe, but essentially it feels like the sugariness goes up an octave and maintains that higher pitch while that natural grungy fruit element remains firmly present, which pushes that mint towards the background. It almost comes off like a honeydew with a grungy and musty tinge. Busting it down by hand, my fingers stay with that sweet minty honeydew smell, whereas the grinds have more of a waxy fruit sweetness. It comes off similar to a melon hi-chew with a light minty gas edge. 

The dry pull on the joint has this fruity sweetness with a table sugar touch that dug up an ancient memory for me. When I was in 4th grade or so we’d walk by this patch of flowers on the way back from the bus stop, pick them and suck the ends of them and they tasted sweet in this exact same way. We called them honeysuckles but that looks to be incorrect as I’ve searched around on google, and I think they were morning glory’s from what I’m seeing, but no one seems to talk about sucking on the ends of them so I’m not entirely sure. It could just be a weird thing us group of 4th graders just started doing. In any case, it has a very pleasant near honey sweet taste. 

On the inhale from the bong I get a slightly acrid yet grungy sweet sensation, whereas the inhale on the joint has a musty dough like sweetness, the “sour” aspect of the dough comes through as well, signed off by a minty lilt. The exhale on the bong hits with a musty sweet semi-fruity floral that had occasional inconsistent echoes of savory bbq, whereas the joint had a deep musty fruit that was enveloped by this gassy exterior, which at times dipped into this grape-ish brandywine like flavor. My notes say that “the mustiness and sweetness seem to alternate as if they are helicopter kicking my tongue on the way out” and that the fruitiness lingered for a good few minutes afterward, with that aftertaste coming off exactly the same way as if I had eaten a melon hi-chew just moments ago. Cross checking the flavor on my GhostVapes MV1 at the one available temp I have left, I get a fruity sweet inhale with a mint pine backing, whereas the exhale comes off as pure piney floral. 

The headchange comes on quickly and has a bit of get up and go initially and some solid forehead pressure. Mentally I didn’t feel any worse for wear, I was fully functional and able to focus with no issue, and it put me in a positive state of mind so I was able to tackle tasks I’d been putting off with a fresh perspective and a better attitude. It mellows out a bit later and comes with a very chill vibe that lasts a ridiculously long time. As I write this, I smoked the last bowl of the batch about 3 hours ago, and I’m still feeling as if I smoked a bowl of average herb just a few minutes ago, so that’s some really impressive staying power. 

All and all I really enjoyed this batch of Giant Fuyu, it’s some extremely well grown herb, the nose translated near perfectly to the taste, and the effect managed to stay with me for hours. Without a doubt I’d pick this up again in a heartbeat at the rate it went for that night with Catalyst’s #weedforthepeople discount in place. I still can’t get over that ticket and I’m kicking myself for not picking up a couple more jars. At the normal rate I’d be a bit more hesitant as there’s just so much potential within that bracket, but I’d say Giant Fuyu definitely earns that spot on that top shelf, and if not for the deal I would have made my way to picking it eventually and I would have been equally satisfied. My wallet however would have been a bit sadder heading out the dispensary door. Great job on this one Turtle Pie Team, I’m definitely looking forward to getting more of your stuff up on the page, keep up the great work!