Month November 2022

Unicornz from THC Design

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Unicornz from THC Design on 8/26/2022. No THC testing info on the box as this was given to me right before it dropped. I was gifted this but I spot checked a couple menus and it looks like THC Design is going for around $50-55 out the door in my area. Maybe a bit less if you place those first time discounts right.

A whopping 3 months ago (nearly to the day) I was lucky enough to get my hands on THC Designs Pheno Hunt drop (huge shout out to my dude @edwardfairchild for making it happen), and in the interim, due to a lot of my energy needing to be diverted away from this project, I’m only now giving this batch of Unicornz it’s fair due. I did manage to take notes on this batch when it was fresh but it takes me a while to assemble a final write up. I apologize for the lag and hope that I’ll be able to get into a regular review release cadence again soon. 

These fairly dense semi-spiky trident-esque buds are comprised of an uneven patchwork of deep rich auburgene, lime, forest, and sacramento greens, all contrasted against veins of rusty pumpkin orange pistils and hordes of brilliant white triches so abundant at times, they look as if they’re jockeying for position in a rush to find any available remaining space on the exterior of the nug. 

The nose out of the bag is fruity but comes with an earthy mint quality as well. It has a light pineapple candy vibe but there’s this grungy mentholated aspect that tones down the sweetness of the scent just a touch. Busting open a bud, the pineapple really brightens up and comes off more like a pineapple fanta, with a very faint sweet musty dough kicking around in the background. Breaking it down by hand, that pineapple soda quality is still present, but seems to back off a bit and give way to that sweet musty dough. The scent is still sweet overall but has more of a “dirty” aspect to it. 

A dry pull on the joint came with a candy fruity sweetness that read as a faint pineapple hard candy. The inhale however was devoid of any sort of sweetness, in fact it just came across as a musty sweet paper taste on the joint, whereas on the bong it just had a very subtle mustiness to it. The exhale on the joint had a lightly sweet waxy sort of fruit taste to it but was also heavily musty. As I made my way through the joint, the mint property became more dominant, and by the end, it left me tasting nothing but a musty mint. The bong comes mostly with a sweet mustiness as well, at times there are hints of a light grungy fruit, but it’s superseded by this powerful must and occasional mint tang. I did not get around to testing this out in my (now retired) GhostVapes MV1, I’ll work on getting a new flower vape in place soon, however my guess is that it would be extremely minty when vaped at low temps. 

The headchange kicks in near immediately, comes with an uptick of energy, and if you’re at all near a meal time, a renewed exuberance for what you’re about to eat. Physically, there’s a headband effect with most of the pressure centered directly in the middle of the forehead, accompanied with this want to get up and go, but that wanes rapidly and eventually you’ll feel your body shift into more of a chill mode. Mentally there’s this euphoric sort of “woohoo, I’m lit” feeling at first, coupled with a positive can do attitude that really makes you feel like you’re going to cross everything off your to-do list that day, but unfortunately that feeling is fairly fleeting and is quickly replaced with an “IDGAF sort of vibe” that leaves you wanting to just kick back on the couch, and take advantage of that free AppleTV+ trial that you signed up for over the Thanksgiving Holiday. It’s not so sedating that you won’t be able to fight through it if you have some tasks to complete you truly can’t put off, but it’ll put your will power to the test with any chores you consider “optional” that day no doubt. 

All and all, while I enjoyed my time with this batch of Unicornz, I can’t say there’s anything about it that particularly stands out to me. If the taste aligned just a bit more with the nose, and the headchange was able to sustain those more energetic aspects, I’d be in again in a heartbeat as finding a good “sativa” in today’s recreational market is tough. As it sits, I may be persuaded into picking up another batch if it were around $40 or less out the door, but I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to get my hands on more. That said, I applaud THC Designs efforts here and their attempt to uncover some unique genetics on their own, I hope they (and other producers) continue to do so as consumers really need to be exposed to more strain diversity on the California legal market. 

Super Gremlin from Champelli

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Super Gremlin from Champelli via Bonafide Maywood on 9/18/2022. THC tested out to 32.65%. This cost about $70 out the door with a first time discount in play. It goes from $60-70 pre-tax at a couple shops I have seen in the area so you are looking at around $80-95 out the door unless you play those discounts right. I was on my way to LA to kick it with an old smoking buddy and was in the market for a hashhole, so I hit up LA Family Farms to ask if they had made any fresh drops, and they directed me to Bonafide in Maywood. I scanned the menu for anything that might pique my interest and when I spotted the rad artwork on this bag of Super Gremlin from Champelli, in the ultimate custy moment, I decided to roll with it based on that and that alone. 

The surface of these semi fluffy shrub-like buds were mostly a mix of mint and emerald green, that at times dipped into dark shades of forest, and even deeper still into scattered tones of violet and aubergine, coupled an ubiquitous netting of rusty yam orange pistils, and a light flocking of white and egg cream colored triches. 

The nose out of the bag comes off as a savory GMO like funk with a semi sweet minty edge backing it. When breaking open a bud, there’s a really beautiful mix of that chem scent and a near eucalyptus like mint doing a capoeira style dance as they harmoniously battle it out for supremacy, with a hint of sweet floral watching from the sidelines. Busting it down by hand left my fingers inundated with a minty triche grime, while the grinds themselves had a fresh semi-sweet mint gas, as well as waves of that gmo-ish funk which amplified the decibel level of the scent overall, giving it this extremely gassy funk with a savory soy sauce vibe. My notes say “somewhere between gum and gasoline, with savory soy sauce lilts rolling in like a mini-wake after the passing of an old slow boat”. Usually I don’t seek out the information on genetics prior to finishing up a review, but I was surprised to learn there was no GMO in this given the smell, and from what I read on @thefirescale ‘s page it’s actually a cross of Zkittlez and Gusher Pie.

A dry pull on the joint came through initially as what I’d describe as a supermint gas, the mint is firing on all cylinders and really steals the show, and even lingers for a bit afterward. The inhale had a slightly funky mint on the joint whereas on the bong it was more of grungy gas that quickly morphed into sweet mint. The exhale was a semi sweet floral mint, where the sting of the funk and gassy mint started to coat the tongue over the course of the joint, while the bong came off musty and creamy as first but also had this freshly cracked pepper jolt along an herbaceous pop that was reminiscent of sarsaparilla. I did not try this one out on the vape, but I’d imagine that the mint would have come through in spades as that’s what I seem to experience most often at those lower temps.  

The headchange comes on fairly heavy at first, taking the wind right out of my sails, making anything I’d hoped to achieve that day a distant memory as IDGAF mode settled right in. Physically, I felt pressure on the bridge of my nose that got gradually more intense as it moved into the center of my forehead, while also feeling lighter and generally more buoyant in the upper half of my body. I found myself wanting to kick back and not really have to pay too much attention to anything, I put youtube on the TV and just let it run through random music playlists as I let my mind wander in a similar way. I was really on the fence about the effect down to the very last bowl. I set out to see what I really felt about the headchange, one last attempt in earnest, so I smoked the last of it in two back to back bowls and promptly forgot my previous intentions. It wasn’t until 20 minutes later or so I remembered and thought to myself “well, if that doesn’t prove how damn good it is, I can’t say what else will”. About 20 minutes after that I started to fight the urge to smoke another bowl of something else. The effect seems to stay with you for a bit, but after that first 40 minutes or so the volume goes low enough where you still feel it, but it’s not quite enough to keep from wanting to scratch that itch again. 

Overall I enjoyed this batch of Super Gremlin, I’m glad I picked it up, and I think it was a solid first introduction to Champelli’s current offerings That being said, at the standard rate it goes for at a couple different places I’ve spot checked out there, I’d have a hard time justifying a re-up as there are just way too many awesome flavors available within that bracket, and the temptation to try something new out weighs a replay in this particular case. However, if for some reason I found an awesome deal on it out there somewhere, and could get it at around $50-55 out the door, I admit I’d pick it up again with little hesitation.