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.