Zkittlez grown by Candito in collaboration with Gulf Coast, acquired on 10/16/2023. No Testing info available as it’s from the traditional market. This was gifted to me but I did spot it on OC Best Meds Website for $160 for the 7g jar. Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have Gulf Coast keep me in mind when he comes across new heat that he thinks should be on my radar. So when he said he had a living soil grown Z collab with Candito, from “the original cut of Z”, and he wanted me to try it, there was no way I could say no. 

To put it plainly, Z is typically fairly ugly, and while this batch has all the hallmarks of a classic Z, it also manages to tamp down some of those less than desirable aspects one would see in an “average” iteration. The surface of these bulbous yet spikey nugs are mostly a shade of mint green that strike the eye with a soft glow. It’s hard to visually discern if that hue is due to the color of the calyx or to the daunting amount of brilliantly shining white and egg cream triches flooding the entirety of the nugscape. In the spots where the triches are less prevalent, there’s an abundance of deep forest green sugar leaves that fill out the underskirt of every nug, while tangerine pistils burst out of every available crevice and crackle across the canopies like lightning, eventually finding their natural end. 

The nose out of the jar uptop is a unique sweet lemon lime scent with an effervescent quality. It smells like something that you’d get at a fancy bar if you asked the mixologist for their best attempt at a handcrafted sprite. The longer I leave my nose in the jar, the more that classic musty orange scent I’m accustomed to smelling from Z comes through. Busting open a bud, that lemon lime characteristic brightens up and left my nostrils with a slight acidic sting, and even had echoes of a soap/cilantro as well. Attempts to grind this by hand did not go well, it was too dense and too fresh, it left my fingers sticky, defeated, and reeking of lemony goodness. After running it through the shredder, the grinds remain steadfast in that bubbly lemon lime but also has an overarching sweet chalky scent as well. 

The dry pull on the J comes through with that citrus party as well, although the sugar sweetness takes it up a notch, giving it overall light lime lifesaver vibes, to the point it even leaves a light yet noticeable sweet lime taste on the tongue. The inhale on the J matches the dry pull leaving that limonene dancin’ on your taste buds, whereas the experience on the bong is the same, just slightly less aggressive with its presence. The exhale on the bong comes across with a light sweet lime, sort of like the ghost of a lime otter pop, supported by a musty orange backing, whereas the flavor on the joint 100% lines up with how the grinds smell. A delicious mix of sugar, lemon and lime. I’m pretty sure this is the closest I’ve ever felt to “smoking a sprite” in my joint consuming history.  

The headchange comes on quick and smacks like a MACK truck. Mentally, I felt launched into an extraordinary level of derp that caught me completely off guard. I spent a full day with it, and it had me lost in the sauce most times to the point I became much more cautious about the amount I was smoking in a given sesh. Physically, while it doesn’t make you sleepy right away, it has an ability to take the wind out of your sails with near immediacy. In my accelerated attempts to write this review while the sample was fresh, I found myself just now having to take a final rip to flush out my tasting notes, and I went from feeling the power of two cups of coffee and the passion of a new day helping me mash the gas on this write up, to having my sense of momentum completely obliterated. Only by marshalling all the willpower I could muster did I successfully manage to make it through the canna-induced quicksand slowly enveloping my body and mind and make it through the end of this review. For the most part I’d consider Z to be an all day sort of smoke, and I suppose I can say the same about this smoke as well, however I’d recommend having nothing of consequence on your agenda for the day, as the potential need for a post lunch nap is indeed strong with this one. 

If you couldn’t tell by all of that, I really liked this batch of Zkittlez, and while I can’t say I could easily afford it, if you’re a fan of Z in general I think you’ll be highly satisfied with this batch. Great work on this one Candito and Gulf Coast, if this is a sign of the quality of the future work coming our way from this collab, I can’t wait to see what y’all put out next!