“Blockchain” Candy Gas by Oak Creek Dispensary, purchased 7g on 7/13/2024 for $60 on a “BOGO” special. THC Tested out to 31.75% according to the label. 

Just off the 395, about 2/3’s of the way to Mammoth from Los Angeles, there’s a bubbly tent-like building on the west side of the road with a sign that says “Tax Free Cannabis”. I figured there had to be a catch or a gimmick involved, but it definitely piqued my curiosity in more ways than one. Why was it tax free? Would the herb be any good? While I could have easily googled the answers, being in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada’s and having spent a week camping near the John Muir Wilderness, I decided to embrace my newfound pioneer spirit for one last adventure, and took the 50 foot turnoff that lead to the doorway of the Oak Creek Dispensary. 

Inside I was greeted by cool air which was a welcome feeling after going through a heat wave over the course of the past week. At first glance it seemed like a very typical dispensary, very clean and well stocked, and even the flower itself was prepackaged. Looking at the menu the prices were in fact all tax free. After a quick convo with the extremely friendly budtender, it turns out it wasn’t a gimmick, but more of a sort of loophole. The highway actually runs through the Fort Independence Reservation, and both the dispensary and grow are owned and operated by the Paiute people who live there, which affords them certain benefits as a sovereign people. 

With that mystery solved to my satisfaction, it was on to the second question, and it turns out, yes, this “Blockchain” Candy Gas is very good.

The menu ran the gamut pricewise, so I decided to opt for something top shelf, and this Candy Gas was their top offering. From what the budtender told me, “Blockchain” is the highest quality tier of flower they put out, and Candy Gas was the strain itself, hence the quotes throughout the review around “Blockchain”. 

These semi-dense buds were trident-esque, looking almost like a silhouette of Krusty the Clown from the front, and had a nice give to the squeeze. The color of the surface ranged from mint and forest greens, reaching all the way into intense aubergine hues, with everything else in between. Copper orange pistils crawled across the canopy nearly unnoticed, yet provided a  beautiful contrast to the multicolored budscape below, all of which was enveloped in a thick coating of egg cream colored triches. 

The nose out of the jar was a deep rich chalky sugar sweetness, with a hint of a grungy fruit that hit me sort of like the typical runtz scent, coupled with some sort of sweet wine or adjacent alcohol that lead into vics vaporub vibe on the backend. Breaking open a bud the candy and vics join forces, dramatically amping up their scents, ricocheting off one another while also coming together as one solid show of strength against my nostrils. Grinding it down, the fruitiness managed to claw its way through the force field of sugar sweetness with a candy strawberry type scent reminiscent of Grandma’s Strawberry Bon Bons, with the chalky sweetness also remaining present, but the gas aspect being pushed into the distant background. 

A dry pull on the j brang a muted chalky sweetness with a hint of fruit trying to make itself known, but barely succeeding. The inhale on the joint came through a light chalky sweetness and a touch of gas, whereas the bong is nearly the same but leans more gassy than chalky sweet. The exhale off the joint is very candy sweet up top, with that sweet chalk eventually inundating your tongue and leaving an inescapable fuel type aftertaste, whereas the bong is more of a muted sweet musty cream with a gassy underpinning. 

The headchange comes on quick and has a really nice thwap that serves as a bit of a consciousness reset. All worries and anxieties completely evaporated after moments of my first hit, and I was allowed to exist momentarily as a blank slate, which really is a rarity in this day and age of information overload. Physically, there was a relaxing haze that flopped across my brow, and I felt my eyes instantly glaze over. That relaxing feeling made its way down into the body in short order and definitely did not inspire movement in any regard. I found myself struggling to stay active in the period after it really settled in, and when I succumbed to the couch, my eyes began to get heavy until I fell into the clutches of the notorious “weed nap”. After those initial experiences I started leaning heavily on this batch of Candy Gas in the evenings to help me get to bed, as that felt most fit to purpose, and it worked so well in that regard that I was sad when I depleted the stash as other strains I had on deck just didn’t do the trick as well. 

All in all, I have to say I was impressed with this batch of “Blockchain” Candy Gas, it was some extremely solid smoke at a very affordable ticket. While I realize this is a small sampling of their offerings overall, if the quality and level of care is the same down the line menu-wise, I can only imagine they get a lot of repeat business from those that frequent the Mammoth area. Hats off to the folks that power Oak Creek, I know I would be headed there today if it weren’t about a four hour one way drive, but you can bet I’ll be ready to load up next time I pass through that Eastern Sierra Corridor no matter what adventure may await me after.