Once is Enough from Amplified Farms via Kannabis Works Orange County on 5/12/2022. THC tested out to 34.07%. Purchased for $100 out the door with first time customer discount. Somewhere around a year ago Amplified Farms was cool enough to reach out to me and ask if I wanted to try a couple of their flavors. I love digging into strains that are new to me so I quickly agreed. I got my original jar of Once is Enough, posted my first impressions and then, some time not long after, my account was disabled for the first time. With that and some other turmoil going on at the time, I ended up leaning too hard on that first batch, and it was so enjoyable that I managed to smoke through it without taking proper notes. Fast forward to earlier this year when I found myself at Kannabis Works in Santa Ana and I spotted this “Grower’s Choice” edition of Once is Enough on the shelf, so in an effort to right (and write) the past, I picked it up so I could finally finish out this review properly. 

These beefy nugs are dense as hell. The original batch was composed of only 2 nugs, one beaster and a companion to fill out the weight, but the 7g Grower’s Choice jar came with one sizable champion nug and two chunky buddies, any of the 3 being seriously impressive on their own if you’re one to care about bud size. The surface of the bud is fairly uniform in color across both batches, mostly comprised of chartreuse with some light variations and very rare touches of faded aubergine that you have to look closely to find, as well as sporadic tightly coiled bunches of dark copper pistils, and a glimmering layer of reflective egg cream colored triches. 

The nose out the jar is an extraordinarily sweet berry must that reads grape, and compared to the first batch, I noticed this one had a bit of a sugary candy aspect that wasn’t as present in the first. Busting open a bud that sweet grape widens out, and loses a bit of its mustiness while the sugary aspect remains, which I find very reminiscent of some old school big league chew. Breaking it down by hand my fingers have that sweet grape smell in spades but there’s a hint of something slightly chemical, like a body spray or an all natural air freshener, but I couldn’t quite nail it down. The grinds themselves remain extremely grapey as well, but there’s a fresh lilt, and the scent has shifted slightly where it hits me like grape jelly now as opposed to grape gum. 

The dry pull on the joint has a sweet grape-like berry tang that matches up with the nose perfectly and has a light floral filling out the background. The inhale also comes with that sweet berry goodness on the bong, whereas on the joint, it’s more of a quick sugary grape smack on the tastebuds followed up by a light minty yet peppery tang. The exhale from the bong is a  sugary grape must, whereas the joint comes with the same qualities reversed, a powerful must with a light sweet grape backend. I didn’t manage to save a sizeable enough sample for my Ghost Vapes MV1 with either batch so I apologize to any regular readers that this section is a bit thinner than usual. 

The headchange came on subtly at first but over a short amount of time I felt this dissociative effect kick in. It’s the type of high that makes you feel slightly outside of your physical self, you become much more aware that your consciousness and body are separate yet co-dependent entities, it’s as if you are the person piloting the mech that is your body. There was a slight numbness across the bridge of my nose and a touch of pressure in the eyes. I leaned heavily on this batch for its sedative effects as I consistently found myself being put to bed by this strain as it ran its course. Once is Enough, while a good companion for any evening you’re looking to unwind and escape the pressures of the day, functions extremely well as a nightcap and will especially help those in need of a solid night’s sleep. Great job on this one Amplified, this is some powerful unique heat that really stands out in the rec market, I’ll definitely be picking up more of this for my headstash in the future. 

Forbidden Fruit from Amplified Cannabis via DabberChan on 8/21/19. THC tested out to 20.10% Total. This was a birthday gift but my guess is this retails for about $50 plus tax. Dabberchan was awesome enough to grab this for me for my bday and I’m glad he did because it’s awesome. This nug is beautiful. The darkness of the surface purples contrasted with the bright orange hairs with occasional bursts of light green, not to mention an ample amount of frost, keep the eyes happily captivated in a world of brilliant color.

The nose of out of the jar is straight oranges, but in that natural fresh from the tree kind of way, it has this musky sort of aspect to it. On breaking the nug you get that orange scent still but it’s accompanied by this earthy note as well. However, when you finger grind a nug down it kicks that orange smell in to high gear and gives it this sweeter juice like smell. It’s extremely pleasant. The nugs have a slightly higher density than popcorn, feel very dry to the touch, and give no sort of finger hash feeling on the digits. The inhale is smooth and on the exhale, as you would guess, I catch the sense of strong citrus. The headchange comes on fairly slow but I wouldn’t call it a creeper, it just doesn’t come on with a thwack. It bops you on the top of your head and feels like it settles in on the top of your eyes. While I don’t feel couchlocked my head is heavy and my eyes are tired. It’s labeled as an indica leaning hybrid but I started saving this one for the very end of the day as I felt like it was a surefire way to put myself to bed. This was an excellent first encounter with Amplified Farms and I look forward to the next. Great work team Amplified!