A Stream of Consciousness Strain Review
OG Kush, tasting notes. OG Kush, by Flora Farms. OG Kush, one tiny little nug, the last of what I had of it.
I taste leather, tobacco, tan, cigar wrapper, dollar bill. The smoke is smooth, it finds the nexus of my head, middle-brain, balk!
Sounds in my ears from the baseball game I’m listening to. A voice I knew I knew but couldn’t quite read the name tag. Former manager, a man of disguise. Yeah, you got it—Bobby V.
Clean smoke, burned through that little piece of popcorn. I cannot recall how much OG Kush I originally bought. Two grams, I think. I’ll get more. It strikes me as near-enough to a straight-up hybrid as one could get.
In a short time, I’ve assembled a short history of OG Kush, as I understand the strain’s story. It is perhaps the most common ancestor of all the other flower on offer in shops. OG Kush and Chemdog. Those two. One or the other, often both, will be found somewhere along the way in strain’s lineage. I have to work to find a strain that doesn’t have some OG Kush and/or some Chemdog in it. Is this a bad thing? That’s what I’m trying to find out. I want to smoke the OG Kush, I want to smoke the Chemdog, then I want to smoke strains that aren’t derived from them. And see which ones I like better. That’s science!
At first I believed Chemdog was one of the parents of OG Kush. I have relied on two sources when doing cannabis lineage research. I started at leafly.com and then found seedfinder.eu. I still use both.
As recently as six months ago, both sites were telling the same story. Quoting first from leafly, which still airs this version of the OG Kush lineage: “OG Kush, also known as “Premium OG Kush,” was first cultivated in Florida in the early ‘90s when a marijuana strain from Northern California was supposedly crossed with Chemdawg, Lemon Thai and a Hindu Kush plant from Amsterdam.”
But then late in 2022, seedfinder scrapped that legend and removed Chemdog aka Chemdawg from the lineage. They now tell this story, which I have not edited: “Triangle Kush and OG Kush , both seeds made in south Florida in 1991 in the same garage of Marty. The mother was called Emerald Triangle （in our circle from around ‘87） and that garage was stuffed wall to wall with it , A pack of Hindu Kush seeds that I bought from Neville , Amsterdam in 1989 was being tested after a pre sex test . One of those pre sexed Hindu Kush seeds created a bit of unseen pollen near the AC intake , that managed to make seeds thru out that entire 12 light garage . Those lbs where then sold by myself to a close buddy near Orlando , where he would then piece them out to his circle of friends . One of his buddies would find the Triangle Kush seed and another guy found the Kush seed that would later get named OG Kush once it made its way west to California . I’ve seen countless people claiming or insisting Chemdog is the parent to OG kush but with out a shadow of a doubt it’s not unless they share dna from years earlier or maybe from the Hindu Kush genetics from Neville in ‘89 . The Emerald Triangle strain was given to my old partner from an older head from the Washington area before I ever even knew he was a grower as I was buying pounds of it already to sell in 87-88 . OG is not Chemdog simple facts . Added fact , The Emerald Triangle leaned more towards a earthy spicy , flower smelling , sweet candy like terps and not chemi or fuel like at all . fuel or gassy terps must have came from the Hindu .”
Apocrypha? Who knows. I’ll go with the seedfinder version, because they seem to be trying to get it right. Their best research says OG Kush is the unknown Emerald Triangle crossed with the Hindu Kush Neville cut from Amsterdam. So that’s what I’m going with.
OG Kush has been so popular that numerous phenotypes or special “cuts” of the plant have popped up all across the United States. There’s OG #18, some of which I found in Tucson, which was some of my favorite weed among the dozen or so strains I’ve tried from The Prime Leaf in Tucson. Then there’s Tahoe OG, which is an ingredient in Alien OG among others. There’s Larry OG, which I’ve never had. And SFV OG, which is a San Fernando Valley cut. Never had that one, either. Same goes for Fire OG. And though I’ve had some grass called Silver Ghost, I have never had its parent strain Ghost OG, yet another phenotype of the original OG Kush.
I have read that OG Kush is a high-yielding plant that is easy to grow, which is also probably part of the reason it is so often used by growers. It grows fast, crosses well, and smokes well on its own. What’s not to like?
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A couple of hours later…
After that head-rush high, I sank into an achy stoniness, which wasn’t pleasant. I ate some dinner then got frustrated with my dog Hugo who was ancy with designs to get a few bites of the post-prandial junk food I was eating. I just wanted to sit on the couch and eat some cheddar munchies while watching some TV but the dog made that impossible. My mood was sinking.
On top of that my head kind of hurt. I was, admittedly, a little hungover from the day before. Short on sleep. The pot was pointing out my aches and pains, something at which it is adept.
The snacks put away, my wife and I sat and watched TV. Two episodes of Ted Lasso. I didn’t feel great but I sipped some room temperature lager and the high transitioned to a background buzz, which was better than the achy stoniness. My ears were ringing just a little bit and I was enjoying the show.
So, OG Kush, I’m still unsure. Maybe I was a little too hungover but it seemed like I got a great half hour of an energetic, pen-to-paper high, then I sat down to eat, then the dog was climbing all over me, and my high went belly-up for about an hour or two before reviving itself to let me know I was still a little high and felt alright. I’d buy another gram or two of OG Kush from Flora Farms but I’m also curious about some of the other phenotypes.
Such as the Martian Candy still on the shelf at Star Buds, my local bulk flower dispensary. I was there earlier in the week when bud tender Michael told me Martian Candy had been a recently hot request. “Martian, Martian, Martian,” he intoned, saying many customers were coming in asking for it, as if word had been going around. Someone had really liked it and tipped off all of their friends.
He asked me if I’d tried it. I hadn’t. The name didn’t really appeal to me. A lot of times they don’t. I had already been thinking a lot about OG Kush, wanting to write about it. This exegesis. If I’d realized then that Martian Candy was just another OG Kush pheno, I probably would have bought some. A gram or two.
But, as it is, I’m pretty much at capacity. I have a certain number of containers, some hold an eighth, most hold a little less. I don’t need any more containers. If what I have are all full, then I’ve got to sit tight.
Weeds of Grass 