Category: Strain Review

Grandi Guava by Tales & Travels

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Time to burn, let’s Grandi Guava—

More rain, thunder, April adds rain on top of more rain.

The worst storm of the spring was in March, mid-March, that wind. April has been frequent rain, cloud cover, persistent moisture. But also an incredible stream of birds, a panoply. Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, Wood Thrushes, and Tennessee Warblers. The Grosbeaks visit the feeders. The Thrushes and Warblers are unseen but identifiable by sound with the help of the Merlin bird app.

The Grandi Guava has electrified me; got me buzzing. Flavor… menthol, maybe some creaminess, a little fruit. The joint burned clean through without any relighting. It was raining. I was under cover but it’s so damp. A dreary April! Humid. The most humid April I can remember. Dehumidifiers running nonstop. A natural history of the indoors.

I stepped out to take some photos to go along with this post but I went out there and didn’t take any. It’s 14:53. I don’t know when I wrote the first part of this. Three hours ago? At least two hours ago. Which is to say: The Grandi Guava is good fuel. I have been on my feet, working, doing.

I put a clay and rock “plug” in along one spot of our foundation, on the back patio. That was two hours ago. Rain, standing rain, water. It’s an area I’ve been addressing, trying to get to drain better, and not toward the house.

Guava is Gelato pheno #25. I can’t recall seeing Guava as a solo strain. Not like Gelato #33 (aka Larry Bird) or the most common pheno, Gelato #41, sometimes called Bacio Gelato. If you see Gelato on a menu simply called Gelato, it’s probably Gelato #41.

I am at my desk now. I cleaned all of the Gutter Guards of any debris. I’m wondering whether those gutter guards do more harm than good. The heavy downpours run right off, right over them. Not enough water actually seems to be going into the darn gutters.

15:05. The Grandi Guava is a three-hour smoke...


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Florida Jack by Grow Sciences

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

There’s some carry on that Florida Jack. Early on, it was a weeper. Let it flow. I welcome and appreciate any time cannabis makes me emotional. It’s part of the process. It’s part of the high. You have to be ready for it, especially if there are things on your mind worth crying about, worth getting out. Weed can be a very direct, effective, expeditious form of therapy.

I was emotional, but in a happy, satisfied, head-on kind of way. After that, I thought the effect of smoking Florida Jack was fading.

Then the effects unfurled their second act. This is an example of why I need to give each joint enough time to do it’s thing. And why I shouldn’t drink so damned much, ever—but especially when I’m trying to size up a new strain.

I suddenly found myself with nowhere I had to be. No company coming over. Nothing on the to-do list. Time was passing but I had a notebook and a pen and I was sitting on the edge of a hand-me-down twin bed in the back bedroom of this house my in-laws bought ten years ago in the desert. I was writing lyrics to a song no one was ever going to hear, not until now.

Eventually the Florida Jack yields a latent buzz, a pleasant buzz.

Talent neat nettle.

Mettle a molten lantern, this rental’s eternal...


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Orange Soda by Paul Bunyan

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Orange Soda joint.

Idea for a new website: frontporchbirding.com

Took some of the laundry down. Saw the copperhead again, same spot. Then it went back under the low porch. That knocked my buzz; harshed me out a bit; not great.

I’m rallying back. I feel that Soda. It’s a great smoke, that buzz, an electricity. A body sativa; bit of a shaker.

If it were on a menu again, I’d snap it up. I’ve had a jar this year and I had a jar last year. Both were good to the last bud.

I’ve had other PTS/Paul Bunyan but the Orange Soda has been way better than anything else I’ve had from them. Papaya x Gelato wasn’t bad but Panama Mac was forgettable. Macnanna was just OK.

I bought this jar back in 2024. Held onto it for almost a year. It was still very good! I must have put a moisture pack in there to bring it back. It’s not the prettiest bud but they gave me 3.58 grams.

This was a disappearing eighth and it will also be a Strain of the Year candidate for 2025, despite it not appearing so far on the Beyond/Hello menu at any point this year. Maybe it’s up in Collinsville/Maryville/Edwardsville. Bring it back to Sauget, please...


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Açaí Gelato x Sherb by Cannect

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Another supposedly “extreme” rainfall event here in St. Louis County in the wet spring of 2025. When we keep getting heavy rains when do the extreme events begin to become the norm? I am becoming resigned to them.

The Açaí x Sherb is a representative Sherb/Gelato. There is some bite but I am catching a strong, heady high, and I’m enjoying myself despite the storms, despite water finding its way into the basement ductwork again. Alas, alackaday, amor.

(some unknown amount of time, perhaps an hour, elapses…)

It’s strong stuff. I’m still going. Can’t find my phone. That Açaí x Sherb from Cannect Wellness. It’s the best-ever high I’ve gotten from bud that dark, purple. I’ve smoked bud that looked like this but it’s always disappointed. I had begun to think it was a gimmick.

I have been planning for what must be the last hour to smoke again but I have not made any progress thus far. I’m ping-ponging. We’re going to hit three inches of rainfall today...

Read the full post about this strain of the year candidate here…

Cap Junky by Sinse

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Nothing wrong with this Cap Junky. The smoke is thick, with a chemmy exhaust flavor. There is a slight note of mint. It’s been a little while now since I sparked a .37-gram of it. There is carry and the effects are pleasant, representative.

The high is surprisingly solid. I wasn’t sure what to think of the Sinse brand. It’s the Swade house brand but you see Sinse in just about every dispensary in the St. Louis area. I’m so pleased with the Cap Junky that I am increasingly interested in other Sinse flower.

It’s been raining again. Lots of rain yesterday, three inches in the rain gauge. A lot of it fell in ninety minutes. Deluge.

The French drain I installed on the northwest side of the house is still running with yesterday’s water. There is water in that same spot of the basement ductwork again but the level is going down quicker than it would have earlier this spring.

I’m not exactly sure when I sparked this joint. 17:00?

It’s 19:50 and I still feel the effects. Serious carry…


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Georgia Pie by Tales & Travels

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

6.3.25, 15:46: Last J

I will smoke my last Georgia Pie. I have flown through this eighth, written nothing about the effects thus far.

I smoked a roll of it last night, roughly .37 grams in the roll. The flower tasted of peaches last night and gave me a great run. I was looking at something from a different vantage. The effects were revelatory but I felt sensible, and “there.”

The lineage of Georgia Pie is Gelatti x Kush Mints. Source: Seedfinder, click here. Gelatti is Gelato x Biscotti. Kush Mints is Bubba Kush x Animal Mints. The strain is aka Sticky Buns. You’ve got Gelato and Kush on one side with Animal Mints and Kush on the other side.

The taste is like a peachy Gelato. I don’t want to oversell the peach flavor. I didn’t taste it with every roll. It’s not strong but it’s there. Sometimes while inhaling the smoke, sometimes on a spit.

I get the Gelato/Burma head rush blunted by the Kush. The bite is not too strong considering the amount of caffeine-like lift I get (without the caffeine sweats).

It’s a buzzy, high-deas kind of high. But I must have been so enamored with those high-deas that I did not bother to write any of them down…


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TK-91 by Cresco

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Fourth Impression, 3 hr effect

May 30, 2025, 15:43.

TK-91 to start the Friday afternoon. The Cubs trying to come back versus the Reds in the ninth at Wrigley, 2 out, 6-2 Cincy.

The TK-91 is not tasty, not to me. Toasted flavor. Earthy, acrid. But it's got me buzzing around, gonna do some outside (deck) work. Gonna clean the toilet. I want to do something worth doing.

...some time passes, maybe an hour...

Did a lot more cleaning out deck boards than I imagined. Found a couple spots where the wood is rotting. I'm gonna sling a little Bondo. Then I'll have my first drink of the day. 17:46

18:42. It's been a functional effect. Still haven't finished my first drink. I also Bondoed a metal chair and put out a new suet cake...


Read the full strain review here...

A Note on the Purple Fig

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

I rolled the last joint of it this morning. There's a pinch left, two-tenths of a gram—maybe. Otherwise, all I have left is in the form of two .37-gram joints.

It's been excellent flower. Potent, floaty, focused, wide. They have been one-joint nights. I don't know if it's the strain that's doing all the work or if I've simply been satisfied with all of the work I've been getting done, house-work mainly. I work a full day on my feet, have a few drinks, wander around my deck, look out into the trees, smoke my joint of Purple Fig, read a little, and then I say, "Goodnight, I'm going to bed..."


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Animal Face by Rythm

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Animal Face making me emotional. But it feels good. It was the Rx. This is really happening. Is this really happening? The strawberries are soft against my rounding, offset jaw. I listen to the same album again again.

There are no imperfect circles. Nothing burns in reverse. A late (for me) chillum of Animal Face and I'm energized anew. Tired but space-flirty. 10:46. It's 10:46. I took a nap earlier. That's the only reason I'm still awake. That phase in my life when I worried about the weather.

It has happened, it just hasn't happened yet. Are you playing mind games? No, that was a word game. Is there a difference? Half a samara falls into her empty cup of wine. A great crowd emerging under your blue feather.

The quick ground of every morning.

Animal Face might be my jam. I am silly high, alone, and that is the last of my jar. Ripped through it, wasted some of it too drunk or already high on something else. The sativa-esque head rush right away is intense, unparalleled. Then you want to sit down for the rest of the evening. Maybe drink a little wine and at some point have something to eat...


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