Tag: Sauget

The Blue Face Strain by Fig Farms

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Jar Opening, 8.14.2025, 9:48

I am opening a jar of the Blue Face strain of cannabis grown by Fig Farms. I bought this eighth from Beyond Hello in Sauget, IL, back in October of last year. I have smoked one or two jars of Rythm's Animal Face along the way so I felt like I was "covered" when it comes to Animal Face, which is what Blue Face is: it's the blue phenotype of the Animal Face strain. Source: Fig Farms site.

This strain was bred by Seed Junky Genetics. The lineage is Face Off OG x Animal Mints. Fig Farms says that of all the strains they grow, Blue Face is the most difficult one to grow. They call it an indica.

The package date is 8.30.2024. The nugs look good. There are five of them. The inner wafer seal on the glass jar was intact when I twisted off the cap. A stanky aroma rose up out of the jar smelling like skunky piney funk. The flower weighed out to 3.43 grams. Shorted by Aeriz again.

The nugs are fluffy, lighter than they look. There's some stickiness. It was a good cure. The grind is pleasant to look at. It's a very even grind. There is a blue tint, if you squint.

Flower of the Blue Face strain, from Fig Farms. An "eighth" weighing in at 3.43 grams.

F-ed up on Blue Face: the effects

This flower did F me up, made me emotional, gave me the high-deas. The smoke was strong, potent. It dropped me down rabbit holes. I wrote, "Rabbit holes but yes, that's why we smoke this shit."

I kept looking over my shoulder wondering when I was going to get found out, have someone discover how high I was.

The strength of the effects begged the comparison: of three Animal Face strains I've smoked, which one would I rank as being the best? There's Rythm's Animal Face (link here to my short review), Fig Farm's Animal Face, and then this blue pheno of Animal Face from Fig Farms aka Blue Face.

I'd say Rythm's Animal Face is at least tied for first. The Blue Face might be as good. I never wrote much about the jar of Fig Farms Animal Face I smoked. There wasn't anything wrong with it but if I saw all three on a menu and I could only get two, I'd get Rythm's Animal Face and the Fig Farms Blue Face. There is currently some Blue Face on the menu in Sauget and I have added it to my cart. Next time I am over in Illinois, I will pick up a jar and perhaps I will take better notes allowing me to add more details, effects, experience to this review.

Walking stick hanging out on an August day in St. Louis County, MO.

(**Note: cover photo is of a juvenile five-lined skink, link here for more info)

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…

Acapulco Gold from Interstate 420

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Acapulco Gold is a classic strain. It was, I am told, a popular strain in the seventies. My wife's cousin had a little Acapulco Gold he shared with me a few years back. He said, "Led Zeppelin used to sing about this stuff."

It's a lyric in the song "Over the Hills and Far Away." The song goes,

Many times I've lied and many times I've listened
Many times I've gazed along the open road
Many times I've lied and many times I've listened
Many times I've wondered how much there is to know
Many dreams come true, and some have silver linings
I live for my dream and a pocketful of gold
Some Acapulco gold, every time

The last line, that mentions the strain specifically, is only included in the live version of the song from the album The Song Remains the Same, which was recorded at Madison Square Garden in 1973. You can hear Robert Plant putting a wry emphasis on "Acapulco Gold" when he adds the lyric before the guitar solo. Otherwise, I prefer the version of the song from Houses of the Holy.

When I bought the bag the budtender was quick to offer the caveat that what I was buying wasn't going to be like the Acapulco Gold from back in the day, his day. He said he used to get it and there were golden-orange hairs all over the bud.

The strain hails from Mexico. I'm not sure if it's considered a landrace. It's a sativa. Any time I see one of these classic strains offered on a menu, I'm going to give it a try. Maybe it's not the same thing Led Zeppelin was smoking in the seventies but it's as close as I'll get fifty years later...

Read the full post here...

Macnanna’s Last Act: a strain review of Macnanna by PTS

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

It had some flavor. If I say tasty, I'm misleading. Sage, a little fruit. Burned well. I had rolled some joints of would-be discard flower, this Macnanna by PTS and a few others. Jars I opened, smoked on some, but wasn't wowed by and set to the side. I always try to circle back and give them a second chance. Sometimes it's like the old break-up bit, "It's not you, it's me." When I open a new jar, expectations are high. When I've set something to the side, expectations are at their lowest, and sometimes the discards come back around to surprise me.

The Macnanna has had a solid effect so far. It's not racy. Macnanna is a cross between MAC (Miracle Alien Cookies) and Strawberry Banana (Crocket's Cut). Source: link here. MAC can be racy so I wasn't sure if that would trace its way through and into the Macnanna. I'd say not...

Read the full strain review of Macnanna by PTS here...

Mandarin Cookies by &Shine

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Where was I. This is a strain review of Mandarin Cookies V2, a cannabis flower eighth marketed by &Shine, which is one of several labels used in Illinois and other states by Green Thumb Industries, aka GTI. Since I bought this eighth in the spring of 2024, the shine seems to have worn off the &Shine label because I don't see it on the menu much anymore. The "budget" label of choice for GTI now appears to be "Good Green."

This eighth was sold in a plastic jar with a tamper-proof seal but without any additional seal on the jar under the cap. It had a package date of 02.01.2024. I opened it on February 16th of this year, 2025. So it was pretty old. And yet, and yet.

I varied between smoking these Mandarin Cookies out of a glass bowl or in the form of a joint/marijuana cigarette. I wrote many short snippets about my experience across various sessions as I burned through this eighth with relative speed. These Cookies were a great smoke. They provided a gentle up-lift. They were steady fuel. No doubt I would get them again. Especially considering this eighth retails at $25 per, and although I don't specifically recall I am fairly certain I used one of several discounts Beyond/Hello in Sauget, IL offers their customers. Buy two eighths, get 15% off each. Buy on a Friday or a Saturday, get 20% or even 30% of everything you buy...


For the full strain review of Mandarin Cookies, follow this link...

Top Ten Strains of the Year 2024

~ johnbrandall ~ 2 Comments

I have drawn this list of the Top Ten Strains of the year for 2024 from my own personal experience with these and other strains of cannabis flower. I am limited by residence, geography, time, space, and reason from trying all of the great strains in action from coast to coast of this U.S.A. let alone the rest of the world, all those other continents and their ancient living landraces. Without further ado, the Top Ten Strains of 2024.

Number One: Chem Reserve by Vibe (Missouri)

I never even wrote up a strain review of Chem Reserve because if I was smoking it I was always too busy enjoying the buzz, doing kooky things, saying kooky things, thinking up crazy Halloween costumes (sheet people), or running my mouth about whatever crossed my mind. Vibe classifies Chem Reserve as a sativa. It's a cross of a couple of Chemdawg strains. I was sitting on the eighth for at least half of the year before I even cracked it. It had kept well. The eighth was gone before I knew it, always a sign a strain is getting it done. This Chem Reserve woke me up to the Vibe brand, and has encouraged me to revisit Chemdawg crosses. I can't say it had a memorable taste but it had me trying to convince my wife that we should, at the last minute, dress up as "sheet people" so that we could attend a Halloween party. The idea was that we just wrap ourselves in sheets, kind of like nomads of the desert. It sounded like a good idea at the time.

Number Two: Butterscotch Bacio by High Noon Cult (New Mexico)

I did write a review of this one, so I will first refer you there. This Scotch Bacio was a win for the flower of New Mexico. I've had good grams here and there from dispensaries in the Land of Enchantment, buying flower everywhere from Clovis to Albuquerque to Ruidoso. And by now I've bought eighths from a variety of growers offering cannabis for adult use in New Mexico. This jar of Scotch Bacio from High Noon Cult has been the best of New Mexico so far for me. This strain, along with another Bacio mentioned later, has me thinking I'm into Bacio strains, meaning I am on the lookout for strains built from Sunset Sherb and/or Gelato. These types of strains might often be marked as indica or indica-leaning but it's the Burma via Pink Panties that shines through these types of crosses, dealing me first (admittedly) with a head rush that is probably best handled by an experienced smoker before settling into a euphoric, lifted, clear, inquisitive yet chill high that makes for an excellent sidekick as the late morning or early afternoon transitions to evening and night...


The full list is here. Thanks for reading. Many happy puffs to you in 2025!

Novarine by Grassroots

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

I'm stoned. The Novarine is not at all tasty but this is a for-real high.

Let me back up. Grassroots is one of the first growers offering recreational marijuana in Illinois. I remember getting little one-gram containers from them. Northern Lights Haze?

It doesn't matter. I believe Grassroots is also the company that makes the Wana brand of gummies, which have been consistently good over the years, and across the country. I've seen Wanas on the menu in Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Grassroots as a grower selling flower seemed to fade in Illinois in 2022, 2023. They just never had many offerings on the menus I was looking at (Sauget, Fairview Heights). But when I was looking for a sativa-leaning eighth to give as a gift to a friend in early 2024, I was drawn to Novarine from Grassroots. I wanted to make sure I was giving a decent gift so I bought two eighths of Novarine. I'm not sure the logic ever added up. If I cracked an eighth and it was bad, then what? I have two lousy eighths? If I cracked one and it was good, I guess I would also have an eighth for myself. That was my thinking.

I bought the two Novarine eighths from Ascend in Fairview Heights, IL in December of 2023. The eighths were plastic jars, and they weren't especially fresh. The purchase was immediately on shaky ground. I opened one jar, which had a moisture pack in it. The bud was pretty dry. It didn't have any bag appeal. I was not going to be giving Novarine as a gift but I would still try it out for myself...


Read the full strain review here...

White Widow by UpNorth

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

...Then an hour or two passes while I smoke and experience the White Widow's effects...

It's been a little while now since I smoked most of a third-of-a-gram joint. The taste was sharp, not unpleasant. Acerbic. The head rush is notable. It's a pretty strong immediate effect to the head. The White Widow is racy to start out, so beware, fellow smokers.

It makes me wonder if the term "racy" actually does derive somehow from these landrace strains. I can think of other landrace strains that I would also describe as imparting racy effects on the smoker. Durban Poison is often a racy smoke. Although I have never smoked the Burmese sativa landrace as a standalone strain, I believe more and more that it's the Burmese sativa lineage in Sunset Sherbet/Gelato strains that gives me an unmistakable bite when I smoke Sherbs strains.

After the strong inquisitous head rush, the experience transitioned smoothly into a functional, task-oriented high. What did I need to do? Put food out for the birds, seed and suet. Clean the floors. I grabbed a bucket and a mop, ran some hot water, added some wood soap. Mopped. I was still feeling introspective. I was going back in my head to yesteryear. I would describe this effect as memory-racing. I was wandering around in my head.


Read the full post about White Widow by UpNorth here...

NF-1 by UpNorth Humboldt

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Writing now, a year and a half after that first NF-1 purchase, here's the deal

That first eighth of NF-1 cost me $68 at the Beyond/Hello on Mississipi Avenue in Sauget, IL. Considering how much prices came down when Missouri legalized recreational cannabis, I feel sheepish about paying $68 for an eighth of anything. Here's how it happened. I was out at Farm reading a copy of Riverfront Times I was about to use to start a fire. But I happened to see a cannabis column reviewing several sativa strains that had been entered into the Cannabis Cup in 2022 in Illinois. UpNorth's Durban Poison earned a glowing review.

I got really excited about buying the Durban Poison, which I did. I also bought the other UpNorth Humboldt strain on offer at that time, which was NF-1. The Durban was $50. The NF-1 was $68. Weed wasn't legal yet in Missouri. I had mostly been buying gummies in Illinois but I was starting to buy single grams here and there from Beyond/Hello. I splurged. The Durban Poison was phenomenal. It was some of the best-tasting weed I've ever smoked. The NF-1 was overshadowed by the Durban and I was bummed I had paid more for it.

But the NF-1 hung around. The Durban was tasty and potent but sometimes it was too potent. Too racy. Too head-rush, too biting. I bought another batch of the Durban months later; it wasn't nearly as tasty. Six months later, or maybe it was nine months, the NF-1 dropped to $25 an eighth in Illinois and I couldn't believe it. The Durban also sells for $25 an eighth, sometimes. I have since bought NF-1 twice more. One of the blurbs above was written on that second batch. The third batch I have in its original, sealed glass jar unopened but sealed further in glass mason jar. I'll get around to smoking it some day.


The full post is available here...

Peking Duck by Seed & Strain

~ johnbrandall ~ 1 Comment

A decent high, a fine high. I went and swept my garage, topped off the oil in my lawnmower. I had changed the oil in that mower last week and wasn't sure I had put enough fresh oil back in. Barely, just above that lower little hole on the dipstick. Room to add, so I added a couple small pours, perhaps an ounce.

Then I put out the new hummingbird food I had mixed up this morning. I stopped using boiled water when making hummingbird food. A source I believe valid said boiling the water isn't necessary. The recipe is four parts water to one part sugar. I have been using a funnel to pour 1/4 cup of sugar into an empty, re-usable club soda bottle. This is the same as the little tonic water bottles that come in a six-pack. Plastic bottles, holding about ten ounces. I fill this bottle to where it begins to taper up toward the mouth of the bottle. Then I shake the bottle and give the mix a few minutes to reach equilibrium, to solve. The sugar disappears. I take the garden hose to the hummingbird feeder, to rinse it off once I've dumped the old water. In this case, the water was about two days old. I've been changing the water more often now that I've nixed the boiled water part of the process. The hummingbirds seem to like this unboiled mix just fine. The feeder has not gotten mildewy or gunky/grimy. The hummingbirds won't be in town much longer.

Read the full review here.../\\...