Tag: The Bite

Gelonade by Rythm

~ johnbrandall ~ 1 Comment

The Gelonade is a tasty one. It's a funky orange-rubber taste. Similar to other strains with similar lineage like Lemon Bean or Biskante. And quite similar in taste to Rythm's L'Orange, although the genetics aren't as much a match. I say it's like if a pencil had an orange-flavored eraser, that's what this smoke tastes like. It's not a sharp citrus tange. It's a rounder, softer orange flavor, with that funky rubber element mixed in. And there's some menthol or numbing effect on the tongue.

I'm high now. It's a pretty fast-acting high. Maybe that's what we mean when we are talking about sativa effects. The come on is quick, in your face, up in your mind. The bite. It could be from the Gelato branch of the genetic tree, which draws on both Durban Poison, the South African landrace sativa, and the Burmese landrace sativa. I guess that's why I was always surprised Gelato would be listed as an indica-leaning hybrid.

Anyway, Gelonade is a cross of Gelato and Lemon Tree. Lemon Tree is a cross of Sour Diesel and Lemon Skunk, both considered sativas in their own right. But, for me, Sour Diesel never has had an energizing effect and Lemon Skunk has been an uplifting but never a racy sativa smoke.

I wonder, though, where the orange rubber flavor comes from. Not Sour Diesel. Not Gelato. Maybe from the Lemon Skunk part of the lineage. Or maybe the flavor is sui generis, arising only when Gelato and Lemon Tree are crossed.

Prepare for the head rush with Gelonade, is the long and short of it. Outside, it's snowing like hell. I have been shoveling on and off for hours but it keeps falling. I'll go back out again later. I am stunned and knocked back a bit by all of this snow. I'm sore from shoveling and while the weed never makes me feel worse it does do a heck of a good job of pointing out to me the strains I have lurking in my musculature. And I mind those yellow flags because pushing through a strain is never a good idea. Even stretching through a small strain I discover while high has gotten me in trouble. It feels good at the time to stretch, especially because I'm under the influence. But it always seems to make me feel worse the next day...


Read the full strain review here...

‘Scotch Bacio by Abundant Organics

~ johnbrandall ~ 2 Comments

This time earlier in the day after not so much alcohol. As a one-ee, as opposed to a joint. Effects are strong and clear, clear and potent. It's a smooth smoke. I picked up this "super eighth" grown by Abundant Organics earlier this year in Tucson, Arizona. I'd been sitting on it for a few months. Fear not, the jar was competently sealed. The bud was cured. And they didn't short me. 4.72 grams in the jar. Seriously, the Abundant Organics BOGO at Trulieve has to be one of the best deals for legal weed anywhere in the country. Y'all in Arizona have got yourselves a good weed scene.

I had AO's 'Scotch Bacio (short for Butterscotch Bacio) for the first time late in 2022, as a gram I bought at Prime Leaf. I wasn't into the dessert strains or Gelato crosses back then but I was trying just about anything Prime Leaf had on its menu (which was still a great menu back in 2022, but that's a discussion for another day).

Then I picked up an eighth of Butterscotch Bacio early in 2024 from a dispensary in New Mexico. That was the High Noon Cult Butterscotch Bacio, and it was fantastic. I have a strain review of that jar that you can find here.

I cracked the AO 'Scotch Bacio about a week ago. The first time I smoked it was while I was drinking, later in the day, as a joint (.35 grams), after some friends stopped over somewhat unexpectedly (but they were welcome), and it all might have been too much. I got stoned and retreated into myself for twenty minutes or so. Then I was able to unwrap myself and be present in the festivities.

Today I smoked some of the 'Scotch Bacio through a one-hitter and it is giving me a lift. It does have a bite. The experience begins as a drilling down. This is how it begins but not how it ends. You gotta get through the bite. Embrace the bite. The smoke comes in and it takes a look around. It turns over stones. It pulls your skeletons out of the closet. It has me questioning myself, feeling not good enough. Which can be unpleasant. And would be really unpleasant if it were not temporary. I try to accept the introspection, I try to learn something from it...

Find the full strain review of 'Scotch Bacio here...

Trap Island, No Bite

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

To clarify what I mean by "the bite."

It's true of marijuana, and probably true of a lot of drugs. Mushrooms come to mind. Even alcohol. You start to feel the effects of the drug but then your mind starts skimming off the worries and angst bubbling up there at the surface of your consciousness. If you've made a mistake, done something stupid, or just had something lousy happen in your life, the high will sometimes make its first stop in this territory, on these front-and-center topics. Even if you didn't think you really wanted to think about them. After all, isn't that the point of the drug, to escape, to avoid, to detach, for a little while?

My experience with marijuana is that I often encounter this "bite" phase of the high first. Sometimes it isn't negative at all but yields a "head rush" replete with wacky ideas, the highs and "high-deas" of my younger days. Pure wild-minded bliss. But if there's something I've been kicking myself over, or some nonsense I cannot get out of my head, the high will make me encounter this reality. It's the opposite of escapism. It can be therapeutic, facing what worries me. Or it can send me spinning down the bitten wormhole—if I fight it, if I allow myself to dwell there. I let the bite take its hold for a few minutes then I tell myself I smoked up to relax and enjoy myself, not to wallow...


This is just a portion of the full post, which you can reading by clicking this link...