Tag: Tucson

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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Tropical Z by Connected

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

Citrus dank aroma upon opening the jar for the first time in a couple of days. Unusual texture on this bud, not sure what to make of it. The grind is plush, fluffy. The lineage is Xeno x (GDP x THH). The Xeno derives from Kush Mints x Zkittlez (source: Allbud). GDP stands for Granddaddy Purple, THH stands for Tom Hill's Haze.

Need for Tucson: rolling supplies. Single-wide paper, tips, gummed tips.

Fairly high on Topical Z. Nothing wrong with this stuff. Carefree high, a "peaceful easy feeling." I am out in the casita (a small, detached office) typing and texting. The weather is perfect. I have music going. Blissy.

The Trop Z has a citrus and mint flavor with a menthol finish. It's a spitter, but most j's are. It's tasty and unusual, a happy ride. Songs. Bob Dylan, "Mississippi." A day too long. How was that song kept off of Time Out of Mind? What other uncollected gems lie thereabout? These Tom Petty songs that are coming out, uncollected wildflowers. I will roll my joints and then I will go away. Into the hills, among the saguaro, stray cactus, top of the mountain. Trop Z!

An hour later.... Stoned now. This is the Z, the Zkittlez, the Grapefruit in it? Makes me a little too chill. Ready to re-up, ready for anything.

The Trop Z has carry. Legit. I feel like I must've smoked again but, no, I haven't. I sat down and re-read some writing I did earlier today. I've still got some pep despite several drinks. Binary star, eventually it doesn't work anymore. I'm out there somewhere and spinning. The essence of me here on this planet, thanks to me or whoever got me here, on this weird and strange tangible planet...

Read the full review here...

Banana Macaroon by High Noon Cult

~ johnbrandall ~ 1 Comment

We are somewhere near the border of New Mexico and Arizona, headed to Tucson. I'm about to smoke some Banana Macaroon, grown by High Noon Cult. I bought a gram of it in Ruidoso, New Mexico, at the R Greenleaf dispensary there. Did that shop go all deli-style? I used to prefer deli-style, a.k.a. bulk. But deli means no package dates, no provenance. Maybe it's better that way, no fussing over dates. What you get is what you get.

I bought single grams of seven different kinds of cannabis in Ruidoso. Made my own sampler pack. Of the seven strains I purchased, this Banana Macaroon was the most visually distinctive. Lots of red hairs. Crystals on mint-green trichomes. Thin, tall, even skinny buds. This gram weighed out to 1.06 grams. It has a pleasant, fruity scent. It's spongy. Soft. Unusual-looking bud.

I am breaking off a little morsel from the skinny totem-shaped bud. We are now in Arizona.

The Banana Macaroon hit well. I used the $6 glass one-ee I (also) bought in Arizona. I have my own glass back home but I don't mess around driving through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to get from the St. Louis area to Tucson. I didn't find the Banana Mac to be especially flavorful but I did taste some cream and some fuel.

It's been a while since I have smoked in a car. I should say, I am riding shotgun. I am not driving. I don't drive and smoke. Not since 2011 when I made a bone-headed nearly disastrous driving decision after just having puffed a one-ee from a dugout. It was about four years ago that I fired up a Grape Kush pre-roll from the Pecos Valley Productions in Roswell right along this stretch of road, Arizona along I-10 headed west just over the New Mexico border. My wife has the wheel the rest of the way to Tucson, so I'm blazing. We'll be in Tucson in two and a half hours.

I'm feeling the fuel. There's an energy in my legs. The rush, the bite. San Simon River, dry. Mountains all around. Ranchland, scrub land, desert, speed limit 75. There are snow-capped peaks on some of these mountains, which is not usually the case. The sky is clear but the air is hazy. Two hours to Tucson, 13 miles out of Bowie. Telephone poles, electric lines. Remorse, regret, second thoughts. This is that bite. The weed goes in and starts pulling skeletons out of your closet, if you have them. But it's part of the process, it's part of the high. It can be therapeutic. This is the hard part, you just gotta get through it...


Click here for the full review of Banana Macaroon by High Noon Cult...

‘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...

Butterscotch Bacio by High Noon Cult

~ johnbrandall ~ 2 Comments

This is a review of the cannabis strain called Butterscotch Bacio, as grown by High Noon Cult and sold at the R Greenleaf dispensary in Ruidoso, NM in early June 2024 (right before the fires)...

That was a strong writing riff this last hour. Pulling notes from memory. Like I used to do.

That Bacio can't be bad. It had a sweet creaminess that developed into a lemony citrus exhale. Piney. Maybe piney even more so than lemony. Piney citrus after a slightly doughy sweet cream.

It burned well out of that glass one-ee I bought at the same shop for $5. Sure, I have glass pieces. But I was en route to Tucson from St. Louis. I am careful about what I drive through Kansas with.

Tragedy befell the towns of Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs a couple of days after we left there, having spent just one night, at the Best Western Pine Springs in Ruidoso Downs. It's a cool, old hotel. It's not fancy but it's in a great spot and the price is right...

Check out the full review here...

Biskante by Alien Labs

~ johnbrandall ~ 1 Comment

This is a free-form strain review of a strain of cannabis called Biskante, offered as an eighth from Alien Labs and sold from the Tucson Trulieve at the intersection of Grant and Treat.

The Biskante has that orange rubber taste, if a pencil eraser had an orange flavoring. That's one of my favorite flavor notes when smoking cannabis. It seems to appear among certain sativas. I am thinking about Cresco's Lemon Bean and Rythm's L'Orange, for instance.

Biskante is delivering a functional high filled with rabbit holes, watch where you step. Be ready to compartmentalize. If you can do that, get ready to cash in and have an afternoon...


Read the full review here...

Strain Review: Trainwreck

~ johnbrandall ~ Leave a comment

The writer recounts their trip through parts of the U.S., noting the beautiful landscapes they have driven through and the cannabis strain, Trainwreck, they've tried from New Mexico. The strain, bought at $22 for two grams, provides a unique, enjoyable high suitable for chilling and writing, though the heritage of the strain remains uncertain...