Marijuana Review: Cheese Quake by Double Delicious

July 22, 2015 By Fischer Campbell

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a – Cheese Quake? This week’s flower review is of a strain produced by Double Delicious. We bought it from Herbs House, a quaint Ballard-area recreational shop.

Double Delicious is a Wenatchee WA based producer. Asides from the name being excellent (go ahead, say it a few times in your best Gob Bluth voice), it also serves an important point – their weed tastes fucking delicious.

Looking at their website, Double Delicious’ products are grown and processed using environmental [SIC] conscientious practices during all phases of production, our varieties are generated to boost specific qualities of the plant such as taste, color, smell, and effects.

I’m all about environmentally conscientious practices, especially when it comes to growing the marijuana I plan on enjoying.

On top of growing and tending their own nugs, Double Delicious also offers services to purchase and trim flower from WA producers (yielding multiple forms of product). This helps new, smaller recreational marijuana operations by getting them up and running faster, and reducing start up costs.

The package for Cheese Quake is pretty intense, to say the least. It’s a got a look and feel that seems to shout THIS IS FOR STONERS. Most marijuana packaging is subtle, simple, and generally focused on the product inside. This is like the Michael Bay of packaging nugs, I mean even the negative space is in the shape of a pot leaf. It’s not a bad thing, not every vessel for transporting marijuana has to be rustic.

Enough about that, let’s talk about the strain:

THC: 22.7%
CBD: 0.2%
CBG: 0.7%
Total: 22.6%

Strain: Cheese Quake
Species: Sativa Dominant Hybrid (Cheese + Querkle)
Smell: Cheese Funk + Lemon + Sweetness
Taste: Lemon + Dryer Sheets
Launch Point: 2-3 minutes after smoking
High: Heavy + Bubbly

Picture a pocket of flowers, then a earthquake happens (note: the earth is made of cheese). This is what Cheese Quake smells like. It’s definitely one of the strongest strains in terms of it’s pungent nature, I found myself lighting incense more often. It’s a delicious aroma, though – don’t get me wrong; however some of us attempt to be considerate to others living in the same household.

You can see from the photo that the bud is nice and crisp. For just a 1 gram package, Cheese Quake had some gnarly nugs that were clearly cured with love.

The taste is spectacular, intensely floral and funky. You could be sampling some ripe blue cheese, a few grapes, perhaps an aged Red wine – and Cheese Quake would be right at home in the mix. Working with food myself, it’s only natural for comparisons and pairings to bounce around the ol’ noggin.

Getting high with Cheese Quake is, as it’s name suggests, a potent experience. I was stoned within the first three minutes of hitting the mini bong, the onset was perfect. It really reminded of the bongs you find on sites similar to King’s Pipe (kings-pipe.com/) that my friends and I wanted to try a while back, but never really got the chance to. The feeling is super bubbly, almost like I’m walking around with a Django Reinhardt soundtrack following me. Often times I’ve wished for a real life soundtrack, turns out you’ve just got to make the music yourself.

Speaking of music, Cheese Quake really works with headphones. Dig into some of your favorite tracks, and space out. On the other hand, the peppy high lends itself to going out and about. Grilling is a perfect activity while sampling this strain; nothing like some good people, cold beers, sizzling meat, and a powerful herb.

Double Delicious, thank you for the superior product. We will be sampling another DD strain soon, called Dirty Girl. In the meantime, I’d highly suggest taking advantage of this summer weather and hitting up the retailer closest to you for some Cheese Quake.

Marijuana Review: Ak-47 by Chronic Situation Sold at Herbs House

July 8, 2015 By Fischer Campbell

As a tribute to July 4th, High Above Seattle is reviewing a strain called AK-47 this week. I mean, it’s not like Kalashnikov’s are inherently American – but the image below sums up the kind of emotion I’m trying to describe:

‘Murica

There, now you know what I’m talking about. AK-47 is grown by Chronic Situation, a producer hailing out of Spokane County, Washington. I picked up the strain from Herbs House, a Ballard-area recreational shop. It was my first experience at that specific 502 retailer, their selection and customer service was spot on.

Chronic Situation specializes in indoor production, yielding splendid products for all to enjoy. According to their website: Plants require more than just sunlight and water to grow to their fullest potential. That is why we give our plants the very best. When determining between quality and quantity, the choice is clear.

Mentioning their website, Chronic Situation has a list of strains they produce – yet no description of the strains. It would be awesome to read more about the nugs, because as a customer the more you can tell me, the more I’ll want it. Regardless, the website is functional and conveys the story that Chronic Situation is telling: we take good care of our herb.

Now onto the specifics:

THC Total: 16.96%
CBD: 0.336%
CBG: 1.138%
Total Cannabinoid: 18.43%

Strain: AK-47
Species: Sativa Dominant Hybrid (80% Sativa)
Smell: Skunk + Fruit
Taste: Tangy + Cheesy
Launch Point: 10 minutes after smoking
High: Creeper + Euphoric + Peppy + Munchies

After cracking open the bag, there is an abundant skunk smell. It’s pretty funky, and reminded me of a good cheese. As with any good cheese, you need a little fruit on top; a slight fruit (punch-ish) aroma is present.

AK-47 looks soft and velvety. Bright and dark green is a canvas for keef speckled red hairs. It’s all really like a pillow you could lay upon, and dream deep.

The taste is equally tangy, lingering on the tip of your tongue. Smack your lips a couple times and savor the flavor of this AK-47. It’s nice to sample a tart strain on a hot summers day.

Getting high with AK-47 is a euphoric experience. The elation itself is of a creeper sort, slowly sneaking up until it’s no longer deniable that you are deftly stoned. I love a good sativa, and this strain delivers on all fronts: the high is peppy, it’s light, and it plays well with activity.

After taking copious bong rips of AK-47, it was time to go down to Gasworks for the 4th of July celebration. The streets of Fremont were absolutely manic with people. Roads closed, police on bikes, guys trying to convince you to buy their hot dogs and chimichangas, the smell of dank herb ever present amongst the firecracker smoke.

There were so many people squeezed onto Gasworks park, it was indeed a sight to behold. We hit up the beer garden, and set up a blanket on the grass. There were live bands, long beer lines, crappy pop music, and tons of food trucks.

By the time the fireworks started, it’s fair to say that most people (in the beer garden) were half in the bag. It was hilarious watching folks not try and spill their beer on the uneven grass surface. The pyrotechnics were superb, especially with the lingering AK-47 high – which embers were being stoked by a few Anchor Steam ale’s.

After the show, there was a mass exodus. It looked surreal from all the smoke, almost like there had been a war. The cars attempting to leave were rendered immobile by the wave of citizens, like water against stone. It was my first 4th of July living in Fremont.

The fireworks themselves serve as a metaphor for AK-47; it creeps up, then explodes in joyous color and spectacle. Chronic Situation have a solid product here, and we’ll be sampling Headband from the Spokane County producer soon!

3 Recreational Marijuana Questions For 2015

January 5, 2015 By Manic Conrad

Welcome back everyone for a brand new year: 2015! Its crazy to think that just over a year ago, Colorado opened it’s first recreational marijuana shops. And since then, Washington has followed with the beginnings of its’ legal retail industry, while Alaska, Oregon, and Washington D.C. has voted to join the party. Imagine what everything will be like another year from now? But before we do that, we still have a year to live so let’s do it! Let’s hope there is a pot shop on every street corner in 12 months time!

3 recreational marijuana questions for 2015:

Will all recreational marijuana stores be open this year?

With marijuana legalization being different in every place you go, it can be hard to know what’s going on for dispensaries. At the moment, all the new and growing dispensaries are having to look into resources and tools like POSaBIT that can help them improve their customer service, all while having to worry about staying within legal guidelines and following legislation. So, the answer to this is a complicated one for both dispensaries and customers, depending on where you are.

If you asked us this question a couple of months ago, we would have thought: of course! But here we are, about 6 months since Cannabis City became the city’s first marijuana store to open its’ doors, and we only have eight legal retail shops that are open. Nine, if you include Ballard’s Herb’s House, a medical marijuana dispensary that just passed the recreational inspection last month and will be converting to a legal outlet soon. Even if physical stores aren’t quite open, you will still be able to purchase weed online from websites such as https://theherbcentre.net/buy-weed-online-vancouver/, which many people view as being much easier than purchasing in person.

It took six months for eights stores to open. At this rate, we should have all Seattle pot shops up and running by the end of the year, but that is barring any setbacks such as failed inspections, financing, or any other hurdles the cannabis retail outlets may face. In addition, the Washington State Liquor Control Board may hold a do-over in April to allow over 900 shops a chance at a retail license. This may increase the number of shops in the city and the chances that we see openings into 2016. It seems that marijuana is becoming increasingly more acceptable, people can easily buy things like tuna kush, so it makes sense for more pot shops to be opening.

Will the tax issue be confronted that is setting the industry up for failure?

One major complaint of customers as they exit a recreational weed shop is the enormously high retail tax that they just paid. But tax issues isn’t just affecting the customers, it’s affecting everyone including the legal retail shops, the growers, and the producers. In fact, if this tax issue is not dealt with, it could have a crippling affect to our industry and even the prospects of national legalization. After all, we have chosen ourselves to set an example. This is what James Lathrop, owner of Cannabis City, wrote us last month:

In Washington marijuana products are taxed at a multiple compound rate: That is 25% from the grower to processor, plus 25% from the processor to the retailer, plus 25% from the retailer to the customer [each of these levels of tax pay tax on the previous tax], plus another 10% of regular sales tax, city tax, and B&O [which includes taxation of the excise tax itself]; then there is an additional Federal tax of another 25% [that is a fed 35% tax on the ~70% gross profit [gross after cost of goods] falling out at about 25% of gross – including Federal taxation on the State excise tax itself.).

So on the retailer side alone that is ~60% of the product in pure tax, with ~30% going to to cost of goods and ~1-5% left to actually run the business; the growers and processors are in a similar situation.

All cannabis businesses in Washington are set to fail under this unreasonable and compound tax structure; many will fail, some will survive; but none can exist under this tax structure for very long.

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What effect will the Oregon recreational marijuana industry have on ours?

Last November, Oregon voted to become the 3rd state to legalize marijuana. This makes Washington and its’ neighbor to the South, the first bordering states to legalize the plant, which brings up some questions:

1) Vancouver’s recreational marijuana shops have seen some phenomenal sales, especially New Vansterdam. After all, the town is conveniently located about 10 minutes from Portland. We are not sure if Portland will see its’ first store open this year but if it does, we wonder if it will have some effect on Vancouver recreational store sales? From what we here, there is a healthy number of Oregon residents crossing the border to visit the legal pot shops. In addition, will Portland see an increase of Vancouver residents crossing the border to purchase cannabis to save money because the tax burden is less?

2) When Oregon allows marijuana legalization to happen on the first of July, residents of the state will be able to grow their own plants within the confines of their home. Oregon and Alaska will be the 2nd and 3rd state to practice this along with Colorado. Are we going to continue being the stubborn mule or allow our neighbors to the South to plant the seed and help us reconsider?

Two industries, side by side, in the same region. What better way to observe to see what is working and what isn’t. We should take this opportunity and do just that. Work together to make the local marijuana industries a success.

What recreational marijuana questions do you have for 2015?