Ten dankest marijuana strains of 2011

Ten dankest marijuana strains of 2011
DenWest / William Breathes / 12,22,2011

Our marijuana critic, William Breathes, smoked more than 140 different samples of medical marijuana in 2011. We sent him down fuzzy-memory lane and asked him to pick out the top ten strains he smoked, and here are the results along with the original strain writeup from his Mile Highs and Lows dispensary review.


10. Allgreens -- Kong -- ($40/eighth)

Every time I popped open a jar, the smell reminded me of strong diesel fumes mixed with, ironically, the rubbery scent of a new Kong dog chew toy. Oddly, there wasn't an extremely strong smell to the bud itself until you broke it up; then it released a much more pungent, nose-turning funk. Really pretty bud, too: dark green with hues of purple in just the right light and tiny calyxes covered in white trichomes that looked like Velcro under a microscope. Crystals fell like snowflakes on my desk while I was breaking up the herb for a spliff. It had a strong, Chemy (Chemdawg, not chemicals) taste to the first three or four hits, but it lost flavor by the middle of the joint. Smoked in a bowl later, the bud kept its flavor and burned to a white ash. Since our review of this strain, the prices dropped from $50 an eighth to $40 an eighth, with ounces selling for as low as $150.

9. Verde Wellness -- Jack Herer ($45/eighth)

The buds of the Jack were much more robust and photogenic than the pieces of Bubba Kush, and equally as potent. Very nice chunky but tiny calyxes that lumped together into quarter-sized buds that had a spicy lemon smell out of the jar and a mouthwatering stank when broken up. The stickiness of the bud made joint rolling hard (especially since I can't roll a joint to begin with), and it burned even and slow both in a spliff and in the bubbler. Classic Jack hazy taste with a sweet citrus aftertaste and a mind-racing buzz. This cut is one of the best I've seen, and it was great for mood elevation, enhanced imagination and overall getting high-ness.


8. A Cut Above -- UK Cheese: ($40/eighth)

I haven't seen this cut around much in the shops. It's one of my favorites through my caregiver, in large part due to the funky aged-cheese smell and rich, fruity taste. Aside from a few brown fan leaf tips, the cut from A Cut Above was gorgeous. Very well developed flowers, dried and cured almost perfectly, that looked like they were rolled in kief. Breaking up the bud over my desk left it sticky with resinous trichomes. The sativa-strong Cheese burned with a sweet skunk-like flavor through most of the bowl, leaving powered white ash and a stoned William Breathes behind. Very clear, crisp mental buzz from this strain that was great for getting strongly medicated in the morning for my appetite without putting me back to sleep.


7. Southwest Alternative Care -- Sour Diesel ($40/eighth)

I know, I could have picked any number of outstanding examples of cuts and I walked out with what is becoming the cheese pizza of sativa doms. Still, the pungent and mouthwatering citrus-rubber funk of the sample was phenomenal and I couldn't pass it up. The trichomes were stacked on this cut and fell off at the slightest wiggle of the bud. Breaking off pieces left a dusting of kief on my desk big enough to scrape up and smoke. The tangy candy flavor matched the strain's smell perfectly from start to snow-white, ashy finish in the bowl, and I smoked pretty much the whole thing taking delicious one-hitters out of the bong. A very cerebral, creative and strong Diesel buzz from just a few tokes. My only complaint was that I ended up with some wispy ends to take home (as you can see in the pictures) and would love to see a big bud of this. Still, even with just a few pieces, it's easy to say this is one of the top Diesel cuts I've seen around town.


6. The Pearl Co. -- Super Silver Haze x OG ($40/eighth)

Someone at Pink House is a mind reader. That is the only thing I can come up with as to how they crossed two of my all-time favorite medical strains into one unique plant. The smell was what got me first on this cut, as it blends the spicy, acrid haze of the Super Silver with the rubbery, sweet after-smell of an OG. This pheno seems to have kept a lot of the stringy, dark red pistils of the Super Silver while fattening up the calyxes through the OG and bringing out a much lighter green than I'm used to with a straight SSH. The buzz, though, was nothing like I expected. Normally, an OG is perfect for settling my aches while the SSH is my go-to strain for appetite. Mixing the two made it lose some of the appetite stimulation for me, but brought on an incredibly powerful mental buzz that was uplifting for my mood, if not a little racy and speedy for my body as well. I rolled up one big spliff of this earlier in the week and found myself cleaning the house soon after finishing.


5. Natural Remedies -- LA Kush (soil) $45/eighth

The budtender said this was his top strain in the shop, and I can understand why. It was a beautiful example with a dense but spongey feel, pinecone-like foxtailing and slathering of amber trichomes. Breaking it open brought out an intense rubbery finish, like sniffing a brand new set of Michelin tires. Small, rust-colored pistils wrapped around the calyxes and under the scope it looked like an alien planet of crytals. The taste came through very well on this cut with a tart, citrusy finish nearly from start to the finish. Almost instant head and upper body relaxation with this cut, though not so strong as to knock me out.


4. Mile High Green Cross - Banana Kush ($46/eighth)

I've come around on this strain, and it's flowers like this that have done it for me. I do think it was strange that the strain was able to place as both a hybrid (from Highland Health) and as an indica (for MHGC).The tangy banana-esque fruitiness was there, but it was overpowered by the tennis-ball-can funk of kush. The light-green buds had thin, thread-like orange hairs woven throughout, and the slathering of resin and trichomes left my fingers sticky enough to make rolling a joint difficult. Spicier when burned than the Sour Grapes, but not necessarily harsh. The flavor came through more exhaling than inhaling, but it had a sundae sweetness on top of the kush all the way down to the roach. I really enjoyed this through the vaporizer, which brought out a more rich soil taste. I got pretty stoney after my doob and really didn't feel like finishing my review. Slouching into my sofa and destroying a turkey sandwich were way more appealing at that point. This was for sure one of the best Banana Kush cuts I've seen any shop carrying, and worth checking out -- even if you don't agree with where it ended up in the Cup.


3. The Cannasseur -- Kurple Fantasy ($40/eighth)

If the color purple ever had a distinct smell, this would be it. A dark, almost sour-grape tartness, it was deeply stinky with rubbery kush goodness. This cut was as good if not better than the batch I saw back in April at the High Times cup. Dark green sugar leaves and calyxes faded from dark green to purple, though it was hard to see underneath the solid, sugary-cereal look of the trichomes. The bud kept it's potent smell through the week, stinking up my office every time I opened the jar to pack a bowl. And a bowl was all I needed with this deeply soothing and mellowing indica dom strain, though I often packed two for the rich, earthy taste and fruity grape finish. Very strong THC buzz that mellowed out into a pain-relieving, day-ending buzz that would be great for unwinding stress, soothing sore muscles or simply getting ripped and staring at paint dry. One of the more unique and tasty strains I've had in a while; I've been back twice for this cut in a month. Since our review, the prices have dropped considerably, from $60 per-eighth to a reasonable $40 per eighth.


2. The Clinic -- Luca Brasi ($45/eighth)

â€Â¨The Clinic hasn't had the cut of Bubba Kush that took home the CBD award at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup last April on its shelves for some time -- but this Luca Brasi is the next best thing. A cross of that award-winning, 12.35 percent CBD Bubba Kush cut and Corleone OG Kush, back-crossed with the Bubba Kush, brought this powerhouse of a CBD cut to the table. Coming in at 8.44 percent CBD and 10.93 THC, this is one of the most equally balanced and overall potent cuts around town. A very strong, rubbery kush scent cut with an underlying organic-soil earthiness left my hands smelling like I'd been digging in the garden all day. The taste matched the smell perfectly, making it a pleasant puff as well as potent medication. Much more uplifting and buzzy due to the higher THC content, the strain was good for numbing the pain without knocking me down for the count. Actually, the herb had me feeling uplifted and active even after a big bowl, without any tension or anxiety, thanks to the decent THC levels. It was also good at calming nerve pain in my stomach and easing cramping after a less-than-quality street-taco session. Clinic staffers promise that the award-winning Bubba Kush will be back, but in the meantime, this is a perfectly suitable alternative.


1. The Station -- Ghost's OG ($45/eighth)

One of the most impressive examples in the shop, the Ghost's OG was something I absolutely had to take home. An elite, clone-only flower, this earthy-smelling, extremely potent variety of OG isn't the easiest thing to come across as a grower. My apologies for the picture quality this week. The true color of this herb was a deep pine green with big, fat pistils poking out of the top of the crystal-covered calyxes like orange Hershey Kisses tags. Broken up, the bud left my office smelling like a can of tennis balls had a fight with a bag of potting soil. The taste was equally as rich, with an almost floral aftertaste from the start of the bowl through the powdery, white-ash finish. When done right, like this sample was, a normal bowlpack is more than enough to get irie. Burning several bowls was great for dealing with a stupid knee injury I sustained slipping in the snow a few weeks back as well as for battling insomnia. A bowl of this before bedtime, and I was sawing logs within fifteen minutes.

Feel free to slobber on your keyboards.