Strain Review – Blue Magoo

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Blue Magoo, not to be confused with Blue Goo, is a lovely indica dominant hybrid strain with a rich lineage stretching back to the mid 90s where it was originally cultivated by one of the many great growers of Oregon. The mother of the strain was the ever popular indica Blueberry, which was pollinated by Major League Bud (also known as William’s Wonder F2)

A fusion of berry, fruit, and other floral notes make up the aroma and taste of Blue Magoo, resulting in a palate as colorful as its pastel purple and green buds. A tight bud structure is not uncommon in this strain, with dense and resinous nugs absolutely covered in beautiful frosty trichomes.

Blue Magoo is a favorite among patients as it combats a variety of symptoms including pain, nausea, insomnia, anxiety, and appetite loss. Many patients have claimed that Blue Magoo is a fast acting pain reliever that does not generally carry with it some of the anxiety-inducing effects that higher THC cannabis strains sometimes have. The lack of paranoid side effects, coupled with the rapid and efficacious symptoms relief and palatable fruity taste, make Blue Magoo a very approachable strain and one that any patient would be pleased to experience. 

Substance is currently carrying this strain on our shelves. It starts at $9 a gram, $31.50 an eighth, $60 a quarter, $110 a half ounce and $220 for a full 28 grams. Testing at 20.15% THC and 0.45% CBD, this flower is lovely and exceptional by all accounts. Stop by and see it for yourself.

To read more about Blue Magoo, check out Leafly’s feature right here.

Indica vs Sativa

The Cannabis Origin: What is a Landrace Strain?

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We welcome the neverending flow of new crossbred strains. Patients are able to enjoy a vast spectrum of medical benefits, and connoisseurs bask in the diversity of their complex flavor profiles. For those only accustomed to plastic bags of nameless herb, signature varieties like Blackberry Kush and Red Haze introduce a new world of cannabis. But where did all these “Kushes” and “Hazes” actually come from?

Historical documents from around the world, some dating as far back as 2900 B.C., tell us cannabis has lived alongside humans for thousands of years, cultivated for religious and medicinal purposes. Many growers believe the earliest cannabis strains sprouted in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan and eventually spread to other areas, including South America, Asia, Jamaica, Africa, and even Russia. We call these indigenous strains landraces.

A landrace refers to a local variety of cannabis that has adapted to the environment of its geographic location. This accounts for genetic variation between landrace strains, which have been crossbred to produce the cannabis variety we see today. Landrace strains are oftentimes named after their native region (e.g., Afghani, Thai,Hawaiian), and traces of these forefather strains are sometimes detectable in the names of their crossbred descendants. A combination of environmental conditions and selective breeding by native populations gave rise to these stable varieties, the forefathers of all modern strains. Until its prohibition, cannabis remained a cultural cornerstone in these areas of the world.

Read the full story right here. 

How to Decarboxylate Cannabis

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Raw cannabis contains a lot of THCA which is not psychoactive. When you smoke weed, the THCA molecule loses its carboxylic group (COOH) in the form of water vapor and carbon dioxide and becomes THC. In short, THCA becomes THC and your cannabis becomes psychoactive. This process is called decarboxylation.

When you smoke or vaporize marijuana, you decarboxylate the cannabis by heating it. If you ingest cannabis and want the full psychoactive effect, you need to first decarb your cannabis before you cook with it.

 

Temperature

The lower the temperature, the longer it’s going to take to decarb your cannabis. Keep in mind that a lower temperature will allow you to lose less terpenes.

 

What are Terpenes?

Terpenes are the pungent oils that color your cannabis with distinctive flavors such as berry, mint, citrus and pine. There are many medicinal benefits to terpenes; some will successfully relieve your stress while others will promote focus and awareness.

 

Table – Decarboxylation Temperatures and Times
TemperatureHeating ModePlant Material TimeKief / Hash TimeCannabis Oil
310FOven10 – 18 minutes5 – 10 minutes
250FHot oil bathUntil bubbles taper off
240FOven50 – 60 minutes30 – 40 minutes
212FBoiling water bath90 minutes90 minutes

 

Decarboxylation Methods:

Tip: Grind your cannabis first! A course grind will allow your weed to evenly dry without losing potency from over grinding.

Flower

  1. Preheat your oven (see table above). Use an oven thermometer to check the temperature.
  2. Sprinkle your cannabis in a pie plate and then cover it well with silver foil by crimping the foil along the edge of the plate.
  3. Place in the oven (see table above) – less time for older drier material, more for fresher material.
  4. After required time, turn the oven off, and remove cannabis. Let it cool down slowly before you unseal the container to allow any cannabinoid/terpenes vapor to reabsorb into the cannabis.

Keif/Hash

  1. Preheat oven (see table)
  2. Sprinkle hash/keif on pie plate, cover with silver foil and crimp foil along edge of plate. Place sealed dish in oven for (see table).
  3. Remove plate and let it cool down slowly without removing cover to allow any vapors to reabsorb into cannabis.

Boiling Bag method:

  1. Place the cannabis flower/keif/hash into a boilable cooking pouch. Seal it.
  2. Place in boiling water for 90 minutes. Make sure water does not boil dry.
  3. Take bag out of water. Let it slowly cool before opening.

Cannabis Oil

  1. Place heat proof container of cannabis oil into a cooking oil bath (canola oil works well). Heat cooking oil to 121C/250F.
  2. Stir cannabis oil to break up bubbles.
  3. Remove cannabis oil from heat when bubble formation starts to slow down — or leave on heat until all bubbles stop for increased sedative effect.
Kief

What is Kief?

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Ever wonder what to call all those tiny, sticky crystals that cover cannabis flower?

Well, we’ve got an answer for you: kief.

Simply said, kief (also known as dry sift or pollen) refers to the resin glands which contain the terpenes and cannabinoids that make cannabis so unique. While marijuana sans kief still contains cannabinoids, the resin glands that develop on flower buds pack the biggest punch.

Trichomes: It’s All About Protection

While kief specifically refers to the bulbous, crystal formation on the tip of a gland, the substance itself is just one part of what is called a trichome, or a “hair.”

Many different plants and algae have external trichomes for specific evolutionary purposes. For example, some carnivorous plants rely on sticky trichomes to trap their prey. Other plants, like cannabis, use them as a deterrent to herbivores.

Trichomes on the marijuana plant keep away hungry herbivores by producing an intense psychoactive experience, theoretically disorienting the animal and preventing it from eating the rest of the plant. The resin’s strong, distinct odor also attracts pollinating insects and predators, which might keep herbivore populations at bay.

Extracting Kief

If you like the experience of concentrates but don’t want to break the bank buying expensive wax or extraction equipment, sifting kief might be a great alternative. Due to the high concentration of terpenes and cannabinoids in resin glands, separating kief crystals from plant matter is a great way to consume cannabis while reducing the amount of charred material you take into your body.

Extracting kief is simple. Using a three-chamber herb grinder will help you finely grind your cannabis while letting kief crystals fall through a screen and collect into a small compartment. While two chamber grinders are nice, they often let potent kief go to waste since crystals fall off of the dried herb and just stick to the inside of the grinder.

For extracting larger quantities of kief, using simple silk screening materials will allow you to separate kief from plant matter with the ease of sifting flower.

Many people create makeshift sifters using layered screens similar to the ones pictured above. Because kief tends to measure between 75 and 125 microns, it can be difficult to separate all of the resin from the plant materials. To make sure you’re collecting the cleanest kief without unwanted plant matter, stack three to four layers of fine mesh screen one on top of another.

For the best results, home extractors use consecutive sizes of screen and stack them in order from largest to smallest. When buying screens, the number of wires or threads per inch, or the LPI (lines per inch) number is an important thing to remember. The larger the screen, the smaller the LPI number. When it comes to sifting kief, mesh between 80 and 270 LPI tends to work best.

When buying extracted kief at a dispensary or retail store, keep in mind that the purer the kief, the lighter the color will be. Kief that still looks fairly green means that there is still quite a bit of plant matter mixed in, whereas kief that has been well cleaned tends to be more of an off-white color.

What’s the Deal with Hash?

Extracting kief is one of the first steps of making hash. To simply summarize, hash is basically just kief that has been heated and pressurized to form a soft, green ball. Applying heat and pressure to kief changes its composition by rupturing the resin glands. Once the kief ruptured, the overall taste and effects of the product are slightly different. Pressurizing kief also darkens its color; the more pressure you apply, the darker the hash becomes.

Kief may not be the most exciting cannabis product out there, but it still remains one of the most popular and easiest to access. For more information on kief and kief extraction, check out Ed Rosenthal’sBeyond Buds. In the meantime, be sure to pick up a three-chamber herb grinder if you’d like to get the most bang for your buck.

 

For more posts like this, visit Leafly’s knowledge center right here. 

jar of weed

Storing Cannabis

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Proper storage of cannabis is critical for keeping it as potent as possible

While storing cannabis is not difficult, there are four important factors that affect its freshness and potency:

•  Rule # 1: heat will dry it out and too much moisture can cause dangerous bacteria to grow,

•  Rule # 2: light is harmful to the trichomes (the sticky resin glands attached) ,

•  Rule # 3: air will dry it out and lessen its potency

•  Rule # 4: too much handling causes the trichomes to come off.

The best way to store your medical cannabis is in an airtight mason jar that has a good seal. One of the old time dark colored cheese jars with the wire swing top is ideal if you happen to have one. They are ideal for keeping out air, heat and light.

Store the jar in a cool dark place. You can store it in the fridge (not the freezer), but keep an eye out for mold. Fresh bud will actually “cure” better using this method, producing some sweet smellin’ buds!

When your medical cannabis was grown, our growers waited until the trichomes were just right before harvesting to create the best potency possible from those plants. You want to preserve those sticky resin glands and handle them gently as they fall off easily.

The two biggest myths about storing cannabis are that keeping it in clear plastic bags and freezing it helps preserve it, but these actions actually break most of the rules we mentioned earlier.

When you freeze cannabis buds, those potent little trichomes become like tiny icicles. This makes them stiff and brittle and actually makes them fall off and break off the buds. The more you handle the buds in and out of the freezer, the more you lose those active ingredients that help alleviate the symptoms you ‘re trying to address.

Also, all plastic bags have some static, and even this static attracts the resin glands that you are trying to protect and keep intact, which means you are reducing the potency slightly. If you must use plastic bags, use them seldom and for small quantities.

It’s also a good idea to keep the quantity of cannabis you wish to store separate from your daily supply

If you don’t have a jar, you can put it in brown bags (or any dark paper), and then place it in your plastic bags and remove any air that you can.

Refrigerate, or keep in a cool place (a basement works well) where there is no light and little activity – prevent any constant movement or handling. This will keep your medical cannabis both fresh and potent for a very long time.

We at Substance also carry lovely Boveda packs which regulate the amount of moisture present in your cannabis storage area. They’re very helpful in particularly arid or humid environments and are a viable option for anyone who wants to preserve more than a quarter ounce of cannabis flower.

These guidelines also apply to concentrates—just use a smaller jar!

To protect the potency and taste of your cannabis for long periods, smart storage is a must! Rough handling, heat, light and air exposure degrade trichomes!

For more useful information regarding cannabis, visit Harborside Health Center’s website.

afghan

Strain Review – Afghani Pakistani

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Recently we at Substance started carrying a new flower, known as Afghani Pakistani, or Afpak for short. A couple of the staff members here have gotten a chance to try this lovely flower, and we would be delighted to share our experiences and opinions on it with you all.

First things first…some basic Afghani Pakistani knowledge for your brains.

The Afpak…

  • is a heavy indica
  • comes from Aghani Landrace and Pakistani Landrace strains
  • is commonly used to help with insomnia, issues with appetite, and pain relief

My first impressions of the strain were very positive. It looks gorgeous, with beautiful purple coloration, prominent orange hairs and a decent bud structure. The Afghani Pakistani’s trichomes are abundant, making it look rather frosty and visually appealing. The smell is just as good, with a sweet candy-like aroma. In fact, I would best describe its appeal as being like “purple candy”.

The bud was clearly cured very well. The flowers are not dry, nor are they full of moisture which would suggest it was harvested too early. Rather, the process appears to have gone very well and provides the flower with a lovely consistency. The texture is sticky and balanced just right.

Now, moving on to the effect…

I loaded my pipe with the Afghani Pakistani flower as my day was winding down to an end. I was tucking in for the night, ready to relax and listen to some music. I was hoping that the strain would be perfect for such a setting, given that it is a heavy indica – and it was. The taste of the smoke was just as sweet, if not more so, than the flower itself. The resulting effect was a pleasant heady buzz that made me feel very relaxed and helped to ease my muscle tension.

My coworker made an excellent observation about the strain. He stated that while the Afghani Pakistani is a heavy indica, it nevertheless produced a very functional high that didn’t have the “couch-lock” effect that many indica strains tend to induce. I experienced a similar effect – body and muscle relaxation, pain relief, while still being able to stay up and do creative things like drawing or making music.

All in all, the Afghani Pakistani gets a rating of 9/10 from me. It’s a well formed flower with excellent appeal and a very pleasant effect. I would definitely recommend picking it up while we have it in the store, because it’s going fast.