Ypsi wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 3:20 pm Hi all,

I'm not going to post a review, but wanted to put this out there to the community as I've been thinking about this for a while now and have been torn over whether to post this as I know I'm new and don't really have any credibility at all. As I'm sure some of you have seen, I received an order from Kootenay a couple of weeks ago and I was pretty stoked given their platinum selection of great strains and potency. I was really excited about their PG-13 strain as G-13 was one of the first quad flowers I ever tried back in Michigan in the 90's and the first time I have seen this strain since. Outside of some issues signing up, getting access was straight forward and I was approved pretty quickly all things considered.

I'd read a bunch of reviews which were mostly really good, so being able to select some strains that the community were talking about, along with selecting some strains which I personally thought were going to be a very enjoyable experience, was definitely exciting. From order to door was about 2 days which was great and I received all 6 strains no problem.

This is where things start is get murky for me and the reason why I wanted to post. For all the hype and marketing about these flowers being platinum and really great, I've been left feeling very un-impressed with the flowers. The flower themselves look absolutely amazing, some of the best bud I have ever seen, with lots of crystals, big buds but lacking a bit in the smell department. Then I tried smoking them.

I've been smoking bud for well over 20yrs and I'm a bong guy. Upon breaking up the buds, I found it a bit odd that such great looking flower with tons of crystals was not really sticky at all and again, the nose was not very strong. Taking rips from the bong and the taste was decent, but nothing to write home about. I was expecting some heavy hitters and was excited to experience the effects of these supposedly platinum flowers. Lets just say that I've been trying, to little or no effect, to get the heavy effects from these strains and I'm just not getting it. That's why I've been holding out on posting as I thought maybe it's me, I'll give these another shot to see if maybe it's just me or the particular day I'm smoking (I'm a daily smoker). Some of the strains will tease with some effects after smoking, but by the 30min mark, it feels like I haven't smoked anything. This includes the Cactus Breath strain which folks have been going crazy over and folks have written reviews on here saying the same.

Is anyone else having a similar experience to me? to say that I'm underwhelmed is an understatement - probably the biggest disappointment I've had to date when ordering from MOM's. I'll continue to try these with an open mind, but I'm just not getting the effects.

Next question I'm sure from folks is to contact the MOM. I'm a bit hesitant as I did approach him early on after the order about one of the jars as it had 1.3g of leaf in the 7g jar (by far the worst I've seen since ordering with MOM's) - I was really nice about the email and didn't ask for anything and I basically got a response saying, thanks, I'll let the grower know (no apologies, nothing). So I wasn't expecting to get anything in the customer service department if I sent an email back saying the potency of his platinum strains are questionable as he would probably think I'm looking for something for free. I just want heavy hitting buds (I even emailed them before putting in the order asking for their heavy hitters and they confirmed that what I wanted to order was indeed heavy hitting, I even ended up ordering a strain they recommended).

So, while I really want to like this MOM given their selection of great strains, my actual experience with those strains has been terrible 9I wonder who the grower(s) are?). I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience or whether my tolerance has decided to only increase when trying buds from Kootenay craft.

Hoping I'm not crazy and sorry for the novel. Just feeling really disappointed by this experience.


Ypsi

Ypsi wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 5:05 pm Appreciate the insight guys, and you're right - this is a pretty personal hobby and the reviews, along with all the other hype, needs to be taken as just that. I think getting different opinions from different places helps to cut through some of the fluff so you can make a personal, informed decision.

I've been thinking about just looking for the growers whose flowers I like. That may be a better indicator as I've read here a number of times, good genetics doesn't equate to a great end product. How it is grown is just as important, so finding the growers who you feel are doing it right, growing flowers that work for you, may be a better approach.

Thanks again for the insight, appreciate it!


Ypsi.

Randude wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 7:07 pm I've seen a lot of reviews like this out there, and I've experienced the same problems.. my guess is the harvests are done too early or too late. OR these flowers are being used to make concentrates, then sold after the process. Which sucks for everyone, except the grower/s obviously.

Bassdrop30 wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 7:11 pm

Randude wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 7:07 pm I've seen a lot of reviews like this out there, and I've experienced the same problems.. my guess is the harvests are done too early or too late. OR these flowers are being used to make concentrates, then sold after the process. Which sucks for everyone, except the grower/s obviously.

There's a huge difference between selling blasted weed and weed that doesnt live up to expectations. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of KC they DO NOT sell blasted weed, and it's a pretty big accusation to make.

xsinx wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 9:40 pm This "accusation" comes up pretty often on reddit, Discord and I've seen it mentioned on here. I've been buying from them for a year now and I've had about 20 of their strains by now and some of them definitely are on the weaker side. Their Watermelon, Slurricane and Skunk were notable ones that were very weak potency wise (the Skunk might be the worse, I need to add hash to it to get a satisfactory buzz).

I mentioned it a couple times, I'm not a big smoker, so I can't really evaluate weed from a chronic user's perspective.. but all other strains I tried from them gave me a satisfactory buzz. It's definitely not the strongest weed I've had, but it's definitely competent. I understand though that when paying premium prices, people have high expectations for potency. You have to keep in mind though that their 70-80$+ per quarter strains come with a 20% mix and match deal and they have a montly 15% sale, as well as the first time 50$ coupon which makes their flower pretty affordable for the level of quality (as a whole, not talking about potency).

One thing people forget and I've seen the same type of comments about HSP is that KC has a lot of sativa and sativa leaning hybrids. If you look at the market as a whole you'll find that a vast majority of weed is either heavy indica or indica leaning as there is a high demand for it on a therapeutic level (for sleep, reducing anxiety, treating pain, etc). I always get a much more noticeable buzz from indicas and I totally understand people shunning weed that's more cerebral/uplifting as it really feels like something is missing. That said, it also provides a much cleaner buzz and much less crash/burnout when the buzz comes down. What I'm saying is sativa is not for everyone and you need to be able to appreciate it's pros and cons, it's definitely a lighter buzz.

Another thing I want to touch on is freshness. People who've been following my reviews know that for me, taste is one of the most important things. I really enjoy the ritual of smelling dank weed, busting it up to release it's intense aromas, rolling it up and then drawing on the unlit joint to really taste it fully and then smoking it slowly to really get the full taste of the terpenes, etc. That freshness comes with a hefty price and not everyone attributes as much importance to taste and smell, for a lot of users, especially chronic users, the $ vs buzz is what counts. That freshness is composed mainly of water and some volatile terps (not all terps are as volatile) and when that freshness is lost, the THC % increases... simply because in that 1 gram of fresh weed there's say 150mg (15%) THC.... when it drops to 0.5g from drying, the THC is still 150mg but it bumps the strain to 30% THC. The user gets a much better deal potency wise on drier weed, some customers even insist on refusing weed that it's too fresh because they feel they are paying for water weight.

So all of these factors contribute to their weed's perceived lack of potency. It doesn't change the fact that for a lot of heavy smokers, this still is a not so good deal. The weakest strain I got from them was Skunk, but it was also one of the strains I rated the highest and that I appreciate the most. It came in super fresh, plush, super terpy and it's just an absolute delight to smoke. Most chronic users probably wouldn't even catch a buzz from it, it's really weak.

Hope that helps everyone understand. There's a lot of personal taste involved in all this obviously.