Sweet Pebbles- sugary, terpy goodness…

A review by Aaron, Budtender.

Sweet Pebbles | By Errl’s | 72.3% THCA | 2.99% CBD | 1 gram $36 | Available at Herbal Nation

Errl’s is a concentrate brand that is well known at Herbal Nation. Creating quality oil that is competitively priced, Errl’s oil is processed from flowers grown by their sister brand, Bonsai. Their facility is located in Arlington, Washington- not even a 45 minute drive from our store. A wide variety of strains have come through our store, processed into sugary goodness PHO. From Grandaddy Purple to Pineapple Express and less well-known names such as Lucid Ripper or Puff the Magic Dragon, these guys are killing the game (not to mention how nice they are to work with).

The strain Sweet Pebbles was created by a medical grower Fire Bros. They cross bred Fruity Pebbles(Indica dominant hybrid) and Sour Pebbles (Sativa) to create Sweet Pebbles which is close to a 50/50 hybrid leaning a tiny, tiny bit more on the sativa side.

Now let’s get to the product. With normal lighting the color appears dark orange, but with any assisted lighting you get to see the true bright reddish orange colors, free of visual impurities- quite gorgeous to look at. From the looks you might guess that the wax is quite grainy in texture but that’s only half true. Though Sweet Pebbles is sugar wax it tends to be a little bit on the hard side when it comes to the consistency. If you have a metal dab rod breaking the wax is no problem. Aroma can only be described as a candied fruit basket; as soon as you take a whiff you’re hit with an overwhelming sweet tone assisted by a strong fruity counterpart. The fruity tones are not definitive to one specific fruit. Not quite sour, not quite berry- just fruity. Yes, it contains a lot of terpenes (hence the strong aroma), but I could definitely tell that it’s a cannabis product- the hint of kush is far from unnoticeable. The flavor is what makes this strain so much fun to smoke, though. With each dab, I tasted a different fruit. Sometimes it taste like sweet peaches, then next the dab will have accents of mangos. At times even a sweet strawberry flavor comes through. But just like the aroma, the taste has noticeable undertones of “kush.” I prefer low temperature dabs, that’s where the real flavor comes out. The smoke itself is very smooth, especially since I use an almost foot-tall rig with a showerhead perc for lots of filtration and smoke-cooling action. On the inhale I felt mild pressure in my throat but it quickly dissipated, so minimal coughing for me. Sweet Pebbles is in no way a harsh strain to smoke. The high is heavy, but not so heavy that you can’t function. The perfect companion to my chosen activity of the night- video games. I felt high, there’s no doubt about that- but I was giggling, focusing, and eventually completely in the zone, rather than spaced out and unable to focus. As soon as I exhaled my first hit I instantly felt the tension wash away. Starting in the shoulders then, transitioning to the mind and taking away any mental stress. The CBD in this strain makes sure your body feels content and ready to take on the day. You’ll definitely feel the sativa high more than anything else but it still brings a fairly decent strength for your body. I recommend this product for those that would like to feel a heavy high, but stay productive and uplifted. Outside activities, movies, video games, and chores are all activities that would pair well with this concentrate. And remember, it’s strong – take it one hit at a time. Overall, I give this product an 8/10 rating based on color, clarity, texture, effect, packaging and taste.

Bonsai Cannabis Pineapple Express

A review by Erik, budtender

I woke up with not much morning left to me. Thankfully waking up at 11:30am on your day off isn’t the worst thing ever. The night before I had finished closing up the shop to meet my girlfriend at a friends for some cards against humanity, which ended up lasting till 3:30am.

Once I was conscious enough to roll out of bed I began to examine the strain for my day off. Bonsai has attractive packaging with a pleasant blue, gray, and white. The front is labeled nicely with the strain in an easy to read font in the same color scheme as the bag.

Before opening the bag I instantly noticed a gorgeous coating of white crystals, they were so dense that they had altered the hue of green. It appeared to go from dark sea green to lighter almost lime color. Next thing I noticed was the generous population of orange hairs the came from what looked like every part of the buds.

Now to pop the package and grind a bud. I ground up enough for a wake-n-bake joint for 2 and was overwhelmed with the sweet smell of pineapple, mango and heavy cream. It reminded me of working in a Thai restaurant, particularly making mango sticky rice.

I rolled it up and took a couple slow draws on it before lighting it, a good trick to keeping even flavor. I noticed that the taste was a little more creamy than the aroma, but the citrus was still prevalent. We lit it up and noticed instantly that the taste translated well into smoke and lasted for the majority of the joint.

The intense headbuzz came on quickly,  yet the intensity dialed back and settled in to a nice level cerebral stimulation after about ten minutes. I look over and my girlfriend had started the dishes and was bouncing around to the music I had put on. I began taking notes on the lovely bud around this time.

Soon food was an unavoidable issue and I had some smoked salmon with cream cheese on toast. Although I was hungry, I couldn’t stop moving around from all the energy. It took me 45 minutes to focus on finishing my meal. There’s just something so satisfying about filling your belly on a good sativa. A great sense of calm washed over me as my belly filled up, but I wasn’t necessarily tired. My muscles were nice and relaxed and the usual dull pain I feel in my extremities had seemed to drift away unnoticeably.

I began to loose focus so I brewed a cup of some Yerba Mate and finished up my notes. The cerebral buzz lasted about 4 hours though I am a heavy user so 4-6 hours is probably a good scale of duration. The effects dissipated nicely without a crashing feeling or any noticeable imbalance.

Overall Pineapple Express by Bonsai is a delicious sativa dominant hybrid that is in the running for best all day smoke in my opinion. This bud made for a great start to a day off and will make a perfect addition to anyone who likes sativas or hybrids alike.

Herbal Nation is carrying Pineapple Express from Bonsai Cannabis for $14 / gram and $45 / eighth. Testing at 19% THC and 0.14 CBD. Other strains we’ve carried from Bonsai are Grandaddy Purple, Sour Diesel, Allen Wrench, LA Chocolate, and Gorilla Glue.