Dayum, tried posting 3-4 times and I keep loosing the post before it is published... trying to get this out fast, pardon any grammatical errors. Sorry for not getting it up earlier.
I was a kid, the state was my candy...Stop. That is a bad metaphor. I got meds and I got an education.
I had 5 visits to four dispensaries: Smoking Gun, Helping Hands, The Farm... and one other I can't recall at the moment.
Between them all, I experienced not all but a good taste of Co.
So lets get to it. I found I classified my experience down to two different kinds of dispensaries in Co. Ones with a 1-on-1 bud tender experience, and those without. From my LIMITED experience, I really preferred those without. That said, I found killa live resin in all locations!
Lets start backwards and work forwards. First example- he two opposite ends of the spectrum are The Farm in Boulder Vs Smoking Gun in Denver.
FARM: Waited 15-20 minutes before I was allowed back to meet one on one with a tender. Totally felt like a tool sitting around but I figured what the hell. It felt a bit scripted, but I did not fall for the bad retail store side of things. Go into the back and you are in a voting booth like environment, only seeing what the bud tender brings out to show you. Now, you do get to tell them what you like and they bring out products accordingly, but it is not my ideal shopping experience. I cringed when in response to my first questions, the tender responded, "I only do edibles and not any flowers or concentrate." FUUUUUCKKK this pour soul tried but was simply ignorant to anything outside edibles and only showed me limited examples of what I was looking for. Had I not been to The Smoking Gun and Helping Hands, the experience may have been more fulfilling.
In spite of the different guided experience, I got a ton of great product here and went back into the mountains with beautiful concentrates. (I just failed to note which ones at the bottom were from here, I will try to get a review of those out tomorrow.)
SMOKING GUN: Is the experience I was seeking. Tons of strains on the middle of the floor in jars (multiple stations of 8 each) with magnifying glassies, smell holes, lab results and full descriptions. The staff was helpful, they had excellent local deals, and rewards programs for every cent$ spent. I liked it so much, I brought another first time visiter with me on my second visit to let him see every edible, cart, flower, etc. on the floor. On my first visit I picked up Chronic Creations live resin Night Berries 79.46%, Concentrated Love Jeti Kush (I) shatter 74%, The Clear Red Apple cart 61%. Tree House Berkel (forget % but it was their strongest I or H flowers in the house at the time).
Love the Night Berries Live, it was really a wax stability. Smells great, love the flavor at low temps, really berry like but not unnatural terps- HUGELY recommended. Fuck Quartz atomizers, putting this on a pen does it no justice. A rig at low temps brings out the fruit.
Concentrated Love Jeti Kush, beautiful and bright. Appears stable but will turn you into a tar-baby if you try to handle it. It was a great shatter, sedative effect. This is all subjective but I found Concentrated Love extracts to be more of a woodsy and earthy flavor than I am familiar with.
The clear red apple cart... meh. unimpressed with this one, perhaps it was just my selection? strong reintroduced terps in this cart but not in a great way IMO. I would not get another from this company after finding Chroma carts (the last ones I got tested at 90%+).
Tree House Berkle~ This was a fun flavored fresh flower. Slight skunk, but not overly powering. I found this strain to taste and give the most effect out of vapcap (vs enano and minivap)
HELPING HANDS- felt like my neighborhood pizza shop. Walked right in, got great service and picked up some KILLA live resins. LOVED the experience but I do think it helped that I knew their menu and went in knowing exactly what I wanted to get. Here I picked up my first Chroma Cart (87.42%), ridiculous Botanica Live Bio-D and Botanica Lucky Charms. And a Boulder Bar.
Chroma carts- I can't say enough great things. Brilliant unrestricted airflow with a variable airflow valve. Amazing flavor, I found the flavor to be somewhat natural terps but really strong without being overly flavored. These were the most effective potency of any other carts I have had (knuckles aint got shit on these!).
Botanica- Super GASSY live resin (will post numbers for the two later when I look at notes). Lucky charms is darker than I typically prefer but flavor was off the charts just like the tender told me. The Bio-D was a huge fast head rush, real heavy but it got me just LIT. The Bio had some ridiculous numbers, knockout gas smell, and was stable like a crumble. Looks like a bright clear golden yellow live resin, but handles like little pearl balls of delicacy. They mush if you squish them but are totally manageable without getting sticky fingers. Never had anything quite as wonderful as the BioD from this group....
Boulder bar left something to be desired, but edibles need a real punch to be effective for me. I ate 9/10 for a good night sleep and gave one square to a buddy.
Will try to get up some more info tomorrow night on:
Harmony Extracts, Viola Extracts, Craft 710 PHO, Stillwater, more Concentrated Love, dubstix, and cheebas... I am not sure which of these were from Farm, anyone know?