- The Dirty Grinder Problem -

My grinder is a few years old. It's a metal one that screws together in separate layers for grinding, ground, and kief. It has never been meaningfully cleaned. I've poked and chipped at it a bit when it got stuck. The kief catcher has been blocked for ages although I was never sure I wanted my kief caught in anything other than what I'm currently smoking in the first place. Its become more of a masher than a grinder as compacted dark resin coats much of its once sharp teeth.

- New Grinder Dreams -

I was thinking of buying a new grinder when I decided I should probably clean the current one up first to see how much that helped. One of the grinder teeth snapped off years ago and it actually really improves how the grinder works. That gap is where your bit of weed starts. If I made grinders I'd engineer a weed gap something like this in. If I bought a new grinder I'd be tempted to break a tooth off. I'm sure several people will tell me why I'm wrong about this but it's a hill I shall die on.

- I Need Alcohol -

So first thing I reached for was our good friend alcohol. That age old tale like it's the solution to all of life's problems - but it quickly became clear that poking a bit of alcohol around was inadequate for this.

Obviously more alcohol was needed. That age old tale...So the whole grinder went in for an iso bath. Cleaning it with a sacrificial toothbrush after a good soak brought it back to factory levels of cleanliness pretty quickly with all that compacted resin dissolved into the alcohol. But it had one flaw. It was now a super sticky solution. A film of glue-like stickiness had settled across every surface of the grinder. After you touched it, the same is true for you. We are back in sticky Spiderman fingers territory. More wiping with alcohol didn't seem to clean it so much as smear it onto more surfaces.

- Saving New York -

So before I started using my sticky fingers to climb buildings and save New York City from crime, I went for possibly not the best solution, but for the one within the easiest reach of my Spidey fingers. Cif cream cleaner.

- The Lemon Problem -

This dispersed the stickiness with ease using the same ex-toothbrush. I think it more thoroughly cleaned the grinder too. The problem now wasn't stickiness, it was lemonness. And not the nice lemonness one might have in their grinder. The bad lemonness that you don't want. It'd be like smoking a yellow block from a urinal if I put weed through it.

- The Wet Problem -

After some more rinsing and cleansing the problem was no longer lemonness. It was wetness. The kief mesh and the many nooks and crannies hide water away. This was a better problem to have but still a problem. After much careful patting and some hairdryering I decided some resting time was needed for full dryness.

- The Outcome -

A while later I tried it out and it's essentially like a new grinder. It twists super smoothly with ease, evenly grinding buds into useful little pieces and once more my kief is being caught.

- Kief or Thief -

Although I'm still questioning if saving kief is better than having it now. Is it robbing me under the guise of future reward? Like daylight savings when the clocks change back. We don't ever get an extra hour in bed. Merely what was once already ours has been returned. If someone stole a tenner out of your wallet in spring then gave it back to you in Autumn you would not thank them for it. So is it a kief catcher a kief thief? I'm intrigued to know people's thoughts on this one.

- New And Improved -

The grinder basically works like new but with the added toothless gap that seems to improve function for me anyway and feels like a design feature. It's my hill - my hill folks.

- Fresh and Clean -

It may not be completely radical news to many people out there but cleaning stuff makes it better. My grinds are now fresher than a brand new pair of underpants.

- Thanks -

As always thanks for reading, I hope it was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining in some way at least.

Please upvote the post of you like reading this stuff and get involved in the comments to let me know how or if you clean your grinder - or what the cool kids use to grind with these days - and whether it's a kief or thief device? Thanks.

Highly Recommended Vendor

I've had so many people recommend the weed and service of Druids Magic that it is unreal. It's like the vendors really are druids and actually cast a magic spell on their buds prior to posting them which hypnotises people into commenting 'Druids Magic' everywhere that bud or vendor recommendations are discussed. It's also possible I don't know a huge amount about druids, magic or hypnosis. Either way It felt important to me that I investigate this hot topic and test it out for myself because while I may not know much about druidism, what I do know a fair bit about is smoking weed.

Will I come out of the experience zombiefied and only able to slowly mutter the words "Druids Magic" as an answer to every question? Let's find out.

Who Are Druids Magic?

As far as I know DM are a home grower and small vendor on LB. They have limited stock and limited options as they sell off their own grows. As such, any time I'd looked at their menu they appeared to be sold out or to be in between grows.

I Swiped Right:

This time I dropped them a message and true to reputation they were super keen to help me out with a couple of strains they had via a custom order. This is the way forward here.

The communication level was off the charts even before I ordered. After I pressed go, every state of the order was documented to me via message. There are surgeons who operate in less detail than this.

That's all very reassuring but I'm now at the waiting stage which is the worst bit of LB. Where's my weed?

Waiting:

"He waits. That's what he does. And I'll tell you what. Tick followed tock followed tick followed tock followed tick...... "

But what didn't follow was my weed. Not yet.

I'd hoped for RM efficiency but I also hope for world peace. I'm basically a dreamer. There is always tomorrow.

Day 1:

It's so far only been one working day so please don't read my impatience as a delay. I'm excitable and just really want to try this stuff out. I believe if there is one single thing that everyone on LB can relate to it's waiting for a weed delivery.

The postal folks do not understand the significance of what is happening here or the utter importance they are tasked with. Oh - hang on - that's actually the aim isn't it!

The Red Van:

Postman Pot has been. Dreams have been delivered. I ordered on Saturday and my parcel was delivered on Tuesday. That's a good service. Let's see what it is all about.

Stealth:

Stealth is thoughtful enough without me deep diving the details. It ticks my boxes and the buds arrived in good condition without leaving a bisto trail of stench in their wake.

Big Bags:

I ordered 7g and Druids sent me about 9g in total across two strains. One half is the Candy Kush and the other is the Coco Jambo. I've no idea if this extra weight is typical but it is of course appreciated.

Tis a Stinker:

First impressions upon opening the bag of cosmic - bloody hell that's a smell from somewhere deep in my memories. I had to take several sniffs. It's a pungent sweet old skunky aroma that instantly makes me think of my early 1990s trips to Amsterdam. This was back in the days where Dam weed was so far superior to UK stuff that it may as well have been a different drug. That's the smell here - of something long lost but welcome to return. It reminds me a bit of the original old bubblegum in Dam too.

The Grow:

I don't know enough about grows to adequately understand the production here but basically this stuff isn't the commercially produced furry pebbles. These are large natural looking buds that are looser than is typical from a modern commercial grow.

The buds are a little sticky and will benefit from being in a jar to even out. That might just be from travel as some buds don't seem to love being sealed up in the postal process. It's perhaps part of the reason for the tendancy to produce furry pebbles commercially as they do travel well.

The cosmic grinds fine though and it's not like you've just poured glue into your grinder. The bud is not wet but it just wants some love and care to hit perfection. I hope I'm explaining this correctly. Much delightful smell was released in the grinding process.

Cosmic Kush Family:

Cosmic Kush is a mix of Trainwreck (constructed of some very old genetics) and Kush which is still of course a mainstay of many vendors menus.

Smoking it I feel I'm getting more of the Trainwreck than the Kush and it's that end of the scale my nose instantly seemed to recognise when opening the bag too.

Although arguably much of the power probably has come from the kush I've no idea how to quantify that. Not least as I'm blazing a smoke while writing this.

It's a lovely smoke though, that much I can verify for sure. Smooth, clean, with a floral sweetness. It has an initial hit and a follow up stone with some smells and tastes that are deep rooted into my own cannabis history being enjoyed by my senses in the process.

You People Make Me Do This:

I suppose I'm going to have to test the Coco now too. You LB folk have twisted my arm. Basically forced me into it. I've already had a few of the Cosmic and I'm nicely stoned. Very clean buzz and a lovely smoke. But there's no point only having half an adventure. Let's see if the Coco stands up.

Coco Jambo:

The smell of the Coco Jambo is familiar too. It's cherry-like and teasing my favoured orange smell. It's all in there but it's more complexly mulled together. The smell is less prominent than the Cosmic but still definitely familiar. I had to Google the strain and it looks like it's Tropical Burst x Coconut Milk. So I guess I'm picking up on the tropical genetics which has orange cookies in its lineage. The coconut milk side feels like it contributes less but is probably subtly balancing the flavour which is why I felt it was mulled.

Pepsi Challenge:

Of the two weeds, going by the name, then going by the smell, I'd have bet on the Cosmic Kush being my favoured strain. I'm not sure that's true at all though smoking them.

While the Cosmic is the more lairy and definitely has some wonderful old flavours in there, the Coco Jumbo seems more refined. It seems to give me more of a head high but not in a hazy paranoid ansy horrible way and it eases into a nice stone. It is another really nice smoke. I think I'll have another one of these and ramble my way to the end of this topic.

So What's The Verdict on Druids Magic:

Yes folks. I get it. Thanks for the recommendation. The whole experience has been lovely. The smokes I've had this evening have been very much enjoyed and definitely different from a typical commercial grow from a high volume seller. This weed feels very well cared for and thoughtfully produced. It's powerful in both strength and flavour.

I guess comparing the service of Druids Magic to a high volume vendor is like putting your local Aunties cafe in a cage fight against a branch of Subway. Yes, Auntie knows your name and does a fine cheese and pickle sarnie and Victoria sponge cake but often you crave the mindboggling choices and size of a Subway footlong followed by more cookies than any human should consume in one session.

Would I Recommend Druids Magic?

The simple answer is yes I would. Drop them a message, try out some strains, the entire experience will be lovely from the first message to the first smoke - if your experience is anything like mine.

You'll end up with some lovely stinky weed that gets you completely stoned. If that's not an ideal transaction on LB I don't know what is.

Have The Druids Cast a Spell On Me?

I have had nothing but a lovely experience with the druids and their weed is a lovely natural product made with care. But....

I'm sure we all know my love for Green Cat remains borderline creepy. I really like caressing my way through the many strains on their menu and making the hard choices and doing research is part of the experience I enjoy. While I do return to old favourites I tend to explore new flavours every week.

I'll Be Back Though:

I will however be visiting Druids Magic as they get their new grows done and seeing what's what. This is especially true if they put an orange strain up. Now that could be a very interesting proposition from this grower. Something like the Orangina or a Tangie. So I've been glad of the introduction and thanks to the really impressively large number of people who recommended the Druids to me. I can see why you are super fans.

Thanks For Reading:

As always I hope this topic was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining in some way. Thanks for reading. Please get involved in the comments and if you like reading this stuff please upvote it to help share it with the community. I'll see you in the next topic.

I've Had a Lot of Blue Cheese:

In the past I've had a lot of blue cheese. I really mean a lot. For a period - probably years - it was about all you could get locally and, generally speaking, the weed strains that have saturated the local market I have grown completely averse to.

I honestly don't care if I ever see another bit of lemon haze or stardawg ever again. I had those so often I began to question whether I even liked smoking weed. I once felt a little like that about the blue cheese. My shoulders would sag and I'd sigh after knocking round at mateys flat only to be informed the menu consisted of blue cheese, blue cheese or a cheese that was blue.

However it seems I've gotten over it because as soon as I saw that Green Cat had some I was straight onto it. Nostalgia is a mixed up thing there's no mistake about it. Maybe there's hope for the lemon yet.

The Smell of The Past:

As I opened the bag the smell of the past wafted over me like time travel aromatherapy. I bought a few bits from GC as usual but I was super excited to jump straight onto the blue cheese. The buds are huge and the price is a bargain $55 a quarter. It's probably a bit drier than bud perfectionists might demand but the buds still squidge and aren't crispy or dusty.

Blue Favourites:

The blue flavour is dominant in a number of my favourite strains - I don't exclusively like orange despite the rumours. Things like the Skywalker OG are repeatedly irresistible to me. One of the first blue strains I could get on repeat though was the blue cheese so I suppose that my love of the blue taste comes more from the blue cheese than from the blueberry or any other blue strain.

The Original Blueberry:

I've had original blueberry several times. Only twice was it actually nice. Although to be fair those two bits were the holy grail of flavour at the time. I assume it's hard to grow well. It'd be interesting to see someone do a modern grow as I've not seen it for years and I'd be curious how the original strain stacked up when grown to perfection. The blue cheese was clearly a much more reliable strain hence - I assume - its booming popularity over a long period of time.

Cheese Was Cool Once Dude

The original cheese was also a breakthrough of its time and quickly was what everyone was asking for. Interestingly I'm not so bothered about getting cheese again. Perhaps I should.

What's The Blue Cheese Like To Smoke?

Mmmmmm.... Blue cheese... It's a blend of two flavours. Obviously there's the deep blueberry flavour that's banked as a solid base for a number of tasty strains. But it's interlaced with an old pungent thick and original sickly sweet skunky taste. If you liked it back in the day I expect you'll like this little trip down memory lane. This is a decent level blue cheese.

The stone is solid with both an immediate hit and a little follow up. Despite being a weed of the past it sits pretty nicely in my stash and I'm happy I bought it to dip into. I'm going to have another blast from the past right now. I suspect the novelty will wear off and I'll probably stash a bit away for the future but right now I'm loving the blue cheese.

Thanks:

As always thanks for reading my topic. I hope it was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining in some way. I'll see you next time. Let me know if you remember the blue cheese of the past.

Okay. Before we start it's probably worth noting that I rarely order from new vendors and I've not tested any of these out. I have dabbled with new vendors in the past with mixed success rates. Some were great, some definitely weren't and many of them now don't exist on LB. Generally I order from the same reliable vendors unless I'm specifically looking for something special or something exclusive happens to catch my eye.

I guess it's also worth noting that even some usually reliable and long established vendors have either hiccups or just fall to pieces over time. So age isn't always a complete guarantee of success and happiness either.

Newbie vendors often make their mark by offering us some interesting products and wonderful bargains to tempt us away from our mainstay vendors. Some of these newbies will of course be the big vendors of the future while some will possibly not get the hang of LB.

So please remember we're all grown-up here (hard as it is to believe) and make your own choices. I admire the people who routinely roll the dice on a new vendor. Your payment is protected via escrow of course but, for me, you have to kiss too many frogs to find the prince. If you do like kissing frogs though here's some stuff that might be princely.

---

The Wizard of Oz.

Only a month or so in and already flying. I have noted a few interesting bits passing through here and they seem very engaged with the community.

Amongst the loveliness would be this new batch of Blue Nerds. This strain is beautiful when done correctly. A mixed blue / silver flavour that's just divine. And this looks likely to be done to perfection. I've not tried it though. It's a pricey bit but will it be princely - see what you think.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/a5yFhz

They also have an RS 11 that looks spot on in the photos. This is one of my favourite strains as well. It's got a wild mix of sweet flavours when done right.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/cQhysC

A lot of the bud here looks great on the photos and reviews well. I'll have to dive in at some point. They certainly have some tempting options and fantastic looking buds.

---

Dapper Dank

There are some interesting products on the menu but the one that's super tempting to me personally is the White Widow x Skunk #1. I definitely wonder what old school flavours may lurk in there. Very tempting to find out I must admit. These are two very familiar strains to me from the early Dam days. I can almost smell the coffee shops just from thinking about ordering it.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/zjU0gT

They've made an enthusiastic start on LB so I hope it all goes well.

---

Zaza

Another colourful addition to LB. I noticed they had the L.A. Mousse hash.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/XiAYsv

It's a sort of fancy packaged American version of the familiar Moroccan hash we all know. This has my curiosity as to whether it'll be better or just the same and the price seems very fair to try. While I mostly smoke buds I do like to try various hash out. They have a few nice looking products on the menu.

That's All Folks:

Anyway, that's my quick roundup of some of the newbies that tempt me to be disloyal to GC. It's of course up to you where you order from. Basically don't blame me if it all goes wrong. Currently the vendors listed have a short trail of positivity behind them but as we all know that can change fast. For the bold adventurer there's some interesting bits out there to try.

If I've missed any new vendors off this list it's not personal. These are simply vendors I've come across while looking for bits and bobs. Please feel free to add yourself in the comments so I know you exist.

Thanks

As always thanks for reading my topic. I hope it was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining at least. I'll see you in the next topic.

I started to wonder what are the best qualities for a vendor to have. We all have our favourite vendors who we rely on and use on repeat. But what put them there into that top spot holding the gold medal? There's over a hundred vendors and over a thousand products at the time of writing this. What separates them?

I would likely drill it down to these main pillars of great vending from my own experiences. This is what I like vendors to exceed at.

- Great products
- Reasonable prices
- Good communication
- Fast delivery
- Thoughtful stealth
- Reliable service

I'll pick through these one at a time below.

- Great products -

All of these probably speak for themselves. But primarily we want to smoke, vape and eat great quality cannabis products. We don't want to be rolling up ditch weed in a bus ticket. I personally like vendors with relentless quality controls; Where the vendor name feels like a stamp of approval. So whatever I order there is very likely to be of good quality. This is number one on the list for a reason.

- Reasonable prices -

No one likes being rinsed for their coins. One of the key appeals of LB is the great value compared to buying from a local. While I'm sure we all appreciate that a bag of imported jungle boys is more costly than a bag of shake, feeling we are paying a fair price is definitely the winner.

- Good communication -

This is not as relevant when everything has gone perfectly. But eventually, if you order enough, something goes awry so good communication is a must for me.

I'm not looking for a new best mate but knowing we're in some way together in this until the deal is complete reassures me that you'll deliver. I have stopped using a couple of vendors who are unable to tick this box. I understand that vendors can't reply in 5 mins and that their shop is a business so they deserve their work-life balance as much as anyone. But timely replies to valid questions or issues are a must for me.

- Fast delivery -

"I've ordered some lovely looking bits - get them to me right now!" We're all excited when we order but need to apply an appropriate amount of patience and face the reality of logistics. I've had orders delivered inside of one day but generally you can't rely on that level of service particularly as RM is a piece of the puzzle.

However, what I do like to see is vendors routinely hitting the service level they state on their profile and getting orders sent out in decent time, particularly when you fluster your way through moving coins to hit their stated cut off points. I appreciate that I won't be rolling up five minutes after my payment clears but the faster and more reliable a vendors process is, the more likely they'll get repeat orders from me. The main vendors I order from have their order process completely dialled in. I also prefer tracked to signed deliveries as that requires less commitment on my part.

- Thoughtful stealth -

Here's an area where even some of the big vendors could do with improvement. I'm not going to detail anyone's stealth for the obvious reason. I guess ultimately it needs to hit a few key points. Professional / No smell / No touching / What if someone else opens it. The vendors concerned about all these are the ones I trust the most.

- Good service level / rating -

This really follows on from good communication. If a problem has occurred I don't just want a nice chat about it, I want a simple solution. There are vendors I've had problems with that both communicated well and solved the problem that I'd still happily use and recommend. Vendors ticking all these boxes should naturally attain a high rating.

- Community interaction -

It's good to see vendors interact with the LB community. I'm glad they're involved. Often they can shine a light on things us punters know little about and knowing they are here is reassuring for many of the reasons I've mentioned such as service and communication.

However this isn't as essential as the other elements to get me to order weed. If a vendor runs multiple channels and is super busy just by nature of being a great vendor then I'm cool with that. After all it's that volume of sales that give us the great pricing. Some of the core vendors I use don't interact huge amounts with the LB community and I'm fine with that so long as they tick my other boxes. Being quietly fast and reliable while not wanting to draw attention or whip up controversy are all positive traits considering the nature of the purchase we're all trying to make anyway.

-----

My core vendors:

It's no secret that Green Cat are my core vendor for weed currently.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/9GReqt

They tick all my boxes on repeat and once delivered me an order about 18 hours after I paid for it.

The weed range and price is exactly what I'm after (with the exception of orange flavours) with some top bits and a bunch of bargains. Service is fast. If I have questions they're answered. I've not had a big problem to sort but I'm sure that GC would be all over it if I did. The GC logo is a quality stamp. Trust in the cartoon cat.

I've just ordered some more blue nerds there which is one of my favourite strains. Marked as sent already.

-----

Dr Distillate would be next on my list:

https://littlebiggy.net/link/7JrVXL

A quietly reliable vendor. I order most of my RSO, D9 and extracts here. I trust the Dr and they've proved reliable. I'm a fan of the crumble waxes too. Very good value and a superbly smooth and flavourful smoke in my dab pen. I've also had orders from here inside of 24 hours.

I quite fancy trying a cart from here when I next need one. Probably a live resin version.

-----

Other vendors:

I've used loads of other vendors of course and many of them have a tip top service too. I've detailed many before in other topics like the one linked and I still love you all and will be back to buy again in the future. Two recent stand out services though were:

The Hash Collective provided me a brilliant service recently over the Piatella order.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/oQQ9WB

They held me a bit until payday for my birthday treat. They kept their word and so did I. There's very few online shops outside of this world that would do this usually I imagine. It was a great, if bloody expensive, transaction.

They also have really fancy special glass pots. Very posh and carefully selected. One of the best pots I've had on LB. Probably the second best pots in fact :-) What isn't second best though is the range of fancy hash products. Lots have a price tag that will make your eyes water long before any of the smoke hits them but they've got some real posh stuff going on that's worth exploring for a special treat or if you smoke like a gangsta.

The Good Stuff proved themselves a committed vendor to me as well recently.

https://littlebiggy.net/link/LqYu0Y

They went the extra bit to rectify a small mistake that's not worth detailing as I wouldn't want this to be taken as a negative. Unless you've never made a single mistake then please never judge a vendor on their single mistake - judge them on what they do next. Their response showed they truly cared about their service level and reputation. They subsequently did precisely what they said they would to fix it. Top notch stuff. And while we'd all rather have no mistakes ever, knowing the vendor has your back is a powerful indicator of service and engagement with customers. I'll order there again. Not least as they've got a fantastic range of really nice hash at great prices including some very fancy looking static. The bargain mimosa I had previously was lovely and orangey.

Great Vendors:

Going the extra mile to satisfy customers requests or taking the time to fix orders shows a service level that barely exists outside of a platform like this. It elevates us and strengthens us as a community and makes me proud of my little part here in buying and smoking as much weed as I can to help everyone out.

Let Us Know About Your Best Vendors:

If you feel a vendor you use hits all these pillars of great vending or they have gone the extra mile for you then please flag them up to me and others on LB by replying to this topic. Or if you feel there are other key indicators of a great vendor that I've not thought about let me know.

Thank You:

As always thanks for reading my topic. I hope it was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining at least. Please, if you like reading this stuff do upvote the stuff that makes you happy and comment as it really helps. Thanks.