Dithering:
I'd been looking at options for dabbing concentrates for ages. Polly Puff had recommended an Ace Cup a while back but it didn't seem as portable as I wanted and also like it may make more vapour smoke than my little ol' lungs could handle. It's an expensive bit of kit to invest in if I ended up not liking it. So I did what I usually do when I'm unsure: Nothing. Nothing at all.

Commitment:
Recently I decided to finally commit to buying something cheap and simple to dab with just so I could see how it was. Crikey - it's a minefield. There is too much choice. Too many different options, all with a distinct angle on how dabbing should work electronically. There were more shapes and sizes than an Ann Summers catalogue. This also confusingly included a lot of differing technical terminology making direct comparisons tricky.

I think the pen I have is a wax pen. I have no idea if this is actually distinct from a dab pen and if it is, I've no idea why it is or what the difference is.

A wonderful discovery:
This shopping mission did however introduce me to a wonderful chunk of the internet that I didn't know existed. And that is the cannabis paraphernalia reviewers on YouTube.

I saw quite a few wonderful dab equipment reviews where the reviewer takes a few blasts on the device and becomes instantaneously too spangled to say anything useful about what has just happened.

You'd see their spaced out eyes staring through the camera calling out for help. But while their useful words were sparse, the frozen rabbit-in-headlights look was actually a good marker for equipment performance in this instance; their eyes so glazed over it reflected the dazed world they were in almost enough to see into it.

I probably shouldn't condemn them too much as most of my own topics probably read like that too for the exact same reasons.

What did I buy?
I ended up buying a Utillian 2 wax dab pen. The reviewer said, after taking a blast on it, "oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah," before taking a long pause to think carefully what he would add to this but still only managed to add another, "oh yeah." I couldn't help but want a device that could reduce my vocabulary to that of a 1980s Casio calculator and was sold immediately. Oh yeah.

Utillian 2 wax dab pen:
It's a little pen that comes in a storage box a bit bigger than the footprint of a credit card but much fatter, so it's easy to transport the pen without destroying it.

Inside the box, the pen is in two bits which magnetically stick together. It's all magnetic which is pretty cool and simple. There's a charger and dab tool in the box too.

It's got 4 different voltage / heat settings and uses two little coils in a chamber where the extracts go. Was 40 quid from a seed shop online. Did I do well?

In use:
In use, I like it. But I've nothing to compare it too. My lungs won't take a big hit on normal bongs or pipes these days so I only have little but constant puffs on the thing but even that can still be a bit harsh for me. It does get me super stoned though.

There's a bubbly attachment available for it so I might give that a go. It certainly makes extracts go a long way compared to rolling them in a joint.

Thanks:
Thanks for reading my topic. I doubt that you've learned anything because I largely failed to but hopefully it was briefly entertaining.

I would like to better understand dabbing extracts and the best equipment so if it's your bag please jump in and educate me and possibly other folk on LB.

LB Community Help:
What do you use for dabbing / smoking extracts?

I was kindly given some FECO a few weeks back which I'd been enjoying immensely so this week I bought some RSO to continue on the full spectrum journey. It was recommended to me on a previous topic and I'm glad it was.

Small Test:

My first test I baked a cookie with a really small amount of RSO in. Even if you're pretty tolerant like me I'd advise starting small with any new thing. I'd heard RSO can be a wee bit unpleasant to take too much of.

Anyway, even with a cautious amount, it wasn't exactly the best flavour addition. I've been on a healthy diet and a lot of my sweet hopes and dreams were bet on that cookie. It made it taste how I imagine a cookie would taste if it had been grown in a lab. It had a sort of clinical taste. My usual delta 9 distillate doesn't notably change the cookie taste.

Full Test:

After a couple of hours I figured I was on pretty safe ground. Like I wasn't crouched trembling in the corner of a dark room or pacing around gasping. So I squished a bigger bit out the syringe onto a piece of chocolate and ate that.

That tasted pretty bad. However the effects were really quite lovely. I had a wide eyed spacey buzz going on. Really cerebral. Even grabbing a snack from the kitchen I found myself bowling around like I was Shaggy solving a mystery in Scooby Do. Perhaps it's not to everyone's liking but I definitely enjoyed it. I slept pretty well that night too.

Conclusion:

RSO is my new friend. But I could do with a better delivery method.

Please let me know your preferred consumption methods for RSO and also if any other strains are better or different - or anything else you think may be of interest.

Thanks for reading my topic.

Apparently the Gringo was an Essex / East London thing. Like we're special or something. I believe it was a cheese cross that had monstered into a potent and flavourful sort of sweet n sour musky weed. It was only available as cuttings not seeds for growers. I've not seen it for years now but part of me hopes someone still has a crop going.

I'm wondering - how far did the Gringo travel? Have you heard of it? For a while it was a sure-fire winner round here. Lovely stuff. Probably around 2004ish.

So - have you had the Gringo? Has your part of the country had any unique strains you've not seen available elsewhere?

I was sent a sample of Afghan Kush by Cannabis Cannibals this week and it got me thinking about doing a week on the old school flavours.

This weekend I've mostly been rolling some super strong bangers. I did a gram of tangerine dream in my first of the day yesterday with mixtures of a couple of types of live resin sugar, jungle boys hash, and blue nerds weed to follow. It's all quite lovely stuff. I've been pretty blasted as planned. Mission accomplished. Well done me. It's rare I get a weekend devoid of responsibilities so it was nice to nullify my ability to take any new ones on.

Anyway, this morning, as I was sat chugging away at the Afghan Kush as my starter for the day, it brought back some flavour memories of the past and I started to think it might be fun to do a week smoking a few old school flavours.

Back in the day (yes I'm an old fella) in the UK you mostly got hash of mixed quality depending upon exactly which era you point at. Weed was usually the Thai stick kind. I'm not planning to go back to then. I remember the first person in my town to bring Skunk in from Amsterdam. Man, he was popular. I can still remember those first few puffs blowing my mind and me heading out to Amsterdam not long afterwards.

Over the years that followed the quality in the UK remained so-so and every trip to Dam showcased new excitement in the form of a new prize winning strain at the top of the menu. I was super excited as I discovered skunk, skuff hash, super skunk, white widow, icolater hash and many more with each trip out there heralding a new treasure. The California orange bud I've heavily covered off in other topics so probably better not dive down that rabbit hole again but it's my favoured flavour profile and was a banker on a Dam trip.

The UK seemed completely backwards in comparison to the scene in Holland although of course it's now been many years since UK weed caught up with the rest of world in terms of a general standard. That being said the obsession with serving up Stardawg perplexes me to this day. How that became and remained a go-to strain will always be beyond me.

There's many strains of yesteryear still widely available on LB that I generally look past as I flavour chase the new tastes - much like the blue nerds. But bits like silver bubble, diesel or blue cheese might be interesting blasts of the past. The silver has a very unique tang to it that I've not had for a while and diesel also has a significant and unique sourness that I've not tasted for a long time. Blue cheese was at one point the only weed I could get. Everyone had it. I wonder what I'd think of it now or if I'd just sigh, "blue cheese again..."

I'm pretty haze averse so I'm unlikely to be going down the lemon, ammy, g13 route but some hazes I do like such as silver haze so I wouldn't fully rule them out. Although I prefer silver bubble to the silver haze. That's the right mix of flavours for me.

It might be nice to have a plain old cheese or a white widow like I mentioned earlier. I've not had the Gringo for years but I'd be into that if it was available.

I'd be interested to see some old school recommendations and have a trip down memory lane. What old school strains do you still actively buy or wish you could buy?

Thanks for reading what turned into a longer piece than I intended. I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane or that it was informative at least.

Please let me know your old school strains & stories.

I read this brilliant review for WPFF ice hash by the very lovely Mighty Rux a while back (linked). The product is no longer available but the review is worth the read nonetheless.

He says that it is 'probably the strongest stuff' he's smoked 'ever'. Having run into Mighty Rux a number of times on LB, I appreciate that if he says it's the strongest product he's smoked then it's quite likely to be the strongest stuff I'll smoke. There was of course the disclaimer of 'probably' in his statement.

Payday is looming so I might make a dive for something special. What's the strongest product you've had? There's all sorts on here like cured badder, shatter, diamonds, Piatella, WPFF hash and solventless extracts. When you spend the big bucks on a treat to get you fully blasted - where is your money going?