The Beginning

When I started smoking pot, the UK options were various types of commercial hash or basic landrace weeds.

The mainstay hash was usually a Rocky which I believe was nicknamed from Moroccan and was a heat n crumble hash. Often we'd get a Slate which as per the name came in thin slabs which fluffed up when heated and crumbled - anyone know what the origin of that was? Squidgy Black of various but often low grades would often be available. We'd usually get red seal but gold seal and other stamps did turn up. It'd roll into snakes. Plus we'd get other basic, and often poor quality, hashes with some variations like soap bar or double zero. Often you'd find hash cut with something unpleasant like henna or plastic. Although equally you'd sometimes get a lovely treat like a temple ball.

Weed tended to be Thai sticks or similar dry stuff with more seeds and sticks in it than weed. I'd hear about sensimelia but I didn't ever see any in my town. It was all pretty basic.

This was universally true across life in that period. Channel 4 was brand new and edgy and digital watches still seemed like a pretty neat idea. It was a simpler time. You couldn't even buy fancy long rizla at Tesco.

Original 90s Hash

Honestly, if you bought the cheapest rock solid hash on LB, wrapped it in plastic, smashed it up with a hammer, then stuck it back together so the plastic was on the inside, you'd be a long way towards creating an authentic 90s hash. I don't recommend it but the option is there if you'd like to experience it. I'm hoping some old stoners will confirm to the younglings that I'm not making this up.

The Dam

During my first trip to Amsterdam my eyes were opened to a new world of cannabis. Which was ironic considering they were half shut for much of the trip. I think many of us brought back a piece of Dam with us (quite literally in my case) and the sharing of those experiences seemed to progress everything forwards. We wanted to be more Dutch.

I loved the weed out there of course but it was more than that. It was the open and tolerant culture that allowed it all to happen that really hit home for me.

Slow Progress

Although the four channel options on TV and digital watches seeming a pretty neat idea persisted for some time, we gradually got better at growing weed here until we reach the point today where we're comparable to much of the rest of the world - and now smart watches seem like a pretty neat idea instead of the digital ones.

In between then and now I've had a wide range of oddly grown weed and lack of flavours. Even as we made a bit of progression, for long periods, everyone would seem to have the same grow.

It'd be cheese, then blue cheese, with lemon haze phases, then stardawg. Variety, as a concept, seemed to take a while to bed in. There were of course highlights and exceptions but the mainstay weed was very samey for years - at least locally - and definitely below the quality and variety abroad. This period developed my loathing of lemon haze. I've simply had it one too many times.

LB Quality

Now, all these years later, I'm ordering high quality buds delivered to my door from a menu of a thousand products. The difference in the cannabis now to then is almost immeasurable.

We've got strong, tasty and exotic weed with new strains on a regular basis. We've got fresh frozen hashes and powerful extracts. We've got vapes and dab pens. We have clean D9 edibles and decarb products. It's a golden age of cannabis consumption with a bigger crowd of us than ever before. I'm excited by it - by all you loons in the LB community.

While attitudes have certainly progressed, we're still a wee bit behind when compared to the tolerant attitude to cannabis use we're seeing in the US and parts of Europe.

Channel 4 Cannabis Night

The afore mentioned Channel 4 once did a cannabis night back when they were still keen to be edgy. All night they showed a stream of cannabis TV shows which sent shockwaves through the mainstream UK of the time but was of course dynamite viewing for my generation. It felt like part of a culture shift. A line in the sand between the stagnant and repressed old folks versus the new, dynamic and hedonistic youth.

In one of the programmes it showed how a legal cannabis future might look. I remember that it showed designer prerolls in professional looking cigarette looking packets. Funnily enough even our cigarette packets don't look like that any more! It'd be an interesting clip to watch again actually.

As a 80s/90s stoner I don't think I'd have predicted how the cannabis market looks now. Firstly the sweetshop flavour names and youth-styled graphics on the packs are a naming convention and style that's a world beyond stuff like skunk and white widow. But also the products available expanded far further than I could ever have imagined. It all leaves me as wide eyed as Charlie was stepping foot into the chocolate factory.

I don't know where we go from here but it'll be fun to find out. I hope the UK will ultimately find a more tolerant and legal status for our favourite plant just like many of our friends abroad have.

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 Stole it.

And yes, for the astute Douglas Adams fans, I did steal one of his lines for this piece. Twice in fact - to try and get good value from it. My grandma would be proud.

- 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.