What Qualifies as "Top Shelf" Medical Marijuana?

[Dietblonde]

Starter09 brought this up in the CO Disp Reviews Thread and suggested someone make this thread. This might help some of us who are aspiring bud snobs to become better shoppers.

I'd attempt to answer this question but I'm off to the grocery store. Feel free to chime in!

Dietblonde Reviewed by Dietblonde on 12-06-2009. What Qualifies as "Top Shelf" Medical Marijuana? Starter09 brought this up in the CO Disp Reviews Thread and suggested someone make this thread. This might help some of us who are aspiring bud snobs to become better shoppers. I'd attempt to answer this question but I'm off to the grocery store. Feel free to chime in! Rating: 5

[Kartel]

In order of their appearance (most are not mine)

Tahoe og kush
king's kush
bubba kush
the white

[Spacedet01]

In order of their appearance (most are not mine)

Tahoe og kush
king's kush
bubba kush
the white

the white X og kush is the sikness...have been wanting to get some of those seeds but have seen them go for over 400 for 10 seeds. Might have to wait for some one to have a cut I can buy..be on the look out for a local shop here in denver to be carrying the seeds of the top 3 strains you mentioned. I believe they will be $80 a pack.

[Dietblonde]

Actually, what I meant was....what characteristics do you look for when you're trying to find the highest quality of bud?

[Kartel]

the white X og kush is the sikness...have been wanting to get some of those seeds but have seen them go for over 400 for 10 seeds. Might have to wait for some one to have a cut I can buy..be on the look out for a local shop here in denver to be carrying the seeds of the top 3 strains you mentioned. I believe they will be $80 a pack.

Are they using a male s1 og for that cross? Sounds good.

Seed versions of the other strains... which breeder?

dietblonde: First characteristic to evaluate is the look! Most grade a strains have 'the look' like the ones pictured here.

[Spacedet01]

Are they using a male s1 og for that cross? Sounds good.

Seed versions of the other strains... which breeder?

dietblonde: First characteristic to evaluate is the look! Most grade a strains have 'the look' like the ones pictured here.

the white x og kush is seed from og raskal. other seeds (ones in your list)that will be at a shop opening in denver soon are from cali connection.

[Kartel]

Actually, what I meant was....what characteristics do you look for when you're trying to find the highest quality of bud?

Ok.... so I put up some pics of Grade A medicine. Why is it obvious those are top quality without tasting them?

Look how these samples are handled- all of them are, except for maybe the king's kush, look like they were never crushed in any way, never shaken, most of the trichome heads are intact, you can see em on the bubba kush, tahoe og, and the white. The piece of king's kush has the leaves pushed into the flower, it was a bit compressed during some stage of drying, I prefer not to have that.

That is truly an essential aspect of grade A medicine..., is how it is handled after harvest. The king's was definitely handled the poorest in the pics here; the other 3 were probably small scale growers that took some real TLC with the trim.

Another thing, not that resin density is the only thing to look for, but is an important aspect of bag appeal. Resin, crystals, trichomes as they are called are shaped like a mushroom in case you don't know. Thin stalk with a big top.... well the top or head as we say can break off easily. Properly made, hash is made of the trichome heads and nothing else.

With these samples, they look 'white' to the naked eye when you try to look at the flower portion... its hard to even see whether it is green or purple or blue underneath, too much resin glinting in the light, making it look white. Its because the trichome heads are intact and they make all those little miniature glints of light you can see in the tahoe og kush and the bubba kush pictured.

You'll find more often than not that dispensary bud is so overhandled, when you break it up there is a very real difference in resin density between the exterior of the bud and the interior. In those situations, even some of the whitish look can be lost from the exterior of the flower because some many trichome heads have been knocked off.

When the trichome heads break off, potency, aroma, and taste are lost.

[stuartambient]

You'll find more often than not that dispensary bud is so overhandled, when you break it up there is a very real difference in resin density between the exterior of the bud and the interior. In those situations, even some of the whitish look can be lost from the exterior of the flower because some many trichome heads have been knocked off.

When the trichome heads break off, potency, aroma, and taste are lost.

So does this mean all hope is lost for getting quality meds like in the pictures at dispensaries ?

SA

[Kartel]

So does this mean all hope is lost for getting quality meds like in the pictures at dispensaries ?

SA

Lol no it does not... it does however mean that it is difficult to find anything this good on scale; I suspect it is like other agriculture, there is a lot of extra labor to handle everything as carefully as it can be handled during harvest time, and harvest time is already the most laborious time of the growing season.

I suspect Strainman breaks up the buds he buys to find a nice part to get a picture of, its not often you can buy the medicine in a shop and transport it home and get a picture as good as his are without seeing a lot of headless trichome stalks.

Dispensaries that cultivate relationships with caregivers that are professional and ethical will end up stocking medicine like this, right now there is just a shortage of legitimate, medical quality marijuana here. I've seen medicine this quality in shops a couple times; they always ran out within hours... once real grade a medicine is on the shelf, it stands out soooo much compared to 98% of everything else, I never had any questions about how good it was once I got it or grew it, I just knew it was absolutely amazing compared to whatever else I'd had all these years.... lol.

Part of the problem is the market is not educated enough. Customers are paying the same for california outdoor as they do for medicine this quality. Its not cool to put in all that extra work with organic soil, trimming/drying carefully with a lower yielding extreme quality strain and still get paid the same as these guys that don't even care to flush their plants.

For the most part, in today's market in colorado, if you want medicine this quality all the time, you must either grow it or find a caregiver that is experienced. He shouldn't need to offer the best prices in town and the most free medicine to find new patients if his medicine is as legitimate what is pictured.

We can hope that dispensaries will mostly stock medicine of this quality in the future, but that might be a long time.

edit: looking at strainman's reviews, he has been many places I have not. He seems to frequently find what he considers grade A.....

[HighPopalorum]

When faced with a bunch of jars full of medicine, I focus specifically on the trichromes. A close examination will provide not only an indication of potency, but also clues as to how the marijuana has been (mis)handled. I use a 10x loupe , which works very well. I mostly ignore the genetics and look for pampered pot. I will generally still purchase medicine with some missing trichrome heads, if the trichrome density is high enough and there are no other flaws.