Lotus Blossom by SeaWeed Co.

With an academic background in literature and creative writing, and having been an English teacher, my natural inclination when experiencing a new version of a category of thing I am familiar with (a new book, a new sushi roll, a new brand of socks, a new strain of cannabis, etc.) is to immediately begin composing a review in my mind. I like to talk about things I enjoy (or don’t enjoy), and while I don’t think that’s terribly novel, I like to talk about those things with an amount of rehearsal or drafts under my belt. I mean, I’m writing reviews of cannabis for my own blog even though I also get paid to talk about cannabis at my full time job. I just have a lot of words to share about my experiences, more than I have time to always fully expand on in person. If I didn’t have a somewhat picky palate when it comes to seafood and certain categories of vegetables, I have always thought that being a food critic would be one of the greatest jobs in the world. I guess that’s really what I’m doing with this blog, is making myself a cannabis critic.

As usual, I digress, and will continue to do so. A common refrain in narrative writing practice is to “show, don’t tell.” Narrative styles, individual writing preferences, intended audience, voice, and so forth will dictate the manner in which an author writes a story, but generally the idea of showing your reader the story, and not just telling them the story, is considered good practice. “She saw that he was happy” doesn’t paint a picture as well as “The smile on his face, his grin from ear to ear, his eyes bright, cheeks a rosy flush, echoed in her own smile when she saw him.” I like to paint those pictures, particularly with cannabis.

Sometimes while budtending I have to keep it brief. Maybe the customer is in a hurry, or they don’t want or need the deep dive, or maybe there’s just a line of other customers and I need to keep them moving along. I’ve struggled with some of my other favorite strains to find ways to cut my descriptions down to bite-sized chunks. But Lotus Blossom from SeaWeed Co. has such a clean and clear feel to it that despite the longer and more rambling description coming up, I can sum up the high in a word: joyful.

First, the buds are tight, dense, medium green, with regular orange hairs, and very light on visible trichomes. I’ll be honest, it’s not the kind of flower (at least once cured and packaged) that when I see it think “That bud looks amazing!” It looks fine. The feel, like the look, is dense, and it crumbles easily enough. It has a piney aroma overtone, almost peppery, with a sweetness underneath it. The flavor reflects this, but deepens the sweetness to a rich floral flavor, reminiscent of tulip or rose petals after the rain. It wants to be a perfumy floral, but it’s just a little too earthy with the pine/pepper in the mix. I’m not sure it would sweep any awards shows for it’s look, aroma, and flavor, but they’re all pleasant enough.