Albariño by Firefly Organics

Albariño first impresses with buds that are both soft and fluffy as well as sturdy and substantive. While I can’t speak for every bud harvested from this batch, let alone any other Albariño plants out there, the buds I’ve seen thus far have largely been elongated and conical, with a slight lilt at the top, reminiscent of a cartoon pine tree, such as one might find in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” or “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” They also share the cartoonishly bright green which pines never seem to have in reality. The buds also are peppered with clusters of medium orange hairs, and are only gently dusted as far as visible trichomes are concerned, which usually I’d take issue with, but not so with Albariño.

Like its namesake white wine, Albariño’s aroma evokes bright citrus fruits, with subtle herbal undertones. The flavor of the smoke brings that herbal body forward, again not unlike the gently bitter notes of the wine itself. It’s a rich and complex blend that takes full advantage of the retronasal mixing of taste and smell, making this strain an inspiration for those that fancy themselves sommeliers of cannabis.

The first few times I smoked Albariño were in the evening, relaxing on the couch with my feet up, which helped to isolate the early effects of the high. Starting with my toes and slowly working its way up, a relaxing body high reminiscent of Blueberry’s pain-relieving effects (the strain, not the fruit) left me feeling like one of those fundraiser thermometers, but instead of red, I was instead filled with comfort. Upon reaching the top, the high brightened in my head, bringing that classic lemony mood elevation and perkiness, without changing the body high. There are times when the dissonant effects of a relaxed body and heady brain create an eyes half-closed, stoned kind of high, but not Albariño. This was very much the kind of high that left me lucid and alert, but mellow.

I’ve recommended it to others as a fantastic strain for watching one of those episodes of prestige television that’s always around 53 minutes without commercials, and where you know that the most important event will inevitably happen in the last 5 minutes or so, so you have to stay with it 100% until the end, but it’s late at night and you’re tired, and you don’t want to have to spend the first 20 minutes of television watching tomorrow night trying to figure out how much you missed without also accidentally spoiling it for yourself before seeing the bridge between what you remember seeing and what you’re sure you nodded off for. Like Succession, or House of the Dragon, or (so I’ve been told) Yellowjackets.