Triangle Kush by Calendar Islands

It always fascinates me when a sense memory is evoked by a thing which could not have been present (or at least was most certainly not present) when the memory itself was first formed. This seems to happen more with taste and smell than the others, and given that science generally seems to agree that smell and memory are so closely linked, and additionally smell and taste are so closely linked as well, that it seems no surprise that this phenomenon should arise. Combine this with the strong, complicated, and varied aromas of cannabis, and you’ve got a perfect garden in which to cultivate these connected memories.

Triangle Kush by Calendar Islands Cannabis Co. begged to do just this, but at first I could not put my finger on it. So I enlisted the assistance of a family member who is quite gifted at conjuring the specific memories tied to taste and smell. While it would be quite possible that they would have stirred in their brain a different memory, I was nonetheless very curious to learn what they might be reminded of by the delightful aroma of this Triangle Kush. This experiment did not disappoint.

Before all that though, the buds themselves immediately gave the impression of quality flower. They were fairly regularly shaped and medium-sized, a medium to bright green with flecks of orange-brown throughout, a gentle dusting of snowy trichomes. To the touch, they were soft but not brittle. The aroma blended a sweet fruitiness with herbal and woody notes, though none overpowering the others, and while each of those descriptors could carry a more specific version (individual fruits, herbs, or woods), the overall first impression was somewhat broad in those categories, exciting the aforementioned need to find what these combined aromas were hinting at in the deep recesses of my mind.

As predicted, my sense memory and that of my enlisted loved one were in fact quite different. But such a fun difference. I ultimately came away with a much simpler memory: that of my paternal grandparents’ basement, specifically during Christmases of my childhood. I can safely say that there was no cannabis at that time and place, though my grandfather was a cigarette smoker otherwise, and this was limited indoors to the basement. The fruit, herbs, and wood all disaggregated into the Yuletide aromas of the season: fruits and other sweet food smells from the ample cooking always being done upstairs, herbs from the same, and the wood and herbal smells from the Christmas tree. The “grandparents’ house” comes in in the form of that old woody smell that many of us likely could tie to the internal architecture of houses built less than recently.

The sense memory not-my-own though was far more interesting, I think. There is an event that happens in Pennsylvania each year called Enchanted Fairy Festival, or Fairyfest for short. I’ve never been, but from how it’s been described to me by many different people, it seems like what would happen if a Renaissance Faire went full manic pixie dream girl, but the pixie part was far more literal, and the male protagonist was everyone in attendance.

To quote/paraphrase how the aroma of Triangle Kush brought about this event:

“The very old farm outbuilding on the site of a Ren Faire – Faerie Fest in particular – where there are a pile of hippies in corsets counting cash at a folding table, but also they grow vegetables there, and also there’s hay (and the horses are, like, right over there). Also, it rained a ton last night and literally everything and everyone I just described is extremely damp. [Also] there’s a pagan grandma drying some herbs somewhere.”

The flavor of the smoke both deviates from and ties back to these memories as well. Lost from the aroma were many of the stronger sweet and fruity overtones, leaving the flavor more like a sophisticated pipe tobacco, raising the herbal and woody notes to the forefront, with a slightly bitter and smokey halo about the edges. My sense memory companion described it as having gravitas, which I do not disagree with.

Coincidentally, the high from Triangle Kush felt right at home in both of these memories. I felt a general mood elevation, what might be described as a very gentle euphoria. I was social and engaged in the moment. The body high was light but relaxing; I’ve been dealing with a lower back issue recently, and while it didn’t completely quiet the pain, it softened it noticeably. While the post-sense-memory discussion occupied the pre-smoking period, once we had begun smoking, we settled into a groove discussing various creative projects forthcoming, both individual and with each other, and following that we watched a couple episodes of the new season of Human Resources, and while the show holds up 110% on its own merits, the accompanying high of Triangle Kush matched the tone wonderfully.