Heady Tropper, and Family

While I feel like I have so much to say in my preamble this week, since last Monday morning, I have been straight out, and so I think I’ll just be sappy for a bit and then get to the review. But briefly, what was so busy about this week? Multiple days at work with extended hours, family friends visiting for the week (who also have kids), my brother’s birthday, and two days of Guster’s On the Ocean concerts with my wife and three kiddos. In and amongst all that, I managed to try a new strain and give it the attention it both deserved, and that I needed to give it in order to write my review for you all.

Oh, and it’s worth noting that Guster is far and away not only my wife’s favorite band, but since the kids and I went with her to last summer’s On the Ocean concert, Guster has become our family’s favorite band collectively. I’ve got my own personal favorites, but I was converted last year from “this is pretty good, I see why you like them” to “these guys are fantastic and put on a top notch live show too!” And even more so, the kids are 100% in. They are deep enough that they can almost keep up with their mom when talking about specifics of individual albums, and they have a ton of the lyrics committed to memory, so much more than I do.

I also mentioned my little brother’s birthday (he’s 42, he’s all grown up, I’m so proud!). As with most holidays and family events, we all got together, my family, my brother’s family, and our folks. And as with most if not all of these events, I brought the adult party favors. I’m not going to lie, I enjoy being the “weed guy” in the family now. I may not have converted everyone to being as snobby as I am allowed to be about cannabis, but they all appreciate how much thought I put into selecting what I bring to share.

My path to the review this week has a bit less of a straight line than normal. I’m thinking about my family a lot right now, as highlighted by the aforementioned concerts, which were Saturday and Sunday, as I write this Monday morning, and my brother’s birthday even though it was a full week ago. But I was still up at 5:00AM, because I am that committed to you all as well, my dear readers.

But my point is (before I lose it, again), I have been basking in the warmth of just loving my family this past week, despite the hectic pace. My favorite parts of the concerts were those times I could see my wife and kids all swaying or dancing, singing along, engaging with the shenanigans on stage, and all just being so in the moment. Maybe also being in that moment with them would be as heartwarming or more, but for now, I am fulfilled by having the opportunities to be witness to their joy.

My favorite picture or video from this weekend was when Guster was playing a deep cut that they never play live, and when I realized how unprecedented this was I started recording. As I always do, I try to line up my camera and then watch the show NOT through my camera. This allowed me this time specifically to look around at the audience, and my wife, who was so absorbed it was simply beautiful to see, and so I panned my camera to capture her for a few moments. There’s a host of memes about “find someone that looks at you like this,” and this was it in real life. Outside of things like weddings, children being born, and the like, I don’t think I’ve seen my wife so contentedly happy.

As for my brother – perhaps a little less sappy – he’s the primary cook in the house, so even for his own birthday, he was happy to make dinner, and as someone who enjoys cooking and hosting as well, I spent the majority of the afternoon in the kitchen with him. And in between tasks, we snuck off to the basement to smoke. Which is where Heady Topper, this week’s strain comes in.

When this arrived in my store, I was fairly certain it was going to be worth buying both some flower and a pack of pre-rolls, though I almost never do this, because (as I’ve noted before, even in this post) I am so snobby that I don’t want to waste my time with a strain that I don’t enjoy or don’t have a use for. But here’s what’s up with this strain:

First, it’s The King’s Stache, and while they have had a few strains that didn’t blow my mind, the ones that do (and there are a few) are always absolutely top tier. And honestly, even the strains I don’t personally love, I appreciate that they are still very good cannabis, well cultivated, and certainly hit just right for others. Like I keep saying, I can am and can be snobby, but I will always concede when appropriate that something is good even if I don’t like it.

Second is the lineage. Headbanger and Tropicana Cookies? Yes, please. I’ve reviewed Gele’s Headbanger, so nothing surprising about my excitement there. Tropicana Cookies is one half of another King’s Stache strain I’ve reviewed, Funk Mountain, with the other half being StrawGuava – or Strawberry Guava – which I’ve also reviewed, though grown by Divine Buds in that case. And keep an eye out, because I might be dropping a StrawGuava rosin review in the near future, by another favorite I’ve written about, Firefly Organics and extracted by Helios.

Third, the look and smell. I keep repeating myself, but that introductory aroma keeps being my favorite part. I’ll get to this more below, don’t worry.

Fourth, it clocks in at just over 27% THC, which, as always, isn’t the end-all-be-all of a strain, but that’s fairly potent, so that alone should be cause for notice.

And fifth, though less important I suppose, is that Heady Topper is a pretty good beer, and I appreciate what must be an homage to the name.

So, would Heady Tropper live up to the hype I had built for myself, or would it be a legacy hire, a strain that relies on some cannabis nepotism to get attention? Let’s dig in.

Spoiler alert: it’s the former. That first whiff from the jar is pure spice drawer herbs. I’d totally chop it up for a roaster chicken or Thanksgiving turkey. Maybe a rib roast. It smells green and fresh, with floral and piney undertones. The buds are on the smaller side, but nowhere near what might be called “smalls” or popcorn nugs. The greens contrast pale against dark, with clumps of brown pistils. They’re fluffy in appearance, with a medium frosting of trichomes, making them dusty and dryer to the touch, with a little bit of give over a dense core.

The smoke is the only place where this cultivar comes up a little short. And I do mean a little, not a lot. There’s a chocolate and diesel base, with a bitter and musky tone throughout. It’s not bad, it’s just not as pleasant as the aroma. The smoke itself is an easy hit, with a medium body, and just a touch of that tingly spicy feel in the throat.

But the high is the… highlight? Usually I spend so much time thinking and writing about the sensory experience of the flower itself, but for Heady Tropper, the high tops. My quick and dirty when talking to customers is that it takes the intensely stoney and lightly energizing high of Headbanger, and simply tempers it with the light uplifting euphoria and gently relaxing body high of Tropicana Cookies, and merges the two seamlessly.

To dig in a bit further, as I mentioned above, my brother and I smoked this and then spent the majority of the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen. It was over an hour later, as I was prepping some food or another, and he was checking the food in the oven, that my brother pauses and turns to me, saying “Do you feel like you’re still getting high? Like, higher?” To which I paused and considered, and yes, somehow it did feel like the high was creeping up, not tapering off. It was like somehow instead of a graph showing the high over time as a hill, where at the end you’ve come back down to roughly where you started, this was a line sloping gently upward until the high just fades into a lingering happy mood. Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.