Garlic Butter, A Tasty Snack Right Before Bed

Whether it plays out in reality or not, I feel like a trend has recently emerged in my workflow for this blog. Every other week or so is some monumental event that I absolutely must write about (reconnecting with my friend Hugh, or getting a sneak preview of Spose’s new cannabis brand), and then – given that this blog is so far from a full time job that I don’t even think of it as a job as much as an obligation to myself to keep my writing muscles exercised – I need a week for a simple, back-to-basics review, like I had originally envisioned the Reviews section to be. I like to compartmentalize in my brain. I think more efficiently and effectively when I can sort and easily identify concepts. But in practice I guess I’m a bit more chaotic and blended. Most of my reviews have enough additional writing that I could cut that part out and make it its own post in the Ramblings section. So I’m going to practice that. I had a different preamble that I think I’ll just set aside and post separately from this review, that way I can indeed do the aforementioned back-to-basics writing. If you go back to the very beginning, you’ll see Blue Widow is short and to the point, immediately followed by (for Reviews, at least) Princess Magic Girl, which is so long and narrative that it feels like it’s spawned its own spin-off series.

First off, welcome back Wilshire Madison! If you’ve purchased an eighth of cannabis here in Maine over the last few years and received an immensely large and heavy glass jar (which used to also come in a ridiculously fancy box), with branding that looks like it belongs in the high end shopping district of a major metropolitan city, then perhaps you have had some of Wilshire Madison’s flower. The store where I budtend has such a large inventory and variety (I may have mentioned before that the menu has been compared to Cheesecake Factory’s) that we see brands come and go as supply, selection, and I’m sure other business decisions direct and dictate what we carry, and Wilshire Madison (WM from now on) was one we started carrying not long after I started working there, went away for a bit, and very recently came back, and with a new strain we hadn’t carried before, Garlic Butter.

Y’all know me: aroma and flavor get a lot of attention, and I’m very hit or miss when it comes to enjoying the flavor, aroma, and effects of garlic strains, but with “butter” also in the name, I was optimistic, if still a little cautious. Also, given that the one major complaint anyone seemed to have about some of WM’s flower was that some strains seemed too dry or over-cured (but which I defended as what seemed like a deliberate choice, as it wasn’t all strains, but it was consistent within any given strain), I was really curious what this one was going to be like.

And here’s my one little aside specific to this review. The jars, as I mentioned, are enormous. They’re also – unfortunately – not child-resistant, so we have to send them out of the store in child-resistant packaging, which limits the number of jars we can put in one bag, and generally it’s just kind of a pain in the ass. And they’re so big that they take up a lot of inventory space, and they’re heavy, so it’s just more work in general handling WM. But my counterpart out back at work (whom I’ve mentioned before) and I were chatting about getting WM back, and all the little complaints I’ve mentioned above were being rehashed, when we both kind of stopped and sighed, and almost simultaneously said:

Her: “I hope we get Haze back.”

Me: “I hope we see Pure Kush again.”

And we laughed. Because at the end of the day it’s weed, it gets us high, and we each had a strain from the last time we carried WM that we really loved. You can see my Pure Kush review here. I didn’t even disaggregate aromas and flavors. What an amateur. And I also hope we get Haze back. I’d love to give it a solid review.

So Garlic Butter. I want to keep this part simple and to the point, as I feel that that method speaks to the strain itself. The aroma is unique among garlic strains I’ve experienced. Others are pungent and earthy, like raw garlic at a farmer’s market. This however is certainly garlic-forward, but sweet, like fresh garlic that has been sautéed in an unsalted sweet cream butter. It’s smooth and approachable as an aroma, the kind that leaves your eyes closed and the corners of the mouth gently grinning, not the eyes wide open mouth exhaling through nearly pursed lips of most garlic strains.

The buds are dense and well-cured, the kind that doesn’t seem sticky at first, but if you give the buds a pinch and then rub your fingers together, you’ll feel the trichomes that stuck there. The greens range from medium to pale, and the pistils are light brown and packed into the bud so tightly that they look like they’re trying to hide, but the lace throughout the flower fairly evenly. Again for the trichomes, they’re not as visible as they literally feel like they should be.

The smoke is pretty smooth, not quite velvety, but I was tempted to check that box in my review form. It’s creamy in texture, and easy to hit. The flavors translate well to the smoke from the aroma too. The sweetness holds and the garlic mutes a little into a mellow and light earthiness. Any bittering is dampened by the sweetness, though it lingers a bit after the hit, but not for long, and not in an overwhelming way. All in all, it’s a good smoke that I enjoyed quite a bit.

I want to note, even though I think anyone reading this knows this already, but it’s always good to remind, that everyone’s mileage varies especially when it comes to the highs. I say this because my response to this strain was singular, specific, and direct to the point, and I’d hate to get anyone’s hopes up if this isn’t your exact experience, but this strain gave me the sleepies. Let me clarify: the “sweepies.” I got “toddler who doesn’t have the energy to fight back” sleepy. I got “end of a long day and you just watched two low energy rom-coms back to back with a significant other on the couch” sleepy. I got “wrap me up in a snuggly blanket and I’ll brush my teeth extra good in the morning” sleepy. This wasn’t getting too stoned and I passed out. This was big yawns and rubbing eyes. I could try to break down all the individual bits, but honestly, I’m not sure it would be completely accurate, as I was too sleepy to take accurate notes. Or take notes at all at that point. I checked the “calm” and “sleepy” boxes for the head highs, and that was as far as I got. And honestly, I think I want to leave it there. I don’t want to overcomplicate this one. Enjoy, and sleep well.

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