Kootenay Craft - January order - 3 new strains
** This order was received for free, keep walking if that's an issue for you. This does not affect any of the ratings or opinions in this review, as usual. **
MOM Name Kootenay Craft
Overall rating out of 10: 7.5/10
Sign Up: I have been registered for a while now, it was an easy process but they took long enough to accept my account once created. They now have a medial ID requirement on the form, but I've been told you can pretty much attach whatever pic there, so long as you have a decent enough ID submitted to prove your age.
Ordering & Pricing: A few months back, the Kootenay guys offered me a complimentary OZ for helping them with several website and customer service issues. At that time I was a moderator on here and opted to refuse the offer, not wanting to cause any unnecessary drama or baseless accusations due to my position. When the recent strain release happened, since I'm not in as a sensitive position, I figured I'd take them up on it. They accepted to send an OZ for review. I actually simply placed the order via email without going through the site and randomly selected among the new strains.
Communication: All my emails and questions were answered in a timely manner and the communication was good. They were a bit slow to send the tracking, but I didn't pressure them, figured since it's free, I wasn't in any rush :)
Packaging: The usual plastic jars that people either love or hate, vacuum sealed into a bag, which was in a bubble mailer. They now have a foam 'seal' on the containers that they didn't have before, insuring a perfectly air tight seal. Nice little touch. Once opened though the foam is kind of annoying and has a lot of static, trichs and weed stick to it like crazy. Nothing dramatic, but worth xfering to proper glass jars. The seal doesn't seem optimal if left as is, my wardrobe where I store my shit is stinky right now, lol.
Products / Photos:
Black Domina:
https://i.imgur.com/RdnMv6M.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PhyyMuF.jpg
Very nice nose on that one, but rather faint. The buds are nice, not huge but decent sized, well trimmed, seemed a tiny bit dryer than I'm used to from KC. Breaking it apart, the faint nose is confirmed, it has a nice floral smell, but it's definitely not as loud as it could be. Even completely grounded, the smell wasn't really there. Smoking this wasn't all that pleasant, not much if any terps go through, the smoke isn't smooth but not too harsh either, just a pretty generic boring taste. Buzz was decent, but nothing amazing. It was my first Black Domina so I can't really judge on the strain accuracy, but I was told by others it's usually a heavy hitter, didn't feel that way to me. Nothing thrilling about this strain, giving it a 6/10.
Northern Lights #5 x Haze:
https://i.imgur.com/yfClHE6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sSRG5zZ.jpg
Oh my, this screams old school! I hadn't had a NL or close relative in 20+ years and the nose immediately reminded me of the 90's, NL was a pretty common 'mids' strain that was around back then. It's a nice piney smell, a bit sharp and spicy but with an hint of sweetness, very nice nose. Again it was a tiny bit dryer than what I like, seems like it might have been over-dried during the curing maybe. Big compact nugs, nice trim. Unfortunately, similar to the Black Domina, not much of the taste came through in a joint. It was smoother than the Black Domina, but not much fun to smoke despite all that. GIving it a 6.5/10.
Skunk #1:
https://i.imgur.com/ljbttRv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gGcRV0y.jpg
Now those who know me know I've been looking for some old school skunk forever and I have intensified my research lately. I actually asked just a few weeks ago to KC that they bug their growers for some skunk and they told me 'Hey, we're getting some just now as a matter of fact'. I knew Skunk #1 wasn't the strain I'm looking for, but getting skunk from the quality growers KC deals with gave me hope that it would at least be a nice drop. First off, that nose is pungent and gassy as hell, it is bar none the most pungent weed I've had from any MOM. My wife had me air the house out after rolling a joint. It's still not roadkill level, but this is definitely some legit skunk, zero hints of fruits or other shit, it's straight up skunky gas. As you can see from the pics (that's the whole quarter) it came as 2 very good looking buds of ~3.5g each. The cure and humidity is absolutely perfect, it's plush, fresh, real nice. Grinding this up released the fragrance and it was very pleasant to play with. Smoking this, I can say this is one of the most pleasant smoke I've had from any MOM. The terps come through hard, the smoke is creamy, extremely smooth (you can take huge rips and not not cough), very nice. My only complaint is that I rolled a pretty fat joint, was the first of my day and I didn't get much of a buzz out of smoking all of it. Skunk has never been a very heavy hitter, but this stands out as one of the weakest buzz I've had, reminds me of 1:1 CBD strains. Def a case of needing a little kick, be it with a bit of oil or hash. Giving this a 8.5/10, would have been a 9 if the potency was higher. I don't usually grade weed based on potency, but this is a special case.
Incentive for Customers: The usual 20% for 4+ quarters is a very nice feature of Kootenay,. They also have a new WELCOME2019 code which gives you 50$ on the first order (I don't think it works if you already used the older WELCOME code). Also, each month they have a 10% clearance sale, followed by a 15% strain release sale. Those do not stack with the 50$ welcome code, but they do stack with the 20% mix and match. Makes for pretty cheap OZ when all said and done.
Incentive for Review: Product was received for free for a review.
Notes: I had listed 4 strains and they only sent 3 of them. I didn't bother asking or mentioning, figured they were either out or messed up, either way it being free, no biggie. The missing strain was Mango Tango.
Overall, this wasn't my best order from them, but the skunk was a very nice find and I'll definitely be ordering more of it despite the potency issue. So satisfying to finally get that long lost taste :)
