cannabis connoisseur Archives | Page 2 of 3 | The Grand Junction Greenery

Posted on April 20, 2019 - 9:00 am

Just to be clear, you cannot order marijuana from us online and have it shipped to you. About one out of every five calls that comes into our Durango dispensary is from someone who wants me to ship pot, but if I said “yes,” I’d have to start writing these things from jail. And in an odd little twist, the product we get shipping requests for the most is the Foria Pleasure (it’s a sex spray). I’ve gotten calls from old-lady book clubs in New York and lonely men in South Africa looking to have this stuff shipped, and I had to tell them all the same thing I told you in the first sentence (but it’s much more comfortable this way). But now that we’ve gotten that disclaimer out of the way, there’s something new and exciting I need to tell you: from now on, you’ll be able to make online orders that we can get ready and set aside for you to pick up later. For real, to do it, just click HERE.

Isn’t that crazy? People come in everyday with mind-blown looks on their faces because buying legal weed is still novel to them. I’ve become desensitized to it for obvious reasons, but when something new like online ordering comes along, it makes me remember how odd this whole thing can be. Think about it: you can peruse our menu online while you’re half-dressed on your couch and click the things you want. When you place an order, a little receipt machine that sits behind me spits out your order, and I grab it before running in the back with a paper bag. I fill your order, send you a nifty little message saying it’s ready, and then you come in to pick it up (after putting on pants).

But please, remember your purchasing limits, because the system will let you order as much as you want, but you can only buy so much. The easiest way to think about it is that you’re allowed 8 pieces of pie, and an eighth of flower, or 1 gram of concentrate, or 100mg worth of an edible counts as one piece. So, hypothetically, you could order a half-ounce of pot, 2 grams of hash, and two edible packs and be good to go. Get it? That being said, our online ordering platform allows us to communicate with you via text, so if you put too much in your cart, we’ll let you know. And if for some weird reason, we run out of something you want, we can chat and offer you alternatives, all through texts. Isn’t that crazy-awesome?

So yeah… that’s everything you need to know about online marijuana ordering from our Durango dispensary. This is where I’d usually say something like “come on down to The Greenery to see our awesome selection,” but today, I’m going to tell you to do it from your couch to avoid the lines. So, click HERE, pick out want you want, put it in your cart, and then come see us, because if you’re an online shopper, We’re Your Best Buds, too!

420 Deals in Durango

Posted on April 13, 2019 - 9:00 am

I told you about the 420 origin story last year, but here’s a refresher: back in the early 70’s, a group of Californian kids called the “Waldos” would get together after track practice at 4:20pm to smoke at a local park; the tradition spread across their town and then the whole world. It’s that simple. But really, where 420 came from isn’t nearly as important as what it’s become. Now, April 20^th is the cornerstone of the “Holidaze,” which is a month-long celebration of everything cannabis-related. April in Colorado is wonderful because there seems to be a cannabis party on every corner, a cannabis industry event in every convention center, and our Durango dispensary is entering this month on a high because our Hash Factory won two awards in the THC Classic, which is the official kickoff to April. We’ve been keeping that momentum going all month long.

If you were lucky enough to come in on the 10^th for our 4^thanniversary party, you know exactly what I’m talking about. That day was insane. We had a radio station out front spreading the word, we had deals galore, and we spent the day celebrating the Holidaze with a line that went out the door. We also had a drawing for an awesome prize basket, we made a ton of new friends, and this April 20^th, we’re doing it all again, but bigger and better. There will be a deal or two that I won’t talk about in this blog because we’d like to save at least one surprise for when you come in, but I’ll tell you about everything else—we’re running so many specials that I’ll need to break them down into categories for you:

1.) Flower. Every single strain we sell will be 20% off for 4/20. I’m not saying this just because I work here, but honestly, our flower is the best in town, so 20% off is a big deal. Secondly, we’re going to have an ounce-special. This is something we’ve never done before, but on 4/20, you’ll be able to pick up a prepackaged ounce of quality flower for an awesome price (you’ll need to call or come in to figure out what it is). And lastly, you’ll be able to snag 4, one-gram pre-rolls for $20 (limit one per customer), which works out to be a 50% savings.

2.) Hash. Remember when I told you about our win at The THC Classic? Well, one of the shiny trophies you’ll see when you come into our shop is for our hash, and on 420, all the hash from our Hash Factory will also be 20% off, which is a superb deal on an award-winning concentrate like our Lebanese Hash.

3.) Edibles. We’re running a buy one, get one free sale this 4/20 on all three varieties of Ripple, which is a little crazy on our part because Ripple is already one of our bestselling edibles. I wrote a blog about Ripple that you can read HERE if you need more info, but basically, Ripple is a tasteless, odorless, instantly-dissolvable powder you can add to any food or drink; it lets you infuse anything with THC. If you haven’t tried this stuff, you need to, and it’ll never be more affordable than it will be on 4/20. Plus, this includes their line of gummies.

4.) Schwag. We’ll be giving away promotional stuff until we run out, but we’ve also put together a gift basket that’s worth over $100 for which we’re having a drawing. No purchase is necessary to enter, and you don’t need to be present to win. Just come in, fill out one of those little paper slips, and then put it in the big glass jar. I’ll draw out a name the Monday after 4/20 and give you a call if you win. Fun, right?

So please, this 4/20, come see us. We’re running the best deals on the best products, and given that we were the first recreational-only dispensary in Durango, and the one with the highest rating, we really are Your Best Buds for 420!

The Greenery’s 4th Anniversary

Posted on April 6, 2019 - 9:00 am

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We’ve been selling legal weed for four years! Isn’t that crazy? This is all starting to seem like a regular job, one where our staff feels like a family thanks to all these successful years together, and even though this’ll sound cheesy, it’s all because of you, our customers. Some of you are regulars who’ve been coming in since day one, and some of you are first-timers who remind us how exciting legal cannabis can be with your smiles when you walk in. Either way, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our customers, so, we’re going to do something special for you on our anniversary.

Usually, the traditional gifts for a fourth wedding anniversary are linen, silk, fruit, and flowers, and in a way, we’re married to our customers because we couldn’t live without you guys. That being said, we’re not going to give you linen, silk, or fruit because that would be a weird gift from a weed shop, but the “flowers” we sell are a different story completely. So, this April 10^th, for the fourth anniversary of our Durango dispensary, here are the deals we’re giving to our customers to say thank you, and happy anniversary!

1.) All flower will be 20% off (see what I mean about flowers?).

2.) All concentrates will be 15% off (because our anniversary falls on Waxy Wednesday, which is awesome).

3.) All solventless hash from The Greenery Hash Factory will be 20% off.

4.) All Sweet products will be buy one, get one 50% off.

5.) For our anniversary, you’ll be able to buy four, one-gram pre-rolls for $20 (limit: one time per customer). Since it’s our fourth anniversary, “four-for-twenty” sounded perfect.

6.) If you haven’t signed up for our Loyalty Program, you need to, because during our anniversary party, all loyalty customers will receive double points.

7.) We’re also running a spectacular deal on one of our edibles, buy one, get one free on all Ripple products.

See? We love you guys a whole bunch, so we went a bit crazy with our deals. We’re even gunna have our favorite radio station X-Rock here doing a live broadcast from our parking lot, we’ll be giving out swag while it lasts, and I’m sure balloons will be involved somehow. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate your business over the years, so we’re going to do our best to show it, because even though I usually end these blogs with “We’re Your Best Buds,” the truth is that You’re Our Best Buds!

Dry Marijuana

Posted on March 30, 2019 - 9:00 am

When people complain about how dry all the pot in Colorado is, I wonder to myself if the same people complain about food that tastes too good or about weekends that last too long. Let me explain…

At sea level, where most people grew up, cannabis stays moist long after it’s harvested; that’s why most of us remember sticky pot from our youths. So, at sea level, if you got some bone-dry pot, there was a good chance it’d been sitting around for a while, and that’s why most people equate dry pot with old pot (which is bad pot). However, Colorado is just about the antithesis of “sea level,” and thanks to our altitude, pot dries out quickly. It’s an elevation thing, not a quality or age thing, but it’s difficult to change opinions once they’ve formed—that’s why this week, I wanted to talk about Colorado’s dryer-than-everywhere-else marijuana to set the record straight.

So, let me reiterate: the only thing wrong with dry marijuana is that it might be old if you find it somewhere that’s close to sea level like California, but if you find dry marijuana in Colorado, it’s because you’re more than a mile above the sea, and here, plants dry out quickly. That’s just the way it is. But here’s the important part: dry pot is actually a good thing because it weighs less, so you get more. If you were to buy an eighth (3.5 grams) of dry marijuana and set it next to an eighth of moist marijuana that weighed the same, the dry eighth would look much larger thanks to less water weight (as an aside, I apologize for already using the word “moist” twice in this blog, but it’s a necessary evil). Do you see what I’m getting at? If you can get over that old-school paradigm of “dry pot = old pot,” you’ll realize that you’re actually getting more for your buck when you buy dry pot because you get more marijuana and less water. Ask yourself this: do you want to smoke water, or do you want to smoke cannabis? Exactly.

Alright… after reading that, I’m sure you thought something like, “well yeah, but how do I know if the dry marijuana I buy in your Durango dispensary isn’t just old pot you’re trying to blame on Colorado’s elevation?” Well, good question, but I’ve got an answer for you: we wouldn’t do that. Ever. We both purchase and grow our cannabis in small batches to ensure freshness, and we keep our flower sealed tightly before we bring it onto the floor.

But there’s a second reason I wanted to write this blog, and it deals with one of the most common questions I get: “how do you rehydrate dry pot?” (this is important to a few smokers because hydrated pot burns a bit more slowly). Well, the way most people do this is by sealing a fresh piece of bread in with their flower. The moisture from the bread will rehydrate the flower and make it sticky just like you remember. That being said, please don’t do this. For one, your pot will taste a bit like bread, and two, if there’s even the slightest amount of mold on your bread, it can spread to your weed, and smoking mold isn’t good for you. So, instead, try a two-way humidity control pack.

In our Durango dispensary, we use Boveda packs, which you can read about by clicking THIS link. I’d recommend using the 62% version, but basically, a “two-way” pack works in two ways (duh). If your pot gets too dry, these packs will add moisture, but if the moisture gets too high, these packs will take it back out for that perfect balance. So, if you seal a 62% Boveda pack in with your flower, you’ll keep all your flower at the perfect moistness (is that four times using the word?) for as long as the pack keeps working, which is a long time. That way, if you buy a dry eighth which is good because you get more pot, you can take it home, rehydrate it with your Boveda pack (which won’t make it mold or taste like bread), and you’ll get the best of both worlds: you’ll get more flower weight because you bought it dry, but the Boveda will make your flower sticky just like you remember from your sea-level childhood.

But as always, if you have questions, it’s always best to give us a call at (970) 403-3710 or come see us (with your valid I.D. proving that you’re 21or over) at 208 Parker Avenue right here in Bodo park. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about rehydrating your marijuana if you want it to be sticky and burn slow like you remember. And we’ll prove to you that our marijuana is fresh (and the best in town), because We’re Your Best Buds!

A Good Day with Cannabis

Posted on March 23, 2019 - 9:00 am

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Do you remember that “It Was a Good Day” song by Ice Cube? If not, it’s a classic, and you need to listen to it immediately, but if you do, I apologize for getting it stuck in your head. But the reason I ask is that recently, I read a news story wherein a bunch of rap nerds got together and figured out exactly which day Ice Cube was talking about: it was January 20^th, 1992.

They used all the clues in the song to figure it out: there was “no smog,” Yo! MTV Raps was on TV, the Lakers beat the Super Sonics, and Ice Cube got a page on his beeper from Kim. If you figure out the song’s release date, look at the years when beepers were used, check the stats for Lakers wins, and the weather report for smog, you get the exact “good day.” Of course, back in 2012 when Ice Cube gave an interview about the song, he said it was a fictional day, but that’s not why I’m writing this: in his song, Ice Cube mentions the “chronic,” which is a prerequisite for any “good day.” That got me thinking about the perfect day with cannabis—a day you can plan and enjoy intentionally, because sometimes, good days need to be forced. So, if I were to plan the perfect day with cannabis, this is how I’d do it:

Step one, wake-and-bake. There’s nothing wrong with pot in the morning, and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t tried it. On lazy Sundays, I like to wake up with a good Bubble Gum joint, or something else sativa-dominant, and we sell them for $10 out-the-door here in our Durango dispensary. And then after I put out my joint to save for later (smoking an entire gram in the morning might cut the day a bit short), I’d mix a packet of Lucky Turtle 1:1 Honey into my coffee. These single serving packs of honey cost $9, and they deliver 10mg of THC and CBD. Granted, if you’d prefer fewer than 10mg in the morning (or if you don’t like overly-sweet coffee), just use half the packet. And timing is important: the high from your joint will last about an hour and a half, and it’ll take the honey about an hour and a half to kick in fully, so drink that coffee right after you put down the joint—for the perfect good day, a high must be maintained.

The next step would be to go out and see the world. I like having my wife drive me around to thrift shops and breakfast places while I marvel at the bright day, couched comfortably in my buzz (but if you stop for breakfast, remember, there’s nothing wrong with bacon even though Ice Cube’s good day started when mom cooked breakfast with “no hog”). Then we go home to do chores and watch daytime TV; this is when my vape pen comes into play. I like to keep a terpene-rich distillate pen in my pocket, something like the Craft Reserve from O.pen that’s on our menu, and I lean towards the hybrid side of things as the day creeps by. I’ll take a puff or two when normalcy starts to creep back in, and it’ll carry me through to lunch when I smash a BLT and then load a bowl. Just like with the vape pen, my midday bowl is always a perfect hybrid, something like Blue Dream, because that even balance between mental energy and physical relaxation pairs perfectly with noontime.

This is when I start watching something campy like “Ancient Aliens” (as it turns out, the History Channel would have you believe aliens are responsible for just about everything except pot). As the day gets older, I smoke and vape as needed, but if you’re a fan of baths, I’d recommend throwing some THC bath salt into the mix. We sell a rejuvenating bath salt that’s infused with eucalyptus and cannabis, it’ll soothe you until nighttime rolls around, because that’s when it’s time to kick things up a notch.

Next, for dark nights, I like dark hash, like a good Moroccan or an Indica-dominant bubble hash. And that’s pretty convenient given that we operate our own Hash Factory, and we’re the only company in Colorado that manufactures and distributes classic concentrates such as Moroccan or Lebanese hash. So, to start my perfect evening to cap off that good day, I’d throw a pinch of Moroccan on top of a deep Indica like Pakistani Chitral Kush, smoke it, and then wait for the mind-numbing, body sedating high to knock me down into the couch (these days, it’s the only way to make the nightly news bearable). And then right before bed, I’d eat a brownie from Love’s Oven. They’re made with canna-butter which is difficult to find these days, they totally count as a desert, and the relaxing high would keep me sleeping through the night. Boom; the perfect end to a good day with cannabis (and there’s no law saying you can’t have two days like this in a row, so wake up and repeat as necessary).

But this good day isn’t possible without cannabis, so come see us first. We’re located at 208 Parker Avenue right here in Durango, and we’re open every day (for hours, click HERE). Just make sure to bring your valid, government-issued I.D. proving that you’re 21 or older, because good days with cannabis are for grownups only. And remember, We’re Your Best Buds!

Tolerance Break

Posted on March 16, 2019 - 9:00 am

In my humble opinion, the only thing wrong with smoking pot is that after a while, it’ll stop working. The THC in cannabis is just like any other intoxicant in that your body will build up a tolerance over time, which is annoying. And frankly, that’s the boat I’m in right now. I work in a dispensary (obviously), so I’m usually swimming in flower (I’m spoiled) and I smoke regularly. As such, I’ve built up that dreaded tolerance, and I’m about to take a drastic step to fix my problem: I’m going to take a tolerance break.

Simply put, a “tolerance break” is a period of time wherein you don’t consume cannabis so your tolerance goes away. There’s a ton of science behind it (for more, please read my blog on the endocannabinoid system HERE), but basically, taking a break from pot lets your ECS receptors become more receptive to cannabinoids. And then when you fall back off the wagon, your fresh receptors soak up all that lovely THC and you get a high that feels just like the first time. However, the duration of a tolerance break differs depending on the amount you smoke. So, if you’re a smoker who takes a puff or two at night, a day off will work, but if you’re an all-day type of smoker, you’ll need to take a week-long tolerance break for the best effect (mine will probably need to last a decade to work).

Sounds horrible, right? Well, believe it or not, you can be proactive and take mini tolerance breaks to make it so your tolerance doesn’t get too high in the first place. Most people do this by designating a day to stay away from cannabis, like “sober Sunday,” and it works well (but please don’t choose Monday because that day sucks enough as it is). However, this isn’t possible for some people, even though that might sound a bit alien to you if you’re not one of them. A lot of people use cannabis as their medicine, and as such, a day without isn’t feasible. So, if you’re in this boat, I’d recommend giving targeted groups of receptors a tolerance break.

You can read a peer-reviewed study HERE if you’d like, but basically, ECS receptors are located throughout the body, and there’s a high concentration of them in the digestive system. Do you see what I’m getting at? If you use cannabis, but smoking it isn’t as effective as it used to be, give your lungs a break and switch to edibles for a while. And then when that gets old, go back to smoking. Doing so will let you get the most out of your cannabis because you’ll always have a fresh group of receptors to switch to once a certain group builds up a tolerance. And if you need a third option, try a transdermal cannabis product.

Believe it or not, we sell THC-infused transdermal patches from Mary’s Medicinals (these things are just like nicotine patches, but they get you high, which is way better than nicotine). All you need to do is clean a venous area of your body (like the inner-wrist or the top of your foot), slap on a patch, and then wait for the effect. The high that comes from a patch isn’t as intense as something you’d get from flower or edibles, but it lasts much longer (it’ll keep you where you need to be for 8 to 12 hours). So, if you throw patches into the equation, you can rotate between your lungs, stomach, and skin to make sure no one group of receptors gets too much THC.

Lastly, did you notice that you just read a dispensary blog that suggested taking a break from smoking? Isn’t that a little odd given that it’s my job to get you in to our Durango dispensary to spend money? In saying this, I simply wanted to point out that most shops will tell you to just smoke more pot if your tolerance builds up because those shops just want your money—we want you to have the best possible experience with the cannabis you buy here, because we’re different; that’s why We’re Your Best Buds!

Bringing Back the Old-School

Posted on March 5, 2019 - 5:09 pm

It’s a tired platitude, but necessity really is the mother of all invention. And back in the good ol’ days, there was plenty of “necessity” lying around when it came to cannabis because you couldn’t simply walk into a store like our Durango dispensary and buy weed; those were dark times. And it was just as difficult at times to find paraphernalia because headshops weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now. So, if you were lucky enough to score some pot from “a guy” but you didn’t have a pipe, you had to get creative. Or, if you had a pipe but no weed, you had to do the same. Granted, all of that is gone now because we have more dispensaries in Colorado than we do Starbucks and McDonald’s locations combined, but a few of those tricks from the old days are worth holding onto even though they aren’t necessary. Let me explain.

Let’s start with the “have a pipe but no weed scenario.” Back in the day, when we ran out, we’d scrape our pipes, collect the sticky black resin, and then smoke it. Resin burns like tar and the high is sedating like a hash-high, but it’s kinda gross. However, there was a silver lining to that tar-black cloud: most people walked around with clean pipes thanks to the times when they ran out. Nowadays, since pot is everywhere, people walk around with dirty pipes, which is just as bad as smoking resin. The heat from your lighter burns a bit of the buildup under the bowl, and all your pot starts to taste the same. So, two pieces of advice: clean your bowl regularly, and your pipe occasionally. Right after smoking, while the bowl is still warm, shove a paper towel down into the bowl and twist it; doing so will clean out all the resin and leave a fresh bowl for the next session. And if you notice that your hits start to taste a bit musky, boil your pipe in some hot water (or soak it in a solution of rubbing alcohol and salt) to clean out all that resin that we used to collect and smoke. Your taste buds will thank you.

Now, the “have pot but not a pipe” scenario is much more fun. I’ve made pipes out of everything from soda cans to fish tanks, even though the former probably took a couple years off my life because of the paint on the can and the latter was a bit ridiculous. And nowadays, there’s really no excuse to not a have a pipe (we sell a few for eight bucks in our shop), but you never know, it could happen (especially if you’re clumsy and you have a glass pipe). So, as a suggestion, smoke out of an apple.

Yeah, it sounds weird, but I’m sure you’ve heard older stoners talk about apple pipes, and old people usually know what they’re talking about. Step 1: pull the stem out of the apple, and then shove a pen down into the core. Don’t use the tip, and press it in until it goes almost all the way through. Step 2: press your pen into the top of the apple until the two holes in the apple meet, and then dig out a little bowl at the top of the second hole. Step 3: put some flower into the bowl, and then smoke it (by inhaling through the first hole). An apple pipe is obviously a one-time thing, but there’s an added bonus: the hits taste like apples. Fun, right?

But I know what you’re thinking: this is pointless because they sell papers at gas stations and you’d take a joint over smoking out of an apple any day. True. But because nobody runs out of joints these days (they’re $10 each in our shop and a gram a piece), something else from the old-school is being lost: generation joints.

Back in the day, we’d throw all our roaches (the small, leftover part of the joint that’s hard to smoke) into a pill bottle. When we ran out of flower, we’d bust out that pill bottle, break open all the roaches, and then roll all the flower into a “generation joint,” which is named thusly because it’s the second time, or “generation,” that the flower has been smoked. The flower in a roach is coated with resin, which is nothing more than activated THC, so it’s more potent; the high is much deeper and stronger with a generation joint than with a regular joint. These days, all the pre-rolls you buy in a dispensary have a crutch in the tip (a little rolled piece of cardboard that works as a mouthpiece), so it’s much easier to smoke all the flower in a modern-day joint, but if you find that there’s a little bit left over, I’d listen to me and get a pill bottle. Generation joints need to be brought back by all you millennials because they’re wonderful.

Alright, now on to something interesting: heel hash. This will sound disgusting but bear with me. Way-back-when, you couldn’t just walk into a store and buy hash. I know; it sounds crazy, but it’s true. So, we’d collect kief (all the crystals that fall off the flower in the container or collects on the screen in your grinder). And then we’d put the kief into a cellophane bag (like the one that comes on a pack of cigarettes), fold-up and tape the bag so it was sealed, and then put it in the bottom of a shoe. If you walk around on it all day, the heat and repeated pressure would turn the kief into hash… don’t judge me.

Or better yet, if you take that kief, put it in between two pieces of parchment paper and then press it with a hair straightener, you can make rosin at home (a full-burn hash you can dab), which is perfectly legal to do. Yeah, this tidbit is a little pointless as well given that we sell professionally-made rosin in our shop for $30 per gram out-the-door and you won’t need a hair straightener, but who knows? Maybe you have a bunch of kief in your stashbox and you’re looking for something to do. If so, you’re welcome.

See? Some of the things we came up with before cannabis was legalized in Colorado are worth keeping even though they’re no longer necessary—after all, you shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bong water (or something like that). And just about everyone who works at The Greenery has been around the block per the ways of an old-school smoker, so if you’d like some advice on homemade pipes, or if you’d like to come buy some kief for homemade hash, come see us at 208 Parker avenue and bring your valid I.D. proving that you’re 21 or older. We’ll send you on your way with a few old-school tips, because We’re Your Best Buds!

Cannabis Dinner Parties

Posted on February 16, 2019 - 9:00 am

Cannabis dinner parties. They exist. And I mean, why not? Pot is just like everything else in our culture in that trendy things come and go, and right now, cannabis dinner parties are pretty popular. The big cities even have licensed chefs on Craigslist who will come into your home and do all the cooking for you; they’ll create three-course meals centered on infused edibles and they’ll dole out some cannabis education while they’re at it. Sure, that sounds fun, but it also sounds expensive, and Durango isn’t one of those “big cities” in the first place. So, if you live in a mountain town like ours and you want to throw a cannabis dinner party, you must do it yourself.

I’m going to tell you exactly how to do it, but first, I need to drop a few disclaimers. For one, if you plan on throwing a cannabis dinner party, please make sure all your guests designate a driver. It’s just as illegal to drive under the influence of cannabis as it is when it comes to alcohol, and it’s dangerous, so do the grownup thing. Secondly, edibles can take up to an hour to kick in, so please keep that in mind, and communicate this fact to all your guests. Trust me, you don’t want your friends to overindulge in the beginning, because by the end of dinner, they’ll turn into drooling zombies who won’t get off your couch. You don’t want that. Third, the state-recommended serving size is 10mg, so you’ll want to design your dinner in a way that makes it so a guest can enjoy all three courses without exceeding 10mg total THC—this can be a bit tricky to do, but don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it. And for the record, there’s nothing wrong with consuming more than 10mg of THC, just like there’s nothing wrong with having more than one beer. It’s just important to know your preferred serving size when it comes to THC, and if any of your guests are newbies, it’s important to keep things in check so they have a good time. And lastly, it’s important to offer non-infused options for those designated drivers; the only thing worse than not being able to get high is not being able to eat as well.

Alright. I’m going to give you three example recipes so you can cover an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert, but I’m going to keep things simple so you don’t have to put in too much work (because that’s not what pot is about).

1.) Let’s start with a salad. A good salad is healthy and classy, and it breaks that brownie-only paradigm most people have when it comes to infused edibles. And in this case, we’re going to infuse the dressing—doing so makes it easy to control your serving size, and all you’d have to do for those designated drivers is offer some regular dressing to keep them sober. So, get yourself some good romaine lettuce, croutons, and anchovy filets for a garnish, and then combine all these ingredients for the dressing:

½ TSP anchovy paste
1 TBS lemon juice
1 clove garlic, finely minced
¼ cup parmesan cheese
½ TSP Dijon mustard
½ TSP Worcestershire
½ cup mayonnaise
1/8^th TSP each, salt and pepper
2, 10mg packets Ripple Pure 10.

This dressing recipe will make five servings, and if you do the math, after adding the 20mg THC, each serving will contain roughly 3mg THC given what will be left over in the dressing bowl. So, do you see what I’m doing? If you create three courses, each containing about 3mg THC, the entire dinner will give each guest the target 10mg of THC. Math is your friend when it comes to edibles. And my choice to use Ripple in the first course was intentional: Ripple is made with a water-soluble THC distillate (I wrote a whole blog on the subject that you can read HERE), which means it will kick in much sooner than something lipid-soluble. This means that your guests will start to feel the high right in the middle of your main course; that’s next-level hosting.

Now, onto the main course. Since I started with an infused topping, I’m going to stay in that lane and give you a recipe for a badass gravy. You can put it on steak or chicken or potatoes, and people who are trying to stay sober can simply go without gravy. But I’m just going to give you the ingredients (if you don’t know how to make gravy, you shouldn’t be hosting dinner parties):

1 cup chicken stock
1 beef bouillon cube
½ TBS canna-butter
3 ½ TBS unsalted butter
1/8^th cup flour
½ TSP onion powder
1/8^th TSP thyme
¼ TSP sage
½ TSP rosemary
¼ TSP each, salt and pepper

Please don’t let that “canna-butter” ingredient scare you because it’s relatively easy to make. I wrote an entire blog about the process that you can read HERE. If you follow my instructions, a ½ tablespoon will contain 20mg THC, and once again, if you split this gravy into five equal portions, each guest will get just over 3mg, thereby bringing our two-meal total to just over 6mg THC. But please remember, if you’re not up to making your own canna-butter, you can simply add two packets of Ripple to the gravy and achieve the same results.

Onto dessert! If you clicked that last “HERE” I gave you, you read directions on how to make infused oil. And if you make infused oil and then do a quick google search for oil-based brownie recipes, you can serve your guests pot brownies topped with ice cream for the final course. But I’m going to pretend that you’re a lazy stoner like I am, and since cooking two courses is tiring, we’re going to make dessert easy. Here are the ingredients:

Ice Cream
4oz melting chocolate
2 – Coda single-serving hot-chocolate on a spoon.

If you mix all the chocolate together, melt it, and then pour it over five servings of ice cream, that will give your guests another 3mg THC each, and then everyone will be sitting comfortably at about 10mg each after the dinner is over. And then if you throw in a couple grab-bags for your guests containing after-dinner joints and whatnot, it’ll be a dinner party worth putting on Pinterest (but I don’t know if you’re allowed to pin pot stuff).

Of course, cannabis dinner ideas are limited only by your imagination, and for inspiration, there are all sorts of sites like THIS one that’ll give you all the ideas you need to be Martha Stewart crossed with Snoop Dog in the kitchen. And we sell all the pot-related stuff you’ll need to complete these recipes right here in our Durango dispensary. So, if you’re thinking about throwing a cannabis dinner party, bring your valid I.D. proving that you’re 21 or over and come see us at 208 Parker Ave, because We’re Your Best Buds!

Cooking with Cannabis

Posted on February 9, 2019 - 9:00 am

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I’m not sure why I’ve waited so long to write a blog like this one because customers ask me frequently about cooking with the cannabis they buy in our Durango dispensary. Maybe it’s because we sell about seven billion different types of edibles, and it might be a bit pointless to make an edible when you can simply buy one that’s made by state-regulated professionals. But I don’t want to leave all you do-it-yourselfers in the lurch, so this week, we’re going to dive into the subject.

There are two different ways to make infused edibles at home (which is perfectly legal to do so long as you live here in Colorado). The easiest way is to come into our shop and buy some oil or powdered distillate that you can mix in with your recipe, but this isn’t the method most people use because the end product isn’t technically “homemade,” so we’ll discuss the other method first: homemade infused oil or canna-butter.

The biggest mistake most newbies make is to not decarboxylate their cannabis before starting this process. All the THC (the stuff that gets you high) is in its acid form in raw flower (THCa), so even if you ate the pot straight, or mixed it in with a recipe, it wouldn’t get you high. That’d be a huge waste, so, as step number one, coarsely grind your flower and then bake in on a sheet in your oven at 250 degrees for about thirty minutes. If you grind the flower too finely, it’ll add a burnt taste to your recipe, and if you cook it at too hot a temperature, you’ll degrade all the THC, which will also lead to disappointing sobriety. And if this is your first rodeo, I’d suggest starting with 7 to 14 grams of flower at most so you don’t waste a lot of weed when you mess up. It happens.

Alright… now that you have some coarsely-ground, decarboxylated flower, the next step is to infuse some oil or butter so you can get that cannabis into your belly. It’s always best to use a one-to-one ratio—in other words, mix one cup of oil or butter with one cup of the decarboxylated flower. Some people go overboard with this process and try to use tons of pot, but there’s only so much THC that’ll bind with the lipids in your oil/butter, so don’t do this because it’s also a waste (wasting pot is sacrilegious). Now, as step two, take that one-to-one mixture and cook it in a pan on your stovetop for about ten minutes. This time, you’re using the heat to get the THC into the oil or butter, not to decarboxylate the THC, so it’s best to use a very low temperature; you never want your mixture to boil. And then for step three, let the mixture cool for a bit so it’s safe to handle, and then strain it through a cheesecloth into a jar; the cheesecloth will remove all the plant matter from your infused butter or oil. Boom! Now you have infused oil or butter, and all you need to do is use it instead of regular oil or butter in your favorite recipe to make a marijuana edible.

But here comes the hard part: how potent is that oil you just made? Before I get into that, I need to drop a few disclaimers. I work in a recreational marijuana dispensary, and as such, I’m not allowed to recommend an edible serving that’s over 10 milligrams of THC (which is plenty). Secondly, I’m about to give you an equation to use to figure out potency, but I cannot guarantee its accuracy; what follows is only for rough estimations. Here it is:

Take the number of grams of flower you used to make your oil and multiply it by 1000 (all this does is convert the weight into milligrams). For the rest of this example equation, we’re going to assume you took my advice and started your first batch with seven grams, so, 7 X 1000 = 7000.
Next, look at the bottle of flower you bought from us and find the THC percentage, and then convert it into a decimal. For example, if you bought some of the Sour Grape that’s on our menu as I’m typing this, the THC percentage is 20%, so the decimal equivalent is 0.20.
Now, multiply the figure from step one by the figure from step two: 7000 X 0.20 = 1400. This will give you the total number of THC milligrams in your oil or butter.
Next, figure out how many tablespoons of oil or butter you mixed with the flower. With 7 grams of flower, I’d recommend using two cups of oil or butter, which is 32 tablespoons.
Now, divide the total number of THC milligrams from step 3 by the total number of tablespoons from step 4. So, 1400 / 32 = 43.75. This means you can assume that every tablespoon of oil/butter that you just made contains about 40mg THC.

But please remember my disclaimers! This equation works well for rough estimates only because there are too many variables. Maybe you cooked the oil longer than necessary or didn’t decarboxylate the flower enough; there are all sorts of human errors that can mess up the math. So, the best bet is to always try eating a quarter tablespoon of the oil or butter you made when it’s safe to get high; if the pot you used was in that 20% THC range, a quarter tablespoon should give you about 10mg THC if you followed my instructions. And if you’re a regular consumer of edibles, you’ll know what that feels like. If not, come in and buy a 10mg single-serve cookie, eat it, and take notes as to how the high felt. It’s always best to wait an hour and a half for the full effect to kick in, and since you’re essentially doing an experiment at home, it’s always best to time that hour and a half with a clock so you can be sure of the results. And then the next day, try a quarter tablespoon of your homemade oil, time the hour and a half, take notes, and then compare your findings. Since you won’t be able to use a lab to test the potency of your oil like the pros do with recreational edibles, this method is the best one to determine the potency of your homemade infused oil or butter.

Now, unfortunately, we’re not quite done with math because we need to figure out the serving size for the edible you make with your oil or butter. For example, a basic brownie recipe that uses oil calls for ¾ of a cup, which is 12 tablespoons. In this instance, I’d recommend using a half-and-half mixture of infused oil and regular oil, or 6 tablespoons of infused oil and 6 tablespoons of regular oil. With the equation we used above that determined our oil contained 40mg THC per tablespoon, it would mean that our brownie mix contains 240mg of THC (6 X 40 = 240). So, once the brownies were baked, you’d have to cut 24 equal-sized brownies to get brownies that contained 10mg THC each (240 / 10 = 24). As one last disclaimer, I’d recommend doing this entire process sober, so you don’t mess up the math. That way, you aren’t trusting “pot luck.” Get it?

Alright, now onto the quickest method: simply buy some CO2 oil or Ripple from us and mix it into your recipe. For real, this method is super easy. For example, we sell bottles of Ripple for $29, and they contain 10, 10mg packs of tasteless, odorless THC distillate powder. So, if you mixed up some regular brownie mix, dumped in ten packs of Ripple, baked the brownies, and then cut out ten brownies, each one would contain 10mg THC. See? It only took me a paragraph to write instructions for this version as opposed to the 1,200 words it took me to tell you how to start from scratch.

That being said, cooking with CO2 oil requires a bit of math, but it’s a much more economic route to take. For example, the bottle of Ripple I told you about contains 100mg of THC for $29, but a one-gram oil syringe that sells for $60 contains around 750mg of THC. I’ve already done a ton of math, so it won’t hurt to do more—for the Ripple, each milligram of THC costs $0.29 as where with the oil, each milligram of THC will cost you $0.08, and you get more than seven times as much THC with the oil. So, let’s get into that equation (I promise it’ll be quick):

Look at the label on the syringe of oil. If you bought it from us, it’ll tell you how many milligrams of THC are contained therein. The one that’s on my desk as I write this contains 750mg of THC. So, if you were to use half of the oil in the batch of whatever you’re cooking, you’d infuse the batch with 375mg THC. So, if you used that amount of oil to make a batch of brownies, you’d want to cut it into 38 pieces to get brownies that contained 10mg THC each. But as a tip, when cooking with CO2 oil, it’s very, very important to evenly distribute the oil into the batter and mix it thoroughly. If you don’t, the oil might stay in one place, and you could end up with a couple brownies that get you way too high and a lot of brownies that don’t do anything besides taste like brownies. There. We’ve covered it all, from mixing in something premade to starting from scratch.

Since this is such a popular topic, I’ll write another piece for you in a week or two because this blog is already too long—I’ll talk about cannabis dinner parties and give you a few recipes, so stay tuned. But until then, come on in with your valid I.D. proving you’re over 21 and see us at 208 Parker Avenue right here in Bodo Park. Quite a few of our budtenders know about cooking with Cannabis in Durango, so if you have any questions while you’re here, feel free to ask, because We’re Your Best Buds!

Different Marijuana Strains

Posted on February 2, 2019 - 9:00 am

Please keep an open mind when I tell you this: it’s very important to stop thinking that you really like a specific strain just because you “tried it this one time” and really liked it. And it’s also important to stop thinking that you don’t like a strain because you didn’t like it that “one time.” Trust me.

I can’t tell you how many times it’s happened to me. A customer will walk in and ask something like, “what’s your best sativa strain right now?” I’ll say something like, “the White Widow is wonderful,” to which this hypothetical customer will respond, “oh, no thank you; I tried some White Widow once and it was horrible.” This is when I take a deep breath and explain that not all White Widows are created equally, but what I really want to do is say this:

Imagine two White Widow seeds siting on a table. A monkey walks up to the table and takes home one of the seeds; he grows it in a ditch and waters it with barbecue sauce. The other seed is taken home by a scientist. He grows it professionally in his lab under specifically engineered lights while controlling the CO2 in the air to increase photosynthesis. Now, if you were to wait until both plants were mature, and then set them side-by-side, they’d look nothing alike. If you smoked a little of each, they’d neither taste nor smell anything alike (the monkey’s pot would remind you of brisket). And the high that came from each plant would differ greatly.

Do you see what I’m getting at? We’re the scientists in this situation. It doesn’t mean that you won’t like our White Widow just because you didn’t like the White Widow you got from a monkey elsewhere. After all, way back when, growers named the strains they bred simply to keep track of them, and because it was cool. But now, those names have morphed into brands, and as such, people think they know what to expect from a certain strain. Nothing could be further from the truth, so as a PSA, I’d like to tell you this: when it comes to cannabis strains, the name isn’t nearly as important as most people think. What matters is who grew the plant, and how they did it.

This is especially important for you strain-chasers out there because, for an example, there are about three Durango dispensaries selling Gorilla Glue #4 right now, but you’ll pay different prices per gram at each place. This is frustrating because shoppers will chase the lowest price thinking that all strains of Gorilla Glue #4 are the same because they share a name, which is simply false. Think about it this way: Pabst Blue Ribbon is a lager, and you can buy a thirty-pack for about $17. Samuel Adams’ Utopias is also a lager, but it costs $150 for a single bottle. Not all lagers are equal in price or quality in the same way that not all Gorilla Glue #4 strains are equal. And a few months ago, I wrote a blog on how to identify high-quality cannabis (you can read it HERE), but this week, I wanted to give you a few pointers on how to tell if the pot you’re about to smoke es no bueno. So, watch out for these three things:

1.) “PM,” or “powdery mildew.” PM looks exactly like it sounds (a white powder), and to the untrained eye, PM can look like trichomes, which are the white crystals you want on your pot. True, the state requires all flower to be tested for microbials before a batch of bud can be sold recreationally, but you’ll still find PM on recreational bud, especially if you’re buying the cheap stuff. The reason for this is that after the flower passes its microbial test, and after it’s sent to a dispensary, it can sit there for months which gives trace amounts of PM time to grow. Disclaimer: THIS NEVER HAPPENS AT THE GREENERY! We take the small-batch approach with our growing and ordering, so our flower always sells out while it’s fresh. You’re welcome.

2.) Aphids. I’m not joking: I’ve seen recreational flower sold in Colorado that’s crawling with bugs. So, look at your pot—if it’s moving, it’s no good. The state also requires that all recreational flower be tested for residual pesticides, so I guess some people might be passing that test by simply letting the bugs have free-range. Gross.

3.) Brown Leaves. When the green on flower is replaced by brown, it means one of three things happened: either the pot was burned by the fertilizers, or the grow lights, or the flower wasn’t cured properly. For the record, brown pot won’t hurt you, but if you see brown edges on the flower, it’s a likely sign that the terpene or THC content is lower than it should be. So, again, if you’re hunting around for some Gorilla Glue #4, try paying attention to the color more so than the price; it’s just good advice. I’ve written blog after blog about The Greenery Grow, but just as a reminder, you should click HERE to learn about why you’ll never have to check our flower for any of these three detractors.

The last reason you shouldn’t get stuck on a single strain because you liked it “that one time” is availability. Thanks to rampant crossbreeding, there are well over 4,000 strains of marijuana available recreationally in Colorado. So, if you were to walk into a dispensary looking for a particular strain, the chances of actually finding it are one in four thousand—statistically speaking, you have the same chances of finding your strain as you would flipping a quarter twelve times and having it land on heads each time. That doesn’t happen very often.

So, instead of walking into a shop and then turning away when they don’t have the strain you’re looking for, ask for something similar. In our Durango dispensary, we train our budtenders on how to look up a strain and its reported effects; they can also figure out your favorite strain’s lineage. We make our budtenders smoke every strain we offer (it’s a rough life) so they can become familiar with what we sell, and I promise that each budtender you’ll meet here can find you a strain that’s similar to (or better than) the strain you’re looking for. So, if you’re stuck in a rut with a favorite strain, or if you want to find the absolute best representation of your favorite strain, come see us at 208 Parker Avenue right here in Bodo Park (please bring your valid I.D. proving that you’re over 21). We’ll help you find what you’re looking for and we’ll explain why quality matters more than price or a name, because We’re Your Best Buds!

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