Dear Stoner: My favorite marijuana strain is Lamb’s Bread. Does that name mean anything, or is it just made up at a grower?
Burt Smiley
Dear Burt: Marijuana names definitely mean something, especially for the strain you mention. Lamb’s Bread is an iconic Jamaican sativa that Bob Marley reportedly liked to smoke, known for its skunky, earthy smell and awesomely sticky buds.
Most strains you’ll find at dispensaries in states where recreational marijuana is legal were developed elsewhere and became popular and attainable enough for shops to buy and grow as their own. Lamb’s Bread falls in that category; it’s been around for so long that it’s built its own reputation. Lesser-known strains or in-house strains bred by the shop’s growers are tougher to catalogue.
Although there’s no watchdog organization making sure that dispensaries are selling strains with names true to their genetics, it would hurt a shop’s reputation greatly to sell fraudulent flower — but it still happens, unfortunately. Trust your eyes and nose when in doubt.
Dear Stoner: I recently went all in on dabs and now love shatter, butter, rosin, resin, etc. After dabbing, if I take a hit of even the dankest flower, it tastes like sh*t — like burned hair mixed with dry hay. I mention this to fellow dabbers and almost always get a quizzical look. Is this just me?
Job
Dear Job: If you have a dirty bong, then it’s not just you. Any flower will taste like ass out of dirty glass. But if your piece is clean, then, yes, it is you. Live resin and extremely well-purged concentrates can taste just as good as or even better than flower itself — but unless you’re dabbing the best of the best, you’re probably not hitting anything that tastes better than cured flower out of clean glass. Even if you were, the taste difference isn’t drastic enough to be as bad as you describe. Maybe it’s just the butane you like?
This article appears in Dec 22-28, 2016.