The choices we make when selecting our favorite cultivars say a lot about who we are. At Curated selecting your favorite cultivar is like picking your favorite child. We hold each cultivar to the highest standard and only release what we feel is best. We grade each cultivar under strict standards and not every harvest makes the cut.
I interviewed our CEO and Co-Founder Will Sun to find out how he grades cannabis and what his favorite cultivars are.
What are your top 5 cultivars we’ve had on our menu?
Will:
- Lemon Freeze Pop
- Tangieland
- Purple Cream
- OGKB
- Black Jack
- Oreoz
What visual cues do you look for in quality flower?
Will: Consistency – whether shopping in a dispensary, or performing quality control, I always take a look at four-five eighths of the same cultivar from the same brand side-by-side. It should be difficult to choose which eighth is your favorite because the flower is so consistent.
Visually, I prefer flower with distinct features – high calyx-leaf ratio with enough coloration to identify each component (e.g. calyx, pistil, leaf). You can really only do this with hand-trimmed flower, so I’m also evaluating the trim quality.
If you could only smoke 1 of our cultivars for the rest of your life, what would it be?:
Will: Tangieland – I love the aroma, taste, and potency. Terpinolene dominant cultivars are my favorite and I smoke it most of the time, so I’m confident that I could have it as my one-and-only.
What do you look for in your dream Live Cured cultivar?
Will: A dream cultivar would be one that is best-in-class in any of the major sensory categories – appearance, aroma, taste, and effect.
If we take a “build-a-bud” approach:
- Appearance of Purple Cream – huge, bursting purple calyxes with bright orange pistils. Simply gorgeous.
- Aroma / Taste – Lemon Freeze Pop. It smells and tastes exactly like the name. The taste leaves a pleasant lemon-flavored residue on your palate – chef’s kiss.
- Effect – Tangieland always slaps me up, rather than something heavier that slaps me down.
Is there a specific dominant terpene or profile that you look for?
Will: Terpinolene is my favorite terpene profile. It is so distinctive – you’re never going to confuse it as something else. It is a good benchmark to evaluate cannabis flower.
How has Live Cured Flower changed the way you evaluate flower?
Will: Live Cured Flower defines the way I evaluate flower. I think cannabis is perfect at harvest when the flower is in full bloom. I also think the cannabis flower in your jar should be just as perfect as it was at harvest. It takes a lot of skill and effort to produce flower that is ready-to-consume while preserving all of the aromatic and visual detail.
It is important to separate nature vs. nurture. I think nature (i.e. genetics) is based on personal preference – I like the appearance and aroma of a certain cultivar. However, nurture is based on tangible attributes – how well was the flower grown, trimmed, dried/cured, which can be evaluated.
To answer some of my own questions…
My top 5 picks are easy:
- Feria
- Lemon Cherry Gelato
- Wedding Pie
- Mac
- Alien Pebbles
- Ex-Wife
Visual Cues: I’m looking for those swollen, bursting calyxes with nicely formed pistils. I think our Purple Punch is one of our most visually appealing cultivars. It’s not my favorite smoke but it’s one of my favorites to study visually. I agree with Will on the consistency of the harvest. Every bud should be fully developed and matured. I love being able to bust out a microscope and study trichomes as well. I’m looking for large bulbous resin heads covering the flower bud – cloudy heads with some amber ones peppered in. Peak of perfection.
If I could only smoke one of our cultivars for the rest of my life it would be the Lemon Cherry Gelato at the moment. To me, I can smoke it day or night. It keeps me relaxed during the day and helps me sleep at night. I love the peppery gas aroma and strong flavor.
My dream Live Cured cultivar would be GASSY! I love loud caryophyllene dominant cultivars – Taste and smell are everything to me. Visually, I’d love it to look like a cross between Mimosa and Purple Punch. The Mimosa for that stunning color and the Purple Punch for that swollen bud structure. Throw some Chem Dog genetics in there and I’d say we have one deliciously potent beast.
My favorite dominant terpene is caryophyllene. Earthy pepper with some gas behind it takes me back to all the relaxing times I’ve spent enjoying our flower. Something about it just relaxes me. I’ll sometimes lean towards a Wedding Pie, which contains more myrcene. I of course like both terpenes being balanced in one profile but there’s something about having each one stand out on its own. I guess at times I’m just looking for something a little different than what I usually smoke on. So, I’d say myrcene would be my number two.
Since co-developing Live Cured Flower back in 2017, my entire perspective on flower has been turned upside down. Before Live Cured Flower I never knew what it was like to have the freshest flower. I had never experienced terpenes being preserved just as they were at the moment of harvest, and I had never smoked anything smoother. Live Cured Flower allows me to enjoy my favorite cultivars without having to stretch my imagination. Everything is true to form and reminds me of exactly how it was when it was alive. I now evaluate flower by judging how it reflects the qualities of the live plant. Are the visual cues there? Has this flower been hand trimmed and how was it handled in the post process? I remember being a kid and only thinking “does it smell dank?” and “Are the crystals there?”. Live Cured Flower has allowed me to really dissect the attributes of flower on a more scientific and quantifiable level.
I hope this can give you some insight into how some of the minds at Curated Cannabis grade their flower and what their top picks are. If you’d like to see any future favorite cultivars visit our Staff Picks section of our website. Now go grab some Live Cured Flower and see how it changes the way you evaluate cannabis!
Stay stoned and stay safe!
