Illinois Legal Cannabis Reviews

Bedford Grow Orange Afghani is a solid, tasty Afghani, very familiar tasting, but all cleaned up – smoother and fresher than you might remember. Weed back in the day seldom packed a punch like this.

The reason I’ve gone through so many varieties of legal cannabis in Illinois is I’m looking for hashish, but it’s just not here. (EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s here!) A hash buzz is easy to approximate. It’s the taste and the smell I crave, and I’ve craved it now for forty two years.

“It’s not hashish, but the first hit is smooth, downright mellow. It hits the head quickly, and the goofy smile spreads and the eyes droop a notch almost before the first hit is fully exhaled.”  

Aside from a handful of opportunities, I’ve not smoked it for about forty of those years. In southern Illinois, hash went from rare to almost non-existent. 

I’d been smoking the Orange Afgani Popcorn Buds from Bedford Grow for a few weeks now. Without thinking, it became my go to weed.

My favorite Hashish is Afghani, and the Bedford Grow Indica by the same name does have some of the same flavors, as well as the buzz. The citrus throws it off though. You get the Orange on the inhale, and the spicy Afghani on the exhale. 

The first hit is smooth, downright mellow. It hits the head quickly, and the goofy smile spreads and the eyes droop a notch almost before the first hit is fully exhaled. 

I loaded a second and found it just as nice, and I realize this is been one of my favorite Indicas so far. 

A note on popcorn buds. 

They’re smaller, about the size of a piece of popped popcorn. The generic brand, not Orville Redenbacker. If you want to get technical, they’re not quite as potent as fully matured buds. But the difference is minimal, and it’s unlikely most people can tell a difference.

You save a few bucks and get the same buzz. So don’t be afraid to give them a shot.

On creating a hashish flavored cannabis elixir with a dash of Orange Afghani Crumble

I’d been painting Orange Afghani popcorn buds from time to time with hash oil, which tamed the citrus notes and brought the taste and scent closer to hashish. 

Then I scored the Bedford Grow Orange Afghani Crumble. 

So the next hit was a bit of flower, a bit of crumble, like the other hits, smoked through a bong. With clean water even, as I had high hopes. 

 I realized two things simultaneously. The first was the hit was still smooth, still sweet and there was no cough. The second was that the orange tasted even more orange, and less like Hashish. Which makes sense as with the stronger concentrate, you’re accenting the flavor not changing it. 

What to do when a body buzz feels just too nice

The buzz from Orange Afghani is euphoric. You feel high, uplifted and yet your brain keeps chugging along. It doesn’t wipe you out in one fell swoop like a lot of Indicas. It’s quite a cerebral high, but the body buzz comes creeping up. After about forty five minutes, sitting back comfortably feels real nice. I mean real nice. 

Something else I noticed after smoking the popcorn buds one night when the wife was still awake … things physical feel really nice too. I mean real nice.

But she’s asleep tonight so I wander over to the back window, looking out over the back yard. I can’t see the new garden from here, but I have a good view of the route the raccoons take from the top of the barn on their nightly prowls. One crosses a beam of light for a second on the patio, then shuffles off. 

I stand there for much too long, and realize the Orange Afghani makes one easily entertained. 

Does a dab rig bring out the hashish taste of Bedford Grow’s Orange Afghani?

It occurs to me that I haven’t fully tested the options here. I haven’t for instance, tried just the Orange Afghani Crumble in the dab rig. I ponder it for a moment. If I keep sitting here, typing this review, I’m screwed. The body buzz will win out and slowly but inevitably, I’ll turn vegetable. 

Before I can smoke a dab, I’ll have to clean the nail and dome, rinse that, change the water and that should wake me up. At least till I take the hit.

I cleaned out the rig, added fresh, chilled water and whipped out the torch. Pinching off a small piece of the Bedford Grow Grange Afghani Crumble, I dropped it on the nail. By then I wasn’t hoping for a Hashish taste, so I wasn’t disappointed. It was an itense version of the flower hit, more flavor, a stronger scent, a beefier whallop to the psyche. 

Adding the Iranian to the Afghani for a last hope of the hashish taste 

I recently picked up an Iranian based weed, Verano RSO Mag Landrace, It has a very spicy, woodsy taste … not like evergreens, but aged wood. I also managed to score the RSO oil version of it. I though that might be enough to overcome the citrus flavor of the Orange Afghani, and give a true Hashish taste. 

So I swabbed out the nail, heated it up and managed to get a bit of Bedford Grow Orange Afghani and Verano RSO Mag Landrace on my dab tool. And to drop off together even into the heated nail. 

Consciousness reeled before coming back, looking like it had been out on a night on the town. And slept in the gutter.

The flavor wasn’t like hash. At least no hash I’d ever tasted. But it was brilliant. It did push down the citrus overtones and it tasted like something from that part of the world. A wave of exotic middle eastern stereotypes flooded the brain as I exhaled.

Then I’m back at the window, looking for varmints. Directly across from me, about fifteen yards away, there’s a shadow under the eaves of the barn. As my eyes adjust, I see it’s a silhouette. I can see the outline, the skinny head, the big ass.

“Consciousness reeled before coming back, looking like it had been out on a night on the town. And slept in the gutter.”

My eyes are still bleary from the after effects of the dab, and my gaze is stolen by the eye of Sauron, staring at me from above the rooftops behind the house. I stare back, clearly able to make out the ridges and highlights in the iris. 

Then my eyes come back in focus, and I find myself staring into a street light. 

I think I’m pretty much done smoking dope for the night. I started the evening trying to find that elusive taste of hashish, that sweet smell that haunts my dreams. I got hints of it, and a hellacious buzz. And for tonight, that’s close enough. 

The Particulars:

BEDFORD GROW ORANGE AFGHANI FLOWER
THC 20% CBD 1%
BEDFORD GROW ORANGE AFGHANI CRUMBLE
THC 78.4%
VERANO RSO – MAG LANDRACE
THC: 79.095  THCA: 1.929 Total: 80.786733

Jack Herer is a pretty common hybrid strain, developed in the late eighties, always in demand, predominantly Sativa, with refreshing lemony/berry accents over a citrus base. It leaves your mouth tasting zesty and the room smelling of pine, spices and potpourri. 

All this flavor and taste helps to mask the fact that Jack Herer from GTI packs an almost 24% THCA reading, an has a 26.1 cannabinoid content. 

Jack Herer’s creator, Sensi Seeds keeps the lineage a secret, but it’s believed to be a combination of a Sativa Haze, Northern Lights #5 and Shiva Skunk. It’s energetic without provoking anxiety, and though relaxing, stimulates the mind, without knocking the body out. 

I was at the tail end of an eighth of Jack Herer, from GTI, bought from the nearest ThriveIL dispensary, in my case Harrisburg, Illinois. I’d been making the journey there a bit too much lately and needed to finish off the almost finished weed I had laying about. 

A friend you can take for granted

I honestly don’t remember smoking the rest of the Jack Here from GTI. It wasn’t that I was overly high, just that it became an everyday smoke, till something new pushed it out of the way. I wasn’t particularly attached to it. It just worked, and it was there. 

I tried a couple bong hits to get reacquainted. The haze taste came through first, along with a nice hint of pine. It was exceptionally smooth – my battered lungs briefly considered a short cough, out of habit, but passed on it. The second hit was equally smooth, and though there was no rush to stoned, I was pleasantly buzzed. 

I wandered around the house a bit, just getting feel for the high. I didn’t get a burst of energy like I get from some Sativas. No upping the anxiety, but I did feel motivated. 

“So the day took on a happy mood. Music was called for, Aoxomoxoa by The Grateful Dead. It’s a jaunty little album with enough weirdness to make the buzz psychedelic.” 

I went back in the lounge for another hit. This time I mixed it with the hash oil version of Jack Herer, from Aeritz. It’s darker than most of the oils I’ve had, and I sliced off a bubble from the syringe with a dab tool, then swirled that in some finely broken up flower. The grass adhered nicely to the oil, so it was a simple matter to wipe the glop on the inside of the bowl of the bong. 

You don’t have to be precise, once the oil is lit, it stays lit. You either cover the bowl to keep the smoke from escaping, or pass to the next person if there’s someone to pass to. 

The weed was burned through in the first hit, which had a lot more punch with the addition of the hash oil. It also filled out the flavor, so the nuances came through. The oil burned for another hit or two and my pleasant little buzz had progressed to pretty fucking high. 

The album ended and The Music Never Stopped came on, another Dead tune, which is bound to get a person on their feet. Jack Herer isn’t an overly energetic high, but there is a lift. And motivation. Not being a dancer, or a twirler I wandered down the stairs, thinking a bit of time outside might be good. And there are always things needing done out there. 

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Outside it’s exceptionally sunny, but the cold is back. A hard frost last night, I went out and checked the garden. Nothing is up but some live plants I put in last weekend, spring greens. They were actually thriving in the cold. My pepper plants were shielded and just fine as well. 

Most of all I just wandered around, letting whatever wanted attention, catch my eye. I didn’t do much of anything, but I had a damned fine time doing it. I could still hear the music playing inside, sounding far, far away. And I thought that’s actually how music should be heard outside. 

The description people keep using in reviews of Jack Herer is clear-headed. I’ll second that. So I figured I might as well do a bit of real work, as I didn’t feel too high to concentrate and I wasn’t dressed for the cold.  

“The oil burned for another hit or two and my pleasant little buzz had progressed to pretty fucking high.” 

Inside I made a cup of hot tea, as my taste buds were on overdrive from the weed. I opted for German Breakfast Tea, with honey. I wanted to be able to stay up with the buzz, and not succumb to the mid-afternoon doldrums that come from staring at a computer screen. 

After sitting and typing for a bit I started feeling tense between my shoulders, and stood up. I tried doing an exercise I used to know which helped reduce the tension. After a few minutes I realized I was actually just doing The Safety Dance but oddly enough it worked, and stuck the song on my head. 

The phone rang and I took a call from a client, which went surprisingly well. She’s notoriously difficult to explain things to – she’s visual so she need to see it. But it was a very mellow conversation and I managed to explain things clearly enough that she could follow along with the issue. 

Jack Herer’s clarity pays off. Which makes it a good daytime buzz if you don’t have to any heavy lifting, physically or mentally. It’s just … pleasant. Which is likely why it didn’t stick in my head more. It’s like an old friend that’s always there when you need him. 

I’ll be calling on Jack again. 

The Particulars:

• GTI Jack Herer Flower
• THC 0.97#, CBD 0.01%, THCA 23.42%, CBDA 1.70%
• Aeriz Jack Here Full Spectrum Hash Oil
• CBD: 0.59% | THC: 76.08% | THCA: 0.35%