Ogen Bow Valley OG Kush #26
A Sunday ritual for me is looking through the pages of the Alberta Cannabis website. I mostly look at the flower, just seeing what’s new, and seeing what’s on sale. I’m checking last Sunday, and I see this Ogen Bow Valley OG.
Buyer motivation
I don’t buy it that Sunday, just for workload issues on my side; no sense buying something and letting it sit. Monday happens, so does Tuesday; I saw a few posts, and thought about it some, but still didn’t buy it. On Wednesday, I see a post about it, ‘Limited Edition & 6% terpenes’ it says, now my toes are at the edge. I check Reddit, and there’s a post with some polarizing opinions, that was enough for me, so I bite.
The tipping point was the discussion, the numbers carried some weight, but the base attraction to this offering was my love for OG Kush, and that this offering is named after the region I live.
Calgary
I’m from Calgary. My dog swims in the Bow River. I drive on Bow Valley Trail. Went to Bow Valley College when I needed help with math. I’d submit to you it’s never been a point of pride for me; being from Calgary, but I was really interested in Ogen’s nondescript OG Kush because its grown in, and named after Calgary. The potential of a good OG Kush produced here, somehow, is a point fo pride, and I don’t mind saying the chance of seeing that was a major motivator in this purchase.
OG Kush
Second motivator was the strain name, OG Kush. A name that you might say is past its prime, but I’d still say it’s my favourite. I think of OG Kush as a reference to a group of plants, from various sources, which can be a breeder, individual or region. Ogen doesn’t give that level of detail on their website, nor is it in the listing information. There is some information on phenotyping and how this plant was selected, just not the source or seed pack it was selected from.
Terpene Content
Most of the discussion I saw on this offering had to do with the 6.27% terpene content. This is my first encounter with a claim like this in Canadian legal weed, and I thought it’d be interesting to see if I could sense the difference between this 6% content against some of the other flower I’m currently reviewing.
From the vendor listing, the relative terpene contents are limonene (27%), Ocimene (8%), Caryophyllene (7%) and other terpenes make up the remainder (appears as more than half).
From the producer website, the contents are listed as limonene (1.7%), Ocimene (0.5%), Caryophyllene (0.44%), beta-myrcene (0.36%) and other terpenes make up the remainder (3.27%).
Here’s some questions I have on the terpene content:
- What is the name of the lab that performed the testing?
- How many terpenes does the lab test for vs how many were found?
- Can I see a CoA?
Anyhow, the numbers are unusually high, but my armchair estimate, about 2-4 times higher than average.
Prep
I’ve replaced the bag in my volcano, and cleaned the chamber internals, so I’m ready to start the review.
Visuals
Visuals are neutral, but there’s a few good and bad elements.
Size of the buds is good throughout, there’s a few crumbs at the bottom of the jar. Shape of the buds is all over the place; lots of crevices and small fox-tails. Looks like a nightmare to trim. Not surprisingly, the trim is poor. There is leaf left, tons of over-trim into good bracts and seed pods too. Contrary to the rougher areas, there’s some surfaces on the upper face that show the flower in clean detail and it looks really good. Overall the buds appear to be more ‘stemmy’, they’re prominent towards the underside, and I found a foreign stem embedded into the side of one flower.
Feel
The feel on it is very dry, a small amount of force will destruct these buds, and some of that has already occurred in the container.
Smell
The frontage is a thin layer of sweet floral before a deluge of a greasy, fuel-pine mixture with secondary notes of citrus. The base of the profile ties everything down to somewhat comfortable earth tones, and you get the bubblegum type florals at the start, but character ends up very guttural, and some for the top notes are pronounced with intensity.
Taste
Flavours are chemical citrus with floral undertones; its vaporous, acetone and turpentine at the topside that bring some activity to the composition. The pine seems to play supportive, subtly spiced and seeming almost fruity against the floral elements in the profile. With use the solvent tastes fade and the profile reveals its earth-tones, which are sweet and floral. Longevity in taste, and the dynamism throughout are notable.
Guess
This OG Kush didn’t strike me as familiar, I couldn’t tell the breeder, or name on first impression, but I felt it may be leaning towards some Chemdawg tastes. The profile had a robust fruit aspect that I’d say is familiar with a Chemdawg, or some OG Kush, Chemdawg crosses. Which is what I’d guess that is; an OG Kush crossed back to a Chemdawg.
Value
Price on this 3.5g package was $33. In the upper tier of the average, but still cheap enough where high quality cannabis feels like a deal.
Impression
I thought it was great. The dryness might be the biggest complaint, however I didn’t mind it in a vaporizer. And there’s beauty in the rough looks, if you look past the state of the trim. Taste and smell are where it matters, this flower has both in good magnitude, and their profiles are interesting.
I returned to this a day after, and the decrease in olfactory properties was notable. Had my first impression been with this flower in its reduced state, this review would be different.
Consumer Benefits
High figures and low price. Extra points if you like OG Kush but not any breeders. More points if you think Calgary is cool (no points deducted if you don’t)
Consumer Pains
Huge potential for disappointment at the terpene content. Both for expectations at the onset, and for the decrease in scent afterwards. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed by the taste of this flower, but both home grown flowers I reviewed alongside this offering (Squid Pant’s Thai, and Comrade Bubba Dank Dough) very obviously, had more wealth and magnitude of taste.
Attractions
It’s new. Named after a valley you may live in, have lived in, or stayed in once. Acceptable price point.
Compromises
No bulk size for this offering. Appears to be only available in Alberta.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading this one, was a cool review to write, mostly because of the location it’s named after.
If you were to say to me ‘look, Calgary sucks; I don’t care about pancake breakfasts, the Stampede, Eiffel Towers or Wiz Khalifa tickets; I just want the best OG Kush.’ This ain’t it, but it’s close. I’d still tell you the best OG Kush-type tastes comes from Ruxton (Sour OG) from Broken Coast, and it’s worth the extra $7-10 for the eighth. There’s a few close contenders for a close third, like the Goji OG offering from Tantalus, or the Strawberry Fire from Gage, but now I’d argue we’ve stepped outside what’s considered traditional OG tastes.
OGEN Review History
I've reviewed 9 offerings of OGEN product totalling to $260.28.
Of those reviews, 8 were for a 3.5g package of flower which averages to $8.76 per gram, -5.7% lower than the average for a 3.5g package across all purchases ($9.29 per gram).
Alberta Purchase History
I've made 224 purchases at Alberta Cannabis totalling to $4,156.56. Of those purchases, 67 were for a 3.5g package of flower which averages to $9.15 per gram, -1.6% lower than the average for a 3.5g package across all purchases ($9.29 per gram).
On average, a flower product purchased from Alberta Cannabis has spent 87.6 days in the package before purchase, or -10.5% lower than the average for a purchase from any vendor (97.9 days).
Market Information
Next we bring in several market measures for this item using data from CannStandard. This data was obtained from public listings for legal cannabis products in Canada. I've provided the data as they were in the last complete month they were available (November 2023).
Contact us for more information about our market intel.
Days Active
The first date we can find the product listed and the number of days since then.
Provinces Listed
The count of provinces we can find this product listed in.
Market Average Price
The average price of this item at the stores we can find it listed in.
Store Count
The count of stores we can find this item listed at.
Monthly Sales
The sum of the observed change in inventory multiplied by the price of this item across all stores.
Monthly Sell-Through Per Store
The sum change in inventory for this item divided by the number of stores that list it.
Monthly Sales Per Store
The sum of observed sales for this item divided by the number of stores that list it.
Share of Total Sales
The sum of sales for this item as a percentage of all sales we track. The static average is shown on the left and the monthly average is shown on right.
Cumulative Sales
The cumulative sum of tracked sales for this item. The static sum is shown on the left and the monthly sum is shown on right.
November Top Selling Products
Bow Valley OG Kush #26 didn't rank on CannStandard's flower top 30 sellers list for February 2021 or any month thereafter.
Top Selling Brands
Ogen was fairly consistent when appearing on the top 20 brands from this product's release in February 2021 to the peak of sales in July 2021.
Thanks!
Thank you for taking the time to read through the market data.
If you are part of the industry, whether you have a store or a product in the market, and you'd like to receive this information via email, please reach out to us at info@cannstandard.ca. We are also here to assist with any inquiries you may have regarding the data or our reporting. Your feedback and questions are welcome.
