Intro

Squidpants here looking at Platinum Grapes from Organnicraft.  I am a big fan of grape scents and tastes as well as a big fan of really good weed.  This particular product is backed by a lot of consumer hype, let’s see if it lives up to its reputation.

Platinum Grapes

Platinum Grapes is OG Kush Breath X Platinum Kush.  If this sounds familiar it’s because this is Platinum Kush Breath from In House Genetics.  Both Pancakenap and I got this product and I had asked him if he wanted to discuss the genetics so for a deeper discussion about the lineage check out his review which is also available this week. 

Organnicraft

Organnicraft is a micro licence holder from British Columbia whose master grower cut their teeth in the legacy market.  They grow indoors via fertigation and note that the nutrient formulations they use are customised to each cultivar they grow.  They have the craft designation in Ontario, but that only refers to a few details about the cannabis’ production.  It’s no guarantee of quality but I find the designation to be suggestive of quality.

Packaging

Mylar bag.  My package was not heat sealed which is a considerable packing error.  The contents could easily be smelled before my initial opening (the child proof ziplock closure was closed, so it was kinda mostly sealed) so I assume a bit of the scent and taste intensity might have been lost.  Some might complain that I am not reviewing the best example of this product as a result but I think it’s most helpful to review the entire consumer experience, good and bad, so instead of pursuing a replacement from the vendor, for better or worse we are sticking with this mispackaged bag.

I want to point out there is a trove of information on the labels.  Though I think most of this information isn’t that important, I like the effort to communicate to the consumer what it is they are buying.  The photos for this review include all the label’s details if you want to see just how much detail they fit on it.  They even put in the date of harvest as well as the packaging date.  In my opinion the harvest date is more useful than the day of packaging.  After all, the cannabis could sit in storage for years before getting packaged.

Being a grumpy jerk with impossible to meet expectations I have to point out I got a teeny bit of an undercount.  Come on Organnicraft!  If you are a premium product and there’s an error in weight, no matter how small, it better be in the consumer’s favour.  That and again, the package should be properly sealed.  Consider yourselves mildly glared at!

This was packaged on June 10, 2022 and I opened it a mere 25 days later.

Looks

This is gorgeous.  If you forced me to find fault I would note a few foxtails but there are far greater sins than that I’ve endured over the years.  Bulbous buds reminiscent of a pointy OG Kush, which considering the ancestry is unsurprising.  Trichome coverage is impressive as is the colouring, lots of lime green and dark purples across the surface complimented by bright orange stigmas.

Bud sizes are medium on down, though I wouldn’t call that a problem there are some who might not be happy with that size distribution.

Feel

Feel is nerfy with a muted return.  Not the density I expected as it looked like it would be golf-ball hard, but not terrible either.  Grinds with a nice feel resulting in uniform grounds with good cohesion.  Rolls pretty nicely if you’re a joint smoker.

Scent

Unground scents are funk, earths, cream cheese, a hint of caramel but above all concord grapes.  Ground is just louder with a touch of hash.

I often go on and on to those who still can stand to listen to me about how a focus on terpenes as if they were the only scent and taste compounds is to do yourself and the plant a massive disservice.  The smell of grape, specifically concord grape which is what’s expressed here, comes not from a terpene but from an ester; Methyl Anthranilate.  Since terpenes are all that’s tested you can’t look at a label to get a rough guide of how grapey this will be, in fact you’d mistakenly think that this is going to taste citrusy since limonene is the dominant terpene.  Scents such as, but not limited to, apple, cherry, strawberry and grape are not from terpenes, so, terpene values tell you only a teeny bit of the story.

Regardless of the classification of the various scent molecules in question I keep going back to the bag for a few more sniffs, so at least for me this is very likeable.

Taste

Volcano:  Taste intensity fails to live up to the promise of scent in the volcano.  Peppery and creamy with a faint grape taste on the first run but dries down to a grapey tea taste with use.  This improved with use in my opinion since the grape came to the fore but flavours faded fast.

Joint:  Taste concentrates on the creamy elements.  The grape is there but disappointingly hard to detect.  Nothing wrong with this profile but it’s not the grape adventure I wanted to take my face on.  Burns perfectly though, if you combust this does definitely burn beautifully.

Price and Value

I paid $44.95 for 3.5 grams from the OCS.  This equates to $12.84 a gram.  You can definitely find this for considerably less money as was pointed out to me so hunt around if you want to try this one.  No store in walking distance from me had any in stock so I just ordered from the OCS and I paid what I paid.

The label would look you straight in the eyes and claim this is 26.860% THC.  I am not sure about that, but I don’t think this company is the type to seek ways to deceive a consumer so let’s assume all the stated values are real, then the price per 100mg THC is $4.87.

Is there value to be found here?  With respect to very high THC flower, personally I don’t often check THC% before I purchase.  I have many times had packages labelled in the mid to low teens percentage wise that I found very strong so I just don’t see THC% as a great metric.  If I really just wanted the most THC I could get at once there are tons of extract products waiting, I am more interested in scents and tastes so that’s what matters to me.  Given this package was not properly sealed I may have been a bit short changed on the scent and taste but I was still impressed.  For what I got if you can find it for a bit cheaper than what I paid it’s a definite winner.  To know if it’s worth what I paid I’d need a properly sealed bag to sample from, so my take on value is I am not sure.  At a guess it is probably worth it, but I can’t be sure.

Conclusions

This offering came with a ton of hype.  A few people who told me I definitely need to give this one a try all mentioned the scent as the main draw, and I think I agree.  It was hyped to no end though and there was no chance it wasn’t going to disappoint in some domains.  Since there were a few elements that did disappoint me and a few claims that raised an eyebrow I wanted to dislike this. I liked this despite myself.  It’s got a lot of personality in the scents and tastes, not sure there’s anything else offering quite this profile.  So many producers are growing the same things as many of their competitors, it’s good to see some producers taking risks instead of growing what’s known to always sell or is trendy.