Purple Chitral San Rafael '71
Doing an indica dominant in the morning, on a weekday none-the-less.
Thanks for joining. Today we’re going to learn about a city in Pakistan, see some good looking buds, all while grinning and bearing a disappointing olfactory experience.
We have the Purple Chitral going on. This is produced by MedReleaf in Bradford, Ontario in a warehouse and sold under their San Rafael ’71 brand.
Stats on this listing are fairly attractive. This is THC dominant, active content ranges 6% (14-20% THC), what arrived is below average, at 14.1%THC, with a negligible amount of CBD. Price per gram from a 3.5 gram package is $9.14, which is well below the average for the store, and most of the competition within it.
The description for this listings says it has ‘something for everyone‘, which doesn’t make me feel like a unique snowflake. Its described as high in THC, with notes of ‘berry and cheese’ (which makes it sound like a nice bagel).
Terpene content is said to be 54% myrcene with a A/B Pinene secondary (21%). The vendor gives us no idea of the actual terpene content, we just have to be happy with the relative amounts.
Packaging date on this container is a day after Valentines day (February 15 2019), and here we are, 97 days later, giving this lonely heart a review.
In terms of lineage, Kush is the association I make with the word ‘Chitral’, which this doesn’t seem to be. So let’s do a quick review of some background. Chitral refers to a district capital city in Pakistan, I looked it up, seems mountainous and beautiful. It also seems to be well known for hash production.
Chitral also seems to describe a land race cultivar attributed to the region surrounding the city. I can find something called Chitrali #1 by Breeder Choice Organization that seems to have a similar description, especially the description of the colours the flowers turn. There also seems to be some popularity around ACE Seed’s Citral Kush, some breeders have reworked their own version of Chitral from the ACE cultivar, such as Tropical Seed Company, with there Purple Pakistan Chitral. The similarity between all the offerings I’ve mentioned is the purple hue the flowers take on.
I’m not certain of the particular source MedReleaf uses but despite that, I think we learned the name Purple Chitral is almost like saying purple twice.
Visuals are pleasing, mostly due to the colouring. The listings description describes this as deep green with flashes of purple. My interpretation is opposite, the buds are mostly purple with a bit of green. The colouring is unique to most of what I’ve seen so far, this level of purple is rare. Probably a phenotypic trait of the plant, or they sunk the temps in the grow room to get this colouring. Either way, it’s impressive.
Structure of these Purple Chitral buds is also fairly good. There are some smaller buds in the container but they don’t detract from the large, full tops also contained inside. In all, I think it lands average in the spectrum of good structure, but there are one or two impressive looking buds to be found.
Trim is ok. There’s some leaf here and even some errant leaf in the bottom of the container. Again, if I took the weight of the leaf against the total weight, it’d be negligible. My feeling is the leaf left on the bud doesn’t detract from the purple hues that are readily observable, but it does separate it from some of the offerings that are expertly manicured.
The feel of this bud is dry, I can pinch the tips and get a crusty sound with brittle feel; releasing a flurry of trichomes into the air. Density of these buds is favorable, so the same pinch at a location of wider diameter doesn’t yield the same result. I vaporize, so I don’t mind the lower water content.
We’re done all the pre-amble, let’s grind this and place it over a full page ad featuring Kit Harrington.
Grinds look pretty good. The evidence of some amount of reproductive growth is there but I wouldn’t call it abnormal.
The cheese noted in the listing’s olfactory description is notable in the scent of these flowers. The centre of it’s gravity sits along the belt line, notes here are mid-range, it doesn’t sink too low, nor does it fly too high. Pronunciation is perceivably adequate, but this doesn’t have a long reach.
The taste is faint, disappointingly so. Heat blows open the fruit tones manifesting certain skunky undertones. Otherwise the profile is rather one dimensional and bland. Lacks character. Interprets like a weak warlock or a cheap sweet skunk. This is why we need actual terpene amounts, I would guess this has minimal content but I have no way of verifying that.
Cost was $9.14 over the three grams I purchased, and this arrived at the minimum range of the active content range (14% to 21%). To me, olfaction is paramount, so I tend to look past the good looks and the price point for this offering. You could keep this in a glass box on your mantle to impress your friends, but based on my experience, I’m not sure there’s much more you could do with it.
Anyways, it’s about 20% below the average price for a 3.5 gram container for this store, for that reason alone, you’d be wise to keep it on your radar. This was just my experience with it, good or bad, it’s just the opinion of one person; your experience will vary.
With that being said, let’s check on Purple Chitral around the nation.
One interesting thing I learned from making this graph is that MedReleaf sells this in Alberta under their San Rafael ’71 brand but in Ontario, this is sold under their Woodstock brand. Pricing between the two differs quite a bit but the descriptions seem the same. I’d be interested to see if there is a difference in quality between the two synonymous offerings.
