Qwest Reserve MAC 1

Hey pancakenap here, doing Capulator’s MAC1, and this grow was done by Qwest and packaged under their Reserve brand.

This product isn’t something I’d usually select for these reviews, because of the price point. But I saw it on sale at the provincial retailer (50% off) and thought I would grab it for a review.

I’ve also started to consider buying more expensive products more often. In hopes it’s helpful for consumers reading this website. Keeping in mind it’s just one person’s opinion (sometimes two, thanks to Squid Pants), sometimes it’s helpful when someone buys the expensive stuff ahead of you. So I have two more reviews of products by Qwest Reserve in the works.

This one is a quick review; only two relevant points to mention:

• About half of the 3.5g package came as smalls or popcorn, and I was really surprised at that from a ‘Reserve’ branded product.
• The contents of the package are unusable, due to a taint in the taste. I am not certain about other cannabis from this lot, but I’d tell you something went wrong with this package in particular.

Humidiccant Pack

This offering came with an Integra branded humidiccant pack.

Buyer Motivation

Sale was the motivator. Regular price for this item at the store I bought it from (Alberta Cannabis) is $66 for a 3.5g package. Sale price was $32 for this review, which is inline with the average price I’ve paid for this package size.

Visuals

The buds are triangular in shape but jagged along the surface of the bud. Colouring goes from lime green to near black violet. Trim is near perfect, there’s a few buds with prominent stem. Good trichome coverage is readily observable. I rated visuals bad, for the smaller buds that were included in the package.

Feel

Feel was very good.

Scent

Smell is skunky tropical fruit with near rubber tire.

Taste

Tastes are creamy pine occluded by harsh rubber and dusty motor oil.

Quality

I’m not sure if this flower was overly oxidized, tainted with residue, an error in my own handling or something to do with the humidiccant pack. At the end of the day I used enough to determine that there was something wrong with it. The rest is left unused.

I was shocked that small buds were included in this ‘reserve’ product. The regular price of this product is triple the historical average for the package size, and I think consumers can reasonably expect only apical nodes at this price.

I rated it bad for visuals, good for feel, and bad for olfaction.

Value

I wasn’t able to find value with this offering.

Value is calculated with respect to quality found and price paid, and was calculated to be ‘poor’. Because I can’t use the product, calling it ‘poor’ value seems inaccurate; ‘no’ value would be more accurate to my experience.

Summary

I’d take my olfactory findings here with a grain of salt. The package was old, and there are several reasons that may have contributed to bad scent and taste. For those considering purchasing from this brand, my findings may be irrelevant. 

I think there should be an ultra luxury edge of the market where someone could pay 6x the average rate if they wanted to. In an ideal world, consumers would get an ultra premium product with limited availability. I’d tell you this doesn’t have either.

Bad olfactory quality aside, the visuals don’t meet the basic minimum. I’m fairly sure how a consumer would feel paying $18 per gram and receiving a collection smalls. I didn’t feel good paying half that.

Brand History

pancakenap has reviewed 3 offerings of Qwest Reserve product totalling to $116.47. Of those reviews, 3 were for a 3.5g package of flower which averages to $11.09 per gram, 19.4% higher than the average for a 3.5g package across all purchases ($9.29 per gram).

Vendor History

pancakenap has 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 (October 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.

Top Selling Products

This product did not rank on CannStandard's flower top 30 sellers list for September 2021, the month where the highest peak of sales was observed.

Top Selling Brands

Tantalus Labs did not place on our estimate of the top 20 brands with respect to flower brand market share in September 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.