Symbl Solar Power
Crumble dry and loose, these Emblem Sour Kush buds are the worst seen yet for Alberta’s most commonly listed cultivar.
In Alberta, we have 5 producers with Sour Kush, it’s our most common cultivar right now. Looking at listings from the US, Sour Kush really isn’t common, only 16 listings, primarily in Michigan and Washington, at an average price of $10.58USD. In Canada, it’s a bit more common, 70 listings from 21 operators at an average price of $10.46 per gram CAD for single gram packages, I see it as low as $6 and as high as $16 per single gram.
Of the 5 Sour Kushs available on the Alberta Cannabis store, this Emblem offering is mid-range price ($10.28 single gram in Alberta, $10.25 in Ontario). I’ve reviewed one so far, it was Acreage Pharms’ version ($11.99 single gram Alberta), I noted it adjacent to pencil shavings. It’s happened to me a few times when I’ve used a superlative, like “this is the worst,” only to have that definition redefined by something afterwards, usually it’s a new low. For example, here’s Emblem’s Sour Kush.
These Sour Kush buds are loose and dry, it has all the visual appeal of watching someone pick their nose. The dryness is so bad, delicacy becomes an issue. Very brittle. Any force should crumble it. Premium flower has a bit of give internally with a crispy outer shell, this is dry throughout. Not surprisingly, this flower grinds to sand capable of being carried away by a gentle breeze.
Emblem’s Sour Kush offers no scent or flavour content to speak of. Smelling the inside of the container is actually a strange sensation, I can determine that something is there (smells different than air) but there is no discernible odour to detect. At best, it is faint and bland. At worst, it doesn’t even show up.
My one gram container was comprised of two larger buds and some shake, about 0.2g worth. Buds are loose, gouged, jagged and airy, with no definable shape. Looks like a mangled collection of plant material attached to a stem.
Up close, this bud looks nasty. Colours are a medley of green accented by ghoulish greys and sterilized whites. Many structures that look like burst pods are observable, not something you see on many other bud. Like standing unknowingly in a murder scene, you can just feel it in your bones that something went wrong here.
Sour Kush is a DNA Genetics (Reserva Privada) cultivar, a cup winning cross of Sour Diesel and OG Kush. We’ve seen none of that here, from either producer so far (Emblem or Acreage Pharms). This new low has me looking to Tweed’s version of this same cultivar, they offer the DNA ‘certified’ version. Which is a bit more expensive, but after what we’ve seen here and from other producers, it might be worth it.
A few other breeders (I count 5 more) have an offering named Sour Kush, some of them have pretty funky genetics. My two favourites are Mystic Seed’s Sour Kush (Mk Ultra, Sour Diesel Cross) and the Trichome Jungle Sour Kush (Biker Kush, Jungle Kush cross). I’m not really sure which one Emblem grows, if their Sour Kush had any taste or smell, perhaps we could take an educated guess.
Next up, we review one more cultivar produced by Emblem, this time, it’s TGA Subcool’s Conspiracy Kush or as the Oxycontin folks call it, Bella Luna, beautiful moon. And I feel that, I was looking forward to Conspiracy Kush, and it is so crappy looking, the irony of the moon analogy is not lost on me.
