From the triumphant return of shatter to Cookies dabs and competent crumble
We assume you came for dab recommendations, not for small talk. So let’s get right down to the sticky icky …
Bask Live Rosin
This beautiful dark ball of solventless rosin from Bask is spectacular from taste to touch, right up to its peanut butter texture which always brings smiles to our stupid-looking stoner faces. We thoroughly enjoyed a phenomenal head high and brain bake that opened up our ears and mind while lowering our eyelids to three-quarters closed.
Cookies Caffeine Live Badder
If you have a friend who swears that Cookies is a hype brand blah blah blah, be sure to have them put a torch to this butane/propane Caffeine extraction handled by Nova Farms for the Mass market. We found it more heady and relaxing than the name implies, but the element that lures us back to the jar again and again is its outrageous pungent punch. Dark and soft like caramel in a cast iron skillet, it surfaced in our dreams.
And then you dab it, hopefully at a low temp to preserve all the luscious darkness, and there is a major terp parade marching down your esophagus hitting various notes. We were also taken aback by an optically surprising crispness, kind of like the first time someone drinks a Guinness and realizes it’s tastier and lighter than the thick cup of mud they may have been expecting.
Fox Tales White Gravy & Mac N’ Cheese Wax
This is one of those delectable orange melts that looks like caviar, or we guess it looks like macaroni and cheese after all. But while it resembles sugar or even some thicker diamonds and sauce, Pioneer Valley Cannabis Company actually yielded something quite substantial and malleable here—a wax indeed, but a great one—right down to the muted terps that really pop under medium heat.
Cloud Cover Queso Perro Live Resin
We have noted before that Queso Perro budder by Cloud Cover makes for one of the best adventures you can give your senses. Specifically, we said it stands out and sticks to your nostrils and perhaps even your brain since we fixated so hard on the savory scent.
And in live resin form, you can triple—nah, quadruple that assessment. If it was possible, we’d spread this budder from our toast to our toes, perhaps even paint the town with the sweet stinky marmalade since it’s easier than walking up to people individually and insisting they stick their nose in the banger.
Uncut Slurricane Live Budder
Every time we think there isn’t enough space for another brand, line, or cultivator that can multitask across cultivation, manufacturing, and partnerships, another heavy hitter shows up. Enter the Uxbridge-based Regenerative and, on the concentrate side of their operation, UnCut Concentrates.
This Slurricane budder isn’t as imposing on the nostrils as some other flashy numbers in this lineup, but rather brings its steady stream of Myrcene and Limonene which together with the rest of its part forge a Christmas tree flavor with the gift of subsequently being very stoned. We highly recommend.
Dabl Blue Dream Crumble
Faced with dabbing some outstandingly aromatic Gastro Pop batter or their Blue Dream crumble, we instinctively started with the former, as crumble can be awfully dry and batter typically rocks better in our banger. Of course, we wound up plowing through both grams, and were amazed to find that neither was all that messy while both delivered more than sufficient flavor to savor.
Neither stunk enough to wake the neighbors, but the highs were as clean as the melts themselves, which the people at 4Front Ventures behind these dabs explain come from their “advanced full-spectrum hydrocarbon extraction” which “produces a well-rounded line of concentrates that maintain a beautiful terpene profile and higher cannabinoid content, for an experience more akin to whole flower consumption.” Sounds about right from what we saw.
DRiP Wedding Cake Shatter
We apologize for the pun ahead of time, but this one truly shattered expectations. Andrew Bettencourt from Fine Fettle along with some other seasoned cultivators and dab makers have noted the possibility of shatter making a comeback on the strength of new technology and techniques that produce much cleaner, tastier, and manageable hard melts—and this delicious dish is case in point.
There’s some Kush and fresh fruit poking through the nose, with the shatter really harnessing the strain, something that we never saw enough of on the legacy market. And while we’re talking upgrades, DRiP also deserves props for its Grape Margy sugar wax being as sexy and sweet as the name sounds.
