Grower: Golden Temple
Rating: 4.5 (for combustion and dry vape at 180 degrees)
Hinoki Blue, which was first reviewed in these pages last month in combustion form, is a particularly strong bud. I urge everyone to read the original review, but in short I couldn’t even finish a small joint before succumbing to paralysis. I expected that dry vaping the bud at low temperatures would slow down the high and allow for increased consumption—my findings were different.
Starting at 170 C, the vape revealed strong fruity flavors of melon, citrus, a touch of banana with additional minty herbal and peaty notes. A flavor closely matching the aroma—which was not the case with combustion. The high was immediately overwhelming (I took big hits) and I sat on my balcony for a few minutes in a shocked stupor before the initial wave tempered and was replaced with an alert mind, euphoric soul, and chilled and relaxed body.
After a good half hour or so, I upped the temperature to 180 degrees which revealed strong and delicious juicy fruit flavors with a stronger melon taste. I sat on my balcony completely captured by and savoring the flavor, before I realized I was smacking my lips like an idiot and stopped. The high was much stronger this time, leaving me somewhat braindead and close to paralysis in the body—followed by a slow recovery to dazed state. I expect that had I started at 180 rather than 170, the effects would not have been as strong.
I did try one more session at 185 degrees and noted that the flavor was similar to chewing gum prior to losing all its flavor. My notes for the high have the contradictory phrase: “paralyzed—body works”. I did stay awake for another hour, eating chips, watching SNL and then finally going to sleep—but I recall very little from the high.
This is not how I expected my experiment to turn out. I thought vaping would temper the high enough to drag consumption out through the evening. But from the get-go, at very low vaping temps, this bud is strong. My recommendations are to stick to combustion in very low doses—or dry vape at 180 to maximize the amazing flavor—but be prepared for a strong full on high. Only for experienced consumers.
