Appearance/Texture: As mentioned above the trich coverage and overall look of this strain is truly top-notch.  I gasped a little bit as I got a nice well-lit view of the immaculately-manicured ~1g nug I received.  Its beautiful thin Christmas tree shape, almost total lack of leaves, and frosty coat of trichs puts it among my favorite strains to photograph and stare at.  When I got it under the scope, it was clear that I was missing some purple notes with the naked eye, as there was a healthy collection of purple calyxes (mainly the outermost towards the top of the nug) and leaves that made for some pretty pictures.  The majority of the bud was a typical light Sativa green, and the miniscule remnants of leaves that I saw were a darker green.  I barely saw any pistils, but they were a typical fiery orange.  In all, the texture and manicure of this specimen is truly world-class, and there was so little waste that I could’ve just stuck the whole nug in a pipe if I had a bowl big enough to hold it all.  It was a shame to even grind up the sample to break it apart with my fingers, as it was spraying kief all over the place.  The bud was perfectly dried to my taste, where it doesn’t outright crumble into dust but is close, leading to a great value for the weight and a perfect and powerful burn.

Smell: The main smells were those of fruit, particularly citrus.  The strain isn’t overtly pungent in the jar (A20 has some of the nicer jars I’ve seen, by the way), but it does have a piney sharpness that comes out from time to time that cuts through the mix.  After the grind, it really opened up, as that smell probably doubled in potency and was joined by an interesting fennel/anise smell that reminded me a bit of an earthier, less candy-like Durban Poison.  I wasn’t blown away by the smell like I was by the appearance, but it was certainly nice.

Taste/Smoke/Vapor: I had a “tale of two bowls” thing going on with this strain, as the first one of my review produced little taste, with a faint yet pleasing fruity note that was hard to place (wasn’t particularly sweet like a Blueberry/Bubble Gum).  On the 2nd bowl (though a clean pipe rather than the Incredibowl), I got a more potent piney/earthy taste that I wasn’t expecting after the first bowl.  Neither taste was particularly strong, but both

were pleasing and I can see where both came from based on the smell, which is always interesting.  However, this strain really shined in the vaporizer, as it was not only long-lasting (it was finished on the 7th pull, which is definitely above average) but extremely tasty and consistent.  I got a very nice mango/pineapple taste that endured surprisingly through pull #4 (most strains only have the great taste on the first bag), finally subsiding a bit to that generic vaporizer taste.  I say mango/pineapple because it was sweet but had a nice hit of tartness that made the flavor more complex than something like an Island Sweet Skunk or a Blueberry, which are mostly sweet.  Either way, while I don’t normally prefer strains in the vaporizer for effect reasons, I would probably use the Volcano more than normal for this strain, as it was very pleasing overall (including the effects).

Effects: Along with the appearance, this was the area where I was very impressed with this strain.  The initial effects were among the best I’ve had potency-wise, as I was almost struggling to type (not mechanically, but rather I kept randomly stopping and focusing on words/ideas and taking twice as long as normal).  Overall, I felt that this was a nice hybrid high, as it had a very pleasing warm body and head feeling very quickly after ingestion that endured throughout the experience to go along with the aforementioned near-overwhelming head high.  The Sativa effects were definitely felt in the overall mental relaxation it fostered without making me sleepy or “couchlocked”, especially as the experience went on and the initial potency wore off a bit.  There was a very nice loosey-goosey feeling in my head and neck that encouraged me to stretch and relax even further.  I had done a good amount of yard work a few hours earlier and was dealing with my usual back tension/minor spasms as well as a tweaked shoulder from the work, and this strain truly did the trick for both.  I found myself completely relaxed and enjoying myself even though I knew I’d probably be feeling the pain later in the night and the following morning.  I did get a little tired eyes thing happening about 2 hours into the experience, but that dissipated somewhat quickly, leaving just that nice relaxed feeling for the rest of the high.