As a cannabis journalist with a focus on product reviews, I try a lot of weed. Some strains impress, but few excite. Weed these days has become too focused on the wrong aspects of what makes flower good: insanely high THC percentages and flashy bud structures. And these aspects seem to eclipse most everything else, resulting in something I like to call “Franken-weed” that gets you high on THC, but that's about it.
I'm almost never shouting from the mountaintops over a strain of flower, posting fervent Instagram stories, or handing out nugs to my snobbiest cannabis journalist friends. This has happened a handful of times in the past couple years, and the ½ ounce jar of Quest by Source Cannabis was one of those times.
This weed struck me because it was actually amazing, like the medicinal flower of my mid-aughts, pre-Prop 64 childhood. However explosive its nug optics, the high was even better. It felt full, like a round ball of joy enveloping everything in its path.
When I found out the brand had been around since 2003, the picture began to focus. In an impossibly difficult market that eats brands for breakfast, to be around since 2015 is considered a feat. The fact that Source Cannabis has been thriving since 2003 shows these MFs clearly know what they're doing.
Source's meticulous process speaks for itself. It grows its flower seed to harvest, and offers a selection of unique genetics and seasonal strains, all of which are indoor, soil-grown, hand watered, flushed with water for three weeks to ensure the cleanest possible smoke, and hand trimmed based on the structure of the strain. The company's holistic, hands-on approach to growing is beyond evident in its near-perfect flower, all of which is Clean Green Certified, which is as close to an organic certification as cannabis can get.
It also offers its top-shelf cannabis in ½ ounce jars. This is exciting because a ½ ounce is a much better amount of weed to have than an eighth of weed, for obvious reasons. The ½ ounce volume is usually reserved for mids or worse, so to be able to have so much of this gorgeous flower at one time is deeply, deeply satisfying.
Let's talk about my favorite strain of the past few months: Source Cannabis's Quest. Quest is listed as “sativa dominant,” and is a combination of Chem Sister, Sour Dub, and Chocolate Diesel. The strain was created in the Source Cannabis garden and is unique to its lineup. It tests at 31.4% total cannabinoids and 26.4% THC with dominant terpenes limonene, caryophyllene, pinene, and myrcene.
First impression
Be still my heart — I don't know if it's the sheer bounty of a ½ ounce jar, or the bright, sparkling nugs bursting with terpy insanity, but staring into a giant jar of Quest is my version of staring into a bright white tunnel of eternal life.
Aroma
One of the things I love about Quest is that every aspect of the flower is stellar. Aroma is perhaps the most important thing to consider when determining flower quality. The scent of Quest is bright, pungent, and totally intoxicating. Lemon, pine-y, earthy, and sweet, one whiff and you're transported to a pine forest drenched in noon-day sun along the bank of a long, cold river, with a lemon orchard on the other side.
Appearance
The flower is, above all else, sparkling. It's crunchy and bright green with dark orange hairs. The bud structure is tighter than a traditional sativa, but it seems so encrusted with crystalline cannabinoids that it couldn't be looser if it wanted to, falling somewhere between morning dew on an unopened blossom and the texture of a diamond broach.
Flavor
Another good way to measure flower quality is if the smell of the nugs translates to the flavor when you smoke it, and if that flavor leaves an aftertaste after you exhale. Quest checks all those boxes with its sweet, lemony, piney, herbal notes that almost have a eucalyptol effect towards the end.
Inhaling this strain is a delicate, complex, and beautiful experience that only nature could create.
Effectiveness
As a high-functioning stoner who uses weed to work (in addition to everything else), this is the perfect daytime strain. I think it's particularly effective for creatives due to its combination high that is at once energizing, focusing, and utterly relieving. It creates the perfect space to create, allowing for clarity that isn't bogged down by the anxiety and boredom that causes you to procrastinate.
“Quest” is the perfect name for this strain because it's as good for creativity as it is for adventure. The high is vibrant and alive, physically energizing and mentally whimsical. It's perfect for running down a trail through long grass or swimming in the ocean, happy to be present in the moment.
Experience
Full disclosure, I've been smoking Quest all day every day for about two weeks now, so there's almost no situation where I have not experienced it at this point. I wake up excited to smoke it, which sounds absurd but it's true. Since I'm high on it at all times, let's break down my Quest experiences to internal and external.
Internal Quest experience: I love to work after consuming Quest because I enter a vortex of focus and creativity where I lose track of everything but the project I am focused on. Hours fly by, hundreds of words, I check item after item off my to-do list. Suddenly, it's 5:00pm, and I've done enough to call it a day.
External Quest experience: I went far into the mountains of the town that I'm from, taking rips of Quest from a bong shaped like a snowman. It was about an hour before noon. The river was still in the shadows of the trees and the August air was crisp in the morning. My spine tingled and the whole word sparkled with the kind of excitement you rarely feel as an adult. I spent the day wandering down the river alone, listening, thinking, and swelling with wonder.
Bottom line
Source Cannabis's Quest is made to help you explore, whether it be exploring your own mind or the dark side of a distant mountain. Lemon, pine, earthy, and sweet, it's an energizing and cerebral experience with a body high to promote being productive in waking hours.
Quest makes you want to get out and experience life. It brings an exciting and fun prerogative that eclipses feelings like self-doubt that get in the way of making things happen.
Featured image courtesy of Source Cannabis/Weedmaps
