It’s been a very long time since I felt this strongly about how much I liked a new cultivar as I do with this one. I’ve become instantly attached to it. This is the best of the best, creme-de-la-creme, and is more than worthy of the chef’s kiss.
In terms of its appearance, Blue Shamu’s alluring hue is on the darker side of the spectrum, as you’ll see from my pictures, its nugs are perfectly formed, coated in thick layers of greasy trichomes. It has a heavy, powerful indica vibe as soon as you sit with it, at the top end of the spectrum for strength in terms of both head and body high. It’s a perfect 10/10 in many ways and lived exactly up to what I wanted from it, having had to wait to get hold of some after it was sold out for a few weeks on its initial launch.
There aren’t many flowers out there of this quality, even from the most premium cannabis brands, unless you’d start shopping around on the dark web for some, which is why I’m waxing lyrical on it now. I’ve had weed from the most secretive, exclusive members-only delivery services in the city, and it did not touch this.
Breaking this down it’s awfully sticky as one would hope and expect, to the point where my scissors almost couldn’t cut it to a decent degree, and it matches its gorgeous nose and looks in this respect very well. Deeper and more complex aromas of a chemical lab start to come out at you at this stage, with almost chlorine-like notes dancing around, neatly placed on top.
The tastes and effects of its parent flowers, Black Sherbet and Guava Bomb, come through in full force in ways you both expect and do not anticipate. I haven’t actually smoked these flowers in isolation in their original versions, but I am familiar with them from the RS11 – RainBow Sherbet 11 which came to us during the pandemic and has become something of a replacement for the numerous Gelato based strains we used to see so often in the market.
This is interesting to note, as RS11 was Ted’s first ever strain that he dropped and as such, where I discovered his awesome weed, where many of us jumped on the bandwagon, and it has become something of a crowd pleaser for him and a favorite among the smoking community as a whole. It’s incredibly powerful, starting with a sativa hit and leaving you rather knocked out on the floor afterwards.
This is akin to what I imagine it would be like to smoke a Ouija board ground into dust at a seance session, in terms of its devilishly powerful effects. If you wanted to throw a weed-themed Halloween event, or try to summon a spectre from the dark side for a quick chat, you’d want to have a gigantic bowl of this bud on hand to help.
Since moving to LA and California, I’ve been spoiled by the best–in-class cannabis here, and now I find myself looking for those really hard to find specimens with gasoline-based terps, and the sort of half-baked pastry you get on the other side of it, I don’t think there’s a name for them yet in the scientific field but you’ll know it when you come across it.
It takes some time to familiarise yourself with these specific terps if you haven’t experienced them previously, and this might sound like I’m making it all up, but the truth is you just become more accustomed to it the more flowers you smoke and experience. Like a sommelier might appreciate a fine wine.
Much like the delicious “marinated meat” terp which I identified in the Oxtail from Ted’s recent drop with The Gooniez, another of my recent favorites from his wheelhouse, this flower presents heady scents filled with pastry, earth, petroleum and a pleasant OG-ness in its aroma which really hits you as you open the bag.
And from there, you almost want to merely sit and look at, and hold and inhale the smell of this incredible bud like viewing a painting in an ornate gallery, and the act of smoking it almost seems redundant or insulting. Like burning a Picasso. But smoke it I must, so here we go.
Much like its namesake, this is an iconic beast, and also something of a gentle giant. For all its stonkingly powerful overtures in the run up to the smoking experience, the effects are actually enveloped in an incredibly delicate sense of calm and balance – a super difficult act to pull off. Like an exquisite fish dish steamed and served in a paper bag that my father cooks, it only releases its true self on the first inhalation, with a curated mix of so many flavors and effects so powerfully concocted it puts you straight on your ass, followed by the requisite munchies and sleep.
Between these two points however you will find what I like to refer to as the weed Nirvana: extraordinary, colorful thought clouds and patterns and ideas sprawl in thousands of different directions, connected back up again by the cosmos and the stars. It really is that good.
I’m reminded of a meal at a haute cuisine restaurant like The French Laundry, or a chef on a superyacht I saw who put some type of edible acid into a gelatin formula to make it glow like UV. It’s literally on the next level of weed and you can’t find anything else like it on the market right now. So hat’s off to you once more Ted, it’s quite a trick you have conjured for the gourmet smoking community this time around.
Ted himself told me via a brief exchange we had over Instagram, that he was very happy with how this new flower turned out, and was equally as excited, if not more, for the next flower Black Fish, which I will be reviewing soon.
If asked, I’d describe the Shamu as being one of the rare exceptions to the world of cannabis, due to ticking so many of the boxes I look for. In case you don’t know my tastes by now I’m seeking out the most potent flower in the solar systems, the absolutely mind-altering, face melting stuff. I want an experience so powerful it’s eye-watering, and not many of the examples I come across come anywhere near that.
The last time I really experienced it was probably via the Gooniez, another of Ted’s collaborators, and their Oxtails flower.
This is like Happy Gilmore’s slapshot hitting your brain and face at the same time, and lungs mind you, and it’s a really wonderful thing – just like the Sandman coming back on top form in his sixties, you just wouldn’t expect it. On the flipside, it’s got all the darkness and menace of a movie like Uncut Gems.
It feels like a weed that was directed by the Safdie brothers.
The effects are, as one would expect, very heavy sedation, instant couch lock, and to quote an old stoner movie it will bring on a case of the Frankensteins – you will be walking to the fridge in a zombified state during very late hours to devour any food in sight, with absolutely zero memory of what took place the next day.
‘Til next time, over and out.
Dr. StrainLove is a long time lover of fine weed and is always hunting for the latest and greatest strains. His search has taken him from the Coffeeshops of Amsterdam to the boutique dispensaries of California, and lots of other places in between. He loves making music, playing video games, and using marijuana to ponder the mysteries of the universe. When he’s not doing those things, he enjoys spending time with his cat.
