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Hopper Reserve: Cosmic Consciousness

Pre-Rolls for the Intellect

Iwish I had more joints of Hopper Reserve. Please allow me the right to tell you why.

At Hopper Reserve, they produce the kind of cannabis I grew up with in the 1970’s. Back then, there was People’s Express Airlines and their cheap fares. I spent many years during the 1970’s travelling back and forth, from New Jersey to the Coast. The West Coast that is. And when I had weed, which was almost all the time because my uncle smoked the good stuff, Hopper’s Reserve reminds me of those days.

No, we didn’t chase THC back then. We got high because we were too young to drink legally in California. When I was in my late teens, it was legal to drink in New Jersey (18), and you had to be twenty-one to drink in California. With this said, the weed was really good for the time and I smoked a lot of really good homegrown weed from California in my teenager years. Lucky me!

Which reminds me to smile more, as I take a deep pull on a Hybrid pre-roll from Hopper Reserve. This is not science-lab cannabis. It’s outside grown, under the sun. The way cannabis should be grown in my opinion. My thoughts on “chasing THC” is that when you only smoke thirty, forty, or more % in THC, you’re missing the elegant finesse that says craft, luxury cannabis.

Hopper Reserve is luxury cannabis.

But not for the reasons that you may think of. Again, Hopper Reserve does not offer those trendy, high THC levels. The luxury cultivars that Hopper Reserve employs are in the low twenties with the highest level found in the Indica. Their Gas OG rolls in at 22.13% THC. Their Hybrid is the cultivar named Sugar Shack. It has 21.56% THC and the Sativa is Pink Lemonade, smartly rated at 20.42% THC. See? You don’t need 40% THC to get stoned. Far from. What I seek is subtlety. Hopper Reserve offers luxury design in the packaging too, with Dennis Hopper’s photography featured on the full color boxes. There is a small QR code and it actually connect to a website where you can find more technical information. It’s really helpful.

Hopper Reserve is new-fashioned cannabis for an old-fashioned clientele. Each smoke comes packaged in a recyclable glass tube, easily re-sealed should you not be able to finish the entire one gram joint. Also, each joint is hand-assembled with a wavy tip. Nice touch! They look like someone obsessed over technique. It shows!

The joints themselves are carefully constructed using hand-selected luxury cannabis flowers. No stems or sugar leaf. Each joint speaks volumes to the care and love that Dennis Hopper brought to the universe. Creative, unambiguous, outspoken, and charismatic, Hopper Reserve encapsulates the man who was Dennis Hopper into an easily understood format. The pre-roll joint!

I hope to have the time to enjoy more of Hopper Reserve. They are the thinking-person’s joints, one chic pull at a time.

Tasting Notes:

Sativa:

Gentle pulls on the tip (with the joint un-lit) offer Asian spices and screened loam in the mouth. The Pink Lemonade strain is particularly refreshing even when not lit with citrus oil leading into notes of crushed spearmint.

Lighting the carefully pressed tip reveals notes of shiitake mushroom, peach pit acidity and lemon curd smeared across lightly charred toast points

Nose:

Lemon oil, peach pit, crushed stone, soil, sunshine

Mouthfeel:

Dark molasses syrup in the mouth (smoke) gives way to notes of crème caramel and bursts of Macoun apple slices. Crispy and aromatic with droplets of red fruits

The Experience:

Ok, we’ve established that the THC levels are quite low, yet I’m quite high. A conundrum indeed with the soft smoke, swirling around my head leaving a relaxed experience surrounding my entire body. The Sativa stimulates brain activity yet offers a summer barbeque after each puff along with a nap.

Hybrid:

Sugar Shack tastes like the name if you suck on the tip, inhaling lightly when the joint is not lit. I got flavors of Rhum Agricole, Angostura Bitters and sharper notes of grilled stone fruit marmalade. Lighting the joint reveals morel mushroom tones, caramelized celery and Caribbean spices. There are tiny bursts of sea salt that come into view, dissolving into grilled butter soaked cornbread slices. Each bit (puff) offering synergy and creativity

Nose: Crushed stones, caramel custard, tarragon, sage butter

Mouthfeel:

Full and rich with billows of soft smoke, not harsh at all. A virtual oil slick of spices coats the back of your teeth with alacrity

The Experience:

Sugar Shack gets me stoned! I’m comfortably relaxed, yet my mind is crisp and attentive. This is truly the good stuff with the low THC levels belying the thought that only high THC weed gets you stoned. False! Well balanced, outdoor-grown cannabis gets me the most stoned!

And fast! This is luscious herb.

Indica:

The Gas OG is every bit as memorable as the first time that I smelled New York Sour Diesel, but only that was back in New York. My experience of smoking the Gas OG was in California, a very different set of circumstances. I’m not sure that real New York Sour Diesel is still available. Gas OG is a very good imitation in this regard. The nose of Gas OG is pure petrol. The scent of a twelve cylinder Ferrari as it passes you on the road with whiffs of baby skunk and freshly turned soil. Gas OG is an afternoon at the race-track. Gas OG teaches you to breathe deeply, with reverence. When I smoke Gas OG I want to lay back in a bathtub with Kneipps German Bath salts and relax until all the bad energy evaporates. When sleep is forthcoming and the nook of reality sets in. This is the kind of cannabis that puts me down. If I was to smoke it in the morning I’d be “in the couch” because Gas OG is a heavy relaxant. It does to me what Indica is supposed to do. And it does this task very efficiently. I’m a massive fan of Hopper’s Reserve Indica. Great stuff!

Nose:

A touch of fruit salad, leading into petrol and the most impossibly cute baby skunks you’ve ever seen, just before they spray you. This is what I feel most closely represents New York Sour Diesel from the 1980’s. Wow, how do they do it?

Mouthfeel:

Robust and forthright, this is textbook Indica across the palate. Impressive, full-bodied smoke, yet no coughing at all. This cannabis is perfectly cured for maximum flavor and terpene quality.

The Experience:

If the couch was any closer, I’d lay myself down for a well-deserved nap. This Indica brings the careful enthusiast to a place where history and intellect meet. Creativity is unleashed with the Hopper Reserve Indica, if I can only keep my eyes open long enough to write. This cannabis really is the kindest kind!

WARREN BOBROW

Warren Bobrow has been a dishwasher, the owner of the first company to make fresh pasta in South Carolina , a television engineer and he even worked at Danceteria in NYC, then a trained chef which led to a twenty year career in private banking. A cannabis, wine and travel aficionado, Warren is a former rum judge and craft spirits national brand ambassador. He works full time in the cannabis business as an alchemist/journalist. Cocktailwhisperer.com Drinkklaus.com Instagram: warrenbobrow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Bobrow