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I recently had the privilege to review the Karma Cup Judges Kit for the team at Skunk Magazine, which was filled with tons of great smokeables and edibles from producers all around the country. As a seasoned smoker, I've come across quite a few cool cannabis creations in my time, but there definitely were quite a few things in the kit that surprised me and left an impression. An unforgettable chocolate by Tribal Delights was one of them, and it will forever be etched in my mind as one of the prettiest and tastiest chocolates I've ever had the opportunity to try, infused or not! Tribal Delights is a British Columbia based edible company, specializing in handcrafted, artisan chocolates and gummies. Unlike many edible makers today that infuse their food with THC distillate, Tribal Delights infuse their edibles with traditional methods, medicating their chocolates with infused coconut butter, and their gummies with cannabis tincture. They have 3 main products:  Their Rainbow Delight is a heavy-hitting, large-sized gummy coin. It's made of three gummy layers, with the top layer forming a beautiful green marijuana leaf. Colourful, pretty, and heavy, this dense gummy takes a few bites to finish, and it's a good thing too! Coming in three large doses, you won't want to eat the whole thing at once like I did! Instead of a nice hazy afternoon, I was left pleasantly groggy and unproductive after a couple hours.  Their other fine edible in their product line is their Karma Cup-winning Thunder Bar which comes in 150/300/450mg doses in white, dark, and milk chocolate, Following the tribal theme and the artistic vibe, these chocolate bars have custom moulds, reminiscent of native totem poles adorned with cannabis leaves. Packaged by hand in different coloured foil wrapping for each kind of chocolate, the bars are labelled with nicely designed sleeves. But what really impressed me were the chocolates' simple and natural ingredients, using nothing but cacao butter, infused coconut butter and honey. This is refreshing to see when so many edibles out there are ladened with many colourings, preservatives and artificial ingredients.  Saving my favourite for last, are their incredible Spirit Squares. This was the edible that I felt really stood out amongst all others in the Karma Cup Judges Kit. I was truly impressed to see what lied beneath the foil wrapping when I opened it up for the first time. A cute chocolate tile, made with dark chocolate, topped with a layer of white chocolate with a two-tone picture printed on it! Each tile has a different tribal picture on it, from abstract designs, to native toques and turqoise marijuana leaves, appearing more like luxury, commercial-grade chocolates than common artisan handcrafted edibles.
These squares are so pretty in fact, you almost feel bad eating them! But, once they melt in your mouth, that won't matter. The blend of white chocolate and dark chocolate have a really smooth and rich flavour, hiding the cannabis taste very well despite these small tiles having a dose of 100mgs and 150mgs of THC! Coming in boxes of four, it's a perfect edible to share and surprise friends with or give as an elegant gift to someone very deserving. Although a relative newcomer to the cannabis edible industry, with products like these and a Karma Cup under their belt, you know they mean business! Check out their online store on TribalDelights.ca and make sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram (@tribaldelights) where they often post special promotions and giveaways. Appearance/Packaging: 7/10 Smell/Texture/Taste: 9/10 Effects: 10/10 Final Score: 8/10 For further information, contact https://www.facebook.com/TribalDelightsTreats/
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 AS WE ALL KNOW, the medicinal and recreational cannabis industry is one that is fast developing across the whole world, with Canada aiming for recreational legalization later in 2018. Anyone doing a little bit of research will see that while cannabis access has improved over the last decade in Canada through the Government medical licensing programs or with upcoming legalization for recreational use, the Government have always made every attempt to control its production, distribution and profits, continually arresting individuals and raiding dispensaries across the country. Despite BC having an effective private dispensary model, Provinces are now in talks of setting up a whole new standard for distribution where the Government and liquor boards can get the pieces of the pie.
A membership driven cooperative, the National lndigenous Medical Cannabis Association (NIMCA) is a non-profit corporation developed by lndigenous peoples, for lndigenous peoples. Established in January 2017, NIMCA’s purpose is to educate, promote, advocate and defend the interests and rights of lndigenous people, communities and businesses involved or wishing to be involved in the cannabis industry throughout Canada and its Treaty territories. NIMCA also represents a growing network of cannabis and hemp growers and farmers, hemp processors and manufacturers, dispensary owners and other cannabis industry related operations, with 21 businesses currently on board. Now, as the U.N. Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples states, Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flor oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions. Arguably, there is more traditional and historical knowledge and use of the hemp and cannabis plant within Indigenous or First Nation communities than in common colonial society, and given the increasing value of hemp and cannabis in the current emerging global market, it is of utmost importance we protect not only what is a vital part of our cultural history, but a highly valuable asset that can allow our communities to thrive in this booming economy, while potentially strengthening our negotiating power when dealing with Government. But as Natives know all too well (in any country), many of our rights and resources get unfairly taken away from us by those ultimately in positions of power. Currently, each Province is setting their own regulations for the legalization of recreational cannabis, and when looking at current regulations for medicinal cannabis production and distribution, or even proposed regulations within a recreational context, one thing is for certain… very few privileges are being given to the private market, with strict regulations and extremely high penalties for infractions. NIMCA has a vision to standardize the legal cannabis industry within Indigenous cannabis communities not only in philosophy and education, but in true practice with a safe and fully traceable production and distribution model that is up to Government standard (and higher!). In doing so, it offers the Government no reason to interfere. Instead, NIMCA plans to develop a model so effective, it allows for lucrative business relationships to be developed between the Indigenous people and Canada, as well as with the global cannabis market. NIMCA currently boasts a facility that rivals those of current Canadian cannabis Licensed Producers and makes every effort to follow all their proposed facility, security and production procedures. In accordance with their vision to create a fully traceable system for their community, NIMCA works with only a select few designated medical cannabis growers and own a commercial facility that offers every service under one roof that any cannabis-related business could ever possibly need. In an effort to ensure Government standards or higher, the facility was set up following similar guidelines set out by the Canadian government for legal Licensed Producers, while also creating departments for quality concentrate production, edible production, and even on-site testing. With access to these services, NIMCA offers Indigenous communities the ability to create a standardized and safe cannabis industry to thrive in and self-regulate. Their facility is already prepared for the expansion of cannabis access options for the public and houses a food-grade kitchen for creating commercial-grade quality edibles, a cannabis extraction department capable of making several kinds of concentrates, an inventory warehouse for smoking accessories and apparel, a packaging department with professional grade packaging and labeling equipment, a highly secure vault for safe cannabis storage, on-site security and surveillance, and even a fully equipped lab department capable of doing on-site batch testing of products! NIMCA also plans to develop a cooperative growing project allowing the cultivation of cannabis and hemp plants in one secure and regulated location in order to further ensure traceability and standardization across all Indigenous cannabis businesses, keeping the industry out of the hands of criminals and the black market. With NIMCA’s model, any cannabis business that is part of the organization will be able to provide records that track every product from seed to sale, which will support a thriving and protected Indigenous cannabis market, and using this healing plant to restore, revitalize and heal native communities across Canada by securing their place within the emerging cannabis market.  Hello fellow tokers, Have you ever heard of kief? It's that dusty stuff that collects at the bottom of your weed grinder that most people tend to ignore or throw out when that grinder starts getting stuck. To be more specific, "kief" is made up mostly of the broken trichomes and plant debris that fall off the cannabis buds and leaves, which some could call the first ever solventless concentrate of cannabis! The technical term is called, "Dry-sift extraction".  "Trichomes" are the tiny, sticky stalks or "crystals" on your cannabis buds and leaves that contain a high amount of THC (the cannabis compound responsible for the psychoactive high), and it's this fine powder that infamous Moroccan hashish is made with, using a process of beating the buds over a tightly bound screen. So no, do not throw out that powder that collects on the edges of your grinder!  What many cannabis smokers don't know is that kief not only comes from buds, but also from leftover stems and shake that many would otherwise throw away, and there are some easier methods to collect it aside from using your grinder. In this article, we're going to show you how you can still make good use of your stems and leftover shake, and the many things you can do with your kief!  Many years ago, I came across a cannabis accessory called the "Pollen Shaker", and it's probably one of the most valued cannabis accessories I have ever owned. It's lasted me so many years, it's fool-proof to use and it's blessed me with the opportunity to toke when there were days I had no cannabis left at all. The "Pollen Shaker" is essentially a handheld aluminium or PVC tube that can be opened from both ends and has a fine screen built-in halfway inside. Used as a handheld kief shaker, one can put their ground up buds, trim and shake into one end, freeze the tube for 20minutes (rendering the trichomes on the cannabis brittle and easily breakable), and with a good 5 minute shake produce a sizeable mound of powdery kief on the other side. This process can be repeated a couple times until you notice that the powder becomes more green in colour as more plant material (and less trichomes) starts passing through the fine screen mesh. This not only makes your kief less potent and pure, but the flavour also becomes far more plant-like when smoked.  There are quite a few kief-makers on the market that typically tend to be more tray-like in fashion, making them too bulky to freeze in a common freezer and makes it difficult to efficiently shake the kief from the cannabis. The "Pollen Shaker" on the other hand, can be shaken vigorously and is far more efficient as a kief separator than the alternatives. The amazing thing is that we often underestimate how much kief we can actually produce from the weed stems we would typically throw away! Start collecting your stems, and after a few joints, you could have enough stems to collect a gram of high quality kief! Now, did I mention that Kief can sometimes be as high as 60% in THC? Not bad for some stems and leafy shake! So what can we do with this kief? Well, there are a number of ways we can make use of this powdery gold:
When I was once a budtender, I was fortunate enough to keep all the stems and floor buds (yes, buds that fell on the floor, lol) at the end of every day. After accumulating bags of the stuff over a few months, I collected enough kief to fill my largest tupperware tub in my home. I would bong this with a few flakes of weed (to help it burn) and essentially toked free for almost a year! So now that you know a little more about kief, what are you going to do with it?  Stoney Creek Oils is hosting this awesome giveaway to promote Midtown Express Delivery in Toronto where you can win ECHO THC and CBD gummies, Dragon Elixir Breathe, Stoney Creek Oils cannabis-infused olive oil, Weedmaps swag, and some cannabis accessories when you enter! For your chance to win:
(Winner must be Canadian resident of adult age. Contest ends June 30 2020.)  The Baked Shop is a craft cannabis edible company located in Toronto that specializes in small-batch, gluten-free edibles available online in Canada for mail order. We met The Baked Shop team at a networking event in the Toronto Yongesterdam Lounge and were fortunate enough to go home with a few of their edibles in hand! Thanks guys! The Baked Shop has a full menu of dessert items to choose from, all ranging in different doses of THC distillate, and today we are reviewing their "Sucka-Dees" gummies, their "Brownie Bite" and their Cookies & Creme Rice Crispy Square. The Baked Shop use lab tested THC distillate in their edible creations, ensuring accurate dosing and no cannabis flavour to interfere with the flavour of the edibles.
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I really enjoyed having these Baked Shop treats, but the Sucka-Dees were by far my favourite. Many edibles in the legacy market (and even the legal market!) are often made with cheap and artificial ingredients, so it's nice to see that The Baked Shop make all their desserts gluten-free and with quality-sourced ingredients. What I also appreciated was the detailed labeling that not only listed all ingredients, but nutritional information as well. You'll be surprised how many legacy market edibles out there don't list either. Accessing The Baked Shop The Baked Shop can be purchased and ordered online on www.thebakedshop.co or on the online mail order site www.westcoastsupply.ca. They can also be found on instagram @the_baked_shop. Appearance/Packaging: 7/10 Smell/Texture/Taste: 8/10 Effects: 7/10 Final Score: 7/10 Woohoo! Our first music video is out and it was made for all the marijuana lovers out there!
This entire song is constructed of only sounds from cannabis-related sources and all the song lyrics were written strictly using references to cannabis and marijuana! So spark one up, enjoy and see how many weed references you can pick up on! Produced by SpitShine for Highlifemedia.ca. Written and performed by SpitShine. All rights reserved. ©2020. DOWNLOAD THE SONG: https://music.cognitionstudios.net/track/blue-dreamin  I've been a fan of Cannabiscotti for a number of years now. There's not many infused biscottis to begin with so they are quite unique, but aside from these biscottis being tasty, potent, and packaged well, they're so amazingly consistent. Something very important when it comes to edibles. What I love about Cannabiscotti too is that aside from their typical menu, they're always trying out new flavoured biscottis of which many are made custom for holidays throughout the year! This time, I was fortunate enough to try their limited edition Nawty Neopolitan Gelato flavour, which just like Neopolitan ice cream, came as a striped biscotti with strawberry, vanilla and chocolate all in one bar!  I opened the packet and surprisingly, it smelled just like the ice cream which really brought me back! Unlike their other biscottis, this one is even more suited to a cannabis user with a lower tolerance as they can enjoy multiple flavours without having to open more than one biscotti package (and maybe regret it!). This biscotti is labelled as having 50 mg of THC from a full bud infusion using the Chem Dawg strain. So now, the only decision I had to make was which side I was going to start with! The chocolate section tasted like the classic chocolate Cannabiscotti flavour I typically adore. The vanilla tasted heavenly. And for someone who doesn't typically like strawberry flavoured things, I found the strawberry section flavourful and very similar to how strawberry ice cream would taste. The biscotti was rich in flavour, buttery, crunchy and not too sweet. So tasty in fact, one must be careful not to munch on too much at a time!!  I've been smoking cannabis daily for many years, but I ended up eating this biscotti after a short 2-day tolerance break. My edible tolerance is usually very high, and it wouldn't lower too significantly in just two days, but wow did this biscotti pack a punch. Within 1.5 hours, my thoughts began to scatter and I knew it was kicking in. I started to feel relaxed and became quite distracted from the work I was doing at the time. I then became engrossed in another project I had no intention of starting that night which I ended up almost completing in no time! By the 2 hour mark, I was already feeling the full effects of the Nawty Neopolitan Gelato, and nawty it was indeed. Usually I can have 50mg THC edibles without feeling any significant effect. Mind you, most of these edibles are using a THC distillate. Cannabiscotti on the other hand, use a full-bud extraction which results in producing a wide spectrum of cannabinoids (not just THC) which work synergistically to create a much stronger and more natural 'high', also resulting in far more health benefits. You can say I was floating and didn't have a care in the world. By then, I was no longer interested in my work and I blissfully melted in front of the TV with some munchies in hand.  So, if you're not a regular cannabis user, I would definitely recommend starting with just one flavour section (a third) and see how the effects play out over an hour or two. Otherwise, you may have to alter your evening plans, because I definitely had to!
Cannabiscotti does it again! Want to learn more about Cannabiscotti? Visit www.cannabiscotti.ca. Appearance/Packaging: 9/10 Smell/Texture/Taste: 10/10 Effects: 10/10 Score: 10/10  Products By Sec are a Vancouver based boutique infused cannabis edible company, specializing in artisan and handcrafted gummies with varying doses of lab-tested, solvent-free THC distillate. They even offer a useful “How To Find The Perfect Edible Treat” flowchart, and a “Cannabis Consumption FAQ” section on their website to educate and reinforce safe consumption for their customers. After coming across their beautiful gummies on instagram, I had to get in touch to express my praises and they were kind enough to send me two samples of every single kind of their edibles! With 6 kinds of gummies in their product line, I was in for a treat and had to make sure I rationed these out responsibly! As a graphic designer, I also have to say how much I love their labelling and their colourful designs, with each pack using different colour combinations in their logo and label design, with clear ingredient, warning, and dosing information. It's these finer touches that truly make products stand out above the rest.  Butterfly High with one in each pack it was this gummy that first caught my attention on instagram, not only for their size and tie-dye like combination of colours, but because each gummy is individually made by hand, making each one completely unique with its own pattern of colours. So beautiful in fact, I didnt know they were edible at first! I also love how they use the butterfly for emphasis in their marketing with their description of this goody, stating "experience the butterfly effect" which I believe I did with this heavy-hitter! You can say it floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee! Being a regular cannabis smoker and edible eater, my tolerance is high to say the least, so given that this was their strongest gummy in their line, I made sure to have this gummy first on an empty stomach early in the day. This made sure nothing interfered with its effects. It's texture was great. Not too soft or chewy with a sweet sherbert-like flavour. Effects slowly crept in after around an hour with effects peaking on the 2-hour mark. Infused with THC, the gummy gave me some body buzz and left me feeling quite hazy, with a strong cerebral high. I was very satisfied with the strength of the "high" so I would warn anyone inexperienced with edibles to try these with caution!  Lucky Dice With two in each pack, these 150mg THC dosed dice are cutely shaped like a large white and red dice. Perfect for any 420-friendly parties! The white is banana-flavour and the red reminded me of a strawberry jello. Being a gummy block, these are thick and chewy and I really enjoyed biting into these bad boys. Given my experience with the Butterfly High, I had a feeling I was in luck with these dice! With 150mg of THC in each, they are certainly not for the novice edible eater. I had planned to dedicate a whole afternoon to trying the Butterfly High and Lucky Dice gummies, so being brave, I had these around 3 hours after I ate the Butterfly High. This ensured that by the time my first gummy was beginning to wear off, the dice would prolong the effects and carry them into the late afternoon. I find the dice peaked at the 2-hour mark, consistent with the Butterfly High and my plan was quite the success. Any body buzz I didnt feel prior, was now quite present, putting me in a noticeable couch lock and watching TV like someone hypnotized for quite some time. The second time I tried these lucky dice it was on a day when I was sick with a cold and didn't want to smoke, so I decided to have them both in one sitting. It wasn't long before my eyes were feeling incredibly warm and heavy, and the two gummies combined made me feel almost comatosed during their peak. Not for the novice user indeed, and even those with a high tolerance should not gamble with these dice!  Hidden Gems These dense, gorgeous gummies are multi-coloured, gem-shaped and dosed at 100mg of THC in each. With two in each pack, there's always a backup if you find you're brave enough for the second. You can definitely say these precious stones will get you stoned. It's great to see that Sec make a real effort in creating a variety of unique molds and colour combinations to keep all their gummies interesting, and these gems certainly continue that trend. Given the shape of these gummies, I loved how dense and solid these were, making them very chewy and fun to bite on. They tasted sweet and had a blue raspberry flavour that was tasty and consistent with any commercial candies one would find in a regular store.  Happy Hour These cute gummies are quite large and shaped like 3D cocktail drinks, even complimented with their own shaped gummy ice cubes or fruit slices on the rim! A perfect replacement for an alcoholic cocktail, these gummies are large and sold as single gummies dosed at 50mg of thc. Perfect as a starter to your Saturday night out! The first one I tried looked like an orange cocktail with its own orange slice on the rim and tasted just like an orange popsicle. Sweet and tangy, and ever so chewy given its thick 3D mold. The second one I tried was their "Old Fashioned", looking like a glass of brandy or rum with ice and the moment I opened the bag I could smell it too! I took a bite... Wow! Was this rum and coke I was tasting?! Amazing! A nice change from your typical cola bottle gummies and very innovative indeed. Definitely more appealing to the adult alcohol fans that you might be trying to bring to the green side! Given that I had two of these bad boys, I definitely didn't need a drink and just like their colourful butterfly counterparts, these gummies are individually handmade and come in varying colours!  Fruit Salad With 4 in a pack, these bite-size fruit-shaped gummies are the lightest dosed in the SEC line at 10mg of THC in each piece. Great for edible novices and people on the go, with each pack containing a lemon, a banana, a grape and a cherry flavour gummy, all shaped like cute, miniature fruit! These tasted great and were a nice snack while I was working, and given the lower dosage these ones gave me a light, functional buzz.  BC Pineapples
Don't be fooled by these adorable, tiny, golden pineapples! It's not often you come across pineapple flavoured gummies, let alone pineapple-shaped ones so I was eager to munch on these. More for the average cannabis user, these pineapples are moderately dosed at 50mg ofTHC. Given my high tolerance, I decided to bravely munch on both of these in one sitting and went on with my afternoon. I like that they didn't taste too sweet and tasted similar to a pina colada. To be honest, I had completely forgotten I ate these pineapples until almost two hours later when in the midst of my work, my mind became increasingly fuzzy, my ass felt heavier, and my spelling mistakes became more frequent! It was only then that I remembered I had eaten them earlier! I take that as a great sign, and to be honest they hit me much harder than I expected. I became far more ineterested in the music I was listening to than in the work I was supposed to be doing! I had smoked and dabbed earlier in the day too, so I was pleasently surprised at how effective these BC Pineapples were. I am ever so grateful and have to thank you SEC! As a person with a very high tolerance, it's not often edibles make me feel this good! Packaging: 9/10 Visual Appeal: 10/10 Taste/Texture: 9/10 Effects: 9/10 Overall: 9/10 If anyone is looking to find these gummy goodies, they can learn more and seeing their retailers by visiting www.ProductsBySec.com and feel free to reach out by emailing info@ProductsBySec.com. You can also find them on instagram at @productsbysec. |
