Goodbye to Modern Flower

I'm going to miss those guys: 

Modern Flower put out some really good bud at incredible prices. Now I am told, due to a tragic industrial accident and other regulatory issues, they are no longer going to be doing business in Massachusetts. 

What a shame!

O, but I had some good times...from the very first time I set foot into Blue River Terps on Cambridge Street, the city's finest dispensary, this past March and grabbed a quarter ounce of MF's Daybreaker for barely more than what a slice of top-tier flower'd cost me from another nearby dispensary, farm-share or dealer. It was kind of a cheap little foil-lined bag but the flower had a nice spicy, woodsy smell and was in the upper-mid-twenties as far as THC%, which at the time was quite potent compared to my tolerance. I tried a lot of different brands and strains at Blue River, but I would keep coming back to the Daybreaker...not only was it cost-effective and powerful, but the nugs really reminded me of my favorite dealer's bud back in highschool twenty years ago, which used to cost me $60 an eighth and was  not quite this potent. I remember coming back for another bag of that initial batch of Daybreaker in March or April, and saying something to my budtender about how it was low in myrcene but high in caryophyllene.

"Of course it's low in myrcene: it's a sativa; that would be why it's called Daybreaker."

It's funny because they sold out of that batch and a couple months later when they got some more stuff in from MF, this time the Daybreaker test results showed the dominant terpene was myrcene. Was there just a labelling or testing error? Did one harvest really fail to express the genetically dominant terpene?

This latest batch, which actually was from a pre-Christmas harvest, as were most of the MF eighths Blue River was selling around June or early July, was said to be the offspring of Joseph OG and Chemdawg. This and the mycene both pan out on Leafly and other sites. Hmmm....

I couldn't get too wrapped up wondering about that when they had so many other great strains to try from. Yes, these batches were old and a bit dry; I found a few seeds and even when they came out with fresher batches, the nugs tended to have a lot of little stems all twisted throughout. But again, the price was unbelievable: at this point the eights were each $20.

'The Mistress' was supposed to be their Indica strain and I was excited to try it but I found it underwhelming and not worth cheating on whatever strain you're married to...

'Fueled Dreams', perhaps their most unique strain, was terpinolene-dominant, which I had rarely experienced before. In fact, usually high-terpinolene strains tend to turn me off with their pretty aroma which tastes like candy but doesn't last and leaves me wondering why I'm not high. For young people that have never tried cannabis it might be exciting to try something like Blueberry Biscotti but there is something in my brain that says 'This isn't weed' and it doesn't get me as high as the numbers would lead me to believe...Fueled Dreams is not like that at all...the delicious, unique taste of this terpene actually enhances the powerful, yet well-balanced high. Truly one-of-a-kind.

'Trailblazer' may have been my favorite. The last batches Blue River was selling of this flower were so good, THC in the upper 20s, very high limonene, with that rich citrus smell which reminded my wife of another source of weed we used to smoke back in high school: dubbed 'Hippie Tobacco' it was probably obtained, by a friend's mother, through hippie connections on the West Coast, that cost the same as mids but were slightly more potent and really fresh and fragrant, even more so than a lot of weed that was stronger at the time, with that rich citrus smell and moist orange hairs...I wonder if it was the legendary Cali O? In any case, I couldn't find any lineage information for Trailblazer but I would bet there's some Tangie in there.

'Headmount' was also phenomenal...the most sativa, effect-wise...these buds were tested at around 29-30% THC and a larger serving would get me a little bugged-out and paranoid sometimes, which I didn't necessarily enjoy but nonetheless I was impressed at that point that anything could cut through my tolerance so profoundly, and overall the high was enjoyably relaxing...the flavor is what really got me though. With its Tropicanna lineage, the combination of fruit flavors tap-dancing on your tastebuds is almost un-catalogable. Yet it stands head and shoulders, in terms of potency, above most strains with that terpene profile...Sunset Summit and Mandarin Skittles were perhaps even more perfectly fragrant, but they only provided a mild-to-moderate indica buzz and were far short of the brand's stronger stuff that was the same price and less than 1% higher in THC. I think this has to do with texture and really all of MF's flower breaks up well and is quite dense.

'Quad Pod' was a weird one, in that the growers admitted they were surprised by the terpene profile this breed put out, far more subdued than its exciting lineage would suggest. In fact while the taste was hard to notice, with subtle tropical fruit and spice hidden under a dry generic kush earthiness, the effect was really a nice strong indica body high with enough joyful enthusiasm and euphoria to last several hours from just a small bowl.

After the $20 eights sold out they brought in a few strains at $38 a quarter-ounce bag. On any Tuesday, when Blue River discounts the tax of cannabis, I could walk out the door with a half-ounce of Daybreaker for $75 and remember the $110 quarters I used to get rolled-up in newspaper. Was that bud, after all, related to this one? After all, this is Boston, the home of Chem Dawg...

Then all the flower was gone, to be replaced by other strong, affordable brands available at Blue River to all interested parties. But they are still selling through the last of MF's pre-rolls, as well as a few concentrates and vape cartridges Blue River made themselves from Modern Flower's buds.

Well then! It seems apropos to take a little T-break from weed for a while. The other day I had a couple Headmount prerolls. It still tasted great, this old harvest of Christmas Trees rolled up in a cone back in March and stuck in a plastic tube waiting for me to enjoy, and get really high which surprised me after the Kush Mintz and MAC #1 were no longer impressing any more, and reminded me of the joint of Headmount I rolled myself and smoked at Revere Beach back in July, enveloped by a wall of sea-mist that hid the sweet smoke from bicycle cops out on the boardwalk (if anybody cares -- I'm from a different time.)