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Strain: Colorado Sunshine
Parentage: Jack Herer x Bubble Gum
Grower: Eugreen Horticulture
Cannabinoid Content: 15.05% THC, 0.29% CBD
Touching down in Portland after a weekend at the coast, I felt a bit worn out from my travels and wanted to find a nice, uplifting sativa to offset my groggy Sunday. A little something to pick up my mood and get me ready for the week ahead.
Enter the fine folks at Kings of Canna, who operate on Northeast Prescott in the space formerly occupied by Revival Drum Shop.
While the Kings aren't my go-to neighborhood dispensary— their prices are a little steep— I love the quality of the flowers they carry, and have been impressed with everything I've gotten from them; including their budget strains, which have proven to be an excellent value.
"We only carry flowers we would smoke ourselves," was the pitch I heard the first time I visited the shop, and it seems the Kings and I share similarly high standards, because I, too, would gladly smoke anything in their jars.
After explaining my head space, the budtender on duty steered me toward a strain I hadn't heard of before, Colorado Sunshine.
I was a bit hesitant of the unknown varietal, but that trepidation was quickly forgotten when he cracked the jar: a sweet odor wafted to my nose, clearing to a creamy banana, and then a cherry cough syrup— and upon some deeper sniffs I started to pick up scents of Bubblicious and licorice.
"Okay, you got me," I told him. "This smells great. What is it?"
Turns out, Colorado Sunshine is a cross of old-school favorites Jack Herer and Bubble Gum.
For those who are unfamiliar, Jack Herer—named after the cannabis activist and author—is one of modern weed's earliest, great breeding achievements. It brings together an unknown Haze with Northern Lights #5 and Shiva Skunk, and is rumored to have taken decades to stabilize—meaning that breeders meticulously crossed the parents over multiple generations in order to isolate the uplifting and energetic qualities that we now enjoy from the strain.
On the male end of Colorado Sunshine, we have Bubble Gum—another early breeding achievement of unknown parentage that traveled from Indiana to Europe before it was stabilized for its titular smell and flavor.
Both parents are recognizable in the cross: the Bubble Gum's flavor, and the Jack's uplifting high.
The come-on is slow, and begins by elevating the mood to a bubbly level— happy and carefree feelings occur like fog lifting to reveal a crisp, bright morning. You don't feel altered, as much as clear of previous mental sluggishness and moody, psychological cobwebs.
I've always found Jack Herer to an excellent mood enhancer, and that cheerful elevator to the clouds is still running in the Colorado Sunshine.
But that elevator is a bit of a creeper, and before long, it starts to accelerate— bringing some extra energy, while becoming slightly more psychedelic than what you might expect from a lower-THC strain.
Where some sativas are clear-headed, Colorado Sunshine can be more cognitively hazy. And where others are great for going out and seeing a show or catching up with old friends, this strain gets more head-trippy than most, which could make socializing uncomfortable in certain situations.
That said, Colorado Sunshine won't leave you hearing the voices of deceased relatives coming from your oven, but you may want to avoid this one if you're sensitive to the psychedelic strains.
And if you're wondering, it did indeed improve my Sunday—and after some Domino's and Netflix, I was ready for my week.