Pairing: Casa Flor Family Chile Mango THC Tincture x Yerba Madre Sparkling Grapefruit Ginger Yerba Mate
The interplay of caffeine and cannabinoids can be even more fun than tannins and terpenes, so pairing the Casa Flor Family Chile Mango THC Tincture with the Yerba Madre Sparkling Grapefruit Ginger Yerba Mate makes for a perfect collaboration.
Tannins
In much of South America, the elixir created from steeping the leaves of the yerba mate plant has been a popular tea-like beverage for hundreds of years. Dubbed “mate,” the beverage offers naturally occurring caffeine along with other stimulating compounds, such as theophylline and theobromine. The company Yerba Madre — until recently known as Guayaki — popularized mate in the United States with canned and bottled versions. While far from traditional, the sparkling versions offer a naturalistic contrast within the energy drink world. With 80 milligrams of caffeine (comparable to an 8.4-ounce Red Bull), the Grapefruit Ginger flavor is tasty and delivers a zing and a zip without a sidecar of anxiety.
Terpenes
An entire family of true Northern California OGs, Casa Flor Family always delivers on quality products that you can feel good about buying. Released earlier this year, their new line of flavored live-rosin-infused tinctures delivers in every way possible. We’ve tried a few flavors, including the Watermelon Tamarindo, Pineapple Pina and the Cucumber Pepino, but for this pairing, we chose the caliente Chile Mango. At 1,000mg of THC per 30-milliliter bottle, it’s good that these tinctures come with a dosing cup. To say they’re potent is an understatement. Luckily, they’re also potently delicious, so it doesn’t take much to add a little flavor to a mocktail, soda or other beverage.
Pairing
The sweet and spicy chile mango syrup complements the zippy citrus and ginger flavors in the mate, making for a refreshing punch. Make sure to keep an eye on the dosage lines on the cup — just 5 mL contains roughly 83mg of THC. We’ve seen people free-pour this into a soda and not bat an eye, but anyone with a low tolerance might want to start with a few drops in their can of yerba mate and go up from there. –by Tom Bowers
casaflorfamily.com | @casaflorfamily | yerbamadre.com | @yerbamadre
Pairing Verve Coffee Streetlevel Blend and Rosin Tech Labs Yellow Zushi Rosin
A big reason we chose the Streetlevel coffee blend for this pairing is that it gave a consistent yet robust presence that complemented the Yellow Zushi rosin, regardless of whether we went in at 400 or 650 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only did the coffee provide a flavorful experience, but its versatility also contributed a control element for this experiment.
Tannins
When crafting this month’s pairing, we wanted something from Roast Magazine’s 2024 Roaster of the Year: Verve Coffee. Started in Santa Cruz, Verve also recently partnered with the Grateful Dead to drop a limited-edition Morning Brew.
We looked at two or three single origins for this pairing but landed on the Streetlevel blend for its ability to shine through different brewing methods, as well as dab temps. As a straight pour-over coffee, there is a strong sweetness that mixes around the top of your taste buds, but the base is a velvety cocoa. Bold without being overbearing, Verve’s blend of Guatemalan, Colombian and Honduran beans is considered one of its greatest accomplishments.
Terpenes
There are only 420 grams of this special Black Label drop between Rosin Tech Labs and 3rd Gen Family Farms, and once you smell it, you’re going to want to grab an extra for the head stash.
Some may be more partial to the Blue or the Black Zushi, but hash makers like Fort Wendy and Uplift Farms have established that the Yellow Zushi is a banger for rosin. Like its cousins, The TenCo’s Yellow Zushi is Z x Kush Mints and is known to lean more toward the Z side, with a daytime-friendly high.
Yellow Zushi could honestly be a cologne or perfume in the way you catch yourself opening the jar just to keep the scent in your nose. Clean, fresh and slightly sweet while still retaining that Z bite right on the edge.
Pairing
Together at 450 degrees, the brightness of the Yellow Zushi and these full-bodied beans reach out to meet each other like two halves of a friendship locket. The bright but not overly astringent top flavors of the Yellow Zushi have no problem slipping into step, fitting together like a firm handshake and creating a complex and complete picture. At 550 to 600 degrees, that wave of coffee flavor seems to isolate the Z terps and pack them at the front, creating a push-and-pull effect between the roast and rosin that allowed me to experience that crisp sweetness as an aftertaste. –Matt Jackson
rosintechlabs.com | @rosintechlabs | vervecoffee.com | @vervecoffee
Pairing: CAM Super Silver Haze x Brothers Broadleaf Connecticut Broadleaf
So many of the blunts we roll are hybrid or indica. There are so few opportunities to get the experience of putting an elite run of Super Silver Haze into arguably the best blunts on the market (curated by Paxton and Dawson Newman, fourth-generation cigar makers).
Tannins
Tannins are very prevalent in a Connecticut Broadleaf, the style of tobacco leaf we used for this pairing. Broadleafs have a higher tannin content than thinner styles of tobacco leaves, due in part to being grown under the sun. This promotes the plant’s defense system (increasing the level of tannins) and raises the levels of nicotine and alkaloids that contribute to the flavor of the cigar.
The result is a sweet, earthy flavor with an almost chocolaty note on top.
Terpenes
Super Silver Haze has been winning awards for nearly 30 years, and the awards are still coming. CAM’s rendition just took home top honors at the California State Fair.
In a world of candy and dessert terpenes, Super Silver Haze provides a fantastic homage to the European Haze terps created by Scott Blakey (aka Shantibaba) with Nevil Schoenmakers. Those terps hold a special place in the hearts of many smokers around the globe. The sharpest versions feature an almost musty pine smell that feels a little bit different from the original Haze or its cousin, Jack Herer.
The CAM version holds up against the modern elite phenos, but has a few extra Jack notes compared to the haziest versions of the strain. While we can’t exactly compare CAM’s rendition to the phenos of 30 years ago, the cerebral experience is one of the best you’ll find in a rec market that tends to lean more on full-bodied and relaxing cultivars (named after snacks and ice cream) from the last 15 years.
Super Silver Haze is considered one of the more uplifting, sativa-heavy strains of the modern era. But you don’t see too much of it because it can take longer to grow than other strains that may be more coveted at the moment. Thankfully, the CAM team’s dedication provides an authentic representation of how good Super Silver Haze can be.
Pairing
When you combine all of the above, you get a fantastic example of why people love smoking blunts of exotic terpene profiles.
The Broadleaf’s flavor contributes a large amount of the haziness that comes through when smoking this pairing. The Haze in Super Silver Haze is the main flavor profile that comes through from the Cannabis. The robustness of the Broadleaf mutes some of the other little notes you might get out of a paper. Regardless, the pairing is fantastic. –Jimi Devine
