The day will come when this COVID thing will be behind us, and if you’re like me, you’re planning to throw a big party when that day arrives! We’ve missed so many important events over the last year – birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s days, holidays and more, not to mention that wonderful feeling a social gathering brings… yes, a BIG party is in order! Well, this week I found the perfect herb to take to that party, and it’s called True Berrymore – let me tell you about this fine strain.

The jar we reviewed this week I picked up at Desert’s Finest in Desert Hot Springs for just $40. This jar is from a company called Arcanna Cannabis Flowers from Mendocino County. I’ve happily reviewed Arcanna product before, and I’m on a small mission to try every one of their strains – they are that good! Here’s what Arcanna says on their website about who they are and what they do:

“Our flowers are produced lovingly by farmers in Mendocino Generations, a Mendocino County-based alliance of farmers who grow, breed and make organic and biodynamic herbal medicines from proprietary cultivars for the Arcanna Flowers brand.”

All-in-all, my impression of Arcanna, as a consumer and reviewer, is that they are a group that is running a top-shelf operation that delivers consistently great flowers at a reasonable price… and don’t get me started about their Lion Claw strain, because I will go on and on – serious great herb!

True Berrymore

I don’t think it’s any accident the name of this herb sounds remarkably close to the name of the famous actress and celebrity stoner – Drew Barrymore. I couldn’t help but think of Drew and some of the characters she’s played while I was smoking this herb, there was something very playful about this one.

True Berrymore is a cross of the classic Sativa-dominant hybrid Blue Dream with True Kush, a pure OG derived Indica-dominant strain – and it’s a match made in heaven, in my opinion.

The Look, Smell and Taste

I love the graphics on the classy opaque jars Arcanna packages their herb in – all the information I need is right there on the jar, including the fact that this herb contains 3.41% terpenes and 27.51% THC! As we all know, THC is by no means the whole story when it comes to the herb high – terpenes play a huge part, as does the mix of various other cannabinoids in the plant. But still, that’s a nice amount of THC!

The jar smell of this one was on the light side, which surprised me considering the terpenes… but the aromas that hit me were like a fresh mix of berries – cherries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and more, all mixed together until it’s one big berry smell. Knowing that Blue Dream was back there in the lineage definitely primed me to detect that herb’s smell – and there it was. Under all those smells was a Kush aroma – earthy, woody and a touch of hash.

The weight of the herb was 3.53 grams – right on the money. The nugs, which included a nice 2.22 gram nug along with several mediums and smalls, felt a little dry to the touch, but were nicely trimmed.

The big nug still had the remains of some sugar leaves, but these hand-trimmed nugs were still very photogenic.

When I cut up one of the mediums the cure was a touch on the dry side… I think that’s why the smell wasn’t as prominent as I expected. If this jar had a humidity pack in it, the cure would have been just that little bit better – that bit that makes such a difference… really keeping the herb fresh all the way from the farm to my pipe.

I just have to digress here for a moment and talk humidity packs. Every jar of hemp flowers I’ve ever received has a humidity pack in it to keep the herb in premium condition. I super appreciate that! But I’ve never bought a jar of cannabis flowers, which costs much more, that had a humidity pack in it – why is that I wonder?! It just seems like basic sense. I have bought so many jars of dried-out herb it’s not funny… I will pay extra, just throw a humidity pack in there please! End of digression, and I’m not pointing this at Arcanna, but at all the cannabis brands – across the board.

Meanwhile, we’ve got a bowl loaded in the bong so let’s take this herb for a spin!

The smoke from the hit was medium thick and mostly smooth, but just a touch harsh. This herb made me cough, for sure. The flavor was just like the smell, full of that mixed bag of berries with Kush undertones. I was just starting to wrap my mind around what berries I was tasting when the effects started to percolate in my brain like happy bubbles.

Hanging With True Berrymore

The effects took a good ten minutes to fully saturate me, and when I was saturated I was in a happy place! This is a playful herb, one that made me talkative, feel creative, and extra social with just enough body comfort to feel a pleasant fuzz around me. There was no sense of pulling back or getting withdrawn when I smoked this herb… I was ready to get up and dance, put on some jamming tunes and get the party started!

If I wasn’t in such a happy place I would have probably started to morosely dwell on the fact that this damn COVID has really messed up our social world… but no, my mind wasn’t going there! My mind was having a party of it’s own, the synapses were just a hoppin’ and a boppin’, having a great time! I was thinking happy thoughts about the big party we’re all gonna throw when we can, and what a day that will be!

As you can see by all the exclamation marks I used in the previous paragraph that my brain was getting all excited when I hung out with True. No bad days with this one, as they say…

The effects lasted over an hour, and just a few more hits brought back the groovy feel I was enjoying. At some point I realized that this is the herb I was going to take to that inevitable, post-COVID BIG PARTY that I mentioned earlier, and that thought made me sooo content – like I had a big issue settled.

The Wrap Up

Straight up – I like True Berrymore. My rating of 4.1 would have been higher if the herb had just been a touch fresher, if the smell and taste had been more prominent – I felt like I wasn’t experiencing the best this herb had to offer. But the effects – totally worth the price of admission. I will definitely buy more of this herb in the future… in a world full of great flowers, I will always make some room in my stash box for True Berrymore.

Until later, best of health.

The Low Down