Wake & Bake

I love the concept of waking and baking – getting up and heading straight to the herb. This is a strong stoner tradition, and you’re not considered a true stoner until you’ve spent mornings puffing on your pipe while drinking your coffee.

I find that cannabis is great for starting off your day on a good course. As I’ve mentioned before, I have depression and I use cannabis medically as well as to just relax, socialize, and chill. Some days my depression is so bad that waking and baking is actually the best medical course of action, unless I want to spend the day walloped by the depression, and in bed.

There is a strategy involved in waking and baking (W&B). First off, chose an appropriate herb! I rarely reach for an Indica to start my day, unless that’s all I have on hand. My goal when I W&B is to put my day on track for productivity, creativity and physical well-being.

I recommend starting with the best herb you have, because I’ve found over the years that starting with crappy herb seems to make the rest of the day’s highs also crappy. Smoking the best right off the bat seems to make my CB1 and CB2 receptors in my body very happy – and all my highs for the rest of the day seem better. And if you can start with a CBD flower, even better…

Lifter

Today I did a W&B with a CBD flower called Lifter from Cannaflower. Lifter is a cross of Suver Haze and E.R.B. – Early Resin Berry, or some times called Early Resin Bud. This version of Lifter has 19.5% CBD, which is pretty high for a hemp flower. Lifter is a very popular strain and I see it on many websites that sell hemp. It’s been on my mental list of herbs to review, and I was very excited to try this version from Cannaflower because they have a reputation for delivering high quality herb, and I had never ordered from them before…

Flashback to when the box arrived – the herb arrived quickly by mail in a discrete white box. Opening it up I was aghast that the herb was just packaged in a plain, silver Mylar balloon.

No markings, label or anything. We had a brief WTF moment until we realized the joke was on us – the Mylar balloon was just the smell proof bag that held the real package. And the bag inside was stylishly designed.

Reading the package from Cannaflower it said that this herb was “slow cured and hand trimmed”. On the back of the package was a small “peek-a-boo” window where I could see that the herb inside of this eighth bag looked like one big nug.

The Look and Smell

When I first opened the bag while doing the video review I was hit with a berry aroma, like a mixture of raspberries and blackberries. Exploring the aromas further I detected an earthy aroma mixed with a bit of diesel. The mix of smells was very delicious and got me excited to load this up in my bong.

As I tried to gently extract the big nug from the bag it came apart in my hands… I pulled off several dense nugglets of herb before I got the bud out of the bag. When I finally removed the big nug I could see that it had been hand-trimmed, very nicely.

The cure seemed very good as I carefully gave the nugglets a little squeeze. The nugs themselves were medium to dark green with an abundance of red hairs and a dense structure.

I cut into the first nug and the cure was perfect. The folks at Cannaflower did a nice job of delivering a fresh, and well-cured flower, though I wish the bag had been just a bit bigger so I wouldn’t of pulled the nug apart trying to remove it. The nug was just too big for the bag… I guess that’s a good problem to have. 🙂 I took the fresh pile of herb and loaded it up in my bong, ready to get to the heart of the issue…

The Taste and Effects

Sour lemon. Straight up. The taste surprised me as I was expecting something sweet and berry, considering the smell I’d been experiencing. The smoke was smooth and delicious, the kind you want to hold in while you savor the flavor. The exhale tasted of lemons too with an earthy quality. Later, after a long sesh with the herb I detected other subtle flavors, like sweet clove, a hint of berries, and then one hit was like a drink of sugar water – a very complex and shifting flavor palate.

When it comes to the effects, this is an appropriately named herb. The effects are uplifting and energizing – a great compliment to a cup of coffee in the morning, just to reference the W&B theme again. After the first few hits it seemed to cause my eyes to open up further, and I felt focused and attentive.

I called the high a “smooth sailing high” because it felt like I now had the wind in my sails, moving me forward, while all the rough edges of life had been smoothed out. For me it inspired a creative vibe. I am a creative person – so good, energetic herb often does this, and Lifter was no exception.

Nearly all hemp flowers bring on a sense of body comfort, and so did this one. Because depression is such a physical illness, I’m very attune to how my body feels and when an herb brings on strong comfort I notice. Lifter was at least an 8 or 9 on that scale.

The Wrap Up

Waking and baking is, ultimately, about taking control of your day and putting it on the course you want, and this is a herb that will definitely help with that! I had a short sesh of just four hits from the bong along with my regular two cups of coffee this morning and jumped straight into writing this review. I went from a foggy, sleepyhead – to alert and focused in less than no time as the hits saturated my body. It was almost as easy as flipping a switch, and I was into the writing vibe.

I imagine this herb would be perfect for all levels of herb smokers, from novice beginners to well-seasoned veterans – there were no surprises from this one – just straight up positive energy. I’m definitely adding this to my growing list of herbs that I like to have on hand, and I’m adding this to my list of favorite Sativas. Both Lifter and Cannaflower get the thumbs up on this one!

Until later, best of health.