At this point, I consider myself fairly new to the hemp flower world. Up until last year I was completely unaware that you could buy hemp flowers with less than 0.3% THC online – heck, I didn’t even know hemp flowers were a thing!

Since discovering hemp I’ve been very busy sampling strains – there’s so much good herb out there to try it’s going to take awhile to experience (and review) them all! Compared with my nearly four decades of cannabis smoking, I’m practically a rookie when it comes to hemp flowers.

This, of course, means that I’m like most people these days when it comes to CBD flowers – very curious, full of questions and more than pleasantly surprised by the effects – the relaxing feel, the lack of anxiety – and I’ve found more than a few strains have been straight up stony – so stony I’ve been calling the feel “CBD stoned”!

I’ve been enjoying the effects so much, that lately I’ve been wondering if the Holy Grail of herb I’m looking for might be a CBD bud!? All the options are on the table. My smoking has shifted to about 60% hemp flowers and 40% cannabis flowers since the beginning of 2021, and I’ve found my THC tolerance has dropped a bit.

Since we started these reviews I’ve had an ongoing list of hemp flowers that I want to review, and this week’s strain – Sour Space Candy – ranks high on that list. I decided to give Dr. Ganja’s version of Sour Space Candy a try. This is the first time I’ve ordered from this company and this eighth was very reasonably priced at $18.00. The order arrived very quickly because I paid a bit extra for Priority Mail shipping.

Sour Space Candy

This herb comes with a reputation, and that reputation of being upbeat and Sativa-like was one of the things that drew me to this strain. The fact that this strain also has a reputation for delicious sweet and sour candy flavors just got me more excited to try it out.

Even though I gravitate to Indica-dominant strains, I like to switch off to a Sativa strain every once in awhile… it helps keep things fresh! I’m always looking for a Sativa strain that hits me just right, and not all of them do – some feel too jittery and give me an over-caffeinated feel. I was hoping this might be one of those winner Sativa-dominant strains.

Sour Space Candy is a cross of Sour Tsunami and Early Resin Berry (ERB). Sour Tsunami has become a classic in the hemp world, and ERB is a strain that’s been used in a number of breeding projects. It was just a matter of time before someone put these two together, and the result, Sour Space Candy, has become very popular over the last year. It seems like nearly every hemp company has a version of this strain.

The Look, Smell and Taste

The herb from Dr. Ganja came packaged in a resealable, plastic flavor-seal bag.

The information panel on the back of the package noted that this herb had 12.20% CBD and 0.115% THC – well under the legal limit. Through the clear front of the package I could see that there were a few nice looking nugs inside.

Pouring the handful of dark green nugs out on the tray I could see that they were well-trimmed. There were no sugar leaves to be found on the dense nugs.

The aroma of the nugs was on the mellow side… I had to give them a little squeeze to get them to give up some smell, and their aroma surprised me… very spicy. It was almost medicinal smelling – leaning towards ammonia and the smell of a doctor’s office when I was a kid. If you’ve ever smoked Trainwreck… this one smelled a lot like that.

I was surprised! I was expecting sweet and sour candy, not a spicy, astringent aroma. Well, as I’ve mentioned before – strains can vary wildly depending on so many different factors. Undaunted by my surprise, I loaded up the bong with the well-cured herb. It got my fingers very sticky just packing the bowl – always a good sign… so I had big expectations for the sesh ahead.

The flavor was very much like the aroma but with more sweetness, like an underlying layer of sweetness. My first impressions were all over the place – so much flavor packed into that smoke it was difficult to sort out what was going on. The second hit helped me define it a bit better, and it was the spicy, medicinal flavor that stood out ahead of everything else. The more hits I took, the more I noticed a citrus undertone standing out from the other flavors.

The Effects

It seemed that there was a slight clearing of my thoughts after the first few hits… but as I sat at the Red Bench for about ten minutes, working my way through a couple bowls – that’s over a half gram of herb – it occurred to me that nothing was happening. Nada, zilch, zero. There was no lift, no CBD stone, none of the relaxation that comes from smoking hemp. I felt flat.

I was starting to get the feeling at this point that I wasn’t having the standard Sour Space Candy experience, that Dr. Ganja’s version might not be hitting this one on the target…

The more hits I took the less I was enjoying the experience. I felt deflated and rather underwhelmed. I am disappointed by herb so infrequently that when I have an experience like this it really surprises me.

The Wrap Up

I must say, I did enjoy the taste of the herb even though it wasn’t what I was expecting. The smoke quality was thick and smooth… a real good smoker – but if the effects fall flat, then the herb doesn’t work for me. And the effects of this version of Sour Space Candy were a disappointment.

Now that I’ve had this small disappointment, I’ve added the mission of finding the quintessential Sour Space Candy to my list of things to accomplish here at the Red Bench – so expect more reviews of different versions of this strain in the future.

Until later, best of health.

The Low Down