On the docket today is a particularly fragrant version of Black Widow from Trichome Farms that I picked up at Kaleafa the other week after asking for a notable but fresh sativa-leaning flower.
If you’ve tried White Widow, then you’re familiar with Black Widow because they are the same strain, just different variations (phenotypes) of it.
You see multiple phenotypes of many popular strains like Gelato and GSC. Essentially anytime you see a “#number” or “F2” or “F3” demarcation, that’s a specific pheno.
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The story is Black and White Widows originated in the Netherlands and is a creation of Scott “Shantibaba” Blakey, who took Black Widow with him when he split with Arjan Roskam and Greenhouse Seeds to create what is now called Mr. Nice Seed Bank.
There’s a lot of online contention over who discovered the Widow strains, and it’s another unfortunate story of a pair of friends splitting and things going sour. All we can do as smokers is try both and decide which we like for ourselves.
In terms of where I picked this classic strain up from, that would be the one and only Kaleafa. Their Beaverton location always has a massive selection, and I feel pretty consistently helpful budtenders; it feels like a dispensary where the staff keeps themselves abreast of current inventories via frequent personal sampling.
This Black Widow was grown by Trichome Farms out of Dundee, Oregon. They grow organic indoor and hand-trim these beauties, which include local favorites such as Zkittlez Magoo, Obama Kush, and Glazed Apricot Gelato, not to mention their crown jewel Black Widow.
Trichome Farms has won 3 “People’s Choice” awards, a 1st place “Best Sativa,” a 1st place “Best Greenhouse,” and 2nd place “Best Indoor” at state events, including the Oregon Growers Cup and Ganja Con as such Black Widow is easily Trichome’s “signature flower” and apparently one of the best instances of the strain in the country.
- Strain: Black Widow
- Grower: Trichome Farms
- THC: 26.04%
If you haven’t heard Knife Party’s cut of Nero’s remake of The Jet’s classic Crush On You, you need to check it out, at least the first 45 seconds, if you’re not into phat dubstep drops which admittedly are definitely a specific mood for me which align well with Black Widow’s character.
Anyways, like that song, Black Widow is fucking classic that slaps unapologetically. It knows how to have a fun time, but it’s also serious about doing so. Black Widow is the main course, baby; this ain’t no appetizer.
Like a dive bar cougar with too many bedpost notches to count, Black Widow is effective in its mission 100% of the time. The name doesn’t try to be cute; it came before a time when we were naming everything after candy like a bunch of children.
For the record, I fucking looooove sweet fruity strains, so that’s also a self-slam, yes. Black Widow isn’t trying to be your friend, but if you’re down to ride, it’ll show you a good time.
Black Widow itself is a product of breeding a mystery Brazilian sativa with a South Indian Indica. The still sativa-heavy bud won the High Times Cannabis Cup in 1995.
So not only are we going back in time to the 90s in this review, but we’re also smoking on a prodigal child of two landraces which seems to be coming back “in vogue.”
So, let’s jump in the time machine and see what happens when we play with the spider…
Appearance: Classic Phat Budz
Particularly light green phat little buds that look dense and, upon breaking them up into my grinder, confirmed themselves to indeed be solid through and through. We’ve got some lighter thick light rust hairs filling in the cracks between the clumps of green.
Overall great uniformity, with each fat little flower shouting, “Smoke me first!” as I cracked open the seal on my Re:Stash mason jar and tumbled them out into my Smokus Focus magnification jar.
On the whole, I’d say these are very “classic” looking buds, there are no insane colors or bud structure to make them stand off the shelf, but there’s also nothing wrong with them either with their roundness and fullness being enough to tease a potential customer to ask for a cheeky sniff.
Smell: Fresh Bubblemint Gas
The most noticeable scents are the soft gas and mild lingering skunk emanating from these dense little turds. It’s not a wince-inducing “huffing fuel direct from the pump” kind of aroma but a softer, muted “hey, you probably shouldn’t smoke around here” kind of odor.
Likewise, the skunk isn’t “pest control sprayed in the face” level of bold it’s just hanging around afterward, adding a nice long olfactory tail to the scent evaluation experience.
Black Widow isn’t a super-gas like a Durban Poison or Sour Diesel, but it’s still there. Think a good fresh hopped lager to heavy IPA in terms of heft.
I think what helps soften it is also this almost bubblegum-esque note that reminds me of Orbit’s Bubblemint flavor, albeit a little less on the bubble and replacing the mint with the gas/skunk here.
The overall effect is similar, with the bubblegum softening the mint in the Orbit and the saint bubblegum sweetness rounding the hard edges of the gas.
This is most noticeable with a dry draw; the flavor of bubblemint is undeniable, and as it’s one of the preferred gum flavors, that excited me to light this stuff up!
Sensation: Smooth & Steady Does It Friend
Despite the fact that it packs quite a powerful aroma, Black Widow’s mental activation process is very cautious and linear.
What I mean by that is sometimes some strains have a tendency to kind of creep up on you unwittingly over time in a sneaky way to the point where you all of a sudden have the epiphany that you’re quite blitzed.
Conversely, some players like to get right down to it and hit you after the first couple of deep draws.
Black Widow takes a moment to slowly envelop you in a warmly lit elevator lined with dark wood and just one mirror on the back with some mono electronic music playing faintly from behind the overhead lighting system before slowly, at first but gaining in momentum; she brings you rapidly up to the top of the building where the doors open to a mid-stage electronic dance party.
So the high takes a moment and holds your hand as it accelerates you towards your final destination of high AF in a short but very manageable time. This buildup of speed is nice as it reduces the risk of early-onset paranoia IMO, especially if you don’t have a bulletproof tolerance built up.
Once high, my mind seemed to run at 1.25x normal speed, not in a manic fashion but in a dialed-in zone that I usually only achieve on a cup and a half of coffee and some tunes blasting in full-blown productivity mode.
I brought some of this bud rolled up to a Halloween party where I arrived unable to see shit through my one-piece spandex alien costume in an entirely black-lit house.
Minus my own self-inflicted poor vision that night, Black Widow proved effective at being able to socialize within a small group of costumed strangers functionally, I think.
Black Widow has also helped me be quite productive in the few endeavors I managed to accompany her with, such as cooking a few dinners and busting out some extra 9-5 responsibilities.
So yeah, the sensation is pleasant and motivating without getting too racy like some more fuel-soaked sativa-dominants.
I would not recommend Black Widow if you’re looking to lock yourself into your couch and endlessly shove peanut butter pretzel bites into your mouth as you attempt to break your previous 90’s Star Trek binge record.
Conclusion: Delightfully Energetic Venom
Black Widow (and I can only presume White Widow, too, but I will have to do another review on that) is the dancer that can actually dance and makes it intimidating when he/she does so.
The crisp freshness of the moves, the power and grace, the instant impression and lingering memory, that’s Black Widow.
This strain would be an excellent companion to a house party and could double duty as a mid-party pick-me-up as well. Hell, the linear, predictable, energizing high would make it great for even more intense activity like shredding some mountain powder or going to an electronic concert.
With such a scary name, being synonymous with a deadly arachnid, some may shy away from this gorgeous strain, but in all, the effect is much more pleasant and energetic in an uplifting way than the name implies and, as such, should not deter anyone from trying Black (or White) Widow.
Black Widow hits, yes, but it’s not overwhelming, paralyzing, or socially crippling like many other premium-grade heavy sativa-leaning cannabis varieties.
As such, I’d even recommend this weed to someone more early in their cannabis journey as it’s a Dutch classic and follows an equally classic high arc from first inhale to last.
