Make no doubts about it; this review is going to be a little biased. Not because I wish to deceive you but because I’ve smoked enough Fox Hollow Flora now to know that they are kind of a bonafide hit-maker, both in terms of bud quality (always smooth smokes) and genetics (always something tasty).
Fox Hollow Flora is craft as craft comes, and they consistently drop batch after batch of banger strains like Strawberry Gucci and a killer Jet Fuel Gelato to more subtle oddballs like Squirt and Tang Breath.
And also what we’re reviewing here today, a strain whose name just drips with fun like a double scoop of bubblegum ice cream waffle cone on a hot summer day with your grandma, a strain that goes by the name Cookie Fruity.
[sniff sniff] Is Grandpa gassing up the lawn mower too?
Cookie Fruity Is An Ultra Niche
The term “hype strain” has become a divisive thing. Or perhaps we’ve just become a divisive society. Whichever it is, the term is definitely a derogatory put-down in some cannahipster corners of the iNtErNetS, that’s for sure.
To me, a hype strain is just a popular strain, and if it’s popular, it’s probably for a reason because it’s probably good! Trust the people. The people know. Keep the anticonformist in check.
“Ultra niche” to me is a more accurate way to describe a strain like Cookie Fruity because, yes, you have to be in the overlap part of a Venn diagram in which bready doughy cookie pastry strains are one circle and also fruity strains are the other.
Maybe you don’t think that terpene profile is that niche at all, and maybe you’re right; I mean, cookie strains have launched an entire brand named after them into the stratosphere.
Fruity strains are ever-present staples in most dispensaries across the country.
I think of it more as a perfect harmony of flavor, marrying two dominant flavor families in a new exciting way. Perhaps that’s why the first time I tried to buy Cookie Fruity, they were sold out within weeks, and I had to wait what felt like decades but was probably just a month or two to get another shot at procuring it.
That finally happened on a refill trip to Oregrown PDX, where the selection was off the charts, and while some other strains were more tempting on the nose (a particular someone’s Trop Cherry was downright salivation-inducing), I knew I had to have the Cookie Fruity—a second shot at the one that got away.
So obtaineth I did! A quarter of an ounce’s worth, per usual, for these strain reviews because I think you need to spend a fair amount of time with a particular strain to get to know its vibe or, more particularly, how its composition’s “Entourage Effect” gets along with your own home team.
This optimistic strain shines because of its Fruity Pebbles OG and Crystal Cookies F2 lineage, bred by A.B Seed Company, which can help paint a bit of a picture of what you can expect in the smoke, but we’ll get to that later on…
Appearance: High Contrast Chonksters
The nugs are medium to medium-large in size. They are not the biggest but plenty big enough, especially given how dense they are with seemingly no air in between their calyx and bracts. This isn’t a dis I’m not saying it’s been vacuum-packed and hauled over a border somewhere I’m just saying that there are fluffy nugs, and there are dense boys, and this one is a dense boy. Girthy too!
The surface area is very uniform, with stigma, bract, and trichomes meshing together to create a uniquely smooth surface area.
The purple is some of the darkest I’ve seen, appearing pretty much black in their darkest recesses. Sprinkled with crumbs of dark army green and dark rusty hairs, this bud looks like some ultra-futuristic high-contrast camouflage.
These aren’t the most trichomed-out buds I’ve ever seen, and that’s just fine, as the depth of dark colors here piques interest on their own. This bud looks like it was stipple, expertly painted into existence with a careful hand.
Good job, Fox Hollow grow team!
Smell: Not What You Expect
Despite what you may presume, strain names aren’t named at random. They usually either describe the plants’ lineage or genetics and/or they describe some observable qualities of the genotype.
Cookie Fruity is in the former camp, with the “Cookie” referring to its Crystal Cookies (Platinum GSC x Animal Cookies) and Fruity Pebble OG parent strains.
So if you’re expecting tons of soft supply fruity cream on the nose like I was, you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise as the cookie-bready characteristics are muted, and there’s really hardly any fruit to make note of.
Instead, the nose of Cookie Fruity is this kind of a measured gas. It does not burn-your-eyes intensity but is more like “someone’s been using a permanent marker in this room” kind of gas. Fruit? I couldn’t really pick any up, maybe faint dried apricots or figs but nothing close to many of the popular candy strains on the market today.
Sure, it’s got a very faint floral quality that softens the edges a bit, but the vocal gassiness is undeniable. Still, it’s seducing enough to make you want to smoke it, to see if you can detect any other notes while smoking it.
As for the cookie aspect, as you can read in my introduction to this review, I was hoping for more. I absolutely loooove bready doughy sweet cakey strains. They’re usually smooth on the inhale and make for a luscious creamy backdrop to other more exciting fruity genetics, for example.
Think fritters and pancakes and do-si-dos.
That isn’t Cookie Fruity, though.
If there are any yeasty qualities of Cookie Fruity, it’s more in the vein of a dryer sour rye bread, perhaps with a few scarce dried dark cherries mixed in with a handful of chopped walnuts. Can you make ice cream cones out of rye? This would be rye, probably.
Still, it’s the bubble-mint permanent marker gas that again wants to be the star of the show here. I think it’s unavoidable with the Crystal Cookies parent, with the bite of its parents Platinum GSC and Animal Cookies asserting their presence.
I’ll admit that I was first surprised and then a tiny bit bummed because, in my head, I had pre-formed an opinion of what this strain was going to be, which I will try not to do in the future.
Also, anytime a strain is a hot seller and becomes a “grail” smoke, it inevitably gets put on a bit of a pedestal, in my mind, which isn’t really fair.
So, to summarize, the smell isn’t really the show with this one. Sure, if you like responsibly measured gas with more of a full body behind it to absorb its own impact, then you might be super excited about this.
For me, the real pleasure, though, came when I actually put flame to flower and let the Cookie Fruity monster out to run wild through my endocannabinoid system…
Sensation: The Star of the Show
Looking at your weed under magnification is cool. Researching the shit out of your strain on the internet is a fun time. Inhaling it and trying to identify flavor themes is a hoot. But letting the effects of the various cannabinoids in your bloodstream wash over your body is, without a doubt, THE BEST part of getting baked.
Honestly, it should be all about the effect. Everything else is just an appetizer, technically. A restaurant could have a bad outward appearance, could look odd, and be run by a complete novice, but if the food hits, the food hits, and that’s it!
Rolling this up and taking a few dry pulls, it’s more bubblegum, pepper, and allspice. Vaping it wakens it up even more, making it an exceptional wake-and-bake choice.
Cookie Fruity’s high matches its soft jumpy playhouse name. It’s uplifting. I’d say it’s downright bouncy but in a very airy, fun kind of way. Playin’ in your socks. Pouring a second and third bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal into your sugar milk on Sunday morning because each bowl gets consecutively better.
It’s interesting; despite the gassy fruitless nose, the high is a fricken blast!
If you’re at either far end of the spectrum wherein you only like crazy intense buzzy “sativas dominants” or super sedating “indica dominants,” then perhaps Cookie Fruity isn’t for you because it’s more in the middle of that bell curve of hybrids.
Sure, there is some heavy-hitting genetics that went into this, but there is also enough deep, dank kush genetics to keep the ship right side up in terms of not leaning too dangerously far at either end of the sensation spectrum.
The high is uplighting, light-hearted, and calming without sedation. This would be a great socializing weed, without a doubt. Its whispy gassy gingerbread-level-spicy smell and approachable flavor and mouth mean it could satisfy a lot of different types of smoking preferences or at least not offend them.
I guess that’s probably Cookie Fruity’s greatest strength, a more energetic high that keeps itself tethered safely to earth the whole time so you can focus on laughing your ass off with your blazing partner.
Summary: A Deserving Prom Queen
Like with how small graduating classes often legitimately democratically elect deserving prom kings and prom queens who are legitimately nice people, Cookie Fruity definitely deserves the popularity tiara it currently wears.
Sure, it’s not as one-dimensional as a lot of similarly named dessert strains, which may be a big plus for some people, and in fact, the more I smoked Cookie Fruity, the more it made me scratch my head as its complexity makes it hard to put in a descriptive box.
By the time I was down to my last few grams of it, I started to understand more how the aloof complexity is actually part of the draw here. It’s a straightforward name with a complex chemical composition that really just wants to have an uplifting, fun time.
Cookie Fruity sells out fast for a reason; it’s good. It’s very approachable terpene profiles but married together in a truly subtle and flattering way.
While perhaps not as revelationary as Girl Scout Cookies itself, this GSC cousin has a personality of its own and is well worth trying if you see it on the shelves of your local dispensary.
Great work Fox Hollow, as always.
