Origins and Backstory: Released from @Meangenefrommmendocino, this cross is a blend of a couple legends from the Freeborn garden. Lime 1 is the father to Black Lime (if I recall correctly), and is the ancestor to more than one of Mean Gene’s successful Lime crosses. Grape Soda Skunk is one of Meangene’s own as well, and while I do not know a ton about it, it is reportedly very heavy on grape soda aromas, extremely skunky, and even exhibits phenotypes with high CBD, and low THC—I have even heard rumors that legal hemp plants can be found in GSS stock. I grew out several of these seeds, and pulled out a single female and several males.

Appearance: Equally beautiful on the plant and in the jar, Lime 1 x GSS flowers are dense and fully-developed, with heavy resin content. The colors are highly contrasted, with lime greens underneath purple-tipped, plump calyxes. These are highly appealing plants as well as flowers, and the flowers have a very satisfying and familiar appearance of grenades. These are handsome and eye-catching flowers with a high color contrast, making for a pretty sexy bag appeal!

Aroma: At once both sweet and sour, perfumey and offensive, the aroma encapsulates all aspects that I believe belong in cannabis. Lime 1 x Grape Soda Skunk offers a complex medley that lends itself to both sides of its lineage. Consisting of an intense grape (ranging from Welch’s jam to grape soda to purple gatorade and Riptide Rush), freshly sliced key lime, lavender flowers, skunk, vomit/bile, acidity, and perfume, it is one of my favorite bouquets from my 2020 outdoor season. There is a sour, fermented funk that reminds me of a still-brewing sour ale, or something akin to rotting hops. The female in my dry-farmed patch is certainly dominated by grapey aromas. While all of the above notes describe the plant, it is light on the lime, and very heavy on the grape, perfume, skunk, and acidic bile. Almost everybody is drawn to this jar, wanting to take in the complexity over and over.

Flavor: The flavor is certainly similar in character to the aroma, but has its own traits as well. There is an immediate forefront of sour and tangy grape jam, almost identical to Welch’s. This is coupled with the complex notes of fermented beer and hops. However, these fruitier tones quickly die down into a more metallic kind of grape. The metallic flavor is not like the generic copper/tin/iron that I can generally detect in cannabis, but actually reminds me of the flavor I experience when the inside of my mouth is bleeding. It is that kind of warm, metallic, blood flavor and it is extremely unique in cannabis flowers—this is my first time experiencing it in smoke! It is like a grape-blood-hop flavor—not necessarily sopping like some of the other Lime varietals from Freeborn, but it is extremely unique and complex.

Effects: There is definitely some CBD in this one! Evident through aroma, finger-feel (something about the way the resin feels on the fingers), and effect, Lime 1 x GSS has relatively high levels of both THC as well as CBD. This is one of those really nice blended smokes that combines the best of both worlds. It won’t be your first choice to impress buddies with potency, but it is certainly potent enough, and the character of the effect is an enjoyable one. I actually can get a head rush with this weed, just like with other super-potent varieties, but the effect never builds into the “I am SO stoned” feeling that some of the more extreme hype strains offer. The head rush and feeling of intense euphoria comes down into a chilled out feeling, reliably mellowing me out and giving me a calm demeanor. I don’t get paranoid on this bud, and it’s easy-going smoke regardless of set and/or setting. It comes on slowly and simultaneously in the body and head, but is relaxing and mellowing in both. The calm and more relaxed mindset offers a more compassionate perspective, able to see the world from a place of calm, relaxation, and clarity. I love, love, LOVE the effect of this one.

Overall: This is one of my favorites from the 2020 outdoor season, and really one of my favorites in recent memory overall. The plants themselves are robust and hardy, willing to endure extremes in weather/environment while still putting out high quality, gorgeous buds. There is a diversity of color on both the plant and dried flower, offering a decent bag appeal. The aroma is loud, frequently popping out at guests of mine and encouraging heavy jar-huffing. The alluring and deeply-complex aroma translates to flavor in a unique character that I have never experienced in cannabis before. These unique traits yield an equally-distinctive experience of both high THC and high CBD smoke, making for a wonderfully-pleasant and relaxing smoking experience. I’d recommend this weed to my grandmother. I could smoke this weed on almost any occasion, and be better off for it. Isn’t that what’s attracting about weed to begin with, to be better off than without it?