Origins and Backstory: I received these from Meangene as part of a larger package a few years back. HP13 is an absolute legend of a plant, and an extreme rarity. I have been seeking it ever since reading about it in the Cannabible about 15 years ago; I have never seen it, smoked it, or even met someone face-to-face claiming they had it. I’ve grown a few variants, such as Top Dawg’s HP13 F2 and Hawaiian Heirlooms’ HP13 x Pogdawg, which were pretty different from one another. I just acquired the HP13 clone only (allegedly), so hopefully I’ll get that review up prior to 2026. In any case, a real unattainable legend. I am not completely clued in on the 4Way x NL details, but I believe this came from @BobHempHill, or at least the 4Way, which I believe is the Fairfax 4Way—a plant known for its very strong skunky aromas, with a history of black market production. When Meangene sent me this along with some other testers, I was immediately intrigued by anything with HP13 in it that had the Meangene Midas touch on it. I haven’t seen any further work with 4Way x NL from Meangene, and I believe these may have been abandoned for more promising breeding endeavors.
Appearance: These plants grow with cola buds from head to toe. Impressive yields of verdant grenade clusters on stems manifest at harvest, with classic green buds high in resin and classically-orange pistils. The buds do have some small leaves and leaflets around them, but they’re generally dwarfed by calyxes and not much issue. This is good looking, high resin, super-chunky green bud. The plants are particularly impressive right before harvest due to the high yields and high ratio of bud to leaf. Grenade-like finished flowers are equally appealing in the bag and in the hand.
Aroma: The first and overwhelming impression when sniffing a jar, is that the aroma is strikingly sharp and acidic. There are some exotic and tropical fruit tones for sure, like guava and passionfruit, but both green and red apple aromas are primary. The fruitiness is not sweet or candied; the astringent acidity is so intense it is almost as sharp as fermented fruit, alcoholic fruit beverage, or turpentine and hairspray when the weed is fresh and freshly cured. Older jars of this weed smell more like apples and some of the sharpness has faded. Enjoyable, but missing some dimensionality for me. It just feels like we could go deeper, there could be more layers like some funk or nastiness. Interesting, enjoyable, and compelling, but not so compelling as “complete package” varieties that seem to offer diversity of aroma from every imaginable place.
Flavor: The flavor is somewhat of a letdown after experiencing a relatively-intense aroma. It is fairly mild, sweet, floral, and botanical in nature, but not as sharp or as complex as its aroma. It is somewhat limited in its dimensionality, with some sweet apple and apple blossom notes on top of herbaceous botanical tones. Sweet, pleasant, unremarkable. A bowl retains flavor for a few tokes before tasting like charcoal.
Effects: There is nothing wrong with this weed, there just isn’t anything special about it for me either. I always wanted to enjoy this weed more than I did. The sharpness of the smell indicated to me that this weed would have some potency to it. I would anticipate getting really ripped from this weed, pack a bowl and smell my fingers (ahhhh……), and smoke…and it just never hit me the way I wanted it to. It just felt like a generic, middle of the road kind of stone that never fully took off for me. Yes it gets you high and no it’s not CBD hemp or something, but for elite cannabis, it falls short.
Overall: This weed is unfortunately missing something for me personally. The aroma is enticing and enjoyable, but lacks some diversity and dimensionality that I crave and look for, and have come to even expect with Freeborn gear. The flavor and effects fall in the same vein; the effects especially surprised me, as this is highly-resinous weed and does smell quite strong. However, the potency that I look for was simply not there. Even when I am wanting something different from my recent staple of ‘87 Limepop, and I reach for this jar, I am disappointed after smoking. The high doesn’t last that long and is pretty mellow, and I typically pick up a jar of something stronger an hour or so later. This weed would have been really amazing and epic when I was growing up and coming into the scene, but today it just doesn’t have much to stand out. As excited as I was for something with HP13 in it from Meangene, I don’t feel personally compelled to go deeper into this line. Highlights were for sure the yield and structure, as the plants and finished flowers looked fully developed and really great. The aroma was nice but just missing something deeper, and I feel the same about the stone. They can’t all be absolute winners!