Origins and Backstory: One of the most famous of all Kushes, SoCal Master Kush (SCMK) is one of my all time favorite plants. It obviously hails from southern California; what is not so obvious, is its true pedigree. Dutch seed banks have long offered strains called “Master Kush” with the lineage officially listed as “Hindu Kush x Hindu Kush.” That leaves a lot to potential interpretation; some people argue Master Kush is Hindu Kush x Skunk #1, while still others claim it is an F1 of two Afghani or Kush types. It could also be an S1 of Bubba Kush, as they do share so many similarities. It’s a plausible story… Whatever it may be, it is one of the most popular and renowned of California’s classic kushes, alongside clones like L.A Pure Kush and Hollywood Pure Kush (I should note that the plant reviewed here is not the same as the Hollywood Pure Kush that is an OG type, which is likely the same as Topanga Canyon Pure Kush (link needed)). It was a staple in both medical and black markets during the Kush era, and I have long-remembered SoCal Master Kush as my all-time personally favorite indica. So much so, that my love for it was actually what originally inspired my first seed purchase of Bodhi’s Greedo’s Stash. Even when flowers were available to me a decade and more ago, the sources were not open to sharing the clone, and I thought Greedo’s was the next best thing. In any case, I hadn’t smoked Master Kush in maybe 10 years, until I saw it on GMO House of Clone’s tissue culture menu and wanted to grow it myself—this was really my first opportunity and I took it to see if it would hold up to the fondness of my memory. I grew this plant indoors at 8300’ altitude.

Morphology: A classic broadleaf or indica, Master Kush stays short and shrubby, and is a relatively slow plant—one of the slower I have grown actually, and it was difficult to keep the plant on pace with others in the room. However, I know the smoke is worth the effort. Surprisingly, she responds to topping and training well. When topped, each branch will produce an impressive grenade of a bud, which will finish fully matured harvest. Flowers are of dense, kush character. They are almost as wide as they are long, with occasional protrusions of stacked calyxes going in one direction or another. Buds will finish green with some very light purple accenting if exposed to colder temps, while the entire plant can turn purple and nearly black in some environments. Flowers and leaves near them produce intense quantities of large-glanded trichomes. Dried flowers are impressive—the light green color is complimented by the bright and contrasting orange pistils, sharp angles of the calyxes, and sheen of the resin covering any visible plant material, giving them a platinum or diamond-encrusted appearance. Really beautiful, hefty buds with a great feel in the hand and a great bag or jar appeal. Experienced users can identify that it’s kush on appearance alone.

Aroma: Dried flowers are strong-smelling and, like LAPK, could be described classically as “kushy” and “dank.” Extraordinarily so. Master Kush is mostly acrid and spicy, with definite and pronounced notes of kief and hashish, leather, vanilla, notes of pine and gasoline, and savory notes bordering on allium. It is a dry aroma, like a dusty carpet and stored cereal grains, or old conditioned leather. What makes Master Kush unique among kushes is that it is a bit gassier, skunkier, and louder than others, and also offers mild background notes of cacao, coffee, and vanilla. It is a complex and deep blend that somehow smells ancient, somewhere between incense and cologne, and you know it’s going to be great smoke. The aroma is common favorite among kushes, where it offers all the classically-loved notes, but they're tuned just right—each knob on the metaphorical mixer is right where it should be, with enough novel nuance to keep almost anyone interested.

Flavor: Like smoking a fine, masculine cologne, the aroma is immediately revealing of depth, quality, and kushy character. The aroma translates with even better results than one would expect. It’s mouth-coatingly dank, a huge component of what has made Master Kush so sought-after over the years.. While it all is experienced simultaneously as a singular, homogenous flavor, one can articulate separate notes of: spicy leather, hashish, dusty carpet, cologne, hints of gasoline, vanilla, coffee, and cacao. While I wouldn’t say it is the sandalwood of LAPK, there are even incense-like flavors present, and many folks compare the flavor to Bubba Kush—I have heard called it a “more dank version of Bubba” more than once. Guaranteed to satisfy any kush-lover.

Effects: My personally favorite aspect of this weed, Master Kush’s effects are as reliable as any variety of weed I’ve encountered. I use Master Kush for instant relaxation (I swear the first place I feel Master Kush is in lessening tension in my shoulders/traps), fighting insomnia or anxiety, for being able to just sit still when one’s mind resists it, and much more. Physical sensations and other sensual experiences are augmented. I have noticed that if I’m moving around and staying active with Master Kush, the chi-enhancing and pleasurable sensations in the body are unfortunately difficult to notice, and may not even graze my awareness. When one sits still or is otherwise sedentary, it is inherently pleasurable to sit, feel, and notice one’s body, and one can easily feel what is referred to in the east as chi. What sets Master Kush apart from many other classic kushes, in my opinion, is its euphoric, positive feeling of well-being, happiness, and optimism. While broadleaf plants have been stereotyped as “indicas” (I am aware that I, too, have contributed to this stereotype) having sensations primarily in the body, there are many exceptions and nuances to this. While I wouldn’t say that Master Kush breaks the mold, I would say it is nuanced. MK exhibits a euphoric element that sets it apart, and draws me personally to smoke Master Kush as opposed to other plants that don’t exhibit this feature. I have many memories over the years of smoking Master Kush, and all of them are quite fond to me—I recall camping on remote rivers, waking up to freezing clear air and shimmering starlight in the middle of night, shivering in a sleeping bag and wishing I could just sleep. A couple tokes of Master Kush, and I still recall feeling the intense chi like feeling in my body as I lay flat on the ground and drifted into a happy sleep in spite of all the discomforts. I also was able to refuse pharmaceutical painkillers after two major surgeries with some pride, because I had Master Kush at home and knew it would get me by. I have great memories on the beach listening to the ocean lap sand, in wood-fired mountain cabins gazing at serene snowdrifts, and wrapped in blankets with loved ones, all enhanced by Master Kush. There is something peaceful, euphoric, and feel-good about the effect that hits me just right, personally—it is actually not far off from the serene well-being felt from Piña. The only downside is that if you start early, you’ll likely end your day early—Master Kush really encourages sleep and rest, and it’s quite difficult to fight them off (along with laziness) if you start with Master Kush early in your day. In any case it is a favorite staple of mine, felt instantly behind the face as warm and happy, and even writing about it here has me looking forward to my next puff.

Overall: Master Kush has been an all-time favorite of mine, really for the entirety of my smoking career. I recall taking a bowl-sized bud of Master Kush to my senior prom to smoke, and it felt like a little piece of gold. I then encountered it again in Colorado, being sold platinum-looking kushy flowers by someone who absolutely refused to trade or sell the clone. SCMK had become a grail of sorts for me, and only this last year was I able to acquire it to run for myself. With so much time away from it, I wondered if it would hold up to my memory. In some ways, it has exceeded my old expectations while in others, it has fallen short. I think smokers really need to have the past experiences and memories with Kush generally to see, smell, and then deeply appreciate what Master Kush offers. For example if a young person who has only been smoking the most premium and modern strains encounters MK, I am curious what they’d think—but they might shrug, unimpressed by the dry, dusty, spicy flavor. For its time, it was really an exceptional and elite plant. I personally still love to consume it, but growing it isn’t as luxurious. It is slow compared to other plants, is hard to keep an even canopy in a multi-strain run, and needs defoliating and some support. However, the smoke is nostalgic for me, and even in modern cannabis—it is difficult to find an effect that is similar to these older, “Kush” plants that were once so popular. I think kushes like LAPK and SCMK still hold tremendous value. I did do some breeding with SCMK, crossing it to Cherry Pyromancer and Piña males. I am keenly looking forward to seeing what awaits in these crosses.
I do think a careful breeder could likely stabilize all the best parts of SCMK while improving other traits, and I also think some kind of “Ultimate Kush” line involving LAPK, SCMK, and perhaps others like the 1980s Hindu Kush would be a worthy project of pursuit for a breeder so-inclined. The chase for modern, “hype strains” has improved cannabis in some ways (there have never been more flavors, and especially of such novel qualities than today), but we’ve left some gold behind us, as I would argue in the case of SCMK (although I do see that Skunktek is making hybrids with this clone, even today). I love this strain, I always will and I’d love to keep it around, but even I am not immune to the sentiment of the cannabis community as a whole, of feeling the need to see what is around the next bend, because it just might be the next big thing….which is a perspective that is and always will be true. However, it is also true that we’ve had incredible cannabis plants at our disposal for….thousands of years, and SCMK is the culmination of literally, at least hundreds of years of collective human selection—nothing to be taken lightly. I really hope to see more of this cut, and the old kushes in general. Bodhi’s Bounty Hunter lines featuring kushes (Greedo’s Stash, Lando’s Stash, Jabba’s Stash, etc.) was quite popular when it was launched, and I believe signaled the demand for this vein of cannabis at the time. Could this demand still exist? I believe it could….and should be tapped into, before SCMK, LAPK, and other kushes are lost to history like so many other valuable cannabis plants unfortunately have. F1s like Bodhi’s lines are great and encourage exploration, but I’d love to see some of these plants worked more in-depth to modernize them without losing their best qualities. I do think it’s possible to breed a Master Kush seed line that smells, tastes, and feels like Master Kush, while also being more vigorous. Maybe even you, reader, will be the one responsible for revitalizing these ancient cannabis lines!