We carry lots of marijuana products at Pharmhouse Wellness—everything from edibles, to tinctures and concentrates. But, we’re big fans of flower—that’s the smokable bud that made us fall in love with cannabis from the very start.
As you know, there are many strains of cannabis flower—we carry about 70+ kinds of cannabis from cultivators across Michigan. With so many strains to choose from, how do you get started? Let us help!
If you’ve never purchased flower before, or just don’t think you’re choosing the right products, we can help. Here are some things to consider.
Cannabis is a lot like wine or beer in that there are many, complex flavor profiles for every strain that’s grown. Much of how you react, that is like or dislike a specific strain is related to how you feel about other flavors in food and drink. The names of strains can provide some insight into what you’re buying—Apple Fritter for example tastes and smells like apples and a sweet dough or cookies. Jr. Mints smells like mint with chocolate. If you enjoy the strong flavor and scent of garlic—GMO Cookies might be for you! It is a cross between Chemdawg D and a GSC Forum cut. Also known as GMO or Garlic Cookies—which says it all! And for those of you who like the scent or gas or diesel, Lilac Diesel might be for you.
Read the Menu
All of the cannabis options on our menu provide a short description of a few vital things—medical or recreational, the name of the strain—Indica, Sativa, or a hybrid—and the grower’s name.
Once you check out the options, other considerations are THC percentage and the weight by which you’ll make the purchase.
We need to say this over and over—THC shouldn’t be your only consideration when buying marijuana. You’ll find cannabis on our menu at 16 percent THC up to 30 percent. The amount of THC in flower is only one aspect of buying cannabis. As we mentioned in a previous blog—what makes cannabis flower interesting and effective are the naturally-occurring terpenes in each plant. While we don’t have terpene information available for all of our strains, our budtenders always have some insight about the flower we carry and which strains might be best for you.
Most popular strains have detailed information on websites like Leafly and Weedmaps, which will help you learn more about the strain and flavor profiles. We also encourage you to look at the cultivator’s website too. Most of them have more detailed information about the strains they grow. We work hard to bring you the best cannabis Michigan has to offer—at Pharmhouse, you should know that the cannabis we sell the best we can get our hands on and we try to test and try what we sell.
The next big decision you’ll make is how much cannabis to buy.
Check out a Strain with a Pre-roll
You can do a quick test of interesting strains with a pre-roll purchase. A pre-roll is a joint that is rolled by the cannabis grower or processor. It comes tightly packed into a rolling paper cone with a paper mouthpiece for easy smoking. They’re packed in tubes so they don’t get crushed and if you’re not good at rolling a joint or don’t want the commitment to one kind of cannabis, this is the way to go.
Generally, pre-rolls come in ½ gram and 1 gram weight—and the prices and menu details reflect that difference. A ½ gram pre-roll is like a typical joint that you or a friend might roll; a one gram is a nice big sharable joint.
Some brands, like HOG, RealLeaf, and Redemption provide detailed information about their pre-rolls, which you can find on our website.
Marijuana is Sold by Weight
When you’ve moved onto whole flower, you’ll find it sold in grams and ounces starting with either one gram or an ⅛ ounce, which is 3.5 grams—and why we’re mixing metric and imperial is kind of a mystery—but trust us—whether it is a gram or an ⅛ , it’s weighed with precision.
A gram is enough for a couple of joints, and an ⅛ is an excellent weight for checking out something you think you’ll like and giving it multiple taste tests.
Pro tip— If you find something you like, ask your budtender how much the shop has in stock. Growers change things up sometimes or produce small batches of specific strains and if you love something, it makes sense to stock up.