Melonade

Some strains come recommended, and others come with a full-throated hosannah. That’s how we felt about this Hybrid strain from Alien Labs called, Melonade. We discovered there was only one gram left in the shop, and when we decided to buy it. The budtender smiled and shook her head as she uttered, “You just made a lot of people really disappointed.”

Now that’s an endorsement.

Appearance 5/5
This strain came inside a vacuum-sealed pouch. While this can sometimes make the plant pods themselves appear pressed or flattened, that wasn’t the case with this Melonade. The roughly-equal-sized pods tumbled out of the packaging like clowns from a Volkswagen. The color was actually several shades of green (all medium-light to very-light) when combined with the rich deposit of crystals all over the leaves.

Aroma 5/5
The scent of this plant does carry some hints of melon like the name suggests, but it’s got so much more going on than that. It’s a full bodied scent that’s rich and earthy, while also being spicy. Not to mention sweet, like melon.

Taste 4/5
This strain’s smoke was extremely mellow. It wasn’t too harsh or hot on our throats. It was moderately strong, and tasted earthy and spicy. Sort of like drinking a well-balanced IPA, there were lots of flavor to enjoy - with a little bit of bite. But a good kind of bite. Not the kind that bites back.

Effect 5/5
We really dug the effects of this strain. It, in a way, produced a feeling of chill so massive that I thought I was a penguin. Weird, right? Time slowed down after I smoked this, with thoughts, emotions, and words just sort of effortlessly coming into focus. Everything felt cool - in a jazzy sort of way. No wonder they call joints “jazz cigarettes.”

Honestly, this is one of the best (and tastiest) Hybrid strains we’ve smoked in a while.  The sensation was pretty unique, and it’s definitely something we’d love to share with our close friends.  Everyone needs to chill out, and this strain will make it happen for you.

If you ask us, the future of weed isn’t with MedMen, it’s with the Buddha Company. This is what dispensaries should look like from here on out -- totally compliant and technologically integrated, but still maintaining personal interaction. If you’re interested (or skeptical) we invite you to drop in at Buddha Company DTLA to see for yourself.

Melonade (Hybrid) - $15/g

Address:
837 S Los Angeles St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Phone #: (213) 943-7950
Open: Mon-Fri - 8am - 10pm; Sat-Sun - 10am - 10pm

When it comes to buying weed in DTLA, the possibilities are cropping up faster than we can review them. And while MedMen - DTLA might be the most well known on the block, we think that’s a damn shame, especially considering you can just walk a few blocks east, and visit the superior club known as, Buddha Company DTLA.

We love this place simply because it offers what MedMen cannot -- personalized shopping. Upon entering this shop, we immediately checked-in with Security and were directed to the seats nearby where we could wait for the next available budtender. Given the chance to sit, we were able to look over the place, which is fairly minimal by default rather than design. This place kind of reminds us of our first post-college apartment -- IKEA furniture, a few posters stuck to the wall, but not much else in terms of comfort or class. We kept it simple back then, mostly because we had to. At Buddha Company, they’re keeping it simple, too - but it feels like a conscious choice, rather than making the best of limited circumstances.

Once our budtender was ready, we stepped up to the display counter. As we looked over their selection -- a very fine collection of flowers, edibles, pre-rolls, waxes, concentrates, and CBD stuff. They had any and everything a user, customer, or patient would be interested in.

Each budtender had an iPad that they used as their trusty guide. Everything we inquired about, or chose to purchase, was cross-referenced with their tablet. They were able to either add it to our cart for check out, or check the inventory to see if it was actually available to buy. The process was so smooth and rehearsed for our budtender that we could tell they had been doing this for a while. The whole process moved so efficiently that we wondered if we weren’t looking at the future of retail.

But what mattered to us most was that the budtender was there with us the whole time. Unlike MedMen, the iPad was their tool to assist us, not a tool for us (the customer) to help ourselves. If we had a question about a product, we simply asked the person assigned to help us. If this was MedMen, we would scroll through the iPad’s information, searching for answers ourselves, probably only to be interrupted by a red-shirted employee asking if we need any assistance.

Unlike that other shop, Buddha Company never drops you in the middle of the store unattended. You take a guided tour of the display with your budtender leading the way. And they let you know that all their expertise and knowledge is at your disposal. It’s the way things should be, and we hope that this model resonates more with consumers than the MedMen one. We need a more hands-on approach to buying marijuana. Otherwise, new customers might get confused, lost, or turned off by what they don’t know.