Hello Buds!

Sam here, from Budtenders Association, giving you the low down on our Blind Review episode from last week.

Full disclosure, we had some hiccups in our first shoot and I want to take the opportunity to explain the origin of this idea and address any unanswered questions you may have. 

Blind Reviews was started on Canada Day with my roommate and fellow Budtender Joey Busat from @joesgaspump. We both had been plagued with the question by consumers “why is that Jean Guy more expensive than the others?” or vice versa. 

With branding and PK sessions not getting us what we really wanted, I had the idea to buy all 3, have my girlfriend remove all the packaging, and put each ‘Jean Guy’ in 3 different Jars. 

We had created a scorecard and had a loose process of how we could tell which was which based on quality points such as: aroma, bud size, quality of smoke and price. 

Our first episode, that still lives in my highlights on Instagram, was filmed sideways, and we can't change it because we didn't save the video. A real bummer when you think about it because it was a lot of fun, and we forgot which jar was which, then all the lids came off, and it was a lot of fun to film through and through.

Luckily, the Budtenders Association loved the idea and we attempted to whip me into shape reviewing Super Skunk for our first episode of “Blind Review Fridays” 

We experienced growing pains on our first episode, but I cannot thank our Head of Content enough for working with me to refine our following episodes.

I am really excited to take you on this journey and introduce you to some amazing Budtenders, while we smoke up and have a great time reviewing cannabis. 

Now... for some questions answered.

What kinds of things are you looking for to guess the brand and determine a product's quality?

Right off the bat, we only know what strain we are reviewing and where each brand stands according to their price points, and we compare that against quantifiers laid out in our Blind Review Report Card. In theory, the highest quality strain should be the most expensive to allow us to see true differences in the bud without branding present. 

But Sam, your report card for Episode 1 doesn't match your video, why is that?

A huge mistake on my part, pains of shooting everything in one shot and with no prior filming experience. My first episode went a bit off the rails folks! I did not stick to the plan, rest assured - the report card presented accurately displays my experience of what I had seen and smoked.

Was there any Boveda or Integra packs in the Jars?

There certainly was the Top Leaf was accompanied by a 62% Integra Boost and 18Twelve had a 58% Boveda. Both of those were removed during the jarring to prevent an advantage to guessing the brand. 

Thank you for joining us today as we are extremely excited to begin the special guest portion of Blind Review Fridays.

Join us every other Friday at 4:20pm EST as we tackle a handful of cultivars.

Take Care Buds!!