Desert Dabs

The dogwalkers hit the road to visit cannabis-forward Palm Springs where Nina showed Vanessa the ropes. With a wellness ethos, Palm Springs transported us to a super mellow oasis a couple of hours outside of LA. Nina was also excited to take Vanessa to a few of her favorite places in PS, including coffee hotspot Koffi and Just Fabulous, the book store next door that sells great cannabis culture books and fantastic gifts (ofc we brought them a copy of How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time) between exploring dispensaries. 

After visiting the elegantly designed Emerald & Sage dispensary to get a few pre-rolls and transdermal patches, we headed to the Heightend Dispensary and Lounge for their wide-selection of rosin. The budtenders provided a relaxed and welcoming energy and a helpful approach to customer service. It was Nina's first time buying rosin since Puffco sent us chic dab rigs last week. We loved getting into their refrigerator section and went on a little shopping spree. Here's Nina's review from her first real dip into dabs:

Mountain Man Melts - Here’s what an amateur I am: I threw away the box so I don’t know what this is (would love a label on the bottom) but it’s yellowish-white with a sugary texture and not gooey. It looks like when you cream butter and sugar together. The little jar holds a big, bright, citrusy smell. It hits harder on medium heat - personally, I programmed my Peak Pro to use Puffco’s custom disco lights so I refer to this as a disco hit. I do feel a little burn in my throat - the trade off with the medium heat - but good bang for your buck (the least expensive of the extracts I got, iirc). A nice daytime high with a fine taste, a good soldier that gets the job done.

710 Live Rosin Badder Melon Soda #24 (Papaya x Maks Gak) - This was my favorite and I inhaled it. I read something recently that said it was harder and harder to find those strains that gave people really energetic, upbeat highs and I gotta say this delivered that. I did seem to have a melony flavor but maybe I was imaging that because of the name. I often wonder if I attribute flavors to strains because of the name. It was delightful, whatever the fruity flavors were. I dabbed this one on low heat as it was practically melting just having the heat of the day on it. I feel like low heat really allows this one to open up, flavor-wise.

710 Live Rosin Badder ZZ Top #3 (Topanga OG Kush x Z) - A funky, pungent pine with a touch of diesel. It looks like cooled clarified butter, opaque and pale yellow. This particular rosin tickles my nose and makes me sneeze. I don’t know why. It seems like more of a medium-bodied badder. Clean and a nice puff of smoke that you can feel in  your chest (especially if you sneeze). I hit this on low because it looked delicate. 

Cannabiotix Dry Sift Rosin Badder OG Kush - High level of difficulty as I’m using the stainless steel tool, not a heated knife, and as soon as this badder loses its chill it’s really hard to get off the knife. I like it at night, cold. OG Kush is one of my absolute favorite strains. Dark and sticky, this badder hits hard and has lots of smoke so if you’re looking for that (and who isn’t), this delivers. It got me fuckin ripped, a nice body high. My favorite thing to do when I’m this kinda high is to get out a stretching strap, put on some Black Sabbath, chill the fuck out and go to sleep.

Vanessa chiming in here! Nina and I really dabbed down in the desert. I bought a selection of rosin from Heightened Dispensary and Lounge, shoutout to Steph for the recommendations 💚 Here are my two cents on the rosin selection in Palm Springs:

710 Live Rosin Tier 2 Mango Banana #9 (SB x KC 36 x Forbidden banana F1) - First pressed hash rosin moves like taffy when it's pulled. This honey banana sweet tasting rosin hits right between the eyes and makes my legs feel like jello. The flavor brings tropical exhale notes and lingers in your mouth like a a fresh fruit smoothie. Is it me or do they give more first pressed rosin compared to badder?

710 Live Rosin Badder Garlic Cocktail #7 (GMO x Mimosa) - Bright citrus from the Mimosa which immediately lifted me up and then the GMO reminded me that 710 hits. I use the YoCan heated ceramic tool and starting from cold grab a small chunk of badder. Then over the chamber I pulse the tool on and off until I see the goober slip off. I pulse so the tool doesn’t start to vaporize the rosin. When I tried this badder I used medium heat dabs, but as I explored the PuffCo, I have grown to appreciate a low dab, 490°F for 55 seconds with multiple long pulls. I’ll have to pop by Cornerstone Wellness again to pick up another jar. 

Cannabiotix Dry Sift Rosin Badder L’Orange Haze - We gravitated toward this badder first in the rotation of dabs taken while sitting in lounge chairs wearing vintage Ace Hotel caftans as BonBon and Spot chased each other around the pool. The uplifting high from the cross between Orange Crush and Lemonburst put us in a euphoric mood. A few clicks later and a delivery guy pulled up with a bag full of tacos and flautas from Mickey’s Kitchen Mexican Cuisine. Great late-night delivery option with the crunchiest tacos that I destroyed in less time than it takes to heat up the rig.

Punch Extracts Tier 4 Live Rosin Badder Peach Papayahuasca (Moroccan Peaches x Papaya Huasca) - Last but definitely not least this Punch Extracts Peach Papayahuasca badder selected by Steph at Heightened Dispensary and Lounge. It kept me on my feet during the Sticky Icky Potstickers sesh. Fruity, loud, and highly smokable, Nina and I crushed this jar of badder. Punch Extracts tiers their rosin, so I look forward to trying different levels of their artistry in the future. This badder was a powerhouse, kept me moving in the kitchen, albeit a little clumsily. 

We'll remember to snap more photos before gobbling up the jars for future posts. Let us know your favorite hashmakers in the comments and where you would like us to road trip to next in sunny California.

Canna-Caviar Service: Weed, Butter, and Bougie Behavior

Let me set the scene: I’m standing in my kitchen holding a bowl of Cherry Cheesecake rosin-infused buckwheat blini batter, a jar of Hey Caviar on ice, and a glass of too-sweet champagne, wondering… is this too much? No. It’s exactly the right amount. Just like my dosing. This was Canna-Caviar Service, and here’s everything I used to make it happen. From food-grade rosin to fancy ramekins to the very specific offset spatula that flipped the blini (because yes, it matters).

The Weed: Cherry Cheesecake Rosin, Baby

I used food-grade live rosin from Sonoma Hills Farm—specifically the Cherry Cheesecake strain—because I find fruitier strains taste better in a variety of recipes. This wasn’t top-tier dab material, and that’s the point. When you’re eating the rosin, a little plant matter is fine. You’re not judging it on the melt, you’re judging it on the flavor. I dropped the rosin straight into a Duralex glass bowl with some melted butter so the rosin wouldn’t stick (a pro tip from someone who’s scraped too many bowls in her life). I weighed it out using a Bonvoisin milligram scale, which I love because accuracy is sexy and scooped it up with a YoCan Blade heating tool (thanks Cathy). Imagine a hot butter knife but tiny and made for stoners like me. And yes, I decarboxylated it properly. You can watch how here and get my cookbook How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time for a chart on which concentrates need to be decarboxylated.

The Caviar: Salted, Chilled, and Not Just for Rich People

We served Hey Caviar aka the people’s caviar. It's affordable, luxurious, and didn’t taste like it was trying too hard. Served on ice, in a silver tray my co-host Nina inherited, because we’re fancy. Spoons were mother of pearl, obviously. (Metal messes with the flavor and I am not spending all this time flipping blini just to taste tin.) A brief historical aside: In early America, caviar was so abundant it was fed to pigs. Literal pigs. Which feels like a metaphor for capitalism. Now we’re putting cannabis in it. The future is today.

The Blini: Little Pancake Pillows of THC

Speaking of blini, the base of the whole shebang. The buckwheat yeasted blini recipe from Food52 to be exact. I dosed them at ~5mg THC per blini, because we’re classy and we want seconds and thirds and fourths. Blini were fanned out dramatically on a Heath Ceramics plate, like edible dominoes. Served with crème fraîche, chopped chives, chopped egg whites, yolks, and a joint of Cannabiotix Tropicana. To cook the blini I used an All-Clad stainless pan which takes time to heat but cooks everything perfectly when heated properly. A 1 tablespoon disher/scoop for exact batter blobs. To flip the tiny blini, I used an offset spatula. Lately I’ve been grabbing my Messermeister Kawashima 8” chef’s knife because I feel powerful wielding it. One of my favorite cutting boards is a tiny one from woodworker Edward Wohl, it’s a small maple cutting board without any cuts. All toppings were nestled into Heath Ceramics ramekins and Crate and Barrel mini bowls because the devil is in the details.

Champagne: Questionably Sweet, Still Chic

Nina brought a bottle of something sparkly and slightly too sweet, but you know what? We weren’t mad. We toasted like high society. “Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends” as my friend Chloe likes to say (if you’ve read the intro of my book you’ll know who I’m talking about). Also: Nina’s Ukrainian. Caviar is culture. This wasn’t just a Kitchen Sesh, it was a celebration of Nina joining the livestream as a co-host. A salty, fizzy, THC-laced moment of joy in a time when we need it the most.

Final Notes from the Infusion Throne

This was stoner luxury, served on ice. You don’t need to wait for a holiday or a harvest moon to treat yourself to caviar and infused blini. You just need a little rosin, the right tools, and maybe a bestie with a silver tray. If you want to learn how to actually do this—not guess, not Google, not blow your rosin on YouTube fails—join me every Saturday at 1:20pm PT for my Kitchen Sesh, and grab a copy of my cookbook How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time.