Page 1 of 1

Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 2:01 am
by xsinx
MOM Name Black River (http://www.blackriver.link)

Overall rating out of 10: 7/10

Sign Up: Skipped that part, contacted James directly on Discord inquiring about 420 deals. I made a proposition and he accepted it. I paid 200$ shipped for 1 OZ (14g of each 2 strains)

Ordering & Pricing: There are two categories, Craft and Premium. Their prices are pretty standard for craft / AAAA stuff, from 110 to 150$ a half zip but you get 10% off if you take two, so 270$ an OZ for the most expensive stuff. Reasonable for craft. There premium stuff sells in 7g increments, from 40 to 55 a quarter.

Ordering was done through Discord so I simply told him what I wanted, sent an EMT and address and that was that. James was nice to talk to, no complaints.

Packaging Did not take pics but I was surprised to see the size of the package. It came in a pretty huge box (14x12x8 approx). Inside was a lose vacuum bag that was tiny vs the box size with absolutely no packing material inside. The bag contained two 250ml Mason-style jars containing the weed. No humidity packs included.

Products / Photos:
Image
Image
Strain Name: Purple Urkle (by The Wellness Collective)
Strain Fidelity: I've only had Purple Urkle once before and it was totally different from this. I'm not sure which is the "true" Purple Urkle, but the other one I had had no actual purple color. Leafly shows wildly different colors. The taste of this is definitely not what Leafly describes (the other one I had totally matched the description).
Size of buds: 8/10, nice sized nugs
Bag Appeal: 8/10, really nice purple color, good trim but not much trichomes to be seen
Cure & Humidity: 7/10, it has good humidity but based on my experience I'm under the impression this weed was very dry and got rehumidified.
Smell: 5/10, it has very little nose even when broken up or ground. Smells kushy/floral with an ever so subtle sweetness.
Harshness vs Smoothness: 8/10, it's smooth but if you take a huge rip it shows it's teeth a bit. Not harsh at all.
Taste Intensity: 6/10, it tastes similar to what it smells, kushy/flowery but the sweetness you can smell does not translate to the taste
Taste Complexity: 7/10, it's not very terpy, but you can taste it over the smoke. It's very kushy with not much subtlety to it.
Buzz Intensity: 9/10, got a solid indica buzz out of it and went zombie on the couch.
Price: Regular price is 115/14g, paid ~80$
Value: Would not be happy at 115, but at 80 it wasn't a bad deal.
"A" Scale Rating: Sold as craft AAAA, I'd give it an AAA rating myself.

---
Image
Image
Strain Name: Puppies Breath (by The Wellness Collective)
Strain Fidelity: DeathDawg x Stardawg, never had either of those strains so no clue
Size of buds: 3/10, this is literally the worse sized AAAA I ever got, a few half decent buds but the rest is all popcorn/smalls/shake
Bag Appeal: 7/10, ignoring the size factor and knocking out a point right off the bat for that huge stem sticking out on the right bottom nug, this is some pretty unique looking weed. It's extremely caked, but it looks like old stock.
Cure & Humidity: 3/10, while it's not to the point of disintegrating, it's dangerously close to finger busting dryness, some of the driest weed I ever got.
Smell: It had almost no smell when I cracked open the jar. It's a bit earthy/woodsy with something that reminds me of garlic, but it's soooo faint. Even busted and ground not much aroma escaped this weed.
Harshness vs Smoothness: 10/10, extremely smooth smoke, huge rips are not a problem
Taste Intensity: 8/10, it's not very strong, but the extreme smoothness lets the terps express themselves clearly, even if they are not extremely loud
Taste Complexity: 10/10, this is a very unique strain. The main terpenes I'm getting are a sharp sourness, but there's a woodsy background aroma that's almost as strong. There is also that garlic I mentioned that brings a savory/spicy veil that subtly mixes with the two dominant flavors. It's a very complex taste and it's a pleasure to smoke.
Buzz Intensity: The very thin information I found lists this as a sativa dom and I could definitely tell it was sativa while smoking it. I did not get a strong buzz out of this despite smoking a rather large joint, but the buzz was heady/functional and messed a bit with my senses, very interesting buzz.
Price: Sold at 140$ regular price, paid ~100
Value: With proper humidity, no shake/popcorn/smalls it would be worth the reg price.. but what I got was rough for 100$.
"A" Scale Rating: AAAA/Craft if not for the aforementioned issues.


Incentive for Customers: Pricing model that rewards combining stuff, 10% off for 420 and James gave me free shipping and rounded it up to 200.

Incentive for Review: None, I review all my stuff as usual.

Notes: I feel that overall the price I paid was alright for what I got, but I definitely don't feel like I struck gold as far as 420 deals go. I would have been slightly pissed paying full price for what I got. I understand the shake and popcorn needs to be moved too, but IMHO the stuff should be sorted and the trim/popcorn/smalls should be sold at a significant discount and sold as such. The prices aren't close to good enough to get away with this amount of loose stuff.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 2:02 am
by xsinx
Note: I'm using a new rating/review system for product reviews, it's a work in progress, let me know if you have any feedback on that.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:35 am
by voose64
Nice detailed review and I appreciate your scoring/rating system , it should be the new template for future reviews here👍

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:56 am
by xsinx
voose64 wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:35 am Nice detailed review and I appreciate your scoring/rating system , it should be the new template for future reviews here👍
Thanks, it's a work in progress and it's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm working on making a review system that's objective and that can then be viewed with a subjective filter. More on all that later, but if any of you see missing review points you would have liked included let me know. Forgot to include medical effects for instance, mostly because its something I care little about but others might be looking at these reviews with only that in mind.

Anyway, work in progresss.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:16 am
by itsjustasalad
Nice review guy. Cant get over some of the descriptive words yourself and others use. I like the idea of a template; sort of help myself structure things a bit more.

Still keeping BR as an open option. Seems to carry a bunch of pink strains.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:02 pm
by jsj715
xsinx wrote: Note: I'm using a new rating/review system for product reviews, it's a work in progress, let me know if you have any feedback on that.
I definitely like the new template! I've only posted one review so far and this would help organize it better. I also like that it has individual ratings because an overall x/10 rating is too ambiguous, some people take cost into account while some look purely at quality amongst other variations in one's own personal rating systems.

The one piece of feedback I have is that for the "strain fidelity" category I don't know if the average user will really know what that means.

What would you think about using the below instead to make it more understandable for the lay user?

Strain name and lineage:

Strain experience/comparison:

I have another order coming in soon and wanted to do another review, I'll make sure to use this newer template to make it more concise :)

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:22 pm
by xsinx
jsj715 wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:02 pmI definitely like the new template! I've only posted one review so far and this would help organize it better. I also like that it has individual ratings because an overall x/10 rating is too ambiguous, some people take cost into account while some look purely at quality amongst other variations in one's own personal rating systems.

The one piece of feedback I have is that for the "strain fidelity" category I don't know if the average user will really know what that means.

What would you think about using the below instead to make it more understandable for the lay user?

Strain name and lineage:

Strain experience/comparison:

I have another order coming in soon and wanted to do another review, I'll make sure to use this newer template to make it more concise :)
I understand it's a bit cryptic for the average user but it's something connoisseurs would be interested in. I've seen countless claims of MOMs and growers renaming / guessing strains or simply coming up with new names altogether, add phenos to the mix and you can end up with 5 versions of the same strain that are totally different. In the case of the Purple Urkle, I've only had that strain once before and absolutely loved it but it was absolutely nothing like this one. I don't have enough info to call either one "wrong", but Leafly's description and reviews suggest it should be grapes/berry/sweet and I'm getting none of this in this version of Purple Urkle and I totally did in the one I had before.

I don't think that "field" will go beyond "comment", I won't be scoring it since I don't think anyone can claim to be able to access this properly across many many strains.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:25 pm
by jsj715
I had edited my last post but you replied to quick lol!

I added it here as a reply instead:

A few more friendly suggestions in the pursuit of making it easier to understand/clearer.

What about changing "Buzz Intensity:" to "Buzz Intensity and effects:"? I also like describe how/where it hits me (just as you have in your review), not just how hard and this promotes other people to as well instead of saying just "It hit me really hard".

What do you think about adding this to the last category to avoid confusion "A" Scale Rating(A-AAAA/craft):? I've seen one or two moms use an A-AAAAA scale and many also use +/- in their scales also.

Lastly "Price:" and "Value:" are closely related, what would you think about combining it to "Price/Value:"?

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:35 pm
by xsinx
jsj715 wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:25 pm I had edited my last post but you replied to quick lol!

I added it here as a reply instead:

A few more friendly suggestions in the pursuit of making it easier to understand/clearer.

What about changing "Buzz Intensity:" to "Buzz Intensity and effects:"? I also like describe how/where it hits me (just as you have in your review), not just how hard and this promotes other people to as well instead of saying just "It hit me really hard".

What do you think about adding this to the last category to avoid confusion "A" Scale Rating(A-AAAA/craft):? I've seen one or two moms use an A-AAAAA scale and many also use +/- in their scales also.

Lastly "Price:" and "Value:" are closely related, what would you think about combining it to "Price/Value:"?
Yeah good input. Thing is, my plan is to make a form out of this which basically has a 1-10 (or % whatever) note along with a comment field where the reviewer can add whatever he feels relevant to that point. "Effects" is not a point that can be rated IMHO, whereas intensity is an objective thing. To me, the effects belong to the comment and are not "rated" in any way other than subjective opinion.

As for price and value, I hesitated myself but given that I want to express each review point as a note, then perhaps price isn't really a review point and more of a "meta data" like the strain name, lineage, etc. Value however is definitely a review point that can be rated objectively.

Last but not least when the system is up, each review point with come with instructions/examples to help the reviewer be as "standardized" as possible in his evaluation.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:08 pm
by jsj715
xsinx wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:35 pm Yeah good input. Thing is, my plan is to make a form out of this which basically has a 1-10 (or % whatever) note along with a comment field where the reviewer can add whatever he feels relevant to that point. "Effects" is not a point that can be rated IMHO, whereas intensity is an objective thing. To me, the effects belong to the comment and are not "rated" in any way other than subjective opinion.

As for price and value, I hesitated myself but given that I want to express each review point as a note, then perhaps price isn't really a review point and more of a "meta data" like the strain name, lineage, etc. Value however is definitely a review point that can be rated objectively.

Last but not least when the system is up, each review point with come with instructions/examples to help the reviewer be as "standardized" as possible in his evaluation.
I appreciate you taking the time to give more insight on your plans for the review template!

My worry in general was that reviewers may not put enough details in the comments, a rating/% for buzz intensity means little to the reader if they don't know the type of effects, the reviewers tolerance, consumption method, amount consumed, etc... Seeing that you have plans for instructions/examples on what to put in each spot is an improvement on the current copy+paste template that is there now so I'm excited to hear that.

I'm new to the the site and I'm looking forward to getting more involved, the community seems receptive and encouraging to it's member's with minimal toxicity that is rampant on some other messaging boards :)

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:09 pm
by Evilevile
Nice review of this little known MOM. Really glad I saw this before making a purchase decision. It's too bad that Puppie's Breath was old and dry. I was really eyeing that rare one up.

It seems to me like BlackRiver needs to improve their quality control, as well as cycle in/out inventory more often, or sort and sell some cheaper.
Maybe they are not properly storing it. Maybe it was a shit batch. Maybe just a one off. What do I know. But it's sad to see.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:15 pm
by Theharmonycollective
This is Harmony Collective. We dont work with a strain called "Puppies Breath (by Harmony Collective), so this post is either bullshit, or some idiot running a mom is selling garbage and using our name and making up strain names.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 11:38 pm
by xsinx
Evilevile wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:09 pm Nice review of this little known MOM. Really glad I saw this before making a purchase decision. It's too bad that Puppie's Breath was old and dry. I was really eyeing that rare one up.

It seems to me like BlackRiver needs to improve their quality control, as well as cycle in/out inventory more often, or sort and sell some cheaper.
Maybe they are not properly storing it. Maybe it was a shit batch. Maybe just a one off. What do I know. But it's sad to see.
I talked to James on Discord and shared the review. He explained that usually when there is shake in BR stuff, it's added as extra after nice buds are weighted. However, the sad look of the Puppies was not that, it was a jar he was keeping for himself but decided to put up for 420 because people liked it. I feel as a client I should have been warned before buying, especially since we talked one on one on Discord, it wasn't just a random order on the site with no comms, I have him my order on Discord.

Anyway, I'm not bitter, the stuff is really nice despite this and with the 420 deal it's not too bad, but it certainly doesn't make me eager to order again.

Re: Black River - 420 deal - 2 strains

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:14 pm
by xsinx
edit: Holy shit, I'm truly sorry I fucked up and somehow wrote "Harmony Collective" instead of "The Wellness Collective" when writing the review. This is 100% my fault, I absolutely did not mean to create any confusion and Black River did not in any case misrepresent the product. My bad. I'm so sorry.