It had been a minute since I’d smoked anything like Cookies’ London Pound Cake #75.
A wiser feller than myself once said, “sometimes you hit the weed and, well … sometimes the weed hits you.” At the start of 2020, I made a conscious shift in my consumption habits, from high-powered joints, frequent dabs, and vape carts to rolling with lower-THC flower and hemp and partaking in the occasional 10 – 20 milligram gummy. As a heavy consumer, I knew it was time to get more deliberate and tactical about my habits to reclaim a fuller, more nuanced relationship with the plant — and I did.
Now, when I hit the occasional blunt or do a quality dab or roll with a more potent strain of top-shelf flower, I get a lot more out of it than I did when I was still consuming a lot of high-THC stuff indiscriminately.
London Pound Cake #75 isn’t Cookies’ most high-powered strain, but it ain’t no mids either. As I mentioned above, before sampling some LPC #75 for this review, it’d been a while since I’d hit anything like it. Every Cookies strain I’ve ever smoked has been a memorable adventure in flavor, color, aroma, and excellent vibes. Since its inception, the Cookies brand has all but remade the California weed market in its image, making devoted hype beasts out of ardent fans and achieving a lifestyle-brand presence that most other weed companies dream of. So the real question, as always, is whether the product lives up to the hype.
In my experience, the answer has always been yes, and an eighth of London Pound Cake #75 is as good an example as any of what Cookies does best.
First impressions
The first thing you’ll notice about the LPC #75 packaging is Queen Elizabeth’s face framed in Cookies’ signature shade of blue. The English “£75” banknote design is elegant and stylish.
The back label with potency and batch information is clear, and the seal is robust without being too difficult to open back up once you’ve resealed it. Weedmaps’ listings set an eighth of LPC #75 at $60, which is more expensive than your average eighth but not outside the realm of reasonable top-shelf price tags in Southern California.
Trying London Pound Cake #75
LPC #75 is a phenotype of Cookies’ original London Pound Cake, a strain with genetics that are held close to the brand’s symbolic vest. What we do know is that it’s an indica-dominant hybrid that includes Sunset Sherbet in its lineage.
Aroma
My eighth of LPC #75 had a prominent, pitch-perfect aroma of deep cherry citrus with a hint of diesel and a dash of pine. Right off the bat this strain will appeal to those who like skunky flower and those more attracted to berry or fruity aromas.
Appearance
Every hefty nug delivered on the signature look the strain is known for: thick, forest-green leaves coated in sticky, glistening trichomes and prominent orange stigma hairs. It’s a lovely looking nug that will immediately stand out in a crowd. Most of the nugs in my eighth were also appropriately firm and bouncy, denoting the right amount of moisture for a smooth ignition.
Flavor
My original plan for this flower was to put it in a dry flower vaporizer to get a strong sense of the flavor profile before rolling a joint and heading out to the beach for a smoke and a walk.
This bud tests at 25% THC, substantial but certainly not 30%+, so I figured doing both would give me the most well-rounded experience. The first thing I noticed after a puff from the vape was that the flavor was less piney and citrusy and more skunky with a strong streak of dark berry — more indica than sativa, according to my weed-lizard brain’s idea of what an “indica” tastes like.
Effectiveness
Once I had a few puffs from the vape, I found myself already getting lost in the high and skipped my plans to roll a whole joint with this bud.
The creep-up was fast-acting, rolling into a smooth warm-blanket envelopment. It started heavy in the back of my head and curled around like a helmet of haze forming over my skull and eyes. In mere moments it all came on strong and serene like the slow, melodic drone of a Velvet Underground song.
Experience
By the time I made my way to the boardwalk, a thin overcast and a soft wind had just set in across the beach. The fading afternoon glow took the whole scene to a hazy space. The hum of my surroundings elevated my head buzz, which was complemented by an increase in body relaxation — especially in my back and shoulder muscles.
June Gloom never felt so good.
Find Cookies’ London Pound Cake #75
Bottom line
Cookies’ London Pound Cake #75 will make a great evening or weekend strain, whether you’re toking up to settle in at home or rollin’ up to a patio bar or intimate gathering. I can’t remember the last time I had such a thick but well-rounded high from just a few puffs of flower from a vape. It was smooth sailing from top to bottom, while still packing the punch you want to send you off into green hyperspace.
If you’re just a fan of dank, indica-leaning weed but also appreciate a well-rounded, flavorful smoke, LPC #75 will knock your socks off. It’s got about everything you would expect and want from the Cookies experience: dank, potent, immediately chill, and turns the world around you into a hazy, smooth party.
Featured image courtesy of Cookies
