Among the numerous cannabis dispensaries in the South Bay, Purple Lotus Patient Center possesses a familiar yet individualistic character through its distinct balance of highly diverse and reasonably priced cannabis, coupled with a convincingly unintentional outward ruggedness. With an entrance at the tail end of a narrow and discrete business lot, Purple Lotus’ prompt and courteous staff does a great job of utilizing their limited space, efficiently guiding a continuous stream of patients to a relatively large bud room accented by a dedicated concentrate bar. While Purple Lotus offers cannabis products only, and does not delve into the larger holistic healing community, it solidly succeeds in its sole offering.
For a patient without a clear idea of what they are looking for, and with a color coded selection of more than 60 quality strains, the bud tenders I encountered at Purple Lotus excelled at condensing an otherwise directionless journey of inconclusive choice into a productive back and forth dialogue. This personal attention to my preferences rapidly honed in on a top shelf classic, the predominantly sativa Platinum Maui Wowie.
With well manicured dark green leaves and plentiful orange pistils overlaid with a deceptively modest coat of resin, Purple Lotus’ Maui Wowie is visually on par with expectations for a classic strain focusing more on quality of experience rather than breathtaking jar appeal.
Attention to experience, however, is not an excuse for the initial hint of fresh cut grass the Maui Wowie emits, indicating an unfinished cure. This smell of grass lingers as a result of chlorophyll decomposition in recently harvested bud that has not completely gone through the last step in cannabis harvest of curing—or slow drying—after being initially trimmed and dried of a large part of its water content. Overall, the bud is without a particularly strong scent profile, but features a flat, earthy and musty composition beyond its detracting chlorophyll-laced start.
Upon lighting up I immediately noticed a very heavy skunk in the initial hit, free of a complementary sour element. In the secondary inhale a pleasant mango and orange mixed with an intermittently harsh, moderately chemical tasting throat hit that confirms my suspicions of an incomplete cure.
While this batch of Maui Wowie definitely has room to improve in bringing out its otherwise positive smell and taste characteristics, the headspace of its experience grazes a unique and ideal asymptote. Possessing a high THC content while still maintaining CBD’s calming effects, Maui Wowie excels at filtering out passing ripples into negative territory, and accomplishes this with an almost physically tangible push upwards. Coupled nicely with the strain’s superb anxiety relief, this same resistance towards experiential oscillations drives a very fluid stream of lucid creative consciousness. With time, Maui Wowie transitions to a relaxing, natural feeling of contentment that, while absent of sedating physical pain relief, rounds out a very well done classically sativa-dominant experience that makes for a great daytime strain.
THE BREAKDOWN
Dispensary: 9/10
Purple Lotus Patient Center | 903 Commercial St, Ste 50 | San Jose, CA 95112
Pros:
- Diverse selection, friendly staff
- Fair prices, tax included
- Very generous with free rewards for returning and first time patients
Cons:
- Limited, cramped parking
- In a commercial zone and hard to see from the street
- Cash only
Strain: 8/10
Platinum Maui Wowie – Predominantly Sativa Hybrid | $20/gram, $60/eighth | Rolled in ¼” Raw Hemp Paper
Pros:
- Very uplifting without inducing paranoia
- Not foggy, very lucid
- Fosters rather than attenuates motivation
Cons:
- Grassy smell and inconsistent taste due to incomplete cure
- Not particularly pleasing to smoke, despite positive head change
