As promised a fortnight back, this is the 2017 Cannabis Oil Vape Cart review bundle I've been whittling away at for most of the summer, reflecting on several years of adult medical use and all I've learned in the process. (As a fellow metalhead I've known since we were boys -also settling into his fourth decade a little more comfortable being himself- has taken to saying "stick around and stfu youngin' whiles I learn you a thing or two!")
Absolute Xtracts are always reliable, potent, give a nice throat hit and aren’t likely to make you cough even when taking decent sized hits and blowing clouds. Quality CO2 oil, solvent-free and tested with results on the label. Glass tanks, wickless as far as I can see, refillable, comes in a small cardboard box with a small shelf footprint. Their carts have a decent shelf life, they come highly recommended, are widely carried at least in the Bay Area and South Bay. If you can, don’t miss Absolute Xtracts products!
O.pen Vape diversified early so they’re a bit more in need of a complex review. The standard o.pen vape carts were thinned out with PEG in them so you’d get huge clouds and a harsh throat hit but little by way of potency. DGMW, they’re fun enough to toke on, but you’ll blow through a sativa cart in a single afternoon if you’re a head like I am... There’s a kind of humidity to them like the generic Bloom Farm Sativa/Indica preloaded vape carts and I've had probably the widest variation between passably-potent and meh from o.penvape's original not-Reserve and not-Premium Reserve tanks.
Then there are the Open Vape “Reserve” which are strain-specific 100% pure CO2 extracted oil, and for the most part they’re fine enough. They do a decent job of maintaining the terpene flavor without smacking you in the face with it the way some newer products tend to (Spliffin, 710 King Pen, Kurvana.)
Open Vape also has a premium reserve cart that’s 510-threaded pyrex glass and dual coil - so it works with a VV battery, either theirs or someone else’s. Comes in a recycled unbleached cardboard narrowbox like a mid-range fountain pen or something. Quality stuff, their reserve carts, and well worth the loot. Not too terpy for me, but plenty potent with a decent throat hit. Zero additives and yet decent clouds.
Lucid concentrates make oils and cartridges that are high quality glass, wickless, and high potency pure oil. They also sell branded VV batteries and shatter - they’re not just oil makers. Lucid are a dependable brand, but not too widely distributed from what I can see of the South Bay area. Most often found in downtown San Francisco, but well worth picking up if you see them.
Greenrock Botanicals, discovered at the legendary Granny Purps just up the road, make a quality glass cartridge, metal mouthpiece, dual coil wickless bottom-fed draw in a black-sleeved tank with little windows on the sides. They only use pure CO2 oil and they're plenty potent without overdoing the terps. The terpene flavors are present and easy to taste but they're not stomped on and overdone. This is a very well balanced experience. The carts are 650mg for the price of a half gram! Lab test results with a convenient QR code on the side of the box. Tasteful logo on the tank, nothing ostentatious. Even comes with a tiny rubber band with the strain abbreviation on it, a thoughtful addition making their tanks easier to identify when out of the package. Excellent in every way - even refillable.
There is Spliffin’ which are almost always terpene burnt like a smelly marker from 2nd grade shoved up your nose. They’re decent, potent, but they’re way too terpy and they give a harsh throat hit because the terps are cranked up to 11. Glass tank, fatter than most 510s, dual coil, branded tank with their logo all but neon-lit on the tank itself. Comes in a plastic pouch like a bag of peanuts with a peg-hole for the store racking. The mouthpiece is metal and twists off so you can refill them, which is a serious plus, although whatever you chase through the cart is gonna have that too-terpy aftertaste for the first couple dozen hits, be warned.
Kurvana began to be a regularly stocked product about a year and a half ago. They’re also very terpy, though the flavors are less in-your-face than Spliffin’, they are still gonna give you a strong throat hit and larger hits will make you cough. The potency is greater than expected, but the terpy hits make you wanna take your time. These come in a little plastic test-tube with a cork plug on top, a bright label on the outside and a little branded cuff around the metal base of the cart complete with their kpen.co web address - so you can help them advertise.
Another thing I discovered in 2017 is the 710 King Pen, a full-gram glass cart. I tried Gelato bc it was their only hybrid at the time. I was blown away by how terpy the thing is. It’s a decently potent cart and clearly well-made but it’s too terpy for its own good. A strong throat hit should not be followed by the urge to cough unless you’re taking legendarily massive rips. Even small hits off this thing are enough to make me cough. The learning curve for vaping should not be this high. Kingpen gets a passing grade for potency but needs to tone down the terps. Or I need to vape it through a bong...*shrug*
Another recent product is the Nova CBD 2:1 half gram cart. It’s plastic, it’s humid, and it goes quickly. But it’s also the nearly perfect balance of terpy flavor and potency. Decent quality that could be improved, but it’s a mild throat hit and unlikely to make you cough. At $20 for a half gram they're respectable value for the price. I bought six - you can vape off half and then refill/mix with your favorite oil syringe and have your own remixed CBD and whatever-else-you-want. That's my kind of thing...
Delta 9 come in unique triangular boxes and the tanks are grey matte-finish aluminum with an opaque plastic mouthpiece that also holds the oil mix. It’s an oddball package I haven’t seen for sale in almost a year. I don’t even know if they still make it like that. Delta 9 has a branded battery with the standard 510 threading, despite being a mass-produced product it has decent life and doesn’t overheat, although it’s a fixed voltage. These are amusing in that there are Strawberry and Spearmint flavored sativas, both of which would score far higher marks of recommendation if they were remotely consistent.
Some of the Delta 9 carts leaked in their mylar sealed triangular pouches, some of them seemed to have dried up partway before I opened them, and needed several dry fires (press button without drawing on mouthpiece) before working at all. Another one was clogged up and couldn’t be forced to draw even after several dry fires. I gave up on that cart and turned the mouthpiece upside down to let the oil run into a little dab-tainer and then I dabbed it on my first ceramic nail to use it up. When they work, they’re awesome. When they don’t is just sadly more often in my personal experience. And none of that is on the dispensary itself, it’s most likely due to something beyond their control. I found an old Spearmint sativa one in a drawer the other day and it still works...so I can’t summarize other than to say that my experience with Delta 9’s carts is all over the map.
Brite Labs is another quality product. I bought the package including a cartridge and a standard 510-threaded battery with stylus tip, same as the first o.penvape battery I ever owned. The oil is pure and additive free, although somewhere in the 40-50% THC and thus a thinner, clearer oil than higher concentrations. The flavor is present and not overpowering, not too many terpenes and not any of them cranked up loud. The cart is metal-mouthpiece, high quality clear plastic or glass in the tank itself, and single coil as far as I can tell. Unstuck, openable and refillable, a cartridge worth reusing. I haven’t seen the brand in a minute but I still have their branded battery and it hasn’t died yet fwiw.
CO2 Clear was a favorite of mine earlier this spring. They also seemed to strike an admirable, almost addictive balance between the terpenes, the potency and the replay value. I bought 10 of them in various flavors and blew through them pretty quickly. Highly recommended, if you can find any!
Lola Lola were doing a demo day at the dispensary a few months ago. I bought a few carts. They’re packaged like perfume in flowery boxes. The carts are glass. The vape is okay, sometimes a little terpy, sometimes a little bland. They’re hard to quantify and sometimes made me cough no matter what size hit I was taking. I don’t think I’ll be rushing to buy them again right away but I ain't hating - I hope they improve and I'd try them again someday.
Then there’s the Pax Era pods. A universe unto itself, incompatible with 510 threaded standard vape cartridges. Think something made by Apple, sleek and short, metal and skinny. Small enough to hide in your hand. A mouthpiece combined with the oil tank not much bigger than a nib of licorice. The little brother of the Pax herb vape, battery started off at like $50 but I've seen it since for $15-20. Charges via standard micro usb like most phones and takes a charge fast, too.
Bloom Farm seemed to have a stranglehold on the Pax for a long time. It was only possible to find generic black/white indica or sativa, same frustratingly mediocre contents as their 510-format plastic vape carts. Then somehow the dam broke. First there was a yellow label Gorilla Glue from Bloom Farm for Pax Era. Then there were several other players stepping up with Temple Extracts bringing strain-specific carts like Blackberry Kush in a very reasonable formulation - CO2 oil but without the terpene burn some others might have felt necessary.
I'd complain about Pax Era pods being stuck shut, but they're so small you could fit four in a tic tac box. At least 3 dispensaries that carry them offer a credit for bringing in your empties and one of them claimed the pods can/will be recycled. Add in that they come in a funny little square box-shaped bottle with a child proof lid? I don't have an issue with it when their half grams last longer than any 510 I've ever used. The Pax Era pods sip oil and still give decent, potent hits. Add in that their wee little battery has 4 different voltage settings and we have a clear winner in the form factor olympics.
Bloom Farm seemed to have a stranglehold on the Pax for a long time. It was only possible to find generic black/white indica or sativa, same frustratingly mediocre contents as their 510-format plastic vape carts. Then somehow the dam broke. First there was a yellow label Gorilla Glue from Bloom Farm for Pax Era. Then there were several other players stepping up with Temple Extracts bringing strain-specific carts like Blackberry Kush in a very reasonable formulation - CO2 oil but without the terpene burn some others might have felt necessary.
I'd complain about Pax Era pods being stuck shut, but they're so small you could fit four in a tic tac box. At least 3 dispensaries that carry them offer a credit for bringing in your empties and one of them claimed the pods can/will be recycled. Add in that they come in a funny little square box-shaped bottle with a child proof lid? I don't have an issue with it when their half grams last longer than any 510 I've ever used. The Pax Era pods sip oil and still give decent, potent hits. Add in that their wee little battery has 4 different voltage settings and we have a clear winner in the form factor olympics.
It seems Bloom Farm stepped up their own game because only recently I’ve begun to see “Legion of Bloom” strain specific indica, hybrids, and sativas with more flavor. They step up the terpenes from almost-there to clearly present, but without blasting them on 11 like a kid with his first car stereo. Legion of Bloom Pax Era pods are quality, potent, recommended.
I know it sounds confusing (only because it is) but Bloom is another brand. Not Bloom Farm, and not Legion of Bloom. Just Bloom. They’re strain specific full gram plastic carts in a cardboard box big enough to have a battery inside but without one. More the size of cigarette packaging than the tiny AA-battery sized Absolute Xtracts boxes. I will have more to say about Bloom’s full gram cart, but I just bought my first one, Girl Scout Cookies, and have yet to take it out of the package. It is clear, bright yellow-amber oil in the package, not foggy or cloudy like generic Bloom Farm or Nova CBD.
Then there’s the Bhang carts, diversified but logically - not in a confusing way like O.penVape or Bloom Farm. I’ve tried their entry-level product and they’re decent, respectable, reliable. I’d easily grab a Bhang cart if they’re out of Absolute Xtracts. They’re not quite the same but they’re damned close. And Bhang has a Reserve line as well, usually twice as potent and clearly so when you can hit them a few times and set them down and forget them right on your lap.
The Bhang Reserve carts also have clear lab test results on the side of the little flip-top box so you can see how much higher the THC percentage is than the standard Bhang cartridges. Bhang Reserve are up in the 70% THC range, so obviously well worth snatching up if you see them. Strain specific in glass wickless cartridges with black plastic mouthpieces, and are refillable.
(If you'll forgive me a fanboy moment I think Bhang Black, the ultra high potency premium-shelf quarter gram very short carts, is the one Sarah Silverman was nonchalantly showing off on the end of her vape pen while being interviewed on the red carpet at an awards show within the past few years. Of course she called it "pot" just like screeching fingernails down a chalkboard, but wtf...she's still smart, funny and hot. And a fellow st0ner, fellow patient, woke human being.)
Bumblebee - a stainless steel finish with little windows on both sides, a matte finish metal mouthpiece on a standard 510 threading. Acceptable, leans toward the terpy side, hardly anything to shout about. Comes in amusing yellow and black plastic bag. Not too terpy, not too strong. Sometimes makes me cough. Your mileage may vary. I wouldn’t hesitate to try them again. If they had been my first, I would undoubtedly have more to say, but I'd been around the block a dozen times before they appeared on the scene. I wish them luck.
Level Blends also comes in a plastic pack, grey and green when I grabbed one. Several different blends, Spark, High, Float, Dissolve are the THC dominant ones, and then there are Remedy, Uplift and Radiance for the 1 to 1, 1 to 2 and 1 to 3 THC to CBD ratio carts. Bright, clear, pure CO2 oil in real glass half gram cartridges. Quality built, titanium coil, cotton wick, no compromise to be found. The vape itself is consistent, potent, flavorful without being overly terpy. The best to be had in the plastic-bagged category, these tanks ARE reusable. The one I have here is Float and it is 70% THC, which is a lot higher than many - frequently the typical cartridges max out at 35-40% THC which is an entirely acceptable standard strength dosage on an average day.
GolDrop - every time I’ve seen them they come packaged in a standard dube tube with a printed paper label indicating the strain and lab test results. Pretty high terpene factor. Strong, but too terpy for me to take more than a few hits before it makes me cough. Quality CO2 oil product by knowledgable people, if terpy is your thing don’t miss this. If plastic cartridges are not your thing, GolDrop does have other concentrates they’re probably even better well known for, shatter and wax.
Americanna - a very standard experience. What used to be the type of experience only offered by O.penVape’s first generation of PEG-additive 510-threaded cartridges has stepped up in quality since those early years. Americanna is another quality oil product in a plastic cartridge with a business-card sized cardboard insert that tells you the strain and lab test info, their website and graphics. A little terpy, nothing like Brass Knuckles or Kurvana. Decent throat hit, moderately strong. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more than half grams.
Oasis - another that’s in the same type of plastic packaging with cardboard insert as the Americanna and several others. Plastic 510-threaded single coil cartridge with quality oil inside. Leans toward the terpy but isn’t overblown. Moderately strong, but still easy enough to vape up in a day or two. I’ve only ever seen these as half-grams also.
Fresh off the Bud - Again, same packaging and cardboard backing card as the Americanna and Oasis. Plastic 510 threaded single coil cartridge filled with their own oil. Still mostly solvent free, lab tested, strain specific. I’ve tried a couple different flavors and they seem a little terpy but more like Absolute Xtracts for potency. If you don’t mind bright terpenes, give this one a whirl. Again, only ever seen half grams of this cart.
In a category nearly but not quite by itself is a unique package called DUO by Duo Vapor. This is a full gram in two cartridges divided into AM/PM sativa/indica for daytime vs nighttime use. My particular pack had Green Crack and Blueberry in it and both were respectably potent, not too terpy, and easy to vape without throat burn or coughing. Getting a full gram of quality for less than sixty bucks is a welcome treat. This cost less than fifty before tax. The tanks are standard plastic single coil, but refillable fwiw.
Care By Design (CBD) is a recent discovery. When this text began to congeal in my brainspace I hadn’t yet tried it. A quality product, I’ve tried the 18:1 CBD to THC mix and it’s potent, has a decent throat hit, feels like an AbsoluteXtracts or Pop Naturals oil in the throat. Not too terpy but has its own subdued flavor without that coppery aftertaste some vapes can’t avoid. Glass cartridge, dual coil, metal mouthpiece. Branded tank with their logo on one side and a big white 18:1 on the other side. In case being stealthy matters, these are not quite stealth. Highly recommended, very reasonable price considering the value. CBD heavy concentrates almost always cost more, but these are still within the lower end of that price bracket - not 80 bucks for a half gram as some places might try to charge.
W vapes. high end, pure CO2 oil, lab tested, premium glass and metal vape tanks, also a disposable is available. Only tried the brand once but it wasn’t overpoweringly terpy and seemed pretty potent. Haven’t seen them in over a year.
IVXX - another 2017 thing I hadn't seen before this spring. A nice GDP CO2 oil in a plastic, refillable tank with a chrome metal mouthpiece, single coil. Comes in a cardboard box in a plastic sleeve. Strain specific every time I’ve seen it. Potent and flavorful with a decent throat hit, won’t hesitate next time I see them but my first was the last one the disp had - they sold out quickly. Refilling the cartridge with a thicker oil seems to mean it has trouble flowing unless it’s hot. I'd buy this and enjoy it again, I'd just be careful what I refilled it with.
Ganja Gold Honey Oil - iso hexane extracted oil I found to be very terpy, too much to enjoy more than a few puffs at a time. Took getting used to. Ganja Gold have a CO2 oil extract that they call live resin but I have not tried it yet, and I can tell you from the places I’ve seen it - it’s premium priced for a half gram. Comes in a little leafy green box and has ads in all those glossy free monthly cannabis product magazines. I haven't tried enough to be able to comment on potency from batch to batch, they're only carried in certain dispensaries.
Pop Naturals - pure, solvent-free CO2 oil, lab tested and strain specific. A bright clear red or yellow-orange in easy to use syringes for a long time, now comes in a plastic applicator that looks like a fat tube of lipstick or a binaca breath spray. Quality product. You can hit it off a nail or put it in your favorite vape tank or cartridge and vape away. Barely thin enough to flow, but easy to vape on the go. I’d call Pop Naturals a close second to Absolute Xtracts. Their reliable quality and potency, availability and value are strong reasons to be repeat buyers. Don't hesitate!
Pop Naturals have their own cartridges pre-filled, but rather than their very first tanks which were refillable, their new ones are glass, dual-coil, but not refillable, stuck shut and less useful because of it. Quality cartridges with quality oil inside, but forced to be single-use landfill-filling is nothing to be proud of. So I take a mark away from PN branded carts for that major failing but overall they're still a quality reliable lab-tested product. I just prefer syringes to their stuck-shut carts even when made with premium parts.
Pop Naturals have their own cartridges pre-filled, but rather than their very first tanks which were refillable, their new ones are glass, dual-coil, but not refillable, stuck shut and less useful because of it. Quality cartridges with quality oil inside, but forced to be single-use landfill-filling is nothing to be proud of. So I take a mark away from PN branded carts for that major failing but overall they're still a quality reliable lab-tested product. I just prefer syringes to their stuck-shut carts even when made with premium parts.
SC Organic / Always Organic CO2 oil carts and gramcules. My secret. Discovered along the winding roads in the hills above Santa Cruz, this dependable extract is equal to Absolute Xtracts for potency and reliability. I’m hesitant to even name it in a semi-public forum bc I wanna keep the secret to myself. But yeah, they’re fecking awesome. Snip the tip on the gram-cule and squeeze that thin capsule-shaped bulb end to push a skinny flow of pure oil into your favorite tank, your favorite nail (or even a joint.) Minimal packaging, maximal value! Can’t recommend it highly enough.
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First in closing I'd like to say that I purposely didn't link the websites for all these products bc I'm in no hurry to have them seeing me in their referred links - if that's even still a thing. The vast majority of them have some kind of web presence but I have an abundance of faith in your ability to google them yourself. How you think I learned half of this stuff? When the IRL world failed to answer my questions I went to google or duckduckgo.
And some of these products aren't trying to be corporate barcoded things available in any state who'll allow their sale, some are grassroots indies like homegrown organic tomatoes that could disappear tomorrow, that's just how it is...
There are still more varieties of vaporizer cartridges on the market I haven’t tried, and more dispensaries everyday are offering their own in-house flavors and mixtures for various prices and at various potencies. Don’t go thinking I made a clean sweep of the category or anything like that. The cannabis cat is really out of the metaphorical bag now, I would hope, in ways that other people seeking profit by growing and selling can stomp on any threat coming from Attorney General Seff Jeshions and his permanent day-glo klan hood.
There is a subset containing the HappyJack, the Vaporette, and a few others whose name escapes me at the moment, as well as countless in-house products at various dispensaries in the same category. What category is that, you ask? DISPOSABLE one-piece vaporizers like their nicotine counterparts. You can't call them "single-use" because even the cheapest ones usually last 40-50 draws - but they usually limit you to five second draws. Disposables usually use the cheapest battery and materials, sometimes with a window to see the oil, most often just a wad of wicking with - if you’re lucky a quarter to a third of a gram of oil or oil and additive mixture - dripped onto it and a simple silicone disc slapped over the end of the tube for a mouthpiece.
There are probably half a dozen different ones, all mostly the same. They’re landfill-filling just lurking on a shelf waiting to poison the groundwater. I can’t help but see them as not just potential plastic garbage but very nearly ALREADY plastic waste let loose on a planet nearly poisoned already by the goddamned Petroleum industry and their robber barons of the double-M post-millennial American corporat-ocracy.
Unless the situation specifically needs me to use a disposable vaporizer, I refuse. I understand why they have a minor place to exist, but if I won’t vote for them by spending my money on them, maybe there will be fewer of them in the ground before they put me there. Just a thought.
It is ultimately the long-game future I consider when suggesting that a plastic or glass/metal vape cartridge can be re-used in the first place. Who else is gonna think about that tomorrow before it comes? The people not yet born but who nonetheless get to live with our sins like their unwanted baggage? How about we let ‘em get born first and worry about cleaning up our own goddamn messes?
Better yet, not make any messes we can’t clean up now, like you know, petroleum spills in lakes, rivers, streams and oceans ffs...I don’t mean to get screamo on anybody, but welcome to what it’s like inside my unfiltered head. (Dig it or gtfo, I don’t care. Hopefully u learn something. Otherwise there’s plenty of NASCAR and porn on the internet, I’m sure they know how to find you...just fart a little louder and wish really hard!!!)
In closing I’ve already remembered that there’s a category of batteries, whether or not there’s a branded custom or branded mass-produced battery, and what kind or type it is. I just haven’t combed through the whole thing with that in mind yet. It’s marginally important and most brands don’t have them anyway.
There are more brands introduced everyday and there are plenty I plainly and clearly missed. If the staff at a dispensary are helpful and informative and have the time to answer questions, I will avoid stuff that’s gonna be too terpy. I’ve stayed away from brands that seem to be determined to over-terp their products when a knowledgable source warns me first. I don’t need to buy something moderately expensive to cough and choke and sputter trying to vape it.
And then there’s the brands who are more into shatter and wax than oil, or only do oil sometimes. I have used several brands of shatter and that’s another rabbit hole for another day. I’m not sure I need dabs in my life, although they’re an experience I’m glad I’ve educated myself about. From time to time they can be amusing, that chest-expanding almost head-rush is like little else in the world. It’s just not an everyday thing, and seeing people do multiple gram dabs at once makes me think it's become the new beer bong. Ugh!
Get just enough of whatever you need to be the best whatever-the-hell-you-are, biochemically at least life owes you a certain equilibrium even if heredity and biology are against you, a clear mind and a body freed from its defects should be a universal human right. Imagine a world that acted like it knew...
