My introduction to East Fork Cultivars’ Canna Tsu felt, in many ways, like a reintroduction to CBD. I’ve run through my fair share of CBD products, but this variety of Canna Tsu was shockingly memorable. There was something unique about the undeniably mind-altering benefits I experienced after blowing this bong hit. But more than that, this strain put mind alteration on a new scale altogether.

“It’s when the entourage effect kicks in that I really start shaking my pom poms.”

East Fork Cultivars’ Canna-Tsu flower has a deeply medicinal lineage. Its parents, Cannatonic and Sour Tsunami, are themselves hybrids bred to be high in CBD (18% or higher) and low in THC (rarely more than 0.6%). Canna-Tsu lives up to its parents’ good names with a cannabinoid profile that features 0.67% THC and a mollifying 18.6% CBD. This combination conjures a bright, full-bodied, entourage effect that veers in a different direction than 1:1 products. In this iteration, physical comfort is in the driver’s seat and psychotropic exploration is humming audibly in the background. Like a marshmallow golf cart with two 24-inch subwoofers in the backseat.

The cured bud is crumbly and dense, breaking apart easily for single bowls without the sticky-icky residue of tropical citrus that perfumes the flower. The exhale is a sheer, breathy extension of that same funky tropical fruit bouquet. Altogether, this Canna-Tsu is fragrant, palatable and mild. But it’s when the entourage effect kicks in that I really start shaking my pom poms.

I auditioned one bowl of East Fork Cultivars’ Canna Tsu on a particularly trying morning. I was super stressed, darkly depressed, dizzily distressed, and sexually repressed. It was just a crummy day. I smoked a bowl of the Canna Tsu and was overtaken not by what I would describe as intoxication necessarily, but something parallel to it. It was uncanny. Just as a fat bowl of any other THC-rich hybrid would have assuaged my sleep-deprived state of mania, so did Canna Tsu. This admittedly unexpected turn of events was made remarkable by not just the massaging away of tension, but the energy with which the tension was replaced. Rather than a stoney haze of general relief, it was an unambiguous mist on a hot day; a dew that lingered on my skin without obscuring my vision or fogging up my glasses. It was pure refreshment.

The afternoon progressed, but there was no “come down” to speak of. I never returned to my original state of desolation; instead, it felt as if my rough patches had all been permanently burnished. Not another thought was wasted on my morning condition. My energy was aimed at gratitude, self-value, and being present. I never felt impaired, but I was without a doubt altered. And believe, while I spent the rest of the day dancing around the house scream-singing to Ella Fitzgerald hits feeling like a bronze goddess, there was no one in the world who could tell me I wasn’t “high.”

“I sure was eating Fritos by the handful without a care in the world.”

For my second audition with Canna Tsu, my energy had shifted from the go-go-go of daytime to the calm, settled vibe of the evening. Where earlier this strain had washed my anxieties away with a deft brushstroke, in the evening, with no anxiety to assuage, it just kicked a bottomless hole in my stomach and demanded I fill it with snacks. The munchies were, in a word, epic. I may not have felt like a big ol’ stoner, but I was definitely eating like one. And for someone who spends a good amount of mental energy on weight-based insecurities, I sure was eating Fritos by the handful without a care in the world. Anyway, once I dusted the Frito dust off myself, I concluded that when smoked in the evening with an already genial attitude, Canna Tsu simply brightened my environment and initiated a legendary snack session. There were no heavy lids, compromised reaction times, or nonsensical giggle fits. I simply felt like a shinier, perpetually unbothered version of my best self.

East Fork Cultivars’ Canna Tsu appeals to me as only a select few CBD-forward products have. It swept me off my feet with a buzz so sweetly calculated that I had to reassess what I anticipate when indulging in CBD products, and that CBD products can indeed be as much of an indulgence as they are a panacea. And maybe the two are one and the same.