Cannatrek's T25 Topaz Flower Review | AusCannaReviews

As of this month, Cannatrek has sold 500,000 units of T25 Topaz flowers. At an average price of $150 for a 10-gram tub, that’s $75 million making Topaz arguably the number one-selling medicinal cannabis product in Australia.

Topaz is listed on both honahlee and Canna Reviews as the cultivar Kush Cookies which is Girls Scout Cookies crossed with OG Kush. Although the percentages change with each batch the dominant terpenes for Topaz are Caryophyllene, Myrcene, Humulene, and Limonene. THCA is Topaz’s dominant cannabinoid with the occasional appearance of CBGA, again based on the batch. I’m reviewing batch 1D1013.

Long-time subscribers know I like to fact-check my information in at least two to three different places before going to print, old hangup from my media days. Nevertheless, as any good journalist will tell you, sometimes you gotta run with an eyewitness account because that’s all you’ve got…

There’s a whiff of controversy surrounding Topaz, mainly that it’s not the cultivar Kush Cookies but rather Garlic Z from Dark Horse Genetics.

A company based in Colorado, U.S.A. and famous for their Bruce Banner cultivar Dark Horse Genetics has a YouTube channel and it’s here that I stumbled across an episode where they’re talking about Topaz.

At about the 33-minute mark Jason “OG Ironlung” Holck one of the co-hosts of Dark Horse Live states he got a call from one of the biggest cannabis companies in Canada (he never says “Cannatrek”) where they told him, his cultivar Garlic Z is the number one cultivar exported to Australia for their (our) medical program. He goes on to say, “They named it Topaz 25.”

He blames the rename on an uneducated marketing team and at the same time raises a very legitimate point… That a cultivar’s name explains what it is, in this case, Garlic Z is GMO crossed with Zkittles.

If what Jason “OG Ironlung” Holck is saying is true then Cannatrek is guilty of misrepresentation at the very least. With so much misinformation out there, there needs to be more transparency in the medicinal cannabis industry.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when multiple companies are selling the same cultivar but under different names. An example of this would be Mac1 being sold by Alfie Therapeutics as Mac1 but by SatiVite as Moorok 21 and Cannatrek as Mackay. Another example is Wappa being sold by MedCan and Beacon Medical as Wappa, but by ANTG as Global Selects Felix and Austranna as Indigo.

Instead of renaming a cultivar so it sounds flashy, what needs to happen is more education around the difference between genotypes and phenotypes so that the average Australian medicinal cannabis patient can better understand their medications. Companies can grow the same genotype but they will have different phenotypes.

To break it down really quickly… The genotype allows a plant to express a range of different growth possibilities. When you buy “Girl Scout Cookies” seeds, you’re buying a genotype or a particular set of traits you’re hoping to see in your final product. But it’s the growing environment provided by you that actually dictates the particular types of physical characteristics the plant will display. This physical expression of a genotype is called the phenotype. This simply means the traits that the environment pulls out from the plant’s genetics. A Chemotype is the chemical profile of the plant, think cannabinoids and terpenes.

(More information about genotypes and phenotypes can be found on the Dutch Passion website. If you have the time I encourage you to check this post out as it’s super informational!)

But I digress…

Review

No matter which family tree you believe is correct for Cannatrek’s T25 Topaz, there’s most definitely Girl Scout Cookies hanging out on one of its branches. One of the telltale characteristics of GSC is small dense buds and when I opened my 10-gram tub, that’s what greeted me… 10.49 grams of tiny, dense, light green buds. The biggest bud was slightly larger than my thumbnail.

There’s no whiff of fresh garlic fragrance here. It smells like your average cannabis: woody, spicey, earthy. However, there’s a powdered garlic aroma that lingers around after you’ve broken buds up. Cannatrek’s Topaz doesn’t really pass the Sticky Icky Test but it does over time gum up your grinder.

Topaz isn’t a flower that fluffs up after grinding like MedCan’s Frozen Lemons, quite the opposite. It falls flat, so much so that every time I did my dosing caps for the week, I had to redo the Topaz ones because they weren’t consistent. (It should be noted I’ve been using the dosing caps for my Mighty+ for about nine months now and this is the first time I’ve really struggled with consistency.)

Cannatrek recommends a vaping zone of 170C-185C and when you stay within those temperatures Topaz is relatively smooth. But the second you push north of 190C it starts getting harsh, leaving a prickly feeling in the back of your throat.

Topaz’s effects come on fairly fast and are sedating and couch-locking but not in a good way. This cultivar left me feeling lazy, unmotivated, and easily side-trackable.

I’m an afternoon napper and if I had Topaz before my siesta, I woke up groggy and at times cranky for no reason. There were also a handful of occasions when I doubled down on my dosing caps before bedtime and woke up in the morning with a headache. While I can’t be 100% positive it’s because of Topaz, I do believe there is some correlation there.

I take my hat off to what Cannatrek has accomplished with T25 Topaz. However, it’s just not for me. I prefer my buds to be bigger and to vape smoother but more importantly, I need my medicinal cannabis to help me manage my health issues not agitate them.

⭐️⭐️ (2 out of 5 stars)

This substack aims to provide anecdotal information from my personal experiences in hopes it will lead to meaningful conversations between my readers and their healthcare professionals about medicinal cannabis.

I have no formal training in medicine or science. This article does not constitute medical advice.