Tasmanian Botanics's THC 23 Opal Flower Review | AusCannaReviews

White Widow Flower Review

Sometimes you’ve just got to go back to the basics and that’s precisely what Tasmanian Botanics have done with Opal. She is identified on both Canna Reviews and honahlee as the cultivar White Widow and listed as a Sativa dominant strain. Whereas, the original breeders, Green House Seed Company in the Netherlands have White Widow listed as a 60/40 Indica dominant cultivar.

Popular Science magazine claims White Widow is “one of the most popular strains in the world” and its humble beginnings trace back to our homeland.

Born in 1964 in Melbourne, Victoria Scott Blakey (A.K.A. Shantibaba) got his first taste of cannabis at the impressionable age of 13 and was instantly mesmerised.

With an undeniable passion for breeding Blakey spent four years riding his motorbike around Central and South Asia collecting landrace (think localised heirloom) cannabis seeds in the mid-1980s. Not satisfied there, Blakey also toured South America doing the same thing in 1986 basically ensuring his personal seed bank for research was unrivalled.

Understandably when Blakey moved to Amsterdam in 1988 he quickly gained notoriety on the “coffee shop” scene for his unmatched cultivars.

In 1994 with the seeds he’d collected during his trips in the 80s, Blakey co-founded the Green House Seed Company. Working closely with another Aussie Neville Schoenmakers, the very next year White Widow a cross between a Brazilian Sativa and a South Indian Indica was born winning the 1995 High Times Cannabis Cup. Blakey has since gone on to win another nine Cannabis Cups and currently owns Mr Nice Seedbank and Research.

Review

Tasmanian Botanics’s Opal isn’t the White Widow from my youth.

2002 I’d just moved to Vancouver, British Columbia after completing university in Texas and was lucky enough to have a roommate who knew a guy, who knew a guy. After four years of Mexican Dirt (Brick Weed), I was pumped for the opportunity to be getting anything of actual quality.

An out-of-work actor, who purchased his stock from hippies off Vancouver Island “The Guy” was boutique bud before we had the term boutique bud. About six months after our initial meeting he sent me home with an ounce of White Widow.

Do I know for a fact that it was White Widow? No, it was 20 years ago and to be honest I was just blown away buddy knew strain names! But over time I realized that when “The Guy” ran out of a particular strain you had to wait three to four months before he got more and when he did restock, it was exactly the same as it was a few months earlier.

“The Guy’s” White Widow from memory was super smelly, unbelievably sticky, sparkled in the sunlight like nothing I’d seen before and was the best smoke of my life at the time.

The bar had been set high…

Tasmanian Botanics’s White Widow is piney and citrusy in both smell and taste. With no COA and only Terpinolene listed as a terpene on Canna Reviews, this is another cultivar where I’m making an educated guess on dominant terpenes, which I believe could be Terpinolene, Pinene, Limonene and maybe some Myrcene.

Passing the Sticky Icky Test, I was impressed by how sticky my fingers were after breaking some buds up to put in the grinder. The 10 gram jar was slightly overweight consisting of evenly coloured light green buds that were mostly medium in size.

I found that 180C was the perfect vaping temperature for most of my medicating sessions. However, when I did push up towards 210C she stayed smooth the whole time.

I found Opal’s effects to be relaxing which is great for my anxiety. But I also suffer from migraines and when I could feel a headache coming on, simply put… I reached for something else.

I want to rate Tasmanian Botanics’s Opal at a four because she is an enjoyable vape and she looks very pretty but I’m not a social pot smoker anymore and my needs have changed and sadly this cultivar only meets some of them. I’ll finish out the refills I have for this prescription but it won’t be added to my rotation in the future.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 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.