Beneath a mess of Chemdog crosses, Stardawg hides a lineage from South and Southeast Asia, representing the mountain and jungle landraces from some of the planet’s most potent and resinous flowers. Our sample from Epic Remedy was musky and sweet and delivered the kind of mind-boggling, float-as-you-run hybrid that gives you mountaintop clarity and loose, nimble energy.

The buds were pleasantly beefy, dense with fluffy but well-trimmed exteriors. A super-sandy coat of trichomes covered the bright neon canvas, with a wooly, rust-colored beard of hairs bestrewn amongst the leaves. A woody spice of pine filled the room as we cracked the jar, followed by the sweet chemical aroma of diesel fuel pouring out in the grinder.

With the first puff, the brain recoiled into a blackhole, shocked by electricity, but with blurry return to focus. The cerebral sensations continued to grow, whilst body came on permanent and heavy by twenty minutes in. “It’s like riding a slowly, slowly-climbing roller-coaster, knowing the bottom is about to drop out,” gushed one critic. It was a classic head-in-the-clouds, feet-through-the-floor paradox, one that made the couch inviting, but only for a few minutes.

After a short while, the initial craziness morphed into a manageable foggines, but warranted an encore. The second puff struck strongly with an extra layer of out-of-body levity. Knees-knocking and fingers flying, everyone was able to function, albeit somewhat spastically. Focus was no problem; it was the hand-eye coordination and ability to form sentences that suffered. Still, moods were boosted through the roof, and the urge to “do something” was inescapable.

We sought stimulating but low-key activities. Absolutely brilliant for freestyle expression (art, music, cooking), Stardawg offered the concentration for an early afternoon project, even lending itself to clearer judgement and rationale. After 90 minutes, the heaviest of tingling faded, but we were still starry-eyed. Our most “discerning” critic was dead set-impressed by the overall quality of the crop, reporting “I would buy this strain for a personal stash, and that says a lot.”