Anthologie, Flower, “Apple Jack” strain

Eighth, $35

Purchased: 10/27/2025 (Zen Leaf Plymouth)

Packaged: 8/29/2025

Khalifa Kush, Flower, “Baby Turtle” strain

Eighth, $45

Purchased: 10/27/2025 (Zen Leaf Plymouth)

Packaged: 6/11/2025

The Botanist, Flower, “Pink Truffle” strain

Eighth, $30

Purchased: 10/27/2025 (Zen Leaf Plymouth)

Packaged: 8/27/2025

This will be the only episode with flower selected by AI.

I asked the Google AI search to “Go to the website of Zenleaf Plymouth and pick from it three random eighths of flower.” It appeared to oblige, although the response stated that Weedmaps was used. I’ve learned from further experiments that AI is not going help randomize my weed selections like I thought it would, but it worked for one review.

I bought the products and tried to learn a bit about the producers. These three happen to demonstrate how opaque the relationships between brands, cultivators, and large companies can be in our state:

Anthologie

Cultivated by Twisted Growers, LLC.

Packaged by Mayflower Medicinals, Inc.

The Anthologie website says their products are in Mass, NV, and NJ. Twisted Growers is a Tier 11 cultivation that is Certified Remediation Free. Filing documents for Mayflower Medicinals show that they are owned by iAnthus Capital, a big Canadian conglomerate; several dispensaries of the same name are in Mass.

Khalifa Kush

Produced by Cresco dba Sunnyside

Packaged by Cultivate Leicester dba Sunnyside

Their website says that “Cresco Labs has one of the biggest U.S. footprints that’s growing, with 8 operational states, 13 production facilities, and 71 dispensaries.” Cresco brands that I’ve noticed in Mass include High Supply, Good News, and Cresco, but I didn’t realize Khalifa Kush was associated. A Cresco press release from 2023 describes the “partnership” that brings Khalifa Kush to MA.

The Botanist

Grown and Processed by The Botanist

At least one of the three brands was clearly evident. I’ve written about The Botanist before, they have retail locations in IL, OH, NY, NJ, and MA.

Flower appearance and experience

The “Apple Jack” from Anthologie contained dark purple nuggets of all sizes. I found the scent to be a bit dried out, weedy but not especially fruity or apple-ish. It ground down to a fine powder, and joints packed with it burned smooth. The flavor was, for the most part, smokey and dull, but occasionally a puff would give some hint of fruit.

The “Baby Turtle” by Khalifa Kush (Cresco) was a handful of nuggets 1-2 inches across. They were dark green and frosty, with well-defined bracts, and an overpowering peppery smell. The flower was sticky, and my grinder broke it down to shreds that flexed and packed nicely. The flavor was peppery like the smell, the smoke was dank, and I caught a great high.

The “Pink Truffle” from The Botanist had the lightest color of the three, and the buds were charmingly oblong, 2-inches long by less than one wide. The bracts were quite large, giving a rough-hewn look to the flower, and the smell was difficult for me to describe, floral and woodsy. This flower also ground down and packed nicely, but didn’t stick in the grinder like the “Baby Turtle.” The smoke was smooth, but I just wasn’t that into the “Pink Truffle” flavor, it reminded me a little of the B-sters of old.

The Testing

All three of these were labeled as high-THC strains, all the buds were mature and cured, and each gave me buzzes that were, at least, decent. In that regard, these were three bags of “relative success” from MSOs.

We tested the flower with the LightLab Cannabis Analyzer from Orange Photonics. I was pleasantly surprised to find results that didn’t vary from the labels too much, especially when comparing the “Total THC” values calculated from the labels with those I measured. Comparing Total THC values compensates for the conversion of THCA to THC that accompanies aging.

The ”Apple Jack” Total THC of 20.2% was a little low compared to the 23.3% determined from the label. The “Baby Turtle” gave an unusual result: 6.1% THC. That’s far more decarboxylation of THCA than I typically observe in commercial flower, so I tested again to be sure (with comparable results). Perhaps this package of flower got a little warm, driving decarboxylation, but it didn’t hurt the potency as expressed in Total THC. The “Pink Truffle” label also had a Total THC that was a couple percent higher than we measured.

Conclusion

My ranking of these three random weeds, based upon my own experience, is:

1. Khalifa Kush/Cresco “Baby Turtle”
2. The Botanist “Pink Truffle”
3. Anthologie/Twisted Growers “Apple Jack”

I actually preferred some characteristics of the “Pink Truffle” over those of the “Baby Turtle,” but I preferred the flavor of the latter, so their order reflects my own tasteBaby . I really thought the “Apple Jack” was noticeably less interesting and more dry than the other two. It was capable of delivering some flavor, but not reliably.

Just four days after I did the search that selected these three products, I tried the same thing again. I fed Google’s AI search a nearly-identical prompt, to receive, “Accessing and picking specific items from a dispensary’s online menu for regulated products is not something that is possible to do. Information about regulated goods requires a cautious approach.”

What happened? Did Google get wise to me using their AI to choose my weed, and put a stop to it? I noted that my previous, successful prompt was fulfilled by the AI using Weedmaps, so I tried that. It didn’t always work, but I could trick it into answering again one time. The problem with that answer? The AI, again, selected an Anthologie product and one from The Botanist. Different products, but that doesn’t seem very random.

So, just like every other time I’ve tried to use AI, it turned out to be unreliable. We shall have to develop some other method for randomly choosing products to review.