Strain Review: Peanut Butter Breath by Left Coast Farms

Instagram-famous Peanut Butter Breath has finally made its way off the internet and onto Portland's dispensary shelves.

Photo by Matt Stangel

Strain: Peanut Butter Breath
Parentage: Do-Si-Dos x Mendo Breath F2
Breeder: Thug Pug Genetics
Grower: Left Coast Farms
Cannabinoid Content: 26.0% THC

Given Instagram's simple photo-and-caption format, it's no wonder that it's become the de facto social media platform of the cannabis industry—efficiently meeting the needs of professionals and enthusiasts who want to quickly share the contents of their bag.

And it should come as no surprise, then, that accounts with the most visually stunning "nug porn" tend to generate the most buzz.

While I appreciate a pretty flower as much as the next guy, I've grown wary of "nug porn." Not just because it needlessly sexualizes cannabis, but because it's impossible to comprehensively represent weed with a picture.

Like advertising the aurora borealis with an audio recording, selling weed with a photo misses the most interesting part of the story—the smells and flavors and nuances that draw a person to what will work best for them.

At its most innocent, nug porn is a low-cost way to create value and awareness around a weed product.

But at its worst, it's an open door to dishonest business, giving breeders and manufactures a convenient barrier between the consumer and the product—ensuring plausible deniability if a hyped new strain doesn't live up to its reputation.

Of course, as a big weed nerd, I view my fair share of flower pics on Instagram—and as a seed collector, I keep up with the breeder set to see what's coming out. Admittedly, I'm not immune to the hype surrounding promising new genetics, and there are a few accounts I keep tabs on to make sure I'm not missing anything groundbreaking.

One such account is that of Gromer1, the breeder behind Thug Pug Genetics, who caught my attention the old fashioned way: with a mouth-watering collection of Insta posts chronicling his experiments crossing rare and clone-only cuts with a Mendo Breath stud that's earned a reputation for passing on to its many offspring surreal purple hues and drippy trichome coverage.

Perhaps the porniest of all of Gromer's centerfolds is a strain called Peanut Butter Breath, which joins the aforementioned Mendo Breath stud with a Do-Si-Dos mom.

A few months back, I singled out Do-Si-Dos as one of the more memorable Cookie-related strains from Archive Seed Bank's stable of Face-Off OG crosses.

Of Do-Si-Dos, I wrote: "[Archive's OG Kush Breath x Face-Off OG] stands out for its full-mouth musk and berries-and-black-pepper scent, as well as its muscle-melting, bone-massaging body high and cozy-but-functional, night-capper head space."

As indica as all that sounds, Do-Si-Dos' OG Kush Breath heritage incorporates various sativas, a fact that reveals itself when the Archive classic is bred with Mendo Breath— another branch off the OG Kush Breath tree, with Purps and Trainwreck lingering in its father's Mendo Montage DNA.

When these half siblings are joined as Peanut Butter Breath, the strain's various sativa relatives resurface, resulting in upbeat head notes, while maintaining that "bone-massaging body high" I noted of Do-Si-Dos.

Grown by Salem-based Left Coast Farms and available at various dispensaries around Portland, this example of Peanut Butter Breath tests at 26.0% THC. Expressing a beta caryophyllene-dominant terpene profile, it inherits the peppery nail polish notes of the Do-Si-Dos, with woody undertones that likely describe the strain's significant humulene content.

On the back of the woody, fuel flavor, sensitive palates will note a citrus and lavender interplay—due to the presence of terpenes limonene and linalool—and together, these components linger in the mouth for a minty finish.

From a medical perspective, Peanut Butter Breath's terpene profile makes it a prime candidate for use as an anti-inflammatory, thanks to high concentrations of beta caryophyllene and humulene. And for adult-use consumers, the strain offers an improved mood, mostly clear head, and notable bodily relaxation.

After spending so many hours scrolling through Gromer's Thug Pug releases, it's a treat to finally come across one of his rare crosses in the wild. And it's great to know that Peanut Butter Breath is more than a lot of nice pictures that live on the internet: it's a pleasantly nuanced strain that deserves the hype that surrounds it and its creator.

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