This is part of a series of strain reviews based on the flower’s price/shelf listing in Southern California dispensaries

I woke up at my usual time of 9 a.m. to the sound of nobody home and the cold of the early November weather in my grandma’s apartment on.

Like most people who love weed, only three words came to mind.

“Wake n’ Bake.”

The stairs from our apartment then became a quick spot to roll a morning joint of Bandana from the six grams stored in my backpack.

Bandana is a hybrid strain that combines the earthy notes of Banana OG with the pungent aroma from 707 Headband that gives an uplifting yet relaxing high.

This strain was picked up from the Root 19 dispensary located in Bellflower, CA on (address) and ran at $25 for 1/8. It was the lower end strain that Your Best Buds had been looking for this series of reviews.

The weed itself wasn’t the same green color that weed is known for, but had more of a brown and orange color. It wasn’t sticky and it wasn’t very hydrated causing it to grind up very finely.

It didn’t emit the fruit-like aroma that Bandana is known for; it reeked of spices that made my nose feel like I had just sniffed nutmeg.

The joint was ready to go and that’s when my brother, who’s birthday just passed, came home and what better way to review the strain than to smoke the bunk weed with him.

It made an excellent birthday candle as I lit it up and wished him a happy birthday; The burn was pretty quick and the smoke was unpleasant.

It tasted of ashy earth with almost no taste of the piney smell it gave off. The spice sensation was in the taste as well. It was like smoking a joint from weed that had already been hit. It wasn’t the worst weed I had ever tasted, but the bitter taste lingered on afterward.

The smoke wasn’t really smooth and I missed the aroma from other strains that joints usually let out. Being someone who has a decent amount of smoking experience, this hybrid strain didn’t make me cough at all.

My brother, however, doesn’t have much experience with weed so he eventually had to take a break after three hits and a sore throat from coughing so much.

We headed to the front of the apartment where we spent the begging of the high talking about his daughter and discussing parenting tactics, child psychology and our parents. This was when I knew that our dirty looking sativa really had gotten my mind going which meshed well with the sense of energy I had gotten.

The air felt fresher and my brother and I began talking about nonsense, just like we did when we were kids. The energy was very apparent, but it was very collected.

I left the music playing in the background from my phone as we were talking, just because the high made the music sound a bit more vivid.

We left off on the terms of smoking again soon and he must have felt high considering he asked to buy weed from me for the road. Not a lot at all, “just enough for a session,” he said.

This is not only illegal, but what kind of brother would I be if I sold bunk weed to my older brother two days after his birthday? A stank brother, that’s what; and I wanted to be a dank brother.

I pulled out my black Jar and separated a little over a gram of Purple Jack, at $45 for 1/8, this sativa strain from Root 19 made an excellent late birthday gift.