You gotta hand it to Snoop: California’s connoisseur cannabis smokers won’t get bammer weed from Dogg’s new Death Row Cannabis brand.
Snoop Dogg acquired and relaunched the famed Death Row Records in 2022. Dogg has since delegated cannabis selection duties wisely to his team led by AK—a longtime West Coast legacy cultivator who, alongside former partner WizardTrees, helped cultivate such favorites as RS11 and Studio 54 (aka RS54).
On California dispensary shelves this winter, blingy, metallic Death Row mylar bags contain four heat, indoor varieties: Strawberry Gary, LA Runtz, SFV OG, TropiCherry (aka TropCherry, CherryTrop).
AK hand-selected each strain in the Death Row lineup from small batches grown by his deep network, thus keeping quality high. With a recent drop in select Cookies stores, fans of the Death Row brand and cannasseurs want to know if the famed Dogg can deliver. We tapped in and have come back with these notes.
Strawberry Gary
Strawberry Gary is a sweet, creamy, gassy, and fruity hybrid that smells like heaven when opening the mylar. Smoking the flower delivers on exactly what the nose promises with strawberries and creme on the palate, coupled with a funky dough on the backend. A hint of rubber lingers as the smoke clears, which keeps you coming back for more. Perfect for meditation and relaxation, the effects are mostly head-focused, leaving you clear-minded and motivated. A gentle wave of a body high keeps the body calm without elevating heart rates. Serge at Cookies Maywood hunted the Strawberry Gary from a pack of Washington breeder Exotic Genetix Gary Payton x Red Pop, uniting two all-star flavors in 2023 weed.
SFV OG
SFV OG is the old-school flower in the lineup and is everything you’d want and expect from a proper OG. The aroma has a chewy mint candy scent up front like you’ve just crushed a Mentos between your teeth. Sweet, herbaceous notes of juniper, dough and dry paint follow. Smoking the herb will send you back to 2005 as rich notes of pine, hops, malt, and sweet earth swirl in your senses. Like any good OG, this one has some heavy effects. Be prepared for the munchies and some couchlock, as the indica body high effects are the most prevalent.
LA Runtz
LA Runtz is the exotic flower selection in the lineup and arguably produces the heaviest effects from the four. The aroma is a deft blend of hard parmesan cheese, feral musk, and grape Big League Chew bubblegum. Huge terps of gassy dough, grape, and cherry fruit leather delight the palate, followed by a big hit of oily musk on the backend. The user is left in a foggy daze, with relaxed limbs, and muscle relief throughout the body. Certainly, a hybrid that ain’t meant for rookies—LA Runtz most likely will be the most popular strain from Death Row.
Tropi Cherry
Lastly, Tropi Cherry (aka Trop Cherry, Cherry Trop) is the closest to a straight sativa, and among all the other strains, offers consumers the opportunity to select from a wide array of flavors and medicinal effects. On the nose, this has all the classic Tropicana Cookies terps with a modern twist. Aroma is a slurry of herbaceous camphor, tropical fruit, and orange rind, which ends up smelling like a citrusy bug spray with a little pine sol thrown in. Smoking Tropi Cherry delivers many of the same terps on the nose, with an added emphasis on the orange and citronella at the forefront of the spectrum while adding a bit of gassy dough, which leaves the taste smooth rather than bitter and medicinal. Perfect for a day in the outdoors or a long hike, this flower won’t slow you down, but instead leaves the user in a state of euphoric bliss, with light head pressure and a clear mind.
Overall, this first series of releases from Death Row Cannabis churns out some good beats. But they’ve to have a real banger on their hands.
