Legendary indie filmmaker Kevin Smith has officially thrown his backward baseball cap and oversized trenchcoat into the weed game, teaming up with California-based cannabis processor Caviar Gold for three luxurious high-THC high-CBD strains in a promotion for Smith’s newest film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The strains, Snoochie Boochies, Berzerker, and Snoogans — a hybrid, a Sativa, and an Indica, respectively — will sound familiar to Smith-heads who grew up watching classics like Clerks and Dogma and are references to the non-sense mutterings of Jason Mewes’s Jay, one-half of the Jay and Silent Bob super duo. But are these strains any different from other big-name baring strains like Skywalker or Bruce Banner?
In a word, yes. If you’ve picked up weed from a shop or clinic before, you’re all too familiar with the anything-goes naming practice of weed strains. But no matter how fancy you feel smoking a fresh bowl of Gucci OG, what you’re smoking has very little to do with the Italian luxury fashion label, and more to do with some grower who was too stoned to think of a better name. The difference here is that Caviar Gold didn’t just slap the name Jay and Silent Bob on a random weed strain and mark-up the price — this partnership is not only official, but it also happened relatively organically.
“I had been smoking Caviar Gold all through the filming of Reboot,” the director told me over the phone this week. “Afterwards, Lash, a guy that works with Mike Brunson, Caviar’s mastermind, said, ‘Hey man, do you want to do the Cavi Challenge? You do a video where you try to smoke a Cavi joint all the way through in 15 minutes. If you win, they give you a box of Caviar, if you lose, you just smoked a Caviar joint for free…’ So we went and did it and had a blast.”
Smith’s thrill for the whole experience belies his reality — comic book nerd and avid stoner turned celebrity and avid stoner. His stoke is authentic.
“I met with Mike who was completely unfamiliar with our movies, which was… refreshing. It’s always nice to deal with somebody that you have to work a little harder to get. We started talking, then I brought Jordan into it — that’s Jason’s wife, she runs our company — and suddenly we were moving toward something.”
PART I: SMITH’S INVOLVEMENT & MARKETING GENIUS
“The genesis of the idea was in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” Smith explains. “I was like, ‘Hey man, maybe we can actually have existing weed and stuff ahead of the movie’s release… So we dove into it together.”
Smith is quick to give all the credit for cultivating and processing the strains to Brunson, explaining that he acted as a springboard for ideas and guidance, rather than slipping on a pair of gardener’s gloves.
“In terms of horticulture, that’s definitely all him,” Smith continues. “I can’t even pretend to understand terpenes and stuff like that. Me and Mike sat many a night going like, ‘this is what we’ll do, this is what the packaging could look like…’ he’s been an ideal partner. Very resourceful.”
Caviar Gold differs from other cannabis processors because of their proprietary finishing process. Selling in both a pre-roll joint form or as an eighth of flowers, the herb is dipped in a premium CBD packed distillate and dusted with kief — providing its smokers with a strong high and more powerful pain-relieving medicinal benefits than your average top-shelf flower.
From the gold nugget look of the bud to the detailed packaging, smoking Caviar Gold feels expensive. Expensive enough that you’ll wonder just how much of its hefty price tag is a result of all of that extra love put into the packaging, rather than the care put into the processing of the weed itself. For instance, did we need full-color labels on each jar? Could we maybe get just a gram instead of dropping close to a hundred dollars for an eighth? Those questions are fair, but you’ll never hear them from people who have actually smoked Caviar Gold because to ask “Isn’t this a little overboard?” misses the point entirely. This is a product that’s all about reveling in the luxurious excess.
The flowers, known as “Lunar Modules” to the Caviar Gold team, carry a hefty price tag of $89.99 which is about $30 above the average price for a top-shelf eighth of high-potency marijuana. Each Lunar Module comes with a thick glass jar with a semi-vacuumed sealed top, in a small, square cardboard box. The jars feature harvest and packaging dates and the aforementioned full-color label. At $24.99, the pre-roll joints are also a bit pricier than other top-shelf joints, but Mike and the Caviar team have infused each pre-roll with a little bit of extra magic. To my surprise, each joint came wrapped with a special Berzerker Jay three-paneled comic written by Kevin Smith and illustrated by Steve Stark, of Castelvania fame, an idea suggested to Smith by Brunson.
“One day he wrote to me, ‘what if we put a little comic strip in every joint like Bazooka Joe does with the gum?” Smith says. “So I wrote 10 comics… and then we pop them into the joints. There’s a golden ticket worth $1,000, if you find it you could walk away with $1000 bucks, then you can buy more fucking Jay and Silent Bob weed! He’s a genius.”
If you collect all 10 comic strips, you can take them to any dispensary to redeem a free Snoochie Boochies Caviar Gold Joint — though it’s hard to imagine a lot of Jay and Bob fans giving up a piece of memorabilia like this, even for free weed.
“There’s something Cracker Jack about it,” Smith explains. “Like here’s a little toy surprise, a little something extra that you weren’t expecting. And the comic’s not too hard to handle, it’s three panels. Even if you’re barked out of your mind, you can get through three panels.”
PART II: TASTE TEST
Snoochie Boochies
Strain: Sativa
THC: 24.92%
CBD:37.5%
The Smell: Bright and sweet floral notes balanced out by the deep and dank smell of the CBD-concentrated distillate and kief each nug is dipped in.
The Taste and High:
While the smell of the fresh Snoochie Boochies bud suggested a light and sweet smoke, the actual results were anything but. Snoochie Boochies is straight-up earthy, with a licorice-root flavor that lingers and fills the space you’re smoking in with a honey-sweet aroma that helps to enhance the whole session. This is a strain for people who love the smell of good weed. Kevin tells me his inspiration and guiding suggestion to Mike was one of life’s simple pleasures, “He asked me what profiles I was looking for, he’s like, ‘I can make it taste like stuff,’ and I said ‘All right — breakfast…’ And he went away and came back with Snoochie Boochies and goes, ‘taste the smoke.’ I gave it a smoke, I was like, ‘this tastes like maple! I feel like I’m smoking Canada. He said, ‘You want breakfast man, that’s breakfast.'”
Snoochie Boochies is Caviar Gold’s first-ever Sativa strain but you wouldn’t know it. The high feels strong but not heavy, coming on quickly after my first hit and I never felt weighted or sluggish, even as it was wearing off. The ensuing experience was euphoric and I felt almost eager to get things done, it’s a great strain for waking and baking when you have a day of tasks ahead of you, and even the packaging, with its surface-of-the-sun graphics, suggest it’s meant to be less for chilling, and more for getting a jump start on your day.
Snoochie Boochies also happens to be Kevin’s favorite, “I’m a Sativa guy, that’s what powers me. The same way Coke seems to function on others, it makes me very peppy, speedy, and ready to do whatever. I love that. The fact that Mike was able to pump it up with CBD, it tricks you into thinking you’re getting healthy, so I love that one. It’s the wakey weed.”
Character In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Most Like The Strain?
SMITH: Jay’s estranged daughter Milly. She’s very bright, hopeful, full of energy and good for Jay. Like good, packed with CBD. She’s good for Jay, makes him a better person.
Berzerker
Strain: Hybrid
THC: 26.84%
CBD:25.4%
The Smell: Deep, dank, and fruity, the Berzerker strain has brilliant trichomes and is sticky to the touch with a slight piney fragrance underneath the fruitier notes.
The Taste and High:
With hints of tropical mango tempered by the dank flavor of the distillate, the Berzerker produces the harshest smoke of the trio, but its balance of deep fruit flavor leaves each hit with a pleasing aftertaste that lingers nicely — it’s the type of strain perfect for a slow drag and a deep hit that you’ll want to let sit in your lungs. The flavor is great, though it’s not the smoothest of the three. I enjoyed this strain particularly through my vaporizer, which allowed the flavors of the bud to cut through without the harshness I found smoking the joint.
The high from Berzerker comes quickly, with the effect of the strain’s Sativa genetics hitting first with a strong head high that feels leagues more powerful than the Snoochie Boochies. Where that strain felt manageable and made the prospects of getting things done exciting, Berzerker makes the thought of doing anything a laughing matter. Literally, this high will makes you giddy. The Indica traits hit on the comedown, which will send you into a couch-lock crash. While Berzerker isn’t the strongest strain in terms of THC content, and has a lower CBD concentration than Snoogins and Snoochie Boochies, its high hit me the hardest, leaving me sluggish and in need of a nap.
Despite the way it kind of takes over your day, Berzerker was my favorite of the three strains. It truly felt the Caviar Gold difference with this one, each hit felt expensive and its a strain worth smoking with the best of company.
Character In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Most Like The Strain?
SMITH: Let’s see, it’s a half and half, in-between, it doesn’t give you the full punch of the Indica, but it’s not a straight-up Sativa either. I put that as Aparna Brielle, she plays Jihad in the movie. She’s definitely got that half and half thing going for her — she’s energetic but she’s also got that withering delivery on the low-key, she gets away with both.
Snoogans
Strain: Indica
THC: 40.2%
CBD: 5.2%
The Smell: Snoogans has a smooth and sweet scent reminiscent of fresh berries, the darker smell of the distillate is less prominent here, making this the most pleasant smelling of all three strains.
The Taste and High:
According to Kevin Smith, with Snoogans, “We were trying at one point to do like a beer or whiskey profile…. but instead we ended up going for a Blackberry affair.” To my tastes, the strain has a much brighter berry kick — more akin to raspberries — resulting in some sweet drags that deliver the type of powerful punch you look for in a great Indica. “That’s the tough one man,” Smith says. “The Snoogans will take you down… This is the weed that stoners smoke to get high.”
He’s not lying. Snoogans surely does hit hard, delivering a deeply relaxing high that had me experiencing the type of closed-eyed visuals that I haven’t been able to have since my cannabinoid receptors got all gunked up and raised my tolerance level. Translation: This high that was noticeably stronger than other top-shelf Indicas I’ve smoked.
Dealing with Snoogans requires commitment, don’t attempt to blaze through a few bowls if you have something on your schedule — you won’t be able to do anything. Not because you’ll be too high to function, though there is a good chance you will be, but mostly because you’ll constantly forget what you’re doing from moment to moment and nothing will feel better than staying put. This is a heavy couch-lock strain so if you’re an inexperienced smoker stay away, Snoogans will do little more than knock you out and send you straight to sleep.
For the everyday smoker who’s looking for a heavy and deeply relaxing high that’ll melt away stress, worries, memories, and coherent thoughts, this is the one.
Character In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Most Like The Strain?
SMITH: I attribute that to Kevin Smith, the character of Kevin Smith in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, because just like how Kevin Smith will talk you ear off until you fall asleep — that’s Snoogans. You smoke that you’re going to be falling asleep pretty quick.
PART III: FINAL TAKEAWAYS
Caviar Gold delivers on its slogan “World’s Strongest” — providing three strains that are hands down some of the most powerful bud I’ve ever smoked, with highs that come on quick and have you feeling lifted and sufficiently stoned for hours, even if your tolerance is shot from everyday use. But the distillate dipped and kief dusted processing of Caviar Gold does come with some drawbacks. The smell and taste are heavily influenced by the additives. So while each strain smells quite nice, and each bud looks visually pleasing thanks to being heavily caked with golden kief, these can be seen as distractions if you’ve grown accustomed to the skunky smell, lush colors, and shimmery trichomes of a strong strain.
The distillate dip causes each bud to be incredibly sticky, and that extra processing will cake up your grinder or vape with gunk and will make you worry about waste as the kief and stickiness transfers to your hands while you break up your flower for a bowl. For this kind of money, I strongly recommend going for one of the single session joints over the Lunar Module of flowers. These prerolls feel expensive and luxurious, and the comics are a hell of a tie in. It’s the type of herb you pull out on special occasions and smoke while offering up its backstory like a goddamn stoner sophisticate.
Mike Brunson, the father of Caviar Gold puts it best according to Smith, “Somebody on Twitter was like, ‘aren’t those $30 pre-rolls?’ And so I said to Mike, ‘Hey man, somebody hit me online saying, isn’t this a $30 pre-roll? And he goes, ‘It sure is, but it smokes like it’s $50.'”
