Apple Rock Candy

Good News is a brand of pre-roll packs by Cresco Labs. Each pack contains seven 0.5g joints for a total of 3.5g of cannabis. The hybrid pre-roll pack is called “Brunch”. It uses the strain Apple Rock Candy, a cross between Alien Rock Candy and Sour Apple IBL. This strain contains 15.4% THC and 0.6% CBD.

Appearance 5/5
The Good News “Brunch” pre-roll pack comes in a slightly shimmery blue box that is 2.5” x 4”. It is marketed as a product to use on-the-go. The box even has a compartment containing 8 matches and a strip to strike them on the side of the box. The inside of the box is bright yellow, and the pre-rolls are covered in wax paper.

The finely ground cannabis is army green with specks that border on grey. The pre-rolls are packed very tightly, which makes these 0.5g joints look shorter than some others. They are firm to the touch and burn evenly.

Aroma 5/5
This pre-roll pack has a mild and sweet aroma. The aroma is sweet, floral, and skunky – in that order.

The scent is so sweet that it borders on candy-like and artificial. This strain smells like white blossoms on crabapple trees. The aroma is wildly pleasant because the hint of skunk adds complexity, without taking away from the sweetness. While the joints have a pleasant scent as a pack, they have little-to-no aroma on their own.

Taste 4/5
The taste of Apple Rock Candy is crisp, herbal, and savory. There are hints of a “smoky” barbecue flavor, along with flavors of tar and ammonia. While I would have rated the taste of the flower 5/5, the heavy brown hemp rolling papers and cardboard filter made this strain taste woody, masking the otherwise pleasant flavor.

Apple Rock Candy has a delicate flavor, and I enjoyed smoking this strain more in glass, or with rice papers. While the flavor of this strain through glass reminds me of a barbecue, the brown paper dilutes the complexity, making it taste like a bonfire.

Effect 4/5
This strain is marketed as “Brunch,” which I find to be a suitable title after trying the strain because it made me feel outgoing and uplifted. The effects of Apple Rock Candy were mild and slightly stimulating, but above all, I felt happy and eager. This strain affected me immediately, and I felt a wave of happiness and peace before I even exhaled.

With only 16.4% total cannabinoids, this strain made me feel happy and relaxed at lower doses. But this comes in 0.5g joints. When I smoked a whole one, I felt excited, motivated, and more than anything, hungry. Even after smoking half a gram of Apple Rock Candy, I didn’t feel dazed or distracted at all.

Product price: $41.58 for 3.5g

What differentiates these from other pre-roll packs is that they come with matches that can be struck on the box. This could be good for tourists and people who don’t want to carry a lighter. Although it should be noted that the matches break easily. I broke three out of eight.

These pre-rolls are also an economical product. For people who want less expensive cannabis from a dispensary without buying bulk popcorn nugs, this 3.5g of cannabis costs substantially less than the same quantity of flower.

When I asked the budtender why the box said “Brunch,” he said that the company put it because the original strain’s name confuses customers, and it’s a hybrid strain, kind of like how brunch is a hybrid meal.

This week, they had three other Good News pre-roll packs on the menu. They were named “Friday”, “Vegas”, and “Me Time”. I find this confusing because everything else is marketed by its strain name or type. It’s a good product, though, so I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s called “Brunch” or Apple Rock Candy.

Address: 3812 N Clark Street
Phone number: (773) 820-7280
Hours:
Monday: 10am – 9pm 
Tuesday : 10am – 9pm
Wednesday : 10am – 9pm
Thursday : 10am – 9pm
Friday : 10am – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 9pm
Sunday:  10am – 9pm

On my last trip to Sunnyside Dispensary, I claimed my rewards points for the first time. I had noticed that Sunnyside put the amount of rewards points I had accumulated at the bottom of my receipt, even though I have never signed up for a loyalty program with them.

To find out how I could claim these points, I went to the “Loyalty” section at the bottom of their web page. For every pre-tax dollar spent at Sunnyside, customers get one reward point. The website explained that a customer gets a $5 credit for every 200 points ($200 spent).

The website says that when a customer has accumulated enough points, the budtender will ask you if you want to use the points at checkout. Since nobody at the dispensary has suggested that I use my rewards points, I asked the budtender if I could use them. I thought it was going to be an ordeal or that there would be some stipulations, but the budtender immediately said yes, and told me how many points I had.

The website led me to believe that points could only be redeemed in 200 point increments, but the budtender cashed out all of my points, down to the cent. Since there isn’t a graduated scale as to how much the points are worth, it’s nice that he let me redeem them all at once. It is still unclear if customers can redeem points before they have reached 200 points, though.

This rewards program is attached to the user profile in the dispensary’s system that is tracked through a customer’s ID. Unlike some dispensaries in Chicago, Sunnyside does track customer information. While customers can opt-out of the dispensary keeping track of their points, customers cannot opt-out of the dispensary keeping track of their information.