Shatter Review: Chernobyl

Some strains get a bad name – I’d put the widely spurned, former celebrity strain Blue Dream on that list. Others just actually have a bad name.

The sense of humor possessed by the people tasked with naming new strains of cannabis ranges from eccentric to despicable. As a result, the label on your jar or envelope is just as likely to say “Bubble Gum” – a delicious treat adored by generations of people the world over – as it is to say “Agent Orange,” a toxic herbicide used as a chemical weapon that’s still causing cancer in generations of people the world over… but mostly in Vietnam.

Enter the Chernobyl Shatter by Top Tier Extractions, expert purveyors of quality concentrates and – just to be clear – not responsible for the name of the source flower. Yes, Chernobyl, that Ukrainian city best known for the worst nuclear catastrophe in the history of nuclear catastrophes and another example of the “generations of cancer and suffering” strain naming theme.

But, what this concentrate lacks in name appeal (absolutely everything), it more than makes up for with a double barrel blast of unique terps and serious potency, with a THC content that hovers just under 80 percent.

The clarity of the shatter when I first pulled it from the paper was not impressive. The coloration ranged from pale gold to “clear,” but it was more translucent than transparent. Pulling and swirling it like taffy, however, revealed a golden clarity reminiscent of light honey. So, the material is aesthetically pleasing with an asterisk.

The stability isn’t great and its consistency is on the tacky side, but overall it’s what I call “tidy,” meaning it doesn’t stick to everything indiscriminately and/or leave a disgusting, wasteful mess on the paper. But while stability and clarity are slight weak points on the Chernobyl, terps and potency are two areas where it truly shines.

There wasn’t much heft to the smell of the shatter in the paper, so the tangy grapefruit flavors and whispers of mint that dominated the terp landscape of my exploratory dab took me by surprise. When I tooled a glob onto the nail, a robust lime candy sweetness grabbed the wheel, shoved grapefruit into the backseat, threw mint out the window without even bothering to roll it down first and kicked the accelerator through the floorboards. The wild ride terminated with a vehicular leap from a sheer cliff, a la Thelma and Louise, and a dramatic splashdown into a gentle sea of alert relaxation.

This is a truly excellent shatter with a truly abysmal name. I did knock off a few points for the lack of stability and the iffy clarity, but overall this is an exceptional offering from a really excellent extractor. One that provides quality concentrates at reasonable, if not exactly affordable prices.