The House Cuts: SourBand from TWC

When dispensaries pick their house genetics, they’re putting their name and reputation on the line. We went to Tahoe Wellness Cooperative in South Lake Tahoe to check out their top shelf SourBand and see what it takes for a strain to become the house cuts.

Be it self-cultivated or an exceptional relationship with a vendor, when a dispensary chooses something as their house cut under their brand it tends to be some of the best cannabis in town and a solid representation of the strain.

In some cases, it can become the defining example of a strain. While it’s a bit more obvious in places like Cookies SF backed by an all the rage family of phenos, many prove over years they’ve got what it takes like Berkeley Patients Group’s Jack Herer variant All-Star Jack Frost or Mega Wellness’s OG Kush.

What we’ve found in Tahoe Wellness’s SourBand is equally along those lines of unique.

SourBand itself draws its lineage from two hitters. It’s paring of the East Coast’s beloved Sour Diesel and, albeit a bit lower on the folklore scale, Headband, which proved to be the energizing high craved by many, especially those in search of the all-powerful diesel fuel. Diesel fuel is a term synonymous with a Sour Diesel strain so well done it would get an OSHA inspector out to a gas station if the wind was right.

While the best of these cuts would have you thinking Mr. Clean decided to get into fuel production, they can be overwhelming for folks unfamiliar with cannabis that is cerebrally active. Want the fuel with a little bit more chill worked in? That’s where the second half of the pairing comes into play.

On its own Headband is a solid standout. The pairing of Sour Diesel and OG Kush has been a mainstay on the California medical cannabis scene for well over a decade. Despite the aroma similar to Diesel and Piney Kush, Headband has a bit more of a body to it.

Ironically, people point to its name, a description of the feeling of wearing a headband while high, as some type of definitive reference to the kind of experience to expect, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While there is a solid cerebral effect, there is also an added body high from the OG.

Diesel’s don’t have a tradition as a big painkiller, but are very popular with patients with MS and fibromyalgia who want to enjoy a better quality of life. With the OG pairing in the SourBand you decrease the uppityness resulting in a very functional painkiller for light aches and soreness.

We asked Tahoe Wellness Cooperative’s Executive Director Cody Bass about their premier house cut.

“The Sour Diesel that it comes from the original Mendocino Sour Diesel,” said Bass. “I can speak to that, I’ve known that cut since 1999. The Headband side is somewhat from the same family and lineage but I think that really came around 2004 or 2005.”

A family from Mendocino that is yet to go public in the cannabis space originally put the cross together, according to Bass.

“I’ve been growing it for years,” he said. “It’s an amazing yielder but it’s also so full of oils. It almost yields higher than the straight Sour Diesel. The trichomes are a bit longer, so when you use it in extractions it’s unreal.”

Bass noted the Headband added some density to it as well. We could see that clearly as our sample was made of few nice chunky hardball nugs with a clean tight trim.

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