90 points out of 100
Price: $28 CAD/eighth
Vancouver has slowly caught on to the Cookies strains craze, but I find they still aren’t big on hybrids; there’s a lot of Kush, a lot of Haze and Sours, and mainstays like Blue Dream. I wanted to find something that would grace the shelves of the Bay Area—creamy, cakey, balanced bud in shades of purple. And of course, with the THC numbers to match.
Area 51 (not to be confused with Alien Labs’ Area 41) is MAC 1 x Gas Cake per the Pure Sunfarms website, and it indeed has that chunky, violet-green-orange bud look. But if you like doughy, vanilla-laden strains, this may not be for you; Area 51 was savory and umami gas all around, with sharper notes of pink pepper, rosemary sourdough, and a minty mouthfeel. This truly strikes both the mind and body, soothing my aches after a long hike in the Vancouver woods and putting me in a silly, gleeful mood for both going out and staying in.
Never miss a Rating: Subscribe to Leafly Newsletters, and download the Leafly App.
About our ratings
Leafly Ratings’ 100-Point Scale
- 95-100 Perfect: exemplary cannabis
- 90-94 Outstanding: a cannabis product of superior character and style
- 85-89 Very good: a weed with special qualities
- 80-84 Good: a solid, well-made weed
- 75-79 Mediocre: a smokeable weed that may have minor flaws
- 50-74 Not recommended
How we rate
Dried, cured, packaged, and sold buds, reviewed from bag in tastings, are given a single score. We focus on aroma, taste, effect, look, pedigree, cultivation method, and more.
Special Designations
Our editors focus on excellent, widely available ganja at a reasonable price. Special qualities include:
Top-shelf: It ain’t cheap, or necessarily plentiful, but it’s really good. Welcome to the top shelf.
Smart Buys: Fine, affordable, broadly available pot.
Leafly News cannabis ratings and ethics
Leafly News aims to retain and expand its expertise, authority, and trust.
Expertise is built through years of reviews, interviews with growers, visits to weed regions, and accumulated knowledge about cannabis horticulture, flavors, history, and culture. Leafly News’ editors and freelancers have a combined 50 years of experience with cannabis.
We aim to be accurate and independent, with policies including:
- Actual tastings—If we didn’t smoke it, we’re not reviewing it. At Leafly Ratings, all ratings come from multiple tastings.
- Independence—Leafly expert reviewers are paid by Leafly and are independent. We accept review samples with no promise of coverage. Leafly rating staff cannot accept bribes. We generally pay our own expenses and report on what the readers want to see.
