Sticky BudsThe dispensary is in the space formerly occupied by Delta 9 Alternative Medicine -- before that crew split and left behind a sagging banner that stayed out front for months. The new owners have changed up as much as they can, but a few things remain the same, including the shared entrance with the tattoo parlor next door. The girl working the counter of the tattoo parlor looked up from her magazine, sizing me up. I cut her glare short by making a turn to the right into the dispensary lobby instead of to the left and into her shop.2262 S. Broadway Denver, CO 80210 303-282-0200
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Raw marijuana price range: $25-35/eighth-ounce, $200/ounce cap Other types of medicine: BHO, edibles Online menu? No. Handicap-accessible? Yes.
A patient was ahead of me in line, so I hung out in the lobby while he finished up. Whereas the entryway to the dispensary used to be a sort of dead space for Delta 9, it's been turned into the waiting room for Sticky Buds. I took a seat and flipped through a few of the pot-centric magazines on the counter and snagged a pocketful of Dum Dum Suckers for my drive home.
The rest of the dispensary's layout has changed quite a bit, too. Fresh carpet and a coat of earthy green paint on the walls inside really changes the place and makes it feel new. Which it is: It's only been open for the last six weeks as a sister shop to Alameda Wellness. My budtender said that the herb on the Sticky Buds shelf comes from a new grow, however.The receptionist/budtender started to tell me about the way the shop came together, but trailed off as he copied my paperwork and never finished his story -- muttering something about restructuring and the former owners abandoning the shop.
I nodded, smiled and walked over to the L-shaped glass countertop about halfway back in the room, blocking off what used to be a patient waiting room in the old Delta 9 shop. One counter is full of cheap Chinese glass-looking hand pipes and assorted candy edibles. The other half is filled with jars of herb. The top shelf in the shop is occupied, appropriately, by top-shelf buds that go for $35 an eighth. The two shelves on the bottom hold the $25/eighth-level strains. There was also a huge peanut jug of trim and shake that sold for less -- though I never got an ounce price out of the dude.
Hash selection was either a blended BHO made by Colorado Concentrates from Sticky Buds trim or a strain-specific Golden Goat, also made by Colorado Concentrates. The strain-specific was flaky and borderline powdery, with a lemon/black-pepper nose-tickling odor, whereas the blended was a darker, putty-like substance that was generically hashy on all fronts.
Continue for the rest of the review. Also gone are the grow supplies and just about everything else associated with the former owners. One room now is home to someone's office, stuffed with a king-sized desk taking up most of the space and a dog bed in the corner. It's basic, no-frills and to-the-point. Again, that might be due to the shop's having recently opened, but the staffers have created a quick, clean dispensary either way. Now they just need to dial in their meds. Things like the $25 Durban Poison, with its rotten-lemon spice and plump, fat buds, were well priced on the bottom tier. So was the well-done Dutch Orange, which had an amazingly potent and pitch-perfect tangerine smell. But then there was the seeded (at least one) Maazar, a fluffy strain with looks worthy of the nickname "grass" and small, pebble-like buds.My budtender was a nice guy, and at least he was honest with me when he said he didn't know the lineage of a couple strains, including the Grandma Cindy that I brought home. I couldn't find much on this myself, actually. It seems to be a Colorado cross that the Canadian Hemp Company says is similar to Chocolope. It had that really cool strawberry-baby-powder smell Cindy puts out, but with a skunky base bringing it back down. The taste was fresh, like a cold cherry limeade. A real sativa-strong strain for me, picking me up and giving me a boost of energy and appetite not long after vaping. Burned, though, it snapped and crackled and charcoaled out with a dark gray and black mass left behind.
I also brought home the Bubba Kush, which had the awesome pyramid structure of Bubba Kush flowers, with dark greens and a few hints of purple deep in the calyxes. It also had some of the dark, berry Bubba Kush smell, but missed the mark on the earthy richness even in the shop's big batch. Broken up at home, the dried, crumbly buds had a canned nutrient smell. Though it burned clean, the full flavor wasn't there. The potency wasn't body-melting, either, as this strain tends to be for me. A decent effort, but not something I'd rush back across town for.
Notably, neither bud was sticky. I know that's nitpicking (along with everything else), but I'm a little bit let down that my keyboard and desk aren't coated in a fine layer of skunky finger hash.
Read more reviews from Westword's medical marijuana dispensary critic, William Breathes, in our Mile Highs and Lows blog, and keep up with all your Colorado marijuana news over at The Latest Word.
