Why Colorado Tokers Love Apple Fritter

Are schools still telling kids that an apple a day keeps the doctor away? Since apples are high in sugar and cyanide, eating one every day is likely to start eroding your teeth. I'd rather let coffee do that.

As with most fruits, desserts and drinks are responsible for the majority of my apple intake nowadays. An occasional piece of apple pie or some hot apple cider and rum on a cold fall night — that's the kind of Americana that puts pumpkin spice back where it belongs. So after spotting a strain called Apple Fritter at numerous dispensaries around town over the past few weeks, I had to try it before October ended.

A cross of Animal Cookies and Sour Apple by Lumpy's Flowers in northern California, Apple Fritter represents a true clash of the titans in the world of cannabis genetics. In one corner you have Animal Cookies, born from Fire OG and Girl Scout Cookies and carrying several OG-leaning qualities in flavor and effects. In the other is Sour Apple, a product of Cinderella 99 and Sour Diesel — a quintessential energy strain. Breeding those lineages together sounds like mixing a bulldog with a border collie, and I'm all for it.

Not all opposites spark something magical after they attract, but this hybrid is a home run. The heavy OG and uplifting citrus qualities are seamlessly connected by sweet, cheesy notes, which add more variety and balance to the flavor — and could reflect how Apple Fritter's effects achieve a similar harmony, giving me something a little more calming than a 50/50 ratio but still capable and alert enough to handle the day. Smoking Apple Fritter throughout the day eventually wound me down to a halt, however, and gave me the appetite of a pre-hibernation grizzly bear.

Apple Fritter is easy to find in Denver this fall, with such notable cultivators as Bloom County and Snaxland providing it to dispensaries around the state. So far we've seen the strain at Bgood, Cannabis Station, Colorado Harvest Company, Den Rec, Diego Pellicer, Doctors Orders, Golden Meds, The Herbal Cure, The Joint, Karmaceuticals, Lightshade, Local Product of Colorado, Lucy Sky, Maikoh Holistics, Mile High Dispensary, Oasis Cannabis, Roll Up and Wolf Pac Cannabis.

Looks: Squatty, dense and much heavier than it appears, Apple Fritter is built like a brick house, with foxtailing buds that tend to fork three ways. Routine spots of dark purple and a beefy coat of trichomes make the strain's wintergreen color seem darker than it really is — a trait every dispensary loves to showcase.

Smell: Apple Fritter reminds me more of an afternoon picnic than a morning bakery, with notable hints of sour apples, honey and funky goat cheese nuzzling my nose before a skunky rush of pine and juniper needles wake it up again.

Flavor: Living up to the aromatic hype, Apple Fritter's flavor carries thick notes of cheese and pine, with a fresh apple-lime twist and an extra layer of funky rubber lingering after the smoke.

Effects: Apple Fritter's high can be euphoric and giggly without making my mind waver too much, which is tempting for daytime use. However, the strain's heavy THC content and slowly relaxing effects come on much stronger for newer users, and perpetual munchies means that my stomach stays higher a lot longer than my mind does with this one.

Home grower's take: "Growers in the Bay and California were really high on it a few years ago, so big surprise that it's in Colorado now. We love their yesterday strains. Can't hate it, though. Apple Fritter has a good high. Getting that apple in there makes it brighter than most Cookies or OGs, and it takes some dedication to watch over those heavy buds for nine weeks."

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