IN REVIEW: Each of these full gram joints is rolled in organic hemp paper cultivated with snowmelt from Mount Shasta, which makes each pull supremely smooth hitting and sweet to the taste. The Caramel Apple Pre-Roll is a single-origin hybrid that comes with 21.83% THC and a robust terpene profile. Expect a great daytime high that delivers an abundance of energy and endless smiles to serve you well during outdoor activities or indoor workouts.

The Caramel Apple pre-roll by A Golden State is smooth as velvet to smoke, and the flavor is an autumnal onslaught of sweet apple and spices that would make a scarecrow smile. This is something that longs to be savored in a tucked away cabin or hollowed out tree that’s been turned into an elven workshop of merriment and ephemeral bliss. The joyful effects that I felt from hitting this 21.83% THC pre-roll were childlike in nature. It felt as if I’d broken free from some societally forged shackles and saw clearly enough to give myself over to that long lost feeling of innocent-minded awe. That sense of being bowled over by everything. It brought me to a place where things seemed new again, and I was taking it all in wIthout jaded eyes. This is the sort of profound perspective shift I achieved from smoking this pre-roll.

“It brought me to a place where things seemed new again.”

To say the least, this high had taken all of my first world problems and placed them on a very tiny raft and pushed it down a slow moving current of lies. What I was left with was a sense of unencumbered joy that would not be wasted indoors or obsessing over petty annoyances. This high had a way of accentuating positivity at its most basic level, and isn’t that what you want from a joint? In fact, all I wanted was a little escape from a morning filled with minor grievances. What I got was a Papillon-like adventure of the mind.

As this deeply euphoric high worked its way from my head all the way through to my feet, I grabbed the dog and set off on a local hike for no other reason than I felt like the outdoors needed us. By the time I hit the trailhead, I looked over both shoulders to make sure no one was looking and had an impromptu dance party with my lab mix to John Legend’s rendition of “What Christmas Means to Me.” It was a nice moment of careless abandon that could have easily doubled as a Target commercial.

The potent properties of this Caramel Apple Pre-Roll saw me through a 5-mile hike/jog combo, only to be followed by a thirty minute heavy bag hitting session. Like magic, my day had turned into a high-impact, all-embracing joyland of kinetic energy, and I just wanted to include everyone I knew in this feeling of exuberance. In that respect, I could see this offering from A Golden State as being a valued centerpiece to any social gathering. While it’s billed as a hybrid, I felt it shined best as a sativa. It was unrelenting in its curiosity seeking and penchant for eliciting fun.

“It was a nice moment of careless abandon that could have easily doubled as a Target commercial.”

This pre-roll claims to be rolled with paper cultivated with the snowmelt from Mount Shasta. Now I have no idea what that actually means, but I go up to Mount Shasta quite often on the account of my sister living near there and all I could picture was an old-timey, mineral-prospector-type rolling up a fatty near a snow covered embankment at the foot of the mountain. He is a wise old hermit whose cave is protected by an army of snowmen, and an intricate spy network of woodland creatures that he communes with when properly baked. It made me miss the raw beauty of Northern California, and the frontiersman spirit of those old Gold Rush towns. More than anything it made me wish I was on a snowmobile slicing through fresh powder and becoming one with the season. The real beauty of this high was that I could just close my eyes and see myself in those places and beyond. In the midst of a pandemic, where travelling and seeking is sometimes difficult, to realize that is something worth more than gold altogether.