My Favorite Strains: Dark Shadow Haze

Upon entering the showroom at my local dispensary, I noticed a dark glistening beauty on the shelf — I had to know what she was as soon as I showed my medical card and ID. Turns out the beauty’s name is Dark Shadow Haze. If that name alone doesn’t entice you, I don’t know what does.

Dark Shadow Haze got my attention from first glance, but once I figured out her genetics, I couldn’t rush to my pipe fast enough to taste and feel her too.

She comes from the expert cross of Grape Ape and Nevil’s Wreck; which is Trainwreck x Nevil’s Haze, leaving Dark Shadow Haze a sativa dominant hybrid of a 70/30 split (Grape Ape yielding the indica effects). And she looks like such too, with dark purple, forest and olive green tones with white and amber trichomes on top. One cannot deny her genetics by looks and smell alone.

The smell that the Dark Shadow Haze strain gives off is very rousing to the senses. With a battle between the grape aroma and the hazy taste of the Nevil’s cross, it’s hard to say which you will smell first or second, and in what order. For me it seems that fresh from the jar she smells of deep grape lusciousness, then as the air gets to her flowers, more of the Haze-like earthy pungent aromas take over. And this sequence repeats over and over as you break up the buds to enjoy.

The taste of her flowers starts off sweet — sweet as in a natural sweetness of a vegetable or foliage, not the sugar sweetness some “fruity” strains can have. On the exhale is where the deeper, earthy and cutting haze characteristic tastes come in. Her smoke is thick but smooth, and leaves a tingle in my skull for a few seconds in between hits.

After the bud has been charred, floral notes creep in, noting at the Nevil’s Wreck heritage. Overall a comparison hits me — it’s like drinking grape Kool-aid and gin while smoking a joint of a Haze strain (though, I’m unsure who mixes gin with Kool-aid, I am quite aware of how gin and ganja pair quite nicely).

I had nothing to do the day I sat down to enjoy Dark Shadow Haze, and I got to fully enjoy her sativa effects. I threw on some tunes in my happy mood, and got my domestic duties done without feeling much fatigue and soreness from my intense workout just the night before. I may have not worked at the fastest pace, but I was definitely motivated to get my work done. And I relaxed and enjoyed myself in the process.

In the end, I’m positively satisfied — as a fruity dark “purp” lover, the appearance of this strain is mesmerizing. As a Nevil’s Haze fan, she did not disappoint in her ability to carry the true magic of her parent strain’s character. For Trainwreck lovers too, DSH does not water-down the potency of her sativa effects either. All-in-all, I give Dark Shadow Haze two thumbs up for sure.

Check out other posts from Weedist’s My Favorite Strains series!