i........s

The first time I went into Attis, it was like stepping into the future of recreational cannabis. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and calm. The selection was great, all of the strains were clearly listed on the screen, prices were mostly even, and best of all, the whole place is color-coded just like Leafly! I've been there several times now, and each visit has been as consistently excellent as my first.

Pakalolo was so warm and cozy when I stepped in from another rainy Portland day that I forgot why I came in for a second and just played with a roly-poly Pug by the fireplace. I felt more like I was in someone's living room than a store, except for the tasteful display of marijuana on the shelves, there were planters with big green leaves sprouting out of them everywhere. The staff were friendly, casual, and engaging with a lot of knowledge about their product and enough experience with the strains they sold to offer personalized recommendations. I didn't feel rushed, I felt like the budtender understood what I was looking for, and she was really great at helping me find what I wanted. If I could improve one thing about Pakalolo, it would be to display their Black Cherry Soda in a clear, rather than a frosted glass container. It's as black as Batman, all through the leaf, and as soon as I saw it I immediately wanted to buy as much as I could carry. I bet a lot of people would have that reaction if they could see it. Lastly, the high from Black Cherry Soda is phenomenal. The gal at the store told me it will lean Indica or Sativa based on variables, and she was totally right. This is a complex, nuanced bud, and I'm going back for more as soon as they open again on Monday.

For my first legal dispensary purchase, I wanted to get the most mathematical bang for my buck, so I looked for the best cost-to-THC ratio. 3.5 grams for $30 of 29.7% THC fit that bill easily. LA Ultra goes straight to my head, like the façade of a building in a silent movie crashing down around my shoulders, but it doesn't knock me out unless I smoke too much of it. Unfortunately, "too much" with this strain can be reached in three hits. It's the perfect personal vaporizer weed, because one hit is all it takes to reach the level of high I'm after. If I'm being really honest, one hit is still a bit too much, but how can you take less than a hit? As far as taste goes, I have to learn to appreciate and distinguish the taste of weed. I'd be better at describing the smell, but even that escapes me at the moment. The long and the short of it is, it's a great solo high with one hit from the vaporizer.

It has a lightly fruity, peppery taste in my vaporizer and I achieve ideal altitude after about two hits, which is just right. Two hits is the right dose in my mind, because it means you can just take one if you need to be mostly clear-headed, or three if you really want to dig into it. I feel like it comes on faster than the others, but that could just be me. I definitely feel it after the second hit, and I've taken to setting a five minute timer to check in with myself and see if I feel like another. Usually I don't.

I went to La Mota first thing on October 1st, and they were still getting their systems ready for the new customers. Those technical glitches prolonged my visit, but the selection was great and the atmosphere was clean. Some might find the lack of decoration unsettling, but I liked that the visual focus was on the product rather than adornments.

I liked this place a lot. The guys who were working were friendly and knowledgeable, with a real passion for their work. They were happy to show me their testing results and explain the benefits of different strains.