Strain Review: Sour Diesel

Many weedists know of the highly popular strain Sour Diesel. This beautiful flower comes from the cross of Chemdawg and Northern Lights, though rumor states that Super Skunk or a mystery Skunk strain may come into play.

On the other hand, I’ve also heard tale of a totally different genetic lineage including a Mexican Landrace strain. Coming from the East Coast originally, before moving to Colorado, Sour D has always been popular and in high demand in the area, which helped it become one of my favorites too due to its characteristics, regardless of unknown ancestry.

When someone mentions Sour D, as it is commonly referred to, most people automatically envision super potent buds with a breathtakingly pungent odor, and euphoria that is hard to come by unless consuming a high THC sativa strain. This is why it is so well known, but also why, it can be hard to come by on a regular basis.

If you ever watch cannabis documentaries, or documentary series such as Vice news, you may know already that Sour D is also one of the most popular strains sought after in the ‘cannabis black market’ or in non-legal areas, such as NYC. This, in turn, can sadly give this strain a bad rap, especially outside the connoisseur community.

Her flower buds are usually a larger variation of most nuggets, and have a nonuniform appearance, leaving them looking “bumpy” or “chunky” in comparison to rounder, smoother buds. The majority of the flower is a light green, with hints of darker foliage throughout, and long, thin, light orange to dark red pistils cover her surface between the nice shine of her trichomes.

Smell is the #1 marker of this strain. It smells of gasoline but has a pungent, almost nose tickling, aroma on the back end of the terpene profile — almost like a burned rosemary or sage mixed with pine. This could be due to the terpene “pinene” (which is known to be in higher doses in Chemdawg strains), mixed with the terpene “myrcene” (of Skunk strains). Thus, there is a strong pine, hoppy odor to be enjoyed by all.

Her heavy sativa hybrid nature gives off a level but very euphoric buzz, while a very mellow body buzz allows your strong mental motivation to carry you wherever you desire. After using this through college and having it help my rheumatoid arthritis, it is my opinion that this Diesel strain helps with anxiety, symptoms of insomnia (it helps with relieving that tired feeling behind your eyes), stress and even chronic pain. I’ve also heard of use for alleviating depressive moods and PTSD symptoms.

Sour D is one of the first strains I can recall getting over and over in my teenage and college years, and I was never disappointed. This pushed me to dig deeper into each new strain since then, and become the cannabis connoisseur I still strive to be. And to this day, Sour D still brings a smile to my face and a warmth to my spirit, surpassing many “new and improved” strains popping up these days. As I say, stick with Sour D and all will be as it always has been.