Ice cream
Vanilla
Depression
Stress
Happy
Relaxation
Cookies and Cream is perhaps one of the most well-known and beloved flavors of ice cream. It might surprise you to find that this also applies to cannabis strains. Cookies and Cream is a smooth hybrid strain of cannabis that is known far and wide as both an excellent beginner strain for those still inexperienced with marijuana, as well as a favorite among those more experienced due its unique taste and smell.
Let’s take a look at the Cookies and Cream strain in its entirety and learn all about the closest thing you’ll get to ice cream flavored marijuana.
What is the Cookies and Cream Cannabis Strain?
Cookies and Cream was originally grown by Exotic Genetix, a worryingly scientific name for such a down to earth, homeopathic company. Cookies and Cream has a very mixed genetic history, with its roots lying in the infamous Girl Scout Cookies. Its more recent parentage belongs to a loose cross between the Starfighter strain and an, as of yet, unknown Girl Scout Cookies phenotype.
Hey, if you knew the secret recipe, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?
Cookies and Cream took home the first place prize in the hybrid category of the 2014 Denver Cannabis Cup, essentially the Olympics for marijuana at the time.
Cookies and Cream is a hybrid, meaning it contains properties of both a traditional indica as well as a sativa. This allows it some versatility with regard to its effects, making it more of an everyday strain rather than a dedicated indica or sativa.
Cookies and Cream belongs the Cookies family, meaning it is one of the myriad of descendents of the Girl Scout Cookies Strain. This grants Cookies and Cream a certain factor, a certain history that is not too dissimilar to drinking a very aged scotch from an ancestral brewery – it has history, character, and a long line of genetics all leading towards the very bud you have in front of you.
So, what’s it like?
Cookies and Cream Aroma, Flavor and Appearance
Cookies and Cream is, unsurprisingly, famed for its taste and smell. With extremely sweet notes on both the tongue and the nose, Cookies and Cream is eerily reminiscent of the selfsame ice cream flavor that it takes its name from.
The vanilla flavor is somewhat nuanced, rather than the bold faced, powerful vanilla bean you would get in some ice creams – it is far closer to the vanilla gained from oak casks in fine whiskey, if you can believe it. Additionally, it has a back note of earthy richness that lends many to think that Cookies and Cream is a completely different strain altogether.
It has a fairly traditional appearance in nug form, with a fine film of cannabis kief that lines the sides. The kief has a strangely powerful smell, inviting you in to enjoy the whole experience.
Something interesting to note is how dark and rich the actual bud itself is – considering its light and sweet flavor, you might expect to find a Cookies and Cream bud to have a light and gentle appearance and color, but in actuality it is dark and wood green, almost resembling resinous pine.
All sounds like a nice complex, inviting strain; so, how do we grow it?
Cookies and Cream Strain Grow Info
Cookies and Cream is unfortunately a pretty difficult strain to grow yourself.
Though it can do quite well both indoors and outdoors, it requires extremely carefully monitored temperature variables, as well as a consistent feeding schedule. Due to its Mediterranean history, it needs very wet, warm weather pretty consistently, typically in the 70 to 80 degree Fahrenheit range.
However, Cookies and Cream has a remarkably short growing time, taking roughly 8 or so weeks, meaning that it is pretty quick to mature and begin producing bud – the only problem is the care in the meantime.
Like many temperamental strains for home growing, Cookies and Cream requires careful pruning, especially if they begin to approach too tall a height. This can happen if growing them indoors, as the regular temperatures and consistent sunlight makes the plants strive ever upwards, rather than pushing out and making room for bud protection.
As long as you ensure Cookies and Cream has a nice temperature controlled, moisture monitored room to grow in, and you keep on top of the pruning schedule, you will not have to hard a time making your own Cookies and Cream.
However, if it all seems too much and too arduous a process, the original creators of the strain, Exotic Genetix, still sell seeds for this prize winning, ice cream-like cannabis strain. Sometimes it is fun and enjoyable to make your own weed, but other times it is just easier to buy it yourself – Cookies and Cream is one of those times.
By now, you have either bought your own Cookies and Cream, or grown it yourself, so let us take a look at the actual effects of this magical strain.
Cookies and Cream Effects
Like many other strains in the wider Cookies family, Cookies and Cream promises a generally happy, euphoric and overall gleeful high. Due to its hybrid nature, Cookies and Cream is excellent at not making you too couch locked to enjoy a pleasant, cerebral experience.
Cookies and Cream is frequently purchased and used specifically for the sensation of relaxation and general feeling of happiness that it gives, but it also because of its lack of intense energy bursts.
Sometimes, people just want to feel happy and relaxed without also needing to paint or play the guitar!
For those seeking a chilled out, relaxed experience, Cookies and Cream offers a pleasant, uplifting high with plenty of calming sensations, with only a small desire to remain sedentary.
So, how about the medicinal effects of Cookies and Cream? Not everyone is taking cannabis just to get high and enjoy themselves, after all; many are looking to self medicate! What kind of self medication can we expect from Cookies and Cream?
Medical Benefits of the Cookies and Cream Strain
True to form, Cookies and Cream provides very similar medicinal effects as it does relaxation effects – it is calming.
By far the most frequently cited usage of Cookies and Cream is its ability to help tackle stress. It can help reduce overall stress, both chronic and incidental, as well as just generally making you feel a bit better about yourself. It is also used to help treat depression, as well as pain, though this is as much to do with its THC content and the effect it has on the endocannabinoid system.
Though all cannabis strains with a decent quantity of THC have the ability to help treat those with depression and chronic pain, certain strains are just better at it than others.
Thanks to Cookies and Cream’s combination of relaxation and a high THC content, it is well suited to helping treat unpleasant mental disorders and general bodily pain.
Overall, the medicinal benefits of Cookies and Cream are exactly what you would expect them to be – the strain is all about relaxation, enjoyment and a great taste, so it makes sense that its principle medicinal effects are to do with mental health.
However, are there are particular side effects unique to Cookies and Cream? What kind of unpleasant consequences can we expect from this sweet strain?
Possible Side Effects of Cookies and Cream
Whenever you read the words “side effects”, you likely jump to horrible ailments, disfigurements and problems. However, remember that this is a cannabis strain we are talking about – though there are some potential consequences of THC that you should know about, when we talk about the side effects of an individual strain, we mean what it does immediately after taking it.
For Cookies and Cream, that unfortunate side effect is dry mouth. Though this is pretty common, especially among powerful hybrid strains, Cookies and Cream gives the user a pretty intense dry mouth that might leave you puckering your lips more than you would want to.
However, this unpleasantness is easily offset by the intense rush of euphoria and relaxation you feel, so it is a pretty even trade. Additionally, dry eyes and dizziness are commonly reported side effects, all easily solved by sitting in a warm room with a glass of water and enjoying your relaxation.
Like many high-THC strains, some users can report instances of anxiety and paranoia as a result of taking Cookies and Cream, so make sure you watch out for those frequent sad consequences of marijuana rearing their ugly heads.
Remember to take it slow and not smoke more than you are used to and you should probably be fine.
Final Thoughts on Cookies and Cream
Cookies and Cream is simply one of those strains that lives up to its megalithic reputation – it possesses a unique and distinguished flavor, a sound history of genetics, and brilliant medicinal and relaxation effects.
The only real downside with Cookies and Cream is that it is a real pain to try and grow yourself, due to its tendency to grow too tall, or not at all due to poor weather conditions.
However, if you can get your hands on some from a reputable breeder, look forward to a powerful, sweet sensation of euphoria.
If you really enjoy Cookies and Cream, consider checking out the rest of the Cookies family and finding some other strains that might interest you – they might not all have the wonderful smell and taste of Cookies and Cream, but they certainly come close.
