We tried it: The pumpkin pie bar from Incredibles

Although the years have been relatively short, the post-cannabis prohibition era has led to tectonic shifts in the way we process and consume the plant. And no other corner of the modern cannabis market exemplifies these changes better than edibles. What was once – and depending on your age – still synonymous with powerful, homemade pot brownies, unruly dinosaur doses of THC and a terrifying psychedelic high that lasts for days is now coming with controlled dosages, constant effects, and more effective non-smokable consumption.

As something of a cannabis late bloomer turned professional enthusiast, my own edibles experience has been largely shaped by the legal California market. Not that I didn’t partake of the occasional homemade infused baked goods, but even my “bad” edible experiences have been relatively mild and frankly pale compared to the times I stopped smoking a gram and a half of high-powered pre-rolls back to my easy days.

The point is, given California’s legal limit on edible THC, my biggest concern about edibles is whether they have enough THC and not too much. And once I’ve tried something edible and confirmed that it made me feel something, I want to know that it makes me feel that way again.

This is the type of experience that the Incredibles brand builds its reputation on. With the slogan “the believable edible”, Incredibles products are designed for each customer to offer three things: “loved for unique flavors, familiar for original recipes” and “made to deliver consistent experiences”.

For this review, I’ll take a look at Incredibles’ seasonal 100 milligram pumpkin pie bar to see how it stands up to the company’s core tenets, which also reflect the core attributes that today’s cannabis-infused consumer tends to look for.

First impressions

Incredibles have been in the cannabis game since 2010. Founded by Josh Fink, Derek Cumings, Rick Scarpello and Bob Eschino, Incredibles was created out of the idea that “a good edible experience shouldn’t be gambling.” One of the ways Incredibles ensures consistency is to infuse their products with THC distillate.

The edible market is currently seeing significant growth in products fortified with living resin, a cannabis oil made from fresh, uncured, non-dried flowers that is believed to preserve more terpenes and other smaller cannabinoids from the plant in addition to THC.

A legal, properly dosed, edible live resin product is likely to fall within a reasonably predictable window of action. Ultimately, the choice between live resin and distillate-infused is a matter of personal preference. If you want to reduce the risk of inconsistency as much as possible, Distillate remains the most efficient way to get a guaranteed high and experience certain cannabinoids in their purest form. If you want to get the most out of distilled edibles, legal brands and licensed pharmacies are the way to go.

As previously mentioned, Incredibles pioneered consistent dosing in their infused chocolates by using a unique shape to demarcate milligram servings of each fragile piece. It goes without saying that the attractiveness of the packaging alone is never enough to ensure you get a quality product. That said, I tend to go for brands with packaging designs that stand out in one way or another from the Apple lineup. Incredibles candy bars offer a range of colorful, inviting designs that reminded me of that groovy new wave commercial from Whatchamacallit from the 80s.

taste

If the pumpkin pie bar is any indicator of what to expect from the entire Incredibles chocolate tablet line, then I’d say these bars are sure to deliver unique, high-quality flavors. The bar itself is roughly the size of a typical Mini-Mart chocolate bar, divided into breakable squares that are further divided into 5 milligram triangles that are very clearly labeled in the shape. Breaking off a square or triangle gives you a great cross section of the grain of the pumpkin spice and cocoa nibs inside the graham cracker and white chocolate.

Historically, I wasn’t the greatest weed chocolate guy because I find it difficult to strike a satisfactory balance between the chocolate and the weed, even if the earthiness of both makes them mix damn well. One of the things that made this pumpkin pie bar so appealing to me was a taste of the chocolate that was rich and multi-faceted enough to do justice to the inevitable taste of cannabis extract – which I usually see as a sign that the product was it’s delivery of cannabis content. It’s like a more sophisticated, pumpkin-flavored version of those Hershey’s Cookies’ N Creme bars that I always pounded as a kid.

effectiveness

For first-time or new users, Incredibles recommends eating a triangle of their candy bars and waiting for them to take effect – usually two to four hours after consuming them – before taking more. As a constant consumer of medium THC cannabis, I usually take 15-20 milligrams of edible product at a time to get a full sense of its potency and the dimensions of its effects. But I had just had a three-week tolerance break when I tried this bar, so I decided to meet in the middle and start with a square for a total of 10 milligrams of THC.

In the evening I had my first square, and it was almost an hour to the minute before I felt a vague, distant fossilization with a slight warmth in my head and my limbs with a deep, low-frequency tingling sensation.

experience

In the hour between eating my first pumpkin pie square and the start of the game, I exercised my right to self-parody and dropped onto my couch in a paperback omnibus from Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

I had just picked it up at the second hand book section of my local record store in Long Beach, California. After about three comic strips I am confronted with a scene in which Fat Freddie, Phineas and Freewheelin ‘Frank “sit down for a season of creative reprieve”. Frank is sitting in a comfortable chair next to a smoking bong, magazine in hand. “I say there’s nothing like smoking hashish, reading my free trial magazine, and listening to my collection of free record club records!”

“Boy,” I thought, “this is life.”

As mentioned earlier, it took my 10 milligram square about an hour to kick in. There was a five-minute period when the high began to thicken and melt in my head, slowing my thoughts and calming my nerves. After these five minutes the time had come. I felt totally petrified, and the buzzing realization that I was in it sparked a slightly higher body tingling frequency and moderate head noise.

My thoughts grew faster and vague musings deepened. Five more minutes and I sat down to enjoy a seasonal watch from Evil Dead II, one of the great horror films to watch in High High. As the dark, psychedelic opening credits of the film rolled in, I caught vivid glimpses of the scary season and the horror-themed decor of my apartment all year round in the weak, hazy light, indulged in everything and felt connected to the ground beneath my feet .

I was on comedown within another hour, having been on a comfortable wave free from the heightened fear of a “bad” edible trip and mostly content with a more nuanced experience than what an inferior distilled product can offer. The slope was long and sweet, accented by a subtle, friendly calm, which made Incredibles’ pumpkin pie bar a more effective indulgence for the night than the day.

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Bottom line

A few days after my first sample, I decided to try the pumpkin pie bar again, this time increasing my dosage to two chocolate squares for a THC level of 20 milligrams, mainly to test the effect of the chocolate bar at a higher dose. While the intensity of the high increased slightly, the rapid peak pattern after an hour of waiting followed by a long, relaxing, calming descent was absolutely identical.

Obviously, neither of my experiences with this bar is enough to guarantee that Incredibles products will work the same for everyone, but experiencing such an airtight consistency in a poured chocolate is no small matter.

If you’re looking for an exceptionally delicious chocolate treat that you can rely on to consistently deliver the same high at the same pace – and without creating an overwhelming high-power effect – the Incredibles candy bars are a try value.

Selected images from Incredibles