| Golden Goat up close and personal. Larger photo below. |
Want to know more about the herb you’re smoking? So do we, so we’ve asked Ry Prichard – a fellow Colorado cannabis nerd, grower, photographer and founder of the Cannabis Encyclopedia project which aims to create a central database on cannabis strain information – to help school us all, strain-wise. Each week in our new Cannabis Encyclopedia blog, Prichard will break down a strain from seed to buds. This week? Golden Goat.
Golden Goat
Lineage: Island Sweet Skunk x (Hawaiian x Romulan)
Type: Sativa-dominant hybrid
Overview: Golden Goat is a Kansas one-off creation which has become one of the most popular strains in the Colorado cannabis scene.
| Ry Prichard. |
Created in Topeka, Kansas by a grower known as “MrDank”, Golden Goat’s name comes from the Golden Goat Recycling plant, a large facility in Topeka, which would smell of a thousand different types of fermented soda syrup in the summer heat. The Goat was brought to Colorado right as the medical cannabis scene began to develop, and made its way into a number of the first dispensaries in the state, quickly earning a spot on their strain rosters. Since then, it has become one of Colorado’s signature strains, known for its tantalizing lemon-grenadine aroma and flavor as well as its complex Sativa-dominant effects package.
| Ry Prichard. |
| Golden Goat. |
Created as a one-off breeding project, the clone now known as Golden Goat was selected from a population of ISS x Hawaiian-Romulan plants. It also had a sister phenotype which MrDank said was perhaps even more unique and flavorful, but that plant has since been lost.
The Island Sweet Skunk mother used was a very Sativa-leaning specimen, and was definitely calmed down a bit by the smooth Hawaiian-Rom, making the Goat feel like a fairly balanced combination of Sativa and Indica for most users. From a grower’s perspective, the father’s influence also really improved structure, yield, and flowering time (65 – 75 days depending upon the effect one desires), resulting in a very robust and high “bag appeal” plant perfect for the burgeoning Colorado commercial scene. When dialed-in, the Goat can produce a very hefty harvest of creamy pink and orange, stigma-covered buds which are coated with large-headed, well-formed trichomes from a very early stage.
When opening a jar or bag of properly-grown Golden Goat, one should be practically assaulted with tangy fruit aroma — its aggressively sweet tropical fruit twang is almost intoxicating, and brings to mind some of the best Haze and/or Durban Poison with just a hint of the Romulan’s peppery grape funk. It is also one of those strains which seems to perfume the room after being smoked, and in general is a true pleasure to consume, especially for those who love sweet Sativas.
The onset of Golden Goat’s effects can definitely be on the racy side – an increase in heart rate, a buzzing, tingling body sensation, and swirling head and eye pressure can sometimes be overwhelming to more novice users, but veteran Sativa smokers will normally love it. A rush of mental activity and a general uplift in mood are to be expected, though the increased energy doesn’t normally translate to a ton of physical movement, as the body effects quickly slide into the more sedative area beyond the first 30 minutes or so. This is one of those strains which seems to increase creativity and social aptitude, but falls short of a pure Sativa feeling due to the strong body effects (likely a result of the Romulan’s influence).
| Ry Prichard. |
| Golden Goat from Denver’s LaConte’s Clone Bar. |
While many veterans of the Colorado MMJ scene are officially over the Goat due to how prevalent it is (as is the case with a variety of other strains such as Flo and Durban Poison), it will surely impress a lot of people from other locales who have never had the pleasure of trying it before. From the moment that the lemon-cherry-mango fruit punch aroma hits the nose, through the eye-opening onset of the effects, Golden Goat truly is a world-class cannabis creation – who knew that Kansas had something this good up its sleeve?
Cannabis Encyclopedia is our new recurring column which seeks to educate about the wide variety of strains available on the market. Ry Prichard is the writer, photographer, and researcher behind CannabisEncyclopedia.com, an extensive web portal of cannabis information. He spends most of his days navigating the weed jungles of Colorado.