Opening a beautifully designed package and watching that excitement die the second you touch what's inside is a special kind of letdown. After going through six Pastime Brands strains across three dispensaries in New York, the verdict is simple: save your money.
The Buy
We purchased six strains total across three Long Island and Queens dispensaries over a two-week period. Pastime gets one thing right: their packaging looks great. Clean, professional, the kind of box that makes you think you're about to open something worth $53. You're not. This is a straight-up case of putting lipstick on a pig.
Every single sample shared the same problem before we even lit anything: the buds were tiny and turned to powder the moment we tried to break them up. That's not a minor issue. Overdried flower loses terpenes, which means it loses flavor and aroma. It's also a sign of poor post-harvest handling. On two of the six samples, things were worse than that.
The Strains
Strain Stars — Farmingdale, NY
Blockberry tasted like hay. Dry, dusty hay. The buds were tiny and turned to powder when we tried to break them up, which tells you everything you need to know about how this was cured or stored. The buzz was barely noticeable. Fifty-three dollars for this is a joke.
No Flavor · Negligible EffectNo flavor. None. The buds were small, dried-out popcorn that crumbled apart on contact, and whatever buzz existed was so faint it barely counted. Jelly Beanz is the cannabis version of biting into a candy that tastes like nothing. At $53 an eighth, that's just not acceptable.
No Flavor · Negligible EffectGreen Flower Wellness — Oakland Gardens, NY
We didn't smoke this one. Chem Haze had visible powdery mildew on the buds. That's a fungal contamination problem, and there's no scenario where that should be sitting on a legal dispensary shelf. The fact that it got there at all is a serious quality control failure on Pastime's part.
The closest thing to a passable product in the bunch, and that's not saying much. The flavor was okay — barely there, but at least something existed. The bigger problem: it didn't get us high. At all. A cannabis product that doesn't produce a noticeable effect is not doing its one job. We paid nearly $55 for that privilege.
Marginal Flavor · Zero EffectPlanet Nugg — Farmingdale, NY
Another mildew situation. We passed on smoking London Fog for the same reason as Chem Haze. Two out of six samples with visible contamination is not a coincidence or bad luck. That's a systemic problem with how this brand operates, and consumers are paying for it.
No flavor, bone dry buds that fell apart in our hands, and a buzz so weak we actually stopped to make sure we'd lit it. We had. Sideshow might be the most fitting name in the bunch because that's exactly what this whole line feels like.
No Flavor · Negligible EffectBy the Numbers
Pastime Brands — Full Sample Breakdown
The Verdict
The dryness showed up in every single sample. The weak effects weren't a one-strain problem. The mildew hit two products from two different stores. This isn't a bad batch situation, it's how the brand is operating.
New York's cannabis market is expensive and still getting its legs. Consumers shelling out $50 to $55 for an eighth deserve a product that was properly grown, properly cured, and properly checked before it hit the shelf. Pastime Brands delivered none of that, dressed it up in nice packaging, and asked full premium prices for it.
The mildew alone should disqualify this brand from shelf space at any licensed dispensary in the state. That two contaminated samples made it through from different store locations suggests neither Pastime nor the retailers doing enough to catch it before it reaches a customer.
Don't buy Pastime Brands.
Bought the Jelly Beanz at Strain Stars two weeks ago and had the exact same experience. Crumbled apart, no taste, barely felt it. Thought I got a bad batch but sounds like this is just how their product is. Glad I saw this before spending another $53.
Not a bad batch. We saw the same thing at all three stores. It's consistent across the line, which is actually worse.
The mildew thing is genuinely alarming. Two products from two different stores with visible contamination — how does that clear any inspection? Someone needs to ask that question publicly.
I work in the industry and I can tell you powdery mildew at the point of sale is a testing and storage failure. If it's showing up visibly in the jar, it was either not caught in testing or it developed post-testing due to improper moisture control. Either way, not acceptable at this price point.
Planet Nugg had a whole Pastime display up when I was in there last month. Looked real nice. Glad I didn't bite. Went with something else. Will be sending this review to a few people I know who were eyeing it.