I Tried Compressed Cannabis ‘Pucks’ and They’re Strange, But Really Good

I remember buying weed from my friend’s boyfriend one muggy day the summer after I graduated high school. After whispering an ashamed “hello” to his wheelchair-ridden grandfather in the living room and avoiding the tiny, yapping pomeranians nipping at my ankles, he shuffled me up the stairs. His loft, if you could call it that, consisted of no more than an old couch in front of a massive television with an XBOX and some crooked Grateful Dead posters pinned to the scuffed walls. The smell of half-smoked joints and Nag Champa hung thick in the air.

“You can sit if you want,” he mumbled with a crooked smile through his dreads. Before I could get comfortable on the stained cushions he handed me a clear hose.

“Breathe in. It’s just weed,” he reassured me. As I inhaled, he held up the other end of the hose to a small, wooden, electric pencil-sharpener looking device. I noticed the taste first.

“It tastes just like weed smells,” I remember thinking in awe as I mentally compared it to the rips from my dirty bong I had grown to love. Floating, I handed him a twenty, took my sandwich bag eighth of mids and left.

While dry herb vaporization remains my favorite consumption method to this day, I rarely partake, purely out of convenience and portability. A Massachusetts cannabis startup is attempting to change that narrative with the introduction of HUUE.

These weird little Lifesaver-sized pucks of compressed cannabis flower and THC-A diamonds are designed for use with any portable or tabletop dry herb vaporizer. It pops in and out like a coffee pod, minus the single-use packaging.

Ever the dry herb vaporizer enthusiast, but also the laziest person ever, I tried these nifty little pucks, which come seven to a tin, in the co-branded GPen that comes free when you buy the box set of all three blends. Cheekily named for their intended effect, Get Sh*t Done, ROFL, and (Un)Wine are composited from six different strains cultivated by Resinate and The Heirloom Collective.

Born from a desire to “make dry herb vaping a popular method of consumption among consumers, while educating them on the health benefits, efficiency, and full usage of the plant”, co-founder Michael Sheldon continues, “HUUE was initially conceived as a revolutionary way to enjoy flower vaporizing, to make it as convenient and pre-dosed as oil vaping, with the full spectrum benefits of flower but without the smoke, and with the quick onset benefits of inhalation (vs edibles)”.

While HUUE pucks are intended to be used in a dry herb vape for a whole-plant experience, they can be combusted in a pipe or bong, smoldering slowly for about ten hits. They also function as an edible. Spent post-vape pucks are technically decarbed cannabis and can be eaten directly or infused into oil, butter, or made into tinctures for full 100% consumption, the co-founder explained in a comment.

But is the Weed Actually Good?

The three effect-specific blends, compiled from iconic strains like Chem Dog and Lava Cake, are sourced from two of Massachusetts top cultivators. Massachusetts is only one of three states in the legal market where you can find the authentic, gassy Chem Dog—legacy genetics with early 90s origins at a Grateful Dead lot in Indiana.

Other blend cultivars include the sugary, limonene-rich Grape Pie which “gives off a high that may initially bring you up with euphoria before landing you down on the couch for munchies and TV”, according to Leafly, in addition to the skunky, aptly-named Grandpa’s Stash, a “mix of legendary old school strains: 1994 Super Skunk, 1992 OG Kush, and a 1970s cut of Afghan Kush.”

The flavor is rich, the vapor is nearly invisible, and, most importantly, the high is exactly how I’ve always remembered it: euphoric. HUUE pucks pack a tad more punch than a typical chamber of ground flower, thanks to the addition of diamonds and a 30%+ THC content, but it remains a gentle, steady high. Cleaning up was a breeze and zero residue was left in the chamber.

“It is way healthier, way tastier (you can actually taste the plant) and more discreet than smoking flower and each puck provides all of the beneficial compounds produced by the plant. HUUE takes dry herb vaporizing to another level, by making it convenient, quick, clean, tasty, and evenly dosed,” Sheldon concludes.