Sweat Tea~ California Ice Tea

subcool

Well-Known Member
Sweet Tea

Origins

I have a long relationship with California Orange and I have always loved the terpene profile and in the day it was a huge seller in the underground market. I met Aeric77 online in the early 90’s on a website called Overgrow. The internet had just formed and we lived on Mirc a chat forum. We used this medium to come together as friends.

Long before cell phones that streamed video and before Instagram and social media took over our lives, we communicated through message boards. Before that though in a few growers lives was the 77 and I wanted to tell you how a clone on a picnic table ended up making its way around the damn world.

In 1995 I met a group of growers online that went on later to write the code for Overgrow that hung out on a secret message board that you accessed by clicking on the 3rd The in the body of the text. It took us to a posting board where we could freely talk about the illegal hobby we all loved so much.

Shabang, Skoosh, Pi Webby, NL420, IMCG, Soul, Vic High and the leader of this band of original growers Eric77. We shared tech and told stories of our pirate like lifestyles and after a time we decided to have a get together in person and have some human contact. Growers especially back then kept to themselves and had few friends but I have always been a super lonely person inside and crave a closer connection so I decided to invite everyone to my land for a BBQ and shrimp boil

We called the event Jamaica because at the time we were paranoid as hell we were all going to go to jail for growing weed. I lived in Georgia for the first get together and in 1995 you didn’t even talk about weed. So we all meet at my house and commence to partaking. Before the party I made some cannabis cookies but these were the old days so I used a ½ ounce of actual weed in a box of Betty Crocker brownie mix. I was wanting to impress my friends so I went to sprinkle in some kief out of a film case and DUMP like ¾ of it fell in. I couldn’t do anything so I mixed in up and baked them.

The Story of Pi

So the deadly cookies were in play when a buddy of mine named Pi arrived. Shabang’s girl friend was passing out cookies and Pi is deaf and can’t hear. She was quite attractive and he was focused on her not the warning about the cookies.

The next morning he says “Sub I think someone dosed me” I’m like how many cookies did you eat? Cookies he says and after I explain we laugh for 15 minutes. The party was amazing and we agreed to have a second one next year.


Back to the Story

This time more people wanted to attend so I invited the 77 to my land in Gainesville near the Okeechobee River. This time we had a campout and dropped fungus and partied for 3 days telling lies and sharing secrets with one huge difference. Everyone brought clones from there collections and this one meeting IMO changed the face of cannabis. Skoosh brought be Cleaner seeds and Pluton clones, He passed away last year still in the unregulated market. Pi brought his famous Romberry and Romulan and NL420 brought his Northern Lights and G-13 cutting from Airborne. Tommy Holland was there with cuts of Micanopy Moonbeam and Micanopy Madness I used one of these cuts to make Blue Moon which Bog later used in his first breeding projects. My friend Stoney Pony brought up Vic High’s Killer Queen Cutting and Waling Dude had cuts of old school AK.

An older fellow named Eric had a sloppy bag of cuts on the table and I asked what is this unlabeled bag? He says that’s California Orange with a strong voice. Seems in late 80’s Eric grew out some skunk seeds he found in California weed and grew them out and found this unique genotype. Tasting of Oranges and having a up beat euphoric high its literally remined me of smoking sunshine the first time I enjoyed a bonghit. Eric went on to write a good deal of the code for Overgrow and many of these people were a huge part of building and running overgrow, Many of them have now passed on just a few of us remain.

We partied and ate and tripped and after several days we departed. The sad sack of Cali O was divided and we went our ways. This clone was shared far and wide and it traveled everywhere. It is an easy cutting to track, besides the Orange smell and taste it turns colors at harvest and at day 56 or so she will spit out small sterile male stamens. Even Dutch Feminized version herms BTW. It is my opinion that this is the same cutting that we found in a grow room in Falls Oregon brought back to life and created both Jillybean and Agent Orange with. I also believe it is the same cutting or an offspring of that DNA used to make Tangie and other Orange strains. Adam Dunn Says that Tangie is just a genotype of Jillybean BTW. The clone is in so many gardens that throughout the growing community you see it for sale in flower form and extract form in most shops. I even see pre rolls and Edibles made specifically from the strain. Eric died last year quietly and he was not into the corporate cannabis that has taken over the industry but before he died he knew that people everywhere even in Amsterdam were blessed by his gift. Eric also helped me develop and perfect Super Soil so there that.


Me and Jill separated in 2018 and I gave the rights for Jillybean to her along with 12 other strains. I went back into the breeding room with Cali O and created Sweettea mixing in some Alcatraz OG into the mix to add that infamous OG flavor on the back end or exhale.

I love creating new exciting hybrids especially the ones with a strong fruit smell. Sweet Tea has that Orange taste but its so much more complex it has quickly become one of my top sellers. My large format shots of California Orange were lost in the Cobb fire but her genetics live on in some of my new hybrids.

Without Eric I am not sure we would have al the famous strains I mentioned above so we owe the man A debt.

I just wanted to tell the story of an old OG that gave us the gift of Orange Cannabis.
Eric77


Subcool

The Weed Nerd
 

Attachments

shaggydog365

Well-Known Member
I'm harvesting sweet tea right now, I've got 5 phenos, the smell is amazing one 3 of them, the other 2 smell like oranges, I don't think I'll be keeping those 2 . I like the blood orange, smell.
 

radrolley

Well-Known Member
That is such an awesome story. I can't believe after all these years hearing about California Orange again. Such an interesting coincidence for me as well. Back in the early 2000's a good friend of mine had some. It smelled and tasted like oranges. We were with a couple other friends and hot boxed in my vehicle in a graveyard in the daytime by a grave that had the name Maryjane. Nearly 20 years later I'm smoking with that same friend deciding on a seed order. He says the sweet tea sounds good. I didn't realize until after I order it that it actually had California Orange in it. I could not believe it after all these years hearing of that strain again. I still have my 5 seed pack and will post pics here.
 

radrolley

Well-Known Member
Just took this picutre. M3 soil with a little Fertilome mixed in. Just Ro water when dry. When they show sex the females will be transplanted in super soil. So far not much stretch and they have been far from the light. Resistant to PM. Thrips love it though.
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radrolley

Well-Known Member
I got very lucky with all 5 being females and kept 2 phenos. I have been really busy and have a lot of navigation to do through in my old pics before I can upload a lot of them. The first one I kept I nicknamed Arizona. When smoked in a joint it tasted like a can of Arizona Sweet Tea! The second was more of a sour diesel flavor and the buds were more compact. It seemed more potent. The other 3 were not bad. Here is a couple pics of the second one for now. Sorry for not keeping up to date.

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radrolley

Well-Known Member
yeah

This one didn't have much for smell but was definitely nice. I got the other one going that has the really strong smell. I'll have pics of it later.


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radrolley

Well-Known Member
I'm having trouble getting some pictures from my phone. Some will copy over as a much smaller size and lesser quality. Others will copy over as a 0kb file. Sometimes if I try like 30 times it will work. This picture luckily only took 2 tries. It sucks because I have pictures from like the last half a year to go through.

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