Bear Force One

Good morning, high-viators. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to Basic Flower Manoeuvres. As briefed, today’s exercise is 3BOG-lighting: glass only, no mids. We’re riding right into the danger zone for our latest drop: Bear Force One.

I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve waxed lyrical about the genius of Karma and how we here at Mephisto love his work. Sour Power OG was no different. When we go hunting for the latest and greatest from the photoperiod world, we do not just pick up any civvy from the street; we track down the John Matrix, Colonel Braddock and Rambo types of this world. Sour Power OG is a multi-award winning strain herself, so having the opportunity to add another of Karma’s decorated strains to our arsenal, after 3 Bears OG and 505 Headbanger, was an instant yes.

In 2019, a crack genetics unit, Tomahawk Tim & Mitch Magnum, was sent to the breeding tents on their top secret mission, or, more realistically, a mass growout. We were looking to build the ultimate successor to what we’ve previously described as an ‘Artisanal Cornerstone’, 3 Bears OG. We focussed our targeting-array on the rare but legendary "watermelon candy" phenotype. Our goal was simple: create 3BOG V2. We wanted to keep the lemon, the fuel, and those outrageous terpenes from the Sour Power OG side, while reinforcing the structure and "all-rounder" reliability of our resident Bear. After a slight COVID-related delay, we donned the tactical vests, slapped on our camo face paint and loaded up our M202 FLASH. Unfortunately, Jet-Fuel Jimbo wasn’t on hand to film the montage.

Crossing Sour Power OG with one of our own Karma derivatives was an obvious choice, it gave us the directly injected hit of nostalgia that seeing Stallone, Li, Lundgren, Statham and Schwarzenegger on The Expendables poster first did. And, just like the film, we expected and received pure, unadulterated genetic muscles. When Mitch was tasked with the unenviable job of hand-crumbling about 50 different latest-and-greatest strains to extract seeds, even with his nose completely out of commission, coated in resin and surrounded by a cloud of eau d’weed, he zeroed in on Bear Force One like Cobretti’s laser sight. 

Jet-Fuel Jimbo described Bear Force One as being the ‘final boss of OGs,’ Mephisto’s very own Snake Plissken. The strength and dominance of her odour cannot be denied; nose tingling and tear jerking in equal measure. She’s all sour and gas with watermelon candy floating in the back, with a soapy and sour sweetness sticking to the tongue with a double-denim Dalton chokehold. The candy goodness is the necessary reinforcement to the utter plastering of sour that she slaps you with. She wrecks you with a shock and awe campaign; a blistering cerebral OG stone with effects that are quick to onset and slow to fade; a classic heady forward relaxation that progresses to a hardly functional couchlock. She is more than deserving of her own warning label.

3 Bears OG v2. The Final Boss of OGs. From her offensive levels of gas to her blistering physical stone, here is why Bear Force One is deserving of those taglines.

She displays noticeable early vigour and a characteristic seedling stretch, quickly establishing a tall, slender, apical-dominant frame. Her growth pattern is lean with elongated nodal spacing initially, though her lateral branches show significant strength in mid-veg.. Structurally, she reflects her 3 Bears OG heritage but with a more stretched, manageable build.

One thing to keep an eye on is that she can be noticeably more thirsty than other strains in the garden, especially during her transition into flower. With that being said, she requires little further attention; despite remaining lush and fully foliated throughout the cycle, she requires little more than simple leaf tucking to manage her efficient, broad-leaf canopy. In fact, in Jimbo’s own grows she was more-or-less left to her own devices.

In late flower, her floral clusters undergo a rapid transformation, swelling to golf-ball nodes and clusters creating dense, resin-encrusted mini spears. Frost coverage is aggressive, coating the bracts and extending deep into the sugar leaves. By late flower, lavender hues creep through in the swollen bracts and pistils, often with that purpling continuing out into the veins of sugar leaves. She is entirely undeniable by this stage, possessing an incredibly loud and protruding aroma of sour melon and gas that frequently dominates the entire environment, easily overwhelming other varieties growing concurrently in the same space. 

Her aromatic profile is an uncompromising homage to gas. The initial scent is sharp and caustic; it is led by a high-octane sour fuel that translates impeccably to the palate. Behind this primary profile lies a complex layer of watermelon candy, lime juice, and a subtle hint of lavender, with a white pepper spice emerging upon the grind. On the palate, this translates as a soapy and sour sweetness that sticks to the tongue with a powerful, persistent finish. It is remarkably consistent from nose to palate; a truly nose-tingling and tear-jerking fuel-forward experience that ranks as one of the most potent gas profiles in the library.

Unsurprisingly, as a complement to the extreme frost and offensively loud aromatic profile, Bear Force One also wrecks you with a blistering cerebral OG-like stone. Effects are quick to onset and slow to fade with a classic heady forward relaxation that progresses to a hardly functional couch-lock. This is the final boss of OG effects deserving of her own warning label. While strong, she is functional enough to be a daily driver for OG aficionados; however, she is best served in the afternoon to evening, as she has a sedative tendency.