Koster (S.Africa)
Looks like: a dark, tight sativa hybrid with long, white flowers; relatively broad leaflets of medium green; plant gets about 2 meters tall indoors without LST
Rubbing the stem smells like: fresh oranges in a wickerwork basket, although some stems have a woodier or mintier smell with less citrus.
Flower smells like: overpowering incense and mint with notes of sandalwood, licorice, spiced oranges, and petrol.
Cured flower smells like: woody licorice.
Feels like: a creep into a long-lasting head buzz that brings novel introspection; has a deeply psychoactive entourage.
Tastes like: powerful mint throughout, accompanied by a blast of bitter incense that sweetens into woody citrus, leaving a strong note of minty licorice that lingers for hours
The first thing to mention about cultivar Koster is its lasting vigour. The line is mostly inbred in recent generations, retaining surprising strength and some very sexy characteristics that will appeal to sativa enthusiasts, pheno hunters, and snobs of African weed alike.
When growing Koster from one of our packs, expect the seedlings to leap to life in the first couple of weeks. Resistance to both humidity and pests in general is impressive. I’m not sure how many generations into inbreeding our accession of Koster is, but the strength I witnessed in the plant had me drawing comparisons to F2 Himalayan landraces.
The plant remains deceptively small for the first month, then the second month it really packs on the girth. It’s unwise to vegetate this plant for longer than two months unless you’re growing outside and have a long, lazy season for it, as one can expect the flowering stretch to last four weeks at least, possibly doubling the plant’s height in the process.
Once the plant has reached its full, proud stature, it needs another eight weeks to stack up and sweeten. During vegetation, one can smell the citric element of the plant at the stem and in the foliage, as well as catching the first whiffs of incense that will come to dominate the profile in late flower.
Once in flower, Koster is a fierce beauty, its branches forming intricate rows of buds like so many foot-long spikes of frosty, shimmering ornamentation. At about week ten, the scent won’t be called pleasant by everyone who smells it, yet it’s the sort of sour odor a connoisseur associates with strength of product and signature of brand.
Just a waft will send the uninitiated bounding back and coughing defensively at the gassy, minty onslaught of volatile terpenes. Expect a scent with elements of Congolese, Malawian and Laotian weed, but with oranges on the back end, a combination that’s uniquely dank and ethnic and sure to impress veterans of ganja.
The best part about Koster is the brain-buzzing potency of its gooey offerings at harvest. Smoked, the plant is a flavourful, dreamy trip that could stand against any of the heavyweight sativa of yesteryear. It literally numbs the scalp of the user, creeping up with irresistible force after a couple of bowls. The flavour complexifies the deeper you go, becoming spicier and woodier, the silky quality of the smoke offsetting the increasing spiciness and sweet woodiness. Then it really hits you, that sense of euphoria unique to subtropical sativa.
Koster warmly stimulates the senses, making the mundane suddenly exotic. Surrounding colours bleed and jitter, seeming to brighten and dull intermittently; text shivers, as if dodging attempts to be read. In this head space, art will seem to be embued with surreal vibrancy, smells will become sweeter, noises will become clearer, music will become fascinating. The appetite isn’t invoked in the high, not for food, because it brings a feeling of contentment and satiation.
Expect a surge of cerebral excitement with every blast of Koster’s entourage. After a few bowls, closing the eyes creates a kaleidoscopic vista of dancing colours that can quickly lead down the rabbit hole, and this is just a medium dose! Here, you can invest Koster in your day, making mundane work a pleasure and brightening thought under its influence. That being said, it’s truly a dope’s kind of dope, so be sparing if you need to be sharp of wit.
Those who underestimate it are in for a smack, as it contains the rarest and purest types of THC exclusive to African sativa, compounds so unstable and intricate that modern testing equipment has great difficulty measuring them conclusively. It’s a well-known fact that certain sativa are psychedelic, perhaps by means of THC-P. Whatever the means, Koster is definitely as psychosomatic for the smoker as it is aromatic for those near where its being grown.
Another way to enjoy Koster is by eating it. When cooked and ingested at a low dosage, this flavourful herb imbues one with clear-minded energy and optimism, enabling a productive day. Higher doses bring deeper effects, yet even at a very high dosage, Koster won’t slow the body. The body will feel stimulated by means calmer yet more insistent than coffee while the mind is being flooded with vivid imagery and ideas.
My favorite part about eating Koster is that the effects can last all day at a medium dosage or higher, and the flavour of the herb, while a bit harsh to smoke for those who dislike strong mint, is delicious when cooked into a stew or chili.
At a very high dosage, this plant will astound you with the way it makes you feel.
There’s nothing to compare to curling up and basking in the sea of comfort that is Koster hash, orally administered, exactly three hours and thirty-three minutes from the time of ingestion. This is when the Koster ganja kicks into full swing, blasting the brain out through the ears, bringing a storm of dreams. Go lay down and enjoy.
The experience is so relaxing that the next morning one floats to work without a care in the world, recalling sensuous visions from the night before. There’s plenty to love about Koster, and as scientific instruments advance, we’ll soon be able to detect this plant’s miraculous alcohols in detail, but until then, you’re advised to palm a pack of Koster, however you choose to consume it. Try it for effect, or for breeding potential, or both, and see for yourself why this plant has garnered a growing fan club.
Some notes on proper harvest of Koster. It’s important to reap it carefully, as it’s teeming with volatile chemicals that you’ll want to save. Careless shaking of the plant can dislodge these important trichomes, which mustn’t be allowed.
Harvest and cut the flowers wet, all in a single effort, if possible. Lightly twist wet flowers between forefingers and thumbs to bind the volatile terpenes into the nug for curing.
Do not allow the plant to dry before the flowers are cut, or you will lose much of what’s best about the Koster experience.
I kept my harvest in jars right off the branch, burping them three times a day for a week, ten minutes open per burp. The second week, I only needed to burp them twice a day, once a day for the following week, at which time the Koster was ready for smoking, although young. Another two weeks sealed up has Koster’s flavours popping and the potency sending me for a loop. Every time I squeeze a cured nug, I’m assaulted by sour mint and petrol, but this is only momentary, giving way to the plant’s pleasant wood-and-licorice perfume.
*** Breeding notes and advisories: The plant is certainly leggy but much less so than some other subtropical cultivars in the region, hinting that it’s been hybridized at some point. My guess is that Koster has Burmese ganja in its ancestry, something like twenty to thirty percent, judging by the minty notes, the dark coloration of its foliage, its initial squatness and suggestions of Eastern structure, and the intricate flower formations it prefers, which looks like little paper lanterns unique to anything in South African landraces.
*** The way Koster unfolds deep into flower, its manifold rows of paper lanterns catch maximal light, developing like kernels on so many alien cobs of corn.The buds are the brightest part of the plant, being lime green, and this brilliant hue is easily turned white by a coating of THC that’s a little too generous for pure African sativa, further suggesting exotic and unknown hybridization somewhere in the lineage.
The crystals remain white all the way to harvest, although they will attain an amber aspect if left to the very last moment. The last weeks of flower are difficult to endure for the deliciousness of Koster’s assembled elements. Some phenotypes will seem to be ready at week nine or ten, but give it at least twelve weeks for the sake of potency.
Her smell sweetens and grows nuttier when she’s finally peaking, accompanied by a slumping of her posture as she feeds her remaining strength into the yield, and about her smell: in this way, Koster is unlike anything else I’ve experienced. The smell could easily fit into the design of a flagship Kush, adding a rich, unmistakable funk as distinct as any Skunk, except that unlike skunkiness, this reek hasn’t been exploited commercially.
It’s every bit as distinct as Northern Lights or Papaya in that it’s a complex, attractive-yet-repellant perfume that’s hard to mistake. It’s a huge opportunity for the discovery of the next Chemdog. I say that because I hunted for the orange smell but was tempted to hunt for gas instead, because the majority of the plants had a piercing petrol bouquet.
Sticking with my plan, I found a couple good orange citrus reeks.They cured with a flavour that finishes sweeter and has unique potency resulting from the different terpenes, so it pays to search Koster. One can get decent variety, whether seeking mint, wood, citrus, or gas. In any of these directions, you can find something worth crossing or breeding.
But where Koster truly shines is in the F2 factor. Cross it with anything and the inheritence of strange and beautiful characteristics is guaranteed. Koster’s African (and what I suspect to be Asian) heritage will shine through with manifold darlings! Choosing from among them will break your heart. As for Koster’s ever-important “bag appeal” element, Koster scores better than you’d expect, its flowers resembling old school haze, only tighter, its long pistils turning purple with age, its calyxes paling and darkening in splotches.
As a word of caution when enjoying this cultivar: the effect of Koster has no known ceiling, which means a large dose can be very disorienting. It’s advised that users get to know this plant gradually, adjusting the dosage as needed for their desired level of stimulation. If you’re a seasoned smoker of Cali Kush, pace yourself with this lady, which means don’t try to stuff a blunt with her. She’s racier than anything that’s popular in the American or Dutch markets at the time of this publication.
This has been an unbiased, unscripted review of TLT’s Koster, a new favorite of mine.
My fellow farmers deserve to know about the best genetics available for reaching their goals, and that’s why I write for TLT, whose inventory is stunning in both scope and potential. I can honestly say, I will be using Koster in several applications, including in the refinement of an energetic hybrid project, as it’s bound to remove that little bit of couch lock from the last generation and imbue the mix with even more potency.
Koster is an easy recommendation for such applications. Try crossing it with any conceivable indica to the F2. Glamorous! Five out of five stars, without question.
With TLT, knowledge is power, which is why they provide all information about their genetics, empowering the reader to make an informed choice. Let’s get away from seed mills, white label garbage, and the dodgy genetics of bulk landrace sites. By chucking with TLT, I’ve unlocked a world of potent variety that can’t help but lead to the creation of new champion breeds.
The cultivar is remarkably hardy against pest pressure and humidity, because I trapped it in a tent every night with no air flow, sitting in a puddle. Now that’s how you test humidity and mold. Koster kicked ass!! Smokes like a dream, though. Very sticky, pinkish resin. It really sweats the resin for a sativa. I was very impressed. Having seen this, I know it can handle Minnesota outside.