Certainly one of Excessive Time’s 25 Best Strains of All Time, Acapulco Gold is a legendary cultivar that’s so uncommon as of late the gold within the title would possibly as properly be a reference to its shortage, moderately than its coloration. But it was as soon as one of the crucial generally discovered cultivars within the hippie days of the Nineteen Sixties on the West Coast of the U.S., and later was a vital lifeline to funding the expansion of the early punk scene within the Nineteen Eighties.
Historical past of Acapulco Gold
As legend has it, Acapulco Gold (additionally referred to as Mexican sativa) originated excessive up within the Guerrero Mountains, east of the port metropolis of Acapulco. Not solely was this heat, moist, coastal local weather very best for hashish cultivation, the placement on the Pacific coast made it major territory for Californian surfers looking for massive waves and powerful bud. It could solely be a matter of time earlier than these surfers and others would convey Acapulco Gold again house with them.
In accordance with Royal Queen Seeds, “Acapulco Gold first confirmed up in america again in 1964,” which tracks with the historical past of Romulan, the place Mexican genetics first appeared within the Nineteen Sixties. If that timeline is correct, Acapulco Gold would have arrived in San Francisco simply in time for the start of the hippie motion and 1967’s Summer time of Love, an ideal time and place to develop into a cultural icon. Cementing its standing as a connoisseur-grade cultivar, Cheech and Chong immortalized Acapulco Gold by that includes it in Up in Smoke and making a slogan for it, “No sticks no seeds that you simply don’t want. Acapulco Gold is….Dangerous Ass Weed.”
Gary Tovar: From Acapulco Gold to Goldenvoice
Whenever you scour the web for details about Acapulco Gold, whereas some finer particulars of tales is perhaps a bit completely different, all of them have a tendency to say the identical man, smuggler and live performance promoter, Gary Tovar. Tovar smuggled a wide range of items through the years, however within the late Nineteen Sixties he started to smuggle hashish into the U.S., each seeds and bud, which turned “California’s largest marijuana operation.” Essentially the most notable cultivars that Tovar smuggled had been Afghani, Thai Stick, and Acapulco Gold. Ultimately, he would earn thousands and thousands of {dollars} earlier than being arrested for drug trafficking in 1991, and imprisoned the following 12 months till 1999.
In 1978, Tovar entered a brand new part of his life, with the hippie motion lengthy useless, the counterculture sought a brand new music to outline the period, and Tovar discovered that in punk rock at a Intercourse Pistols live performance. Three years later, Tovar based the live performance promotion firm Goldenvoice (named for a unique hashish cultivar) to convey punk to the lots. The Nineteen Eighties was a really completely different time than 2023, and plenty of venues had been afraid to host punk reveals out of fears of violence; punk additionally confronted regulation enforcement crackdowns.
In accordance with a profile on Tovar, “Punk’s lifeline was money from hashish, and music offered a method to wash the proceeds from the commerce.” By his personal estimation, Tovar spent over $4 million selling punk music and bringing main British bands to the U.S., which all got here from his hashish enterprise. “After I was doing each my issues – smuggling and concert events – I thought-about them crusades,” Tovar mentioned, including “Now I believe we gained on each ends. Our music gained – you’ll be able to hear a Ramones tune in an elevator – and we gained on the marijuana entrance.” It wasn’t simply punk music although, Tovar was an early booster of goth, industrial, and all kinds of alternate music, and he labored with artists together with Siouxsie and the Banshees, GBH, Public Picture LTD, Nirvana, The Pink Scorching Chili Peppers, Weapons N’ Roses, and Jane’s Habit, simply to call a couple of. Despite the fact that Tovar stepped away from Goldenvoice in 1991 when he went to jail, Goldenvoice has thrived and their flagship pageant, Coachella, is without doubt one of the most well-known music festivals on the earth.
Because the historical past laid out by Royal Queen Seeds says Acapulco Gold got here to the U.S. sooner than Tovar was smuggling it, chances are high, he might not have been the primary particular person to convey Acapulco Gold to the U.S., however the id of that particular person is misplaced to the ages. The opposite title talked about in connection to Gary Tovar is an affiliate of Tim Leary generally known as LaRue, who was Tovar’s connection for Afghani seeds, however no sources clearly join LaRue to Acapulco Gold.
Taste/Terpene Profile
True Acapulco Gold is a pure sativa, which is smart given how shut it originated to the equator. As we’ve got mentioned, the phrases indica and sativa aren’t probably the most scientifically correct phrases for predicting the results of a cultivar. That being mentioned, Acapulco Gold is thought to be a really energizing cultivar, as one would count on from a sativa. Some sources on-line have it listed as a hybrid with some indica genetics within the combine, although most consult with it as being a sativa landrace, this discrepancy could also be a results of the shortage of readability over what denotes a “pure sativa” cultivar.
The flavour and scent of Acapulco Gold ranges in description from “an intense fruit cocktail taste,” to “earthy overtones blended with hints of spice, citrus, and wealthy toffee/honey-like sweetness.” From my previous expertise smoking it, almost a decade in the past, it was very fruity, extra of a tropical than citrus sweetness, with some spice to steadiness it out. This is smart on condition that its terpene profile tends to be dominated by myrcene (which is present in mangos and would impart a tropical sweetness) and beta-caryophyllene (which might give it that spiciness), there are also notable quantities of limonene (which is answerable for the citrus taste typically famous).
Is Actual Acapulco Gold Really Gold?
As we mentioned within the final part, there’s some debate over the precise genetics of Acapulco Gold (how sativa-leaning it’s), which could possibly be as a result of it’s so uncommon you’ve got folks claiming one thing is Acapulco Gold when it’s not (much like what some have claimed about Blue Dream). Royal Queen Seeds has this caveat emptor, “These days, many seed banks promote their very own model of Acapulco Gold. A few of them can hint the genetics again to Mexican origins, whereas others have slapped the title on unrelated hybrids.”
One of the notable traits of Acapulco Gold, the supply of its namesake, is its coloration. So does that imply that each one Acapulco Gold ought to be golden in coloration? In accordance with Tovar, the golden coloration was from the wind burning the bud yellow, and the older it was by the point it received to the US, the extra the colour pale to gold. Meaning the colour actually was due extra to environmental elements and poor storage practices throughout smuggling than a results of genetics, and maybe Acapulco Gold grown in a unique local weather wouldn’t be gold.
Do you’ve got an Acapulco Gold story to share or a tip about its origins? Tell us with a remark!