What Does it Mean When Your Weed is ‘Cherried’?

There is an enormous number of words that have a completely different meaning when you’re a stoner. Here are five examples:

• Roach: Instead of referring to a nasty, disease-spreading insect, a roach in weed slang relates to the end of a smoked joint.
• Dutch Crunch: This is a popular type of bread, but also refers to indica-dominant marijuana.
• Shotgun: A rather large and deadly weapon often wielded by crazy people in movies or vigilantes seeking justice; in the cannabis world, it means exhaling smoke from pot into the mouth of another individual.
• Honey Boo Boo: This is the name of a reality TV star, and is also the term used to describe an extremely sweet tasting indica strain.
• Wizard: This term usually relates to a person capable of magic, but in marijuana speak, it means premium weed.

To be honest, there is no end of great slang terms you can use when talking about cannabis and today; we’re going to discuss yet another one in a little greater depth.

What is Cherried Weed?

There is something of an association between cherries and marijuana. If you love weed, cherries, and Dr. Pepper, you will probably enjoy Cherry Bomb, Cherry AK-47, Cherry Pie, Black Cherry OG, and Black Cherry Cheesecake. However, when we talk about ‘cherried’ weed, we are not speaking about a specific strain.

Instead, it is a term used to describe the phenomenon when a bowl stays burning without the need for a match or a lighter. A cherried bowl is easy to smoke because all you need to do is keep hitting it to ensure it remains cherried. Let’s face it; no one likes fiddling with a lighter or matches when high as a kite!

There is one important point to note: As your cannabis will be burning continuously regardless of whether it is smoked, there is a danger that a cherried bowl will smoke itself into oblivion. Typically, you will only see a cherried bowl when it is almost finished. Exceptions include the use of exceptionally dry weed or a smoking partner with the lung capacity of a Kentucky Derby winner.

It has to be said that achieving a cherry during a smoking session takes skill. It has become something of a Holy Grail for novice or intermediate smokers as they wonder if there is a special way to guarantee a cherried bowl. One thing we can tell you is that when you receive a joint or bowl in rotation, it is important to be quick about taking your turn.

A lot of people enjoy cherried weed because they believe it enables them to get bigger hits by smoking the weed and not inhaling the butane from a lighter. Typically, to cherry a bowl, you need to place the weed loosely in the bowl to let air flow through the bud and keep it lit. You can still get a cherried bowl if you pack the weed more tightly, but there needs to be a group for it to work.

Is Cherrying Weed Good or Bad?

To be honest, it is a matter of personal taste. A lot of marijuana users like cherried weed because it is less work to take a hit; it is passed to you, and you inhale and give it to the next person. When you do this quickly enough, you can get VERY high VERY fast. Those who don’t like the process point to the level of wastage, and if you put out the weed instead of letting it burn, you will preserve what you have.

There is also a school of thought which suggests that if you can’t cherry weed, it isn’t of great quality. However, a lot depends on how the cannabis was dried and cured. Wet or damp marijuana is NOT going to cherry. Extremely dry flower, on the other hand, should cherry easily. It is possible to have dry mid-grade weed that cherries nicely; and not properly dried top-shelf pot that won’t cherry no matter what you do.

Cornering a Bowl of Cannabis

Learning how to corner your bowl can help extend your weed during a smoking session. The process of ‘cornering’ involves directing the flame of your lighter away from the bowl and bringing it to the side of the bowl. Then, you place the flame over the bowl’s lip and take a corner of a circular bowl of marijuana.

Normally, one would place the flame over the bowl and allow uncombusted fuel and flint into your pot. However, by cornering your cannabis (by lighting it to the side), you maintain the weed’s flavor and reduce the consumption of unwanted chemicals. Ideally, when the weed is lit, it gets cherried which eliminates the need for a lighter for the rest of the session. You will see the satisfying cherry-like glow of the embers as the weed continues to be cooked in the bowl.

There doesn’t seem to be universal agreement on how to cherry a bowl. It is extremely difficult to do it on a really green hit, but if you allow the flame to remain on the weed for longer than normal, it could work. Make sure you only hold the flame on the weed for about half a second longer than usual and light the full surface of the bowl. The idea is not to give it time to go out.

You still need to take a hit every 10 seconds or so to ensure it keeps going. Also, work with the carb. According to experienced users, it is possible to get amazing hits from a bowl if you take your finger off the carb and inhale.

Another alternative is to invest in a torch lighter. These powerful devices light up marijuana must faster than your old-fashioned BIC lighter and also look cool with different flame colors. You can pick up a reasonable quality torch lighter for around $15, either online or at a store such as Wal-Mart. Of course, a lot of “true OG stoners” would scoff at the idea of forking over more than two dollars to set their pot on fire. To each their own.