Preamble

Hi everybody. I previously posted about the carts I tried from OCS. Based on opinions I saw on this sub, as well as my general interest in the system, recent price reductions on pods, and general boredom from Covid-19, I decided to get the Era.

I picked up two pods, Solei Unplug and RIFF Granddaddy Purps X Sour Kush. I selected these as someone on the sub had gotten a response from Aphira stating the Solei and Good Supply brands use distillate botanical terps whereas RIFF only uses cannabis derived terps. Solei also adds flavours (London Fog Tea and Lavender in Unplug), but I believe these must be from botanical terps as they claim no additives. I wanted to see if I could detect a discernible difference between these two pods (beyond taste) as well as how long they last relative to 510s. Feel free to skip to whatever section interests you.

Device and App

Device

First off, let's talk about the Era itself. I had actually wanted to get an Era pro as a more future proof device. It's upgraded and it's compatible with the fancy NFC pods that have manufacturer suggested settings and lots of strain information. But alas, when we only have like 5 era pod options (which are already on the pricey side), I suppose the bells and whistles take a back seat. Basically, point is they don't even sell the Era Pro to us Canadians, which is pretty dumb cause it would still work, we just don't have NFC pods yet.

Setting aside my annoyance at not getting an Era Pro, I mostly love the device itself. The Era came in a nice box with a sleeve, the kind of packaging you have for an apple product. Inner box has a flap lid, and all you see is the Era when you open it. Underneath is a Pax sticker, a fairly short (1-2 feet) micro USB cable (the Era Pro uses USB-C >.<), a very strangely designed instruction manual (its very long on the landscape edge, very short on the portrait and bound rather than unfolding) and a card saying to register for warranty. The manual has pretty much all the info you need, the website can cover anything you need more detail on.

The Era is very compact. I didn't take measurements, but we're all stoners here, it's basically half the width of a standard bic, and just barely taller without the pod. With the pod in, it's about an inch taller. I have a CCell Silo for 510s, the Era is half the thickness (around the same thickness as the edge of a bic) and less than half an inch taller with a 1g sized cart in it (such as Blue Dream). I can conceal the Era in my hand pretty easily, but I have very long fingers and decently large hands so YMMV. I find my CCell is a little more comfortable to palm. Still, Era is overall very small and easily to hold, and I feel it fits better in my pocket than my CCell, which causes my pocket to bulge out a bit, but not very obviously. With the Era, no one could tell it's in my pocket unless I wore something super tight and sat down.

My one gripe thus far is that the pods don't fit very tightly unless you give them a good press in. It's not like it takes a ton of force or anything, but I wish the magnets were stronger. With my CCell, I can just drop a cart into the slot and it'll attach no problem. The pod not going in fully on its own is also annoying because of all the shaking involved in using the device.

I think the Era's no button design is a little on the gimmicky side but it works well. Some people may not like it though. Basically everything is controlled by shaking the Era. Shake to check battery life, shake and remove pod to set temperature (without the app), shake to pair with your phone. I think the only thing you don't shake to check is how many puffs you've had, for which you double tap your finger on the Era body. If your pod ain't in right, it's going flying when you do any of these shake things.

App

The app has some cool features but also some not so cool issues. First the cool. You can set a session type from Micro to Large, and the Era automatically locks the heater when you reach the amount for that session. It calculates this indirectly based on number of pulls temperature I believe, but I have not played around with the feature too much myself yet. Seems very useful though, and I think is basically a better version of what the Dossit pens can do. You can also change the LED brightness, choose from some colour modes (I think they're themes) and play some games (haven't messed around with these much at all, don't really see the appeal tbh) and rename your device. The other two features I almost forgot are single digit temp control and a lock mode, which means your Era won't pull. Useful if you have kids I suppose.

Now the not so cool. You can't get it on Apple devices (at least not without a workaround), which is not Pax's fault but still super annoying. I read somewhere a web/desktop app is in the works, they should really put it out soon. A web app shouldn't be crazy hard to develop for a company like this and it should be priority one for a company whose newer devices rely on the app for the full experience and you can just add it to your home screen to make it work like a native app. The ban happened a while ago, not having a web app in the first place is kind of dumb, not having a web app even yet is pretty bad imo, but we can cut them some slack due to COVID-19. The other thing that sucks is I can't add my pods. The app gives you this huge thing right in the middle to choose your pod, except it only shows US pods which is fucking dumb. I get it, there's only 5 pods or whatever in Canada right now. I. Don't. Care. Just like the Era Pro, it's not really extra work for Pax to give us the ability to add Canadian strains, and this part of the Pax experience really aggravates me.

The Pods

Packaging

I prefer the packaging of these pods to the carts I've tried. Every cart I've bought has had the box with the 2 plastic tabs to push in. I HATE that shit, I cannot emphasize how much. It is such a bitch to open. And I saw that other post from yesterday with the stupid case design which might be even worse. The Pax Pods were packaged better. You punch through a hole on the side (doesn't need much force) and squeeze the tab inside and pull from the top. It's the plastic tab cart box but designed for humans. Make sure to cut the duty paid sticker otherwise it won't work. Less waste would be better, but packaging that doesn't require tools or an engineering degree to open is a step in the right direction.

Side note, the packaging confirms the distinction between RIFF and Solei pods. I didn't grab a pic before tossing them, but both packages state it's cannabis terps with no other additives. The Solei one makes it clear the terps are botanical, and the RIFF one explicitly states it's 100% cannabis derived.

Pod Design

The moment you've all been waiting for (and the section I bet you all skipped to). First three things I noticed. The extract is really dark. Darker than any of the 4 carts I've tried on OCS, the colour is close to an amber honey. It's possible this is because of all the black coloured parts in the pod mouthpiece. The window is plastic. You can google this fact, I suppose it's honestly good given how you can fling the pod out accidentally. It does feel like quality plastic and Pax says it's food grade, so I'm pretty comfortable with it, but glass is nice. Thirdly, the gigantic THC stickers, they were SUPER easy to peel off. One left some residue cause I went too fast, the other came off clean. Honestly, the THC stickers better stay this crap and easy to take off, they completely butcher the design of the Era.

If there is anything noteworthy based on further use, I will comment on it, but the design features they claim make it superior are all online.

Effects

Solei Unplug

66% THC. Wow this tastes good. I used the default low temp (270°C) and a medium session, just to get an idea. I think this thing maybe expects shorter or slower draws, because I did over 50% of the medium in one draw haha. 2 draws for the medium session for me. Delicious taste, better than any 510s I've tried, legal or illegal. You can definitely feel the lavender, I feel like the tea taste is a little harder to discern. That said, I don't really drink teas like London Fog, so I don't have a good comparison point for taste. I may go out and grab one to compare. It's VERY smooth (low temp duh) and tasty. Onset of effects was within 2 minutes [6], decently strong head effects [] for maybe 3-5 minutes. After 15 minutes effects were pretty mellowed out [3], and at 30 they're practically gone [1]. I imagine not restricting session size and turning up the temp will probably enhance the effects. For reference, I'm a daily user of 1-2 stems in my Arizer Solo 2, sometimes some reign drops added in.

I'll make an update post with more about the carts when I spend more time with them, check in a week or two

RIFF Granddaddy Purps X Sour Kush

76% THC. With this guy I decided to step it up a bit. Large session at 305°C (custom temp). I don't taste nearly as much, tastes a lot more like weed. Definitely no strong tastes. The throat-feel is harsher, but not uncomfortably so. I appreciated the bite, but a bigger hit would've made me cough. I stepped down to 270 to see if I could get more taste. I got a hint of citrus/lemon. Turned it down to 220 for one last try. This is the way to go if you want taste. I bet it would last forever too cause of the low temp. It's so smooth too, I could hit this forever. The vape claims I've had 2 puffs on these 3 or 4 pulls, but it was clearly stated that the "puff" count is a relative thing (affected by temperature and draw length) and over time you'll learn to gauge how many "puffs" you want to have per session. Time will tell.

Effects are a lot stronger on this one, the high honestly feels pretty good for now, about 20 minutes in [6]. The initial on this got me around [7] so honestly I was pretty happy. I'm sure I could step up the temps a (300-330 range) and took longer draws it could hit harder. Just tried one at 328°C around 3 seconds, it was actually both a lot smoother and tastier than expected. Citrus is the strongest taste. I didn't pull as hard. High climbed to [7.5] and now I'm riding at around a [6.5] about 45 minutes since the very first hit of this pod. The last high temp hit really enhanced the high and it's taken me almost hour to write this paragraph. It kinda climbed back up to a [7] for a while and then came back to [6]. All in all, I'm really happy with this. It's a euphoric start but I feel the indica effects coming up.

Hour and a half in we've mellowed out to like [3.5] and it's fading pretty rapidly. 15 minutes later and its basically done. Left me feeling very warm and cozy.

Comparison to 510 Carts

So the unplug. It tastes fuckin delicious. I've only tried 4 carts (all the oil vapes are expensive) and the best tasting one imo was the Trailblazer Glow. Very fruity and berry like. I like fruity, lemony and spicy tastes in my weed the most so take that into consideration with my opinions on taste.

The GDPxSK has great effects. I genuinely enjoyed this high more than any other concentrate vape I've tried. I will try to pick up a 510 that is 100% cannabis and see how it compares because I think this is likely the biggest factor. If anyone has suggestions, I'm game. The taste feels a lot more muted on this one which seems kind of surprising. I feel like I got a stronger taste on all everything else I've tried. Perhaps the botanical terps in everything else I've tried really strengthen the flavour. That's not to say it's bad, it's just more subtle to me.

TL;DR

The Era pods feel like a good value to me on first impression. The device itself is very nice and compact and looks great. Temp control feels like a must now and it has some other cool features too. I don't like the way you have to really make sure the pod is in (otherwise it can fly out when using the shake controls on the Era) and it seems to disconnect from my phone a lot, but that might just be my phone.

The Solei Unplug is the best tasting product I've tried so far in this class. Tastes like lavender and a sweet taste that I believe is London Fog. I haven't had the tea so can't compare but it tastes good. Makes me want to try the tea. I tried it at low temp in medium session length and the effects were decent but pretty short lived. I'd expect a larger or unregulated session to hit harder. 66% THC

The RIFF GDPxSK was really nice for effects. I took 4 pulls (the Era called it 2), 2 at higher temps and 2 at lower temps. The low temp hits are incredibly smooth and have a citrus and light peppery taste. Taste is subtle. The first high temp hit was harsh and my pull was hard. The second was gentler and much smoother and had some citrus taste. Effects lasted around an hour and a half, very warm afterglow and relaxing. I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight.

I'll make an update post in 1-2 weeks when I've had some more time with the pods. Should give me an idea for longevity and some time for the new toy glasses to wear off. It'll hopefully just be a small post as an addendum to this.

If you took the time to read everything, you are a true legend. I hope we get more pod variety and cheaper prices soon.