Big Bag O’ Buds Frosted Root Beer Strain Review: Effects, THC & More

I grabbed a 28g bag of Big Bag O’ Buds’ Frosted Root Beer from a Calgary shop recently, and the name alone had me curious. Root beer flavoured weed sounds like a gimmick, but Organigram has been putting out some genuinely interesting cultivars under the Big Bag banner lately, and this one is a cross of GMO Rootbeer and New England Hazy Kush. That’s a pedigree worth paying attention to. In this review, we’ll cover the effects, aroma, taste, bud quality, and whether a 28g bag of this stuff is actually worth your money.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Genuinely unique aroma, one of the better smelling bags in the value ounce category
• Sativa high hits fast and keeps you functional
• Good bag appeal for a large format product
• Solid value at the price point

Cons:

• THC can vary batch to batch, as with any Big Bag product
• Not a nighttime strain, if you want to sleep on it, look elsewhere
• Buds are on the medium-small side

How I Reviewed Frosted Root Beer

I picked up a 28g bag and worked through it over about two weeks. I smoked it in a bowl, rolled a few joints, and ran some through my vaporizer at different temperatures to get a full read on the flavour. My tolerance is moderate to high after years of regular use, so take the potency notes with that in mind.

Strain Profile

Brand: Big Bag O’ Buds (Organigram)

Strain: Frosted Root Beer

Type: Sativa-Dominant Hybrid

Lineage: GMO Rootbeer x New England Hazy Kush

THC: 32%

CBD: <1%

Dominant Terpenes: Beta-Caryophyllene, Beta-Myrcene, Limonene

Package Size: 28g

Packaged on: February 15, 2025

Batch Number: 17441260215

Flavour: Sweet vanilla, warm spice, fruit

Aroma: Root beer candy, vanilla, light earthiness

Value: 8/10

Strain Lineage

Frosted Root Beer sits on top of some pretty interesting genetics. GMO Rootbeer is a phenotype of the famous GMO strain (Garlic Mushroom Onion), which is a Chemdawg x Girl Scout Cookies cross known for its punchy, savory terpene profile. Crossing that with New England Hazy Kush pulls the profile in a sweeter and hazier direction, softening the gassy GMO character and introducing that distinct vanilla and root beer candy quality that makes this strain so unusual.

The result is a sativa-dominant hybrid that carries a surprisingly sweet nose while still delivering real potency. It’s not a lineage you see often on dispensary shelves, and that novelty factor alone is part of what makes Frosted Root Beer worth trying.

Taste and Aroma

This is genuinely the most interesting smelling weed I’ve had out of a value ounce bag in a while. When you open the Big Bag, the first thing that hits you is sweet vanilla and something that actually smells like root beer candy, like an A&W barrel candy if you grew up eating those. There’s a subtle earthy layer underneath from the myrcene, but it doesn’t overpower the sweetness at all.

In the bowl and joint, the flavour tracks the smell pretty closely. On the inhale you get that sweet vanilla and a light spice, with the caryophyllene giving it a slight pepper edge that keeps it from tasting cloying. The exhale is a bit more herbal and earthy, which is where the Kush genetics show up. It’s not a loud or gassy exhale by any stretch. More smooth and rounded.

Through the vaporizer at around 190C, the vanilla and candy notes really open up. This is one of those strains that rewards the vape. It tastes noticeably better that way compared to combustion.

The beta-caryophyllene and limonene are the real workhorses here, keeping the aroma bright and giving the flavour a little bite without veering into harsh territory.

Effects and High

Frosted Root Beer hits like a sativa should. Within a few minutes of the first bowl, you’ll feel a pressure behind the eyes and a kind of mental sharpening that kicks in before any real body feeling shows up. It’s the classic sativa onset, head-first, functional, and upbeat.

The euphoria that follows is genuinely nice. It’s the kind of high where you want to put on music or get into a conversation. I smoked a bowl of this before going for a walk and it was excellent for that, the kind of headspace where everything feels a bit more interesting and your brain is running at a good clip.

It is not a couch-lock strain. There’s very little body sedation here. If you’re hoping to pass out watching TV, Frosted Root Beer is going to work against you. The high stayed pretty cerebral and active for the full duration, which I’d estimate at around 90 minutes to two hours for a moderate session.

Where it does show some Kush influence is toward the end of the high, when things settle into a mild relaxation rather than cutting off cold. It tapers nicely. No anxiety, no racing thoughts, just a smooth comedown.

For daytime use, this is one of the better sativas I’ve picked up in the value ounce category.

Bud Quality

For a 28g large format product, the buds looked better than I expected. Medium-sized, reasonably dense nugs with decent trichome coverage and some nice green colouring with orange pistils throughout. Nothing spectacular, but honestly above average for what you’re paying per gram.

The cure felt solid. Nothing was overly dry or crumbling when I broke it apart, and the moisture level held up well toward the bottom of the bag, which can be a problem with big format products. The Organigram facility tends to be consistent in that department, and it showed here.

The trim was machine-done with a bit of extra leaf on some nugs, but nothing egregious. For a 28g bag at this price point, you’d be hard-pressed to expect anything more.

Is This a Good Value Strain?

Big Bag O’ Buds has always been one of the better value ounce plays in Canada, and Frosted Root Beer continues that trend. You’re getting a genuinely unique flavour profile, a clean and functional sativa high, and decent bud quality in a format that works out to a solid per-gram price.

If you’re a daily smoker or someone who goes through flower quickly, a 28g bag of this stuff makes a lot of sense. The flavour doesn’t get old as fast as more one-dimensional strains do, and the sativa effects mean you’re not glued to your couch after every session.

It’s not the most potent thing on the shelf, and if you’re chasing 30%+ THC numbers, this probably isn’t your pick. But potency isn’t everything, and Frosted Root Beer delivers a well-rounded experience that punches above its weight class for the price.

Would I Buy Frosted Root Beer Again?

Yeah, without a question. I’ve already recommended it to a couple people and I’ll be grabbing another bag when this one runs out. For a value ounce, the aroma alone sets it apart from a lot of what’s out there. The fact that the effects are genuinely enjoyable makes it an easy repeat purchase.

If you’re someone who gets tired of the same gassy or cookie-forward strains that dominate the 28g shelves, Frosted Root Beer is a real breath of fresh air. Or I guess, fresh root beer.