Puff Pieces: May '23
Puff Pieces is a once-monthly round-up of the hottest drops in pot. This month, high function and May flowers reign supreme.
Puffco Peak Pro
This weekend, I went to one of the most acclaimed cultural spaces in Los Angeles: the Puffco Museum. As the brand celebrated its 10-year anniversary at its lounge space downtown, it erected a monument to the brand’s impressive product evolution over the decade – starting from humble glass beginnings and progressing to the feats of technology we know today. There, I tried the Puffco Peak Pro for the first time: an upgraded version of the brand’s hero product Peak with a new, twisty inner chamber and a joystick-like dab cap that comes at nearly double the price of its predecessor.
Though the idea of an electronic dab rig is intimidating to many, the Peak Pro could not be easier to use: turn it on and drop your wax in. Drawing from the technology of a game controller, it gives you a gentle vibration when ready to hit. Place your finger on the joystick and swirl it around however you please to optimize airflow. Pull away and puff when ready — no bowl-pulling necessary.
The Puffco Peak Pro is available for $420 on their website starting June 8th in both Onyx and Pearl.
Houseplant Glass Grinder
Though I tried to secure one of the new Glass Grinders from Houseplant to review this interesting new grind technique for you, I was not successful in my pursuits (the offer still stands, Seth! Help me help you!).
This grinder is unique thanks not only to its material, but to its technique: instead of prongs that shred your bud down, these glass plates smash it into its divots, borrowing their shape from the geometric lines in the Houseplant logo.
Frankly, this concerns me a bit. Weed is notoriously sticky, and the fact that there’s just one compartment may mean your stash will become gunky quickly unless you’re completely cleaning it out before every use. I am still constantly in pursuit of a non-metal (and thus travel-safe) grinder though, so I’ll let you know if I end up making the investment.
The Houseplant Glass Grinder is available in amber and green – both great choices – for $95.
Burning Love’s House Plant Bong - Lavender
Not Houseplant, but House Plant. Burning Love’s seemingly never-ending adorable drops delivered again with their Garden Party collection, offering us a bong that mimics – and burns – your favorite pot.
If you love the look of the Edie Parker Petal Pipe but are looking for a bit more functionality, look no further. This piece is the petal and then some, outfitted with both an ash catcher and inline percolator, though there’s a chance the hit might be a bit hard to pull because of all the extra room for smoke to collect in the flower on top.
Burning Love’s House Plant Bong is available for $74 in both lavender and amber.
Honest Capsule Water Pipe
The piece I’m most excited about this month may be the answer to my prayers: a travel-friendly, fully operational, and aesthetically pleasing bong. Full disclosure that the brand generously gifted me this product, but as always, my opinions remain 100% Honest (sorry).
The Honest Capsule Pipe is a bong in three disassembled parts: a deep glass body, a metal “capsule,” and a screw-on glass tube on top. It’s then outfitted with a silicone mouthpiece and anti-slip boot, which doubles as a cleaning cap and travel lid. This shape makes for a full and smooth hit, even without a fragile percolator. The deep inner well fills with smoke but is bottlenecked by the metal capsule, allowing the smoke to trickle through the tube and into your lungs instead of immediately shooting up like the Session bong, for example. The metal base of the tube is also etched in laser-cut circles, acting as a second filter.
My favorite parts, though, are the little touches that only a tried and true bong-lover knows the need for: a built-in poker for bowl-clearing, a magnetic base for sticking your lighter to, and a metal downstem (those thin glass tubes are oh-so-easy to break).
I received the black model, but it’s also available in titanium with green, pink, and blue bases to boot for the Art Deco obsessed.
Honest’s Capsule Water Pipe is available on their website for $185.
Wandering Bud Summer Citrus
Now onto the perfect gift for any summer-born stoner. These citrus-shaped bowls are a limited release from Wandering Bud, the small-batch ceramicist based in Kansas City behind some of the most Instagrammable bubblers on the market.
The pieces are available in Orange, Lemon, Lime, and Grapefruit (would a true grapefruit head argue the outside rind should be yellow instead of pink all around? Perhaps). To dial the whimsy meter up even further, the pipe’s mouthpiece placement forces you to put the fruit into your mouth like a silly chimpanzee. Delight ensues.
The first batch of these dropped on their site in May for $115 with another to come in June, sign up for email alerts and follow them on Instagram to see when they’ll be back.