By “R.”
It all began with a test. A grass-tasting test. One of the most difficult and exacting challenges the Connoisseur has come up against in his career. The acid test of his sensory discrimination. But if he passed the test—ah, the reward was to be the privilege of smoking one of the last stashes on earth of Chateau Forcade, a very special legendary vintage of Colombian gold named after the founder of HIGH TIMES.
The test wasn’t my idea. What happened was, a wealthy reclusive young woman who devoted her life to the search for the ultimate pleasures of the sensory realm contacted “R.” with an utterly intriguing offer. She was in possession, she said, of a fabulous collection of rare and wonderful varieties of grass, chiefly from the ’70s, from that golden age of golds and reds that lasted from 1971 to 1975.
“R.” had long heard rumors of this collection and the woman who presided over it. There were all sorts of stories about how it had come into her possession. According to one, she was the widow of one of the legendary daredevil dope-smuggling pilots who had gone down in flames over La Guajira while trying to escape the federales with a ton of handpicked punta roja in his cargo bay. Another rumor had it that she was the much whispered about “Sky Lady” who personally piloted thousands of tons of primo for a dissident feminist faction that broke away from the California-based smuggling fraternity, The Brotherhood of Love.
The other legend about her—and this was something known to only two or three people still alive—was that she had been associated with HIGH TIMES founder Tom Forcade in the classic caper that ended up with Forcade cornering the market on Santa Marta gold back …
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Author: High Times / High Times
