Flying Monkey has long been one of the leaders in the recreational hemp industry, and with their glamorous packaging and marketing, it’s easy to see why. However, when you take a closer look, their bright colors and advertising almost seem to fade away.
Packaging and Design
When our team first heard about Flying Monkey, their aesthetically pleasing graphics drew us in, and we quickly placed an order to try their cartridges and disposables. We weren’t disappointed when they got here… at least on the surface. The packaging was discreet, with a matte black that was soft to the touch, and fun colors that popped against their background. When we opened the box for the disposables, we were delighted by the sleek, low-profile battery that greeted us. The cartridges, though, were a little different. We noticed that the distillate was much darker than the hundreds of other delta 8 cartridges we’ve tried and tested. Overall, we were impressed by their packaging, but that’s pretty much where our positive experience ended.
Flavor
When we took our first hit from the Blue Dream cartridge, we were immediately concerned about what we had just smoked. We had hoped the Fruity Pebbles disposable would be Flying Monkey’s redeeming factor, but we were quickly let down. Both the cartridge and disposable were reminiscent of black market cartridges that tasted like burnt chemicals. It was hard to say whether the flavors reflected what was being advertised because all we could taste was burnt-tasting oil. This led us to check their lab reports, as we were skeptical about the purity of Flying Monkey’s delta 8 distillate. More on that below.
A few weeks later, we started receiving submissions from our CannaBest subscribers who shared similar experiences as us as you can see below.
Feel
We waited patiently for the effects to kick in, and we didn’t let the questionable flavor influence our “trip.” It didn’t make much of a difference. After around 10 minutes, 3 out of our 5 testers reported that they felt something close to a mild headache. One of them, SL, described it as a “weird pressure in the back of [his] head.”
Potency
In terms of purity, we checked Flying Monkey’s website for their CoA’s. We weren’t too surprised to find that their Blue Dream cartridge only contained 79.92% delta 8. This begs the question: “What the heck is in the other 20%?” We were unable to find out since they do not provide more extensive lab reports that test for pesticides and other harmful chemicals.
Hardware
While Flying Monkey’s hardware looks dazzling, the quality of the disposables didn’t match their pleasing aesthetics. We ordered 5 disposables as well as 5 cartridges. While the cartridges did not have any physical defects, 2 of the disposables were leaking from the bottom, leaving our hands sticky and smelly. We weren’t alone in receiving leaky disposables, however. Below is a submission from another CannaBest subscriber detailing a similar experience.
Verdict
In conclusion, we don’t recommend Flying Monkey and we advise you to stay away from their disposables and cartridges because we don’t know what’s in them. Furthermore, their questionable taste as well as their leaky disposable batteries are a health concern, and we don’t see Flying Monkey being safe for the delta 8 industry.
