Here we review Riviera Creek Garlic Cookies Amalfi Sticks – a Cannabis flower product.

Pros:

• High quality, Riviera Creek Garlic Cookies trim
• Convenient, easy way to use the flower, given the rule against combustion here
• Since they can’t sell pre-roll’s here, this is the next best thing
• The effects seem really good
• You get a lot of hits per stick

Cons:

• Limited availability and proprietary vaporizer
• There isn’t much information out there for these
• The Amalfi Sticks have a relatively high price

Recommendations: I’ve had these Amalfi Sticks for a while now, and I’m having a hard time making up my mind about them. I’m not happy about the fact that they use the trim for these, instead of the actual flowers, and the THC content is much lower than their flower, but the price doesn’t reflect that. I’m also confused because the package was supposed to contain 2.83 grams of trim, divided among ten of these Amalfi Sticks, but mine has two boxes, with a total of about 25 sticks. I don’t know if I got extra, or if they just divided the same amount into more sticks.

It seems like the flower gets burned with the device, rather than vaporized, and I’m not a fan of that. I’m not really sure how to use the vaporizer yet, because it didn’t have in-depth instructions. I didn’t miss that taste of combusted flower, that’s for sure. The flavor may not be what I hoped, but the effects do seem good. I also have to say that I’m impressed with how many hits you get from each Amalfi stick.

Amalfi Sticks Basics

Here in Ohio, we have a rule against combustion. To be honest, we have a lot of rules in our medical Cannabis program, which other states don’t have. In my opinion, they try to make it so that people don’t divert medical cannabis because they can tout that statistic and say the program is successful. The rule against combustion means that companies can’t sell pre-rolls here. So they can either sell the trim or shake, or in the case of Riviera Creek, they came up with these “Amalfi Sticks”. Each one is kind of like a pre-roll, but only has a tiny amount of cannabis in each one.

These “vape sticks” are then inserted into the vaporizer, which heats up the material. I do have a Dynavap M 2019 and an Arizer Go flower vaporizer too, but I don’t have anything fancy like the Storz and Bickle Mighty, for example, so I had high hopes for this. I’m really not sure how I feel about these things, because the effects seem good, but I’m not a fan of the flavor. Maybe I’ve just been getting too much high terpene live resin and live rosin lately.

Riviera Creek Quality

Riviera Creek is one of the most famous Cannabis brands here in Ohio if you look on the Ohio Marijuana subreddit or just look up Ohio Marijuana reviews. I hadn’t tried any of their products before buying these Garlic Cookies Amalfi Sticks. But I’ve read a lot of positive things about them, and specifically, their Garlic Cookies strain of flower, which has had THC content as high as 36%! That’s Total THC too, not THCA. That’s technically over the allowed limit here in Ohio, of 35% THC for flower.

Another quirk of note in our medical Cannabis system here is our “days allowance”. We have either “Tier 1” or “Tier 2”, with Tier 1 being lower THC (23% and less) and tier 2 being higher than 23%. The smallest unit of flower sold here is a one-tenth ounce or 2.83 grams. That takes away two of your 45 allowance days, regardless of tier. For Tier 1 flower, it’s much easier to save days, because buying just one more tenth ounce of the same strain, only adds one more day, all the way up to six days.

For tier 2, it’s a lot harder to save days, but my point is that it’s a little frustrating to spend two allowance days on a tenth ounce of Tier 1 trim when I could have used them on a tenth ounce of tier 2 cola flower, and counting the Amalfi vaporizer, it would’ve been about the same price too.

Who would enjoy this?

I think someone who wants an easy, convenient cannabis flower product might like these Amalfi sticks. The effects seem really good, but the flavor is a turn off for me. It’s been so long since I’ve smoked a bowl or joint, that I’ve probably gotten spoiled by the amazing flavor in live resin and live rosin vapes and concentrates. These Amalfi sticks are certainly easier to use than regular flowers, that’s for sure. I can see someone enjoying these because of that.

Not much flavor, but decent effects

I’m not really getting any of the garlic flavor that I would expect from GMO flower, but the actual Amalfi Sticks do smell good, like good cannabis. I wish it was more clear about why there are so many Amalfi Sticks included in the example that I bought. I’ve seen posts on the Ohio Marijuana subreddit, where someone bought a tenth ounce of shake or trim and weighed it at home to see they got over 6 grams. I know that some of that stuff would have been thrown away, but it makes me wonder about these Amalfi sticks.

I guess I could tear one apart and see how much cannabis is in each one. But I think that seems like a waste. I’m not sure if I can do anything with the Amalfi sticks vaporizer after I run out of these sticks either. I wish they made a small glass stem or something, like the Arizer Air or Solo. Because it’s a drag to have to buy their pre-made sticks in order to use this vaporizer.

Similar Cannabis products for comparison

I’m not sure if we really have any comparable items to these Riviera Creek Amalfi Sticks, but the closest thing is the pre-rolls that are sold in other states. I do like how Riviera Creek is working with the specific rules that we have here in Ohio, and I’m impressed with the concept. I just wish they would have used the full strength Garlic Cookies flower that I’ve read so much about, and I wish you could use this vaporizer with regular flower too. Maybe I was using the vaporizer wrong.

Conclusion

I like the convenience of these Amalfi Sticks, and I really like the idea overall. But I think there is some improvement to be made. If they really want something to do with their shake and trim, then I wish they would make more vape carts, and use the full strength, 36% THC flower that I’ve seen in pictures. I honestly can’t say if I will buy these again. I’ve just been on a big concentrate and vape cart/pod spree recently.

It’s also definitely annoying that I have this Amalfi vaporizer that I will only be able to use a few more times unless I buy more of the pre-rolled sticks. If that’s not the case, then I will comment on this review. I did make an Amalfi Sticks vaporizer subreddit too if anyone wants to check it out, and recently Anthony from Ohio Cannabis Live made a review video for these Amalfi sticks too.

You can find out more about the Amalfi sticks here.

Have you tried these sticks? Let us know in the comments or on our forum.