Forbidden Fruit vs. Grape Ape: Vermont's Two Purple Evening Indicas

Open two purple jars side by side — one Forbidden Fruit, one Grape Ape — and they look nearly identical: dense, heavily resinous buds with deep purple and indigo coloring, orange pistils, and the kind of trichome coverage that confirms a high-THC indica. Then open the lids. Forbidden Fruit hits you with mango, passionfruit, and tropical candy — not what anyone predicts from a Cherry Pie × Tangie cross. Grape Ape hits you with thick Concord grape and a musky, slightly skunky earth base — exactly what its Mendocino Purps × Skunk × Afghani parentage promises. They look like siblings. They smell like different families entirely.

The difference runs deeper than aroma. Despite sharing a Myrcene-dominant terpene profile, Forbidden Fruit and Grape Ape produce different effect arcs, carry different terpene fingerprints on a COA, and serve different use cases at the Vermont dispensary counter. Here is what actually separates them.

TL;DR

Forbidden Fruit (Cherry Pie × Tangie): Myrcene → Caryophyllene → Limonene. 21–26% THC. 70% indica. Tropical mango-passionfruit aroma (unexpected from the parents). Brief Limonene-driven euphoric opening, then deep Myrcene body relaxation. Evening or late-afternoon strain. Higher-THC option with more effect arc. Vermont availability: Theory Wellness, Float On, rotating craft dispensary inventory.

Grape Ape (Mendocino Purps × Skunk × Afghani, Apothecary Genetics + Barney's Farm): Myrcene → Pinene → Caryophyllene. 18–21% THC. 90% indica. Dense Concord grape aroma with musky-earthy Skunk base. Minimal euphoric window — onset moves quickly to body sedation. Evening to bedtime. Maximum indica body weight. High Times Green Cup winner 2005 and 2006.

Two families, one visual

Forbidden Fruit belongs to the Tangie family. Cherry Pie (Granddaddy Purple × Durban Poison) is a Bay Area hybrid — Myrcene-dominant, balanced hybrid in effect, tart-cherry aroma. Tangie (California Orange × Skunk #1, Crockett Family Farms) is the 2013 HT Cannabis Cup Best Sativa — Terpinolene-driven citrus brightness, energizing sativa arc. The cross should produce a tart-cherry-citrus indica. What it actually produces is tropical mango and passionfruit — a synergistic terpene outcome where Cherry Pie's berry esters interact with Tangie's California Orange compounds to generate an aroma profile neither parent expresses. The Tangie genetics also introduce Limonene as a tertiary terpene, which explains the brief euphoric opening that makes Forbidden Fruit feel more like a 70/30 hybrid than a true indica in its first 20 minutes.

Grape Ape belongs to the Mendocino Purps family. Mendocino Purps — the NorCal outdoor heirloom covered in the purple strain family guide — contributes grape aroma, Myrcene-dominant terpenes, and the anthocyanin genetics behind the purple coloring. Skunk #1 adds hybrid vigor and the musky-skunky edge in the aroma. Afghani — the pure indica landrace — contributes the 90% indica body weight, heavy resin production, and the appetite-stimulation typical of Kush-family genetics. No Tangie, no citrus, no Limonene. The result is exactly what these parents suggest: pure, heavy grape indica that goes from mild onset to full body sedation without a detour through euphoria.

Both strains have Mendocino Purps in their genetic ancestry — Granddaddy Purple (Cherry Pie's grandparent via Purple Urkle) traces back to the same Northern California heirloom family — but the relationship is distant and its expression is dramatically different across the two crosses.

Aroma and terpene comparison

Forbidden Fruit aroma in practice: The first note out of the jar is tropical — mango candy and passionfruit with a musky sweet base. The citrus brightness from Limonene keeps the aroma from sitting too heavily in the earthy register; there is a freshness layered over the Myrcene depth. On the exhale, Caryophyllene adds a faint spice warmth. The experience is dissonant in the best way: a purple, resinous indica bud that smells like you opened a bag of exotic fruit candy. This is the strain's primary appeal to consumers who want evening-indica effects with something more interesting than earthy-berry.

Grape Ape aroma in practice: Dense, concentrated Concord grape — the kind associated with grape juice or a wine-cellar rather than fresh table grapes. Under it is the Skunk #1 parent's musky-pungent earthiness, present as a background note rather than the lead. It is not candy, not citrus, not tropical. It is the most direct, unmodified grape expression available in modern cannabis genetics — which is exactly what consumers looking for pure grape character want, and exactly what consumers surprised by Forbidden Fruit's tropical divergence often reach for as a more predictable alternative.

Effect arc comparison

On paper, both strains share Myrcene as the dominant terpene. In practice, the effect arc is where they diverge most usefully.

Forbidden Fruit opens with a brief euphoric phase driven by Limonene — warmth in the mood, a quiet uplift, some ease in mental tension — that arrives within 10–20 minutes. This window is softer and shorter than a balanced hybrid; Cherry Pie's Myrcene-dominant indica foundation keeps the opening from becoming racy or cerebral. It's approximately 20 minutes of comfortable mood lift before Myrcene takes the handoff and the body relaxation begins to build: spreading physical ease, deepening muscle relaxation, and a gradual shift toward the Sleepy and Relaxed effects Leafly reports as the dominant consumer outcomes. By 45–60 minutes at a moderate dose, Forbidden Fruit has delivered the full-body evening-indica experience. Appropriate for late afternoon through bedtime.

Grape Ape has almost no euphoric window. The Afghani landrace genetics produce a slow-building, body-first onset that doesn't front-load a euphoric phase the way Tangie-cross genetics do. The opening 10–15 minutes is mild — a light warmth and physical relaxation beginning — before the Myrcene-dominant 90% indica profile takes over with a progressive deepening into couch-relaxation territory. Appetite increase is common as the body effect peaks (the Afghani genetics bring hunger stimulus associated with Kush-family strains). Leafly's top effects: Relaxed, Sleepy, Hungry. At 90% indica, the body effect accumulates rather than arriving sharply; consumers new to heavy indicas should wait the full 30 minutes between doses rather than assuming the slow onset means the strain isn't working. Appropriate for evening through bedtime; not recommended for daytime use or activities requiring sustained focus.

Which to reach for at a Vermont dispensary

Choose Forbidden Fruit if:

• You want higher THC with more effect arc. Forbidden Fruit's 21–26% THC and the brief Limonene euphoric opening make it the more dynamic evening choice — there's a few minutes of mood lift before the body effect settles in. If pure immediate sedation is what you're after, Grape Ape delivers it more directly. If you want something with a brief sense of uplift before the evening winds down, Forbidden Fruit is that.
• You prefer exotic, tropical aroma over classic grape. If grape-candy is not the aroma direction you're looking for — or if you know Zkittlez and want something in the same fruit-forward indica family but heavier and more aromatic — Forbidden Fruit's tropical mango-passionfruit character is distinctive in any dispensary case. It is one of the most recognizable jars on the shelf from smell alone.
• You're stepping up from balanced hybrids. Forbidden Fruit at 70% indica is the heavier step up from something like Zkittlez or Mimosa — still has a brief euphoric opening that makes the transition accessible, but delivers genuine evening body weight.

Choose Grape Ape if:

• You want pure grape aroma. No strain in the Vermont dispensary case delivers cleaner, more concentrated Concord grape character than Grape Ape — not GDP (which adds wine-cellar earthiness and occasional floral notes), not Zkittlez (which adds candy-fruit Caryophyllene). If the occasion calls for the definitive grape experience, Grape Ape is the answer.
• You want maximum indica body weight at moderate THC. At 90% indica with Afghani landrace genetics and a pure Myrcene → Pinene → Caryophyllene terpene profile, Grape Ape's body effect at 18–21% THC often feels heavier than Forbidden Fruit at 21–26%. If your goal is pure physical relaxation and you've found that high-THC Tangie crosses sometimes overstimulate slightly, Grape Ape's lower THC + higher indica % profile may produce a more comfortable result.
• You prefer predictable, direct onset. Forbidden Fruit's brief euphoric window is pleasant for many consumers and confusing for others who want a clear evening-sedation experience without an initial mood-lift phase. Grape Ape skips the euphoric preamble and delivers body relaxation directly.

If neither is currently in stock, Granddaddy Purple is the closest substitute for Grape Ape — shares the Mendocino Purps ancestry, Myrcene-dominant terpene profile, and deep grape-berry aroma, though with slightly more hybrid softness at the onset. For Forbidden Fruit, Cherry Pie (its direct parent) offers similar Myrcene-dominant indica effects without the tropical aroma transformation. The Vermont Strain Match can identify currently in-stock evening indicas across Vermont dispensary menus.

See also: Forbidden Fruit spotlight — full genetics, terpenes, and Vermont availability; the Cherry Pie × Tangie cross that produces tropical mango-passionfruit from two berry-and-citrus parents; Grape Ape spotlight — full genetics, terpenes, and COA guide; the Mendocino Purps × Skunk × Afghani indica that is Zkittlez's primary grape parent; Cherry Pie spotlight — Forbidden Fruit's direct indica parent (Granddaddy Purple × Durban Poison); the tart-cherry balanced hybrid; Tangie spotlight — Forbidden Fruit's direct sativa parent; 2013 HT Cannabis Cup Best Sativa; California Orange × Skunk #1; Granddaddy Purple spotlight — the closest substitute for Grape Ape; Big Bud × Purple Urkle, sharing Mendocino Purps ancestry with Grape Ape; Zkittlez spotlight — Grape Ape's most famous offspring (Grape Ape × Grapefruit); how the Grapefruit cross transformed a 90% indica into a balanced candy-fruit hybrid; Purple strain family guide — the full family tree from Mendocino Purps through Grape Ape, GDP, Purple Punch, Zkittlez, and Runtz; Mendocino Purps spotlight — the NorCal heirloom at the root of the Grape Ape/GDP/Zkittlez branch; Vermont Strain Match for a personalized recommendation based on your intent and tolerance; Float On Dispensary and Upstate Elevator Supply Co. — Burlington dispensaries with rotating craft-cultivator inventory including purple-family indicas; Tangie strain family guide — the full Tangie citrus family hub: where Forbidden Fruit fits as the evening indica member of the Tangie lineage, alongside Clementine, Tropicana Cookies, and Mimosa; full Vermont dispensary directory.