When the Hollywood Strain Premiere Party initially launched in the summer of last year, it was the place to be when it came to weed in Los Angeles. For an event that had no public advertising and for which the address and method for entering were a secret, attendance was regularly packed. Smokers looking for the best top-shelf weed mingled with industry insiders, all talking about the latest hot strain drops.
Doja Exclusive founder Ryan Bartholomew is no stranger to creating events and buzz. His brand has been at the bleeding edge of strain trends in California for years now. As far as hype in the industry goes, Doja is one of the biggest names out there. Originating from Sacramento, the brand is now based in Hollywood, California, aka the center of the weed world.
In a sense, both the pop-up model and selling directly to consumers harken back to an earlier time when excitement around legalization made the Prop 215 medical marijuana era in California a constantly buzzing scene of seshes and pop-up events. For Bartholomew, this approach to sales and marketing is just one part of a larger plan for Doja Exclusive to circumvent traditional retail as much as possible.
High Times Magazine, August 2023
For the most part, Bartholomew said, the dispensary is a fading concept that is becoming increasingly impractical for marketing weed. He says that few people these days are excited to go shop at a dispensary. Most importantly, getting fresh product on the shelves has become a huge challenge. The supply chain to the dispensary shelves can be slow and, after testing and distribution, the product often arrives less than fresh. If it doesn’t sell out immediately it languishes for months. For Doja the situation was unacceptable.
“The shit was old inventory and I’m thinking this isn’t good for what I do. I’d rather just let people know where I have the latest drops and then let them come out and get it directly from fresh batches that I’ve recently QC-ed and feel comfortable about,” he said.
It led Bartholomew to conceive the idea of a direct-to-consumer sales event, which manifested as the Hollywood Strain Premiere Party. The idea was simple: “Let’s do something where consumers can come grab new flavors and meet me in person. The weed will be good every time. We make sure of that,” Bartholomew said.
The event also allows Bartholomew to build hype around the new strains that Doja is bringing to market.
“I wanted to do something a little different since we had constant new phenos that we were rolling out with JBeezy [of Seed Junky Genetics] at the time. We also had the project in motion with Duke of Erb and some new strains dropping with Fiya Farmer,” he said.
Ryan Bartholomew of Dojo Exclusive and Juan Quesada of Backpack Boyz. Photo by Dan Wilson, @visithollyweed
Part of the early buzz of the event was that you could try new genetics that weren’t yet widely available, hence the “Strain Premiere.” It became the only place in the world to get the freshest and latest in Cali genetics.
“We had new genetics that no one else had,” Bartholomew said. “We were one of the few brands to put out new staples last year, so it was dope to be able to have a curated menu of flavors that were new and unique.”
Doja premiered strains such as Permanent Marker and Push Pop, and has released multiple phenotypes of Giraffe Puzzy so that fans can see the process of isolating a new strain. Doja has also dropped exclusive clones and seeds at the event, as well as street inspired merch that quickly sells out.
In 2021 Bartholomew held several industry-only mixers in cities such as Las Vegas and Miami, which were well attended by his many industry acquaintances. Last year he wanted to expand on the concept, but this time to create a space that was partly for the industry and partly for the consumer.
“I felt like I needed to focus more on connecting with the people that actually buy the product, not just other people in the industry. One of the ways that I knew I could get people out was to have these Hollywood events where I invite my industry friends like Wizard Trees, Sourwavez, Don Merfos and Gerb, Fiya Farmer. But at the same time, everyone else can come too,” he said.
“So now smokers can talk to Wizard Trees and be like, ‘Yo, I really fuck with what you’re doing.’ That was always the idea behind it. That’s why from the very first one, I invited all those people.”
Sourwavez of King Sourwavez Genetics and Chico Shyne of John Doe Supply Co. Photo by Dan Wilson, @visithollyweed
For Bartholomew, the success of the event shows that it’s time to start thinking about what comes next.
“We can always keep a consistent amount of people in there but we’re not looking to keep a consistent amount of people. We’re just looking to touch and go. We want something hot, new, fresh all the time,” he said.
Doja Exclusive has done direct-to-consumer pop-ups all over the U.S. and Europe, and he says that Hollywood is one of his smallest, crowd-wise. But it has gotten the most buzz, including regular press coverage.
“Does it help sales? Yes, it does boost sales all over the board. There are people in New York that are buying the product because they’re like, ‘Damn, those guys are having the Thursdays in Hollywood,’” Bartholomew said.
As for why his Hollywood event gets so much buzz, Bartholomew said that it’s all about the legacy and reputation of California weed.
“I think there’s just a fascination with Cali weed,” Bartholomew said. “We’re from the most influential place for cannabis. It’s like if you’re a fashion designer and you’re from Milan or a sommelier from Bordeaux.”
This article was originally published in the August 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
Upon arriving at the airport for my 6am flight from San Francisco to New York City’s JFK airport, it was easy to spot those joining the next leg of the trip; an overnight flight to Barcelona for Spannabis 2023. Along with its official concurring events, The World Cannabis Conference, International Cannabis Businesses Conference and the inaugural Spannabis Champions Cup, Spannabis is one of the largest, densest and most heavily attended international cannabis events on Earth, bringing together cannabis aficionados from almost every country in the world.
More than 30,000 visitors attended the sold-out weekend event, taking place March 10-12 at Fira de Cornellà in Barcelona. Those without pre-purchased tickets waited in line for up to four hours to secure entry. As European events are often targeted to home-growers, the variety of products and great prices makes these crowds worth it for many. While Spannabis itself is only three days, festivities surrounding the event span all week, including highly esteemed award ceremonies such as Ego Clash, Masters of Rosin and Secret Sesh.
Genius Genetics
In some ways, not much has changed since my last trip to Spannabis in 2017. One thing is clear: The American influence is growing in the European cannabis scene. While plenty of seed banks still focus on traditional genetics, the presence of “American Exotics” is becoming increasingly prevalent. A few popular California brands were also present, including Compound Genetics teaming up with Paradise Seeds; Fidels teaming up with Pure Sativa; Wizard Trees teaming up with Growers With Attitude; and a long-time personal favorite, Symbiotic Genetics teaming up with T.H.Seeds.
“The community was very much alive in Spain and all the surrounding areas that traveled and attended the show,” says MichaelIsh, director of operations from The Village & Symbiotic Genetics, who’s making his first trip to Barcelona. “I was pleasantly surprised how much high-end flower, hash and rosin I saw that was grown outside the US. I saw a lot of really nice stuff from Tenerife. The energy had a nostalgic feel of the Prop 215 days where everyone had zero egos and came together to share and show samples and network about the plant we all love.”
Spannabis 2023 drew crowds from all corners of the globe. Photo courtesy of Spannabis
I was also happy to see some familiar staples, such as Green House Seed Company, Ripper Seeds, Dutch Passion, and DNA Genetics, along with Royal Queen Seeds, who’s releasing its first-of-its-kind F1 Hybrid Series, which produces a stable, uniform crop every time.
“It’s totally new in the cannabis industry,” says Shai Ramsahai, CEO of Royal Queen Seeds. “They already have some F1 hybrid seeds in the vegetable industry, but it wasn’t in the cannabis industry yet. F1 Hybrid means that all the plants are stable, meaning they have the same yield and the same percentage of THC. We believe that this is a huge game changer in the industry and everyone will grow F1 hybrid seeds in the future, like the big change 20 years ago when we came from regular seeds into feminized seeds. We’re very happy to be the first ones to have the first F1 series in cannabis.”
As I sampled the local selection, I was impressed with the quality overall. One of the main differences I noticed between the European and American cannabis spaces is the presence of hash culture and what that does for the overall treatment of the plant. American cannabis is generally cultivated with the intention of growing really big, beautiful nugs with high THC percentages. In contrast, European cannabis is focused on creating a more resinous plant with higher terpene profiles. So, it’s no surprise that European hash and rosin quality is as high as it is.
Some of the best flower I enjoyed was the Lemon Cured by Los Greengos which won 3rd place in Best Sativa at the Spannabis Champions Cup; the Zkittles rosin from La Sagrada Farms, which took first place in Masters of Rosin; and everything Sativa Engineering was kind enough to share, who also placed in just about every competition. I’m telling you, the bar is higher than one might expect.
Some experts believe that 2023 may be the year Spain sees cannabis reform. The fight for normalization is a just one, but us Californians know how much a regulated market can begin to change things that were just fine the way they were. To echo what The Village & Symbiotic Genetics’ Ishsaid, the scene in Spain feels so much like visiting the days of Prop 215. Hearing Royal Queen’s Ramsahai speak about the advancements in seed evolution makes my head spin.
Ultimately, being in a place that feels like the past, while also thinking about the future is a wild experience. Surrounded by tens of thousands of fellow cannabis lovers, including some industry legends like Jorge Cervantes and Mila Jensen, aka ‘The Hash Queen,’ Spannabis 2023 was certainly magical.
By Benjamin M. Adams, Jimi Devine, Ellen Holland, and Ashley Kern
Brand-building is big business, particularly in cannabis where customer loyalty reigns supreme when it comes to success. Whether it was in making new types of cannabis, growing quality flowers, or crafting terpy and potent concentrates and delicious edibles, here are our picks of some of the brands that defined 2022.
Compound Genetics went into 2022 riding on a high and just kept on sailing along. Massive seed drops and a variety of people taking home trophies all over North America with their gear are seemingly commonplace for them at this point, but it’s still impressive.
We’ve had a front-row seat to their breeding efforts since the move to San Francisco a few years ago and then the eventual partnership with Node Labs where they phenohunt and stress test the new gear to make sure it’s commercially viable. From that work we’ve seen names like Jokerz, Red Bullz, and Pave explode onto the scene.
“2022 has been a year of adapting to my surroundings, opportunities, and adversities,” founder Chris Lynch says. “High levels of success bring new challenges that constantly test your ability to perform and stay consistent. I’m grateful for where I am in this industry and what I’ve achieved with Compound Genetics. Being in my position is something I take seriously, it’s a unique responsibility that’s driven by my passion for quality. I’m excited for the next chapters with this special plant and where they take me.”
Don’t expect anything to slow down in the near future. This year for The Emerald Cup Compound is releasing the Jokerz line. The pairing of Jet Fuel Gelato and White Runtz was one of the strains that Compound used to launch their flower line earlier this year. The community is thirsty for a new round of crosses from it.
It’s also fair to expect Compound’s international profile to continue to build. There are a few factors contributing to that including their collaboration efforts with Green House Seed Co. and their partnership with Paradise Seeds to facilitate European distribution.
As for what strains to keep an eye on, we saw a phenotype of Apples & Bananas x Pave that was batshit heat, but we’re sure you can expect a few more than that in 2023. -JD
As we mentioned in our strains of the year write-up, few have ever had a year similar to the one the Blueprint team had in 2022.
Even a couple months before they hit shelves in the summer of 2022, the hype was percolating hard. A lot of the biggest names in Sacramento, and hence elite cannabis in general, were saying to keep an eye out for what Blueprint had in store. They were not wrong.
The first drop featured names like P90 and Triple Lindy. They are still top of the food chain heat a year-and-a-half later as we noted in our favorite strains of 2022 where we highlighted the Triple Lindy.
One of the things that we got a kick out of about Blueprint was how close they’ve kept the cards to their chest when it comes to genetics. Most of the time lineage has a lot to do with what gets people excited. A lot of the hype we see in weed in general comes from the next generation of something with a known pedigree. Unlike these companies that push their genetics lines and work as the basis of their ethos, the fire behind Blueprint is pure heat. And the community figured that out quickly. Never will you hear anyone complaining because they don’t know the makeup of Blueprint’s genetics, they’re just happy they got to smoke it in the first place.
Blueprint sifts through roughly 140 new flavors every couple of months. We will continue to be wildly excited to try what they find and grow to some of the highest quality levels on the globe. We expect 2023 to see the same level of heat that won them the second edition of Zalympix and what a lot of people thought was the best flower at the industry mega show Hall of Flowers where they could be compared directly against the rest of the pack. -JD
Since its founding as a delivery service in the Prop 215 era between cannabis powerhouses San Francisco and Sacramento, the Backpack Boyz have had a complete dedication to the absolute flame.
“So what I was trying to do at the time, was I was trying to get all of the buds that everyone wanted to smoke but didn’t have access to,” Backpack Boyz founder Juan Quesada told High Times. “I wanted to get that all under one banner and kind of be that one guy that you can see and can get everything from. So, long story short, that was kind of really where it started.”
When he first got the ball rolling he had a lot of deep connections on the cultivation side, but a lot of the product he was moving was white label heat from Sacramento. Eventually, the people coming for that Sac heat started asking Quesada about the flavors he was curating more locally. It was a big confidence booster for him.
Most famously, he would pop Lemon Cherry Gelato from bag seed in 2017. (We go into the full tale in our strains of the year section.) This would catapult the Backpack Boyz into California’s elite. They would eventually open their first retail location in early 2021. Two more would follow by the end of the year.
The brand has done particularly well in making inroads in Southern California after its initial founding up north. Quesada says having the heat helped but he gave his SoCal partners a lot of credit for helping him handle all the local hurdles that came with expanding the company’s footprint across the state.
In 2023, you can definitely expect the Backpack Boyz to keep stocking all the most elite cannabis in the state while continuing to curate a few exceptional flavors of their own. -JD
Fidel’s Hash Hole combines rosin and flower. (Courtesy Fidel’s)
The third and youngest son of L.A.’s favorite weed family (his older brother Serge is behind Cookies Maywood and his other older brother Aram is behind Gas No Breaks) saw one of the most epic 2022s of just about anyone and his new cultivation facility didn’t even open until the end of the year.
Helping backbone the big year was the rise of the hash hole, arguably the most exotic pre-roll currently available in California. Fidel first encountered the hash hole in Barcelona years ago at Spannabis. The locals would roll up an eighth with some rosin in it to celebrate the weed making it from California—or just to flex.
Back then, Fidel was already growing heat. After spending six years in Beirut from age 12 to 18, he returned to Los Angeles where he spent many years working in a hydro shop. Those years at the grow shop was where he dialed in his game and earned the name Fidel Hydro.
On a trip back to visit friends and family in Lebanon, one of his friends designed the now well-known logo. After that, the race was on. Things have gone so well with his brand that he’s even got his parents in on the act these days. He bought a printer for their house where they do quality control on all his packaging.
Earlier this year at Spannabis, he hosted one of the event’s most popping parties, the Hash Holes and Donuts event at Cookies Barcelona. Later in the summer, Fidel’s would take home top honors at The Transbay Challenge IV: Hollywood with his pairing of Kush Mints and Zkittlez.
And we can’t emphasize enough that all this happened before his facility was even open. Expect to see Fidel’s flower on even more dispensary shelves across California soon. Until that day, you can still get your hands on hash holes—if you see them on a menu, pull the trigger quickly. They don’t last long since they’re worth big money outside the state, they are one of the few packaged products there is true value in moving compared to bulk flowers in big quantities. -JD
The name 710 Labs is synonymous with small batch quality with myopic attention to detail. Every good concentrate must begin with a good strain, and the company’s cultivation operations are steadily growing. 710 Labs attributes that growth to their commitment to integrity in the cultivation process.
“We’ve had a lot of growth in the past year, which wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t stay true to what got us here: quality focused small batches with a wide variety of flavors,” says Richard Sciascia, vice president of cultivation.
Even though 710 Labs has expanded from its homebase in Colorado to California, they still adopt the same principles they’ve observed since the beginning when they launched as a much smaller operation a decade ago. Part of that is allowing the unique and individual traits of cultivars to shine. That can’t happen when producers pump out mass amounts of a single strain.
“We aren’t monocropping rooms with one genetic, we flower rooms with one cultivar per bench,” Sciascia says. “Other companies—a fraction of our size—are growing batches many times larger with one genetic. That doesn’t excite us.”
Some of that quality is lost when companies bank on strain yields alone, or other aspects that don’t necessarily benefit the consumer.
“We love this plant and all her expressions, and want to see cultivar diversity in our offerings to the consumer,” Sciascia says. “Palate is subjective, and if we limited ourselves to the 10 hottest strains of the year, we’d be doing a disservice to the connoisseur and casual smoker alike.”
710 Labs houses a genetic library that varies between 150-200 unique cultivars, rotating between old, new, experimental, and the tried-and-true. Some classics associated with 710 Labs—Ghost Hulk #25, Black Mamba #6, and Randy Watzon—are grown regularly, sometimes shelved for six months, and others are discarded quickly to make way for new additions. Over 80% of their library has been selected by the 710 Labs team from seed. Pheno hunting is part of the agenda and selections depend on whether the end result is hash or dried flower.
Currently the focus at 710 Labs is finding rare terp combos in newer cultivars.
“The never ending terp quest is what excites us, and we hope you feel the same,” Sciascia says.
Beyond flower, 710 Labs live resin pens passed the bar among highly critical vape reviewers. Their solventless water hash, rosin, and rosin sap are no joke, as they begin with flavorful flowers. Persy sauce is also a squishy new addition to their concentrate lineup, as the trichomes are preserved in the first wash to maximize flavor. -BA
“Veritas” is Latin for “the truth,” and it’s all about transparency at this Colorado-based operation. The Veritas team is currently working with Node Labs to produce new genetics, and with that, they will be producing healthy clones set to be released to the public in early 2023.
Narrowing down those clones is a long, meticulous process, and incorporating the right technology is key in keeping things organized and avoiding losing track of special genetics.
“We take about 400 different cuts, and then those have been removed from the mom and manicured [and placed] into our cloners,” says Jordan Plunkett, marketing director of Veritas. “And from there, it takes about 14 days.”
Part of their operations incorporate equipment that is exactly what you’d expect, while other processes are unique to the company. Veritas plants flower in atmosphere-controlled environments under high pressure sodium lights. The crew then adds as many as 100 bamboo stakes to help spread out branches and maximize trichome development.
“We have bamboo stakes that we use in our plants,” Plunkett says. “This is something that we have not seen any other cultivators doing. The reason behind it is that we believe it gives more stability. And then they actually utilize these stakes to track where it’s at in the process. So this is a very unique kind of opportunity to really take care of our plants the right way. It’s definitely not an easy process; We don’t take the easy approach to this by any means, but we do believe that this will give us a better quality.”
Veritas recently released infused joints, containing 1 gram of Veritas flower and 0.25 grams of ice hash. In 2021, they also released a limited-edition half-ounce offering that resembled a drink holder you’d get from a fast food joint and contained a four-pack of eighths. Stay tuned for more unusual products that you won’t find anywhere else. -BA
Al Harrington’s Viola Brands, named after his grandmother who turned to medical cannabis to battle glaucoma, is a blueprint for success in the world of cannabis. You can tell by the company’s high-end promotions, packaging, and most of all—their consistent quality flower.
This isn’t by accident. No spur-of-the-moment decisions are made when it comes to narrowing down cultivars at Viola. The company’s cultivation team will grow new genetics several times over before deciding if it makes the cut.
“When bringing in new genetics, we grade each on bag appeal, yield, and testing both THC and terpenes,” says Tanner Steele, Viola’s vice president of operations. “Generally, we like to grow new genetics three to six times before releasing them to market. This ensures everything we produce thrives in our environments to provide a consistent customer experience.”
Both cultivation and processing take place at Viola’s original 12,000-square-foot facility in Colorado. The company has expanded well beyond the limits of Colorado, however. In Falls City, Oregon, Viola operates an 80,000-square-foot facility. In Detroit, Michigan, Viola operates a 46,000-square-foot cultivation facility as well as a provisioning center. In Detroit, 40 cultivars are rotated each year. The process begins with the seed.
“When we look to bring unique or different genetics to the market, we start with seeds,” Steele says. “Most Viola strains are a result of several rounds of pheno hunting to get the best genetics for our environment.”
Clone mothers are rotated and replaced on a regular basis. “When re-populating our flower rooms we clone from moms whose genetics have already been proven to provide yield, appeal, and testing for THC and terpenes,” Steele says. “We keep our moms alive for two to three months maximum before replacing them with a new mom from the genetic line.”
Beyond cannabis, the Viola Cares community engagement branch works to reinvest in struggling communities and promote social equity inside the cannabis industry. Last year, the company launched the Harrington Institute of Cannabis Education, with the help of the Cleveland School of Cannabis to provide an online curriculum designed to prepare students to work in the cannabis industry. Viola also launched an accelerator to help cannabis start-ups get a foot on the ground, and it has a very specific goal: to create 100 Black millionaires within the cannabis space. This is because they believe Black business owners face the most challenges in this industry. -BA
Pirate-themed Freddy’s Fuego, a Tier 3 producer/processor in Washington state, adopts a more interactive way of narrowing down the finest fire in the state from an assortment of breeders. Freddy’s annual pheno hunt called “The Hunt” is a spectacle, as the public judges new cultivar cuts on the Hunt Scorecard with questions about visual aspects, taste, aroma, and overall appeal. It’s almost like hunting for booty and gold.
“Freddy’s embodies the pirate archetype—the fearless soul of exploration and a loyalty to evolution as we navigate the uncharted waters of the industry,” says Freddy’s Fuego Marketing Director Blake Stango. “Always on ‘The Hunt’ to find the freshest and rarest genetics.”
Freddy’s Fuego was founded in 2013 by Ben Davis and Tim Haggerty. Since then, Freddy’s has won numerous awards including Best Indoor Grown Hybrid Flower for a fire batch of LA Cookies at Dope Cup Washington in 2018 and three awards in one year at the 2019 High Times Cannabis Cup Seattle for Larry Cake flower and pre-rolls, as well as Guava Jelly, named after a sensual Bob Marley song.
Like High Times People’s Choice Cannabis Cups, during The Hunt, they don’t limit the judges to exclusive experts. Anyone can login, fill out a Hunt Scorecard and begin judging.
“This year in August, we popped 520 different seeds from about 10 to 15 different breeders—40 different strains,” Freddy’s Fuego Director of Cultivation Roger Hale says of the event that generates a fair amount of excitement in the Northwest region.
“Our process for running through the pheno hunt is we pop all those seeds out of the rockwool, grow them for X amount of time until they’re large enough to basically go into flower,” Hale says. “At that point, we take a bunch of clones from them to produce moms stock, throw them into flower, flower those babies out, get strain notes on them: how they grew, what the yield is, the output inside of our environment, how our feed was, everything.”
Judges choose their favorites in the Hunt Scorecard based on flavor, uniqueness profile, all the good things that everybody’s looking for.
The first iteration of The Hunt begins in January every year, with subsequent judging rounds taking place in the following months. “We release all of those flavors to the public right around January and let everybody try them out,” Hale says. “Everybody gets to vote on which strains they want to have go into the next iteration of The Hunt.”
They continue to narrow down strains in subsequent rounds going into the summer. Freddy’s Fuego then takes that information and advances to the next step of The Hunt, the harvest, when the team gets the strain data back. “The last iteration of our hunt, we run those through the end of summer, choose our top four to six cultivars that we’re going to put into finalists based on what the public chooses,” Hale says.
Then Freddy’s throws a big party at the end of the year and lets everybody check out the new strains and vote on their favorite phenos. The company then takes those and begins producing them for the next year under their exclusive Freddy’s Finest label which is basically their black label collection. This allows the public to take part in the cultivar selection and judging process.
Consumers can buy limited edition eighths of The Hunt selections. -BA
Few companies have racked up as many Cannabis Cup wins as Exotic Genetix. This seed bank, based in Washington state, has produced so many classic cultivars that if you haven’t smoked at least one, you better start the roll up right now. A standout includes the 2018 classic Rainbow Chip, a winning combination of Sunset Sherbert and Mint Chocolate Chip. With Kush and Cookies in the family tree, Rainbow Chip has gas.
“That was pre-Runtz people wanted the gasses, the fuels,” breeder Mike explains of the older Rainbow Chip release. “They range in aromas, the gassy fuel to some of the Rainbows are kind of funky, soggy. Some of them have like a nice ice cream/sherby/gas element to it.”
Founded in 2008, Exotic Genetix also gave the world Kimbo Kush and Grease Monkey. In 2022, we tried a lovely version of Funky Charms, Rainbow Chip x Grease Monkey, grown by Wood Wide High Craft.
In 2022, Exotic Genetix released a line of Red Runtz crosses in feminized seeds, a follow-up to the success of a 2021 Red Runtz line release.
“It was super popular, it erupted,” Mike says of the 2021 release. “I told myself after that release, like I’m only going to once, I’m not trying to stick around on Runtz because, you know, it’s the hype thing. And don’t get me wrong, Runtz is hype, but also there’s a reason for it because it’s good shit.”
He says Runtz, when paired with his genetic line-up, gave it a different edge by providing that “Runtz flair candy” taste the market was craving.
“Now, I’m going to try not to do any more Runtz. It’s hard, because people ask me every day like when’s the Greasy Runtz going to drop and I’m like ‘Fuck. I’m not doing Runtz anymore,’ but I do have a Greasy Runtz line-up just waiting to be released,” he says with a laugh.
Working with feminized seeds has been a key in his success.
“When you do feminized seeds, you take an amazing strain in female form and you manipulate a few things and you can reverse that female and make it release male pollen,” Mike explains. “When you do that, and you use that pollen on your receiver, so to speak, all your other strains, it makes all those seeds that you made feminized. So, now you end up with seeds that you don’t get any males from.”
When creating new kinds of cannabis the results generally either suck or are amazing, there isn’t much in between, he says.
“Ever since I started reversing things that started awesome and making feminized seeds with those amazing starting plants, or the starting plant that I reverse, most of the things they come out amazing,” Mike says. “I don’t mean that like I’m full of myself. I mean like when you choose a male that you can’t see how it’s expressed in female form. It’s hard for you to get a predisposition of how that’s going to breed until you do it a couple times and see what your offspring do. But with the female that you reverse, you already know… it’s kind of a cheating step, but it’s there for a reason and ever since it’s been a told that I’ve used I haven’t turned back because it saves you a lot of time of hunting, going through stuff that isn’t what you’re looking for.”
Mike gained the nickname “Big Stimmy” during the pandemic for Instagram live broadcasts during the time of government stimulus efforts in which he was giving away seed packs. Big Stimmy hosted the “Milk Show” which was full of people pouring milk on unsuspecting victims for prizes.
In the future, look out for the next release of Gary Poppins, Gary Payton x Red Pop. -EH
Ask a legendary cannabis breeder what they’re smoking and they’ll likely flip the question around to the one thing that is ever-present in their mind: selecting, creating, and cultivating new types of flowers. That was the case when we caught up with Archive Seed Bank breeder Fletcher Watson as he drove to his grow room to continue sifting through what will become a new line of genetics, the Flavour Pack reversal feminized line. The journey breeders go through to bring new cultivars into our lungs are immense. When we speak, Watson’s getting down to the final stages of selection. He’s taken the Flavour Pack cultivar he created and reversed the plant to produce male pollen. Next, he took that male pollen and combined it with 60 different varieties of cannabis. He’s grown out 30 types from the seed stock so far, this is only the initial run.
“I’ve got about 150 to 200 seed plants of those Flavour Pack hybrids with all kinds of other stuff that I’m literally on my way driving to right now, to go through the samples and start picking through the population,” he says over a phone call in early fall.
Flavour Pack, which is only one of the seed lines Watson is working on simultaneously with others, blends together old and new genetics in the cannabis family tree. It’s a cross of Hollywood Pure Kush, an OG Kush cut, with a newer one of Watson’s creations, Moonbow (Zkittlez x Do-Si-Dos).
“Essentially what we do is try to improve certain cultivars that are either popular in the market—the terpene profile is popular in the market and I just like it personally a lot—and mix it with a bunch of old weird stuff that may not have market appeal,” Watson says. “The reason I breed cannabis is I want to, in one way or another, improve upon a variety.”
Watson was 16 when he started growing weed and career-wise, it’s all he’s ever done. His nickname “ThaDocta” comes from a screen name he chose back in those days, one he gained from his time at the skatepark, where he hurt himself so often he started carrying a medical kit.
Archive was founded in Oregon in 2011 and has since blessed the world with many award-winning strains. Archive’s OGKB was one of the parents of Do-Si-Dos. Rainbow Belts (Moonbow x Zkittlez) came out in 2017 and is still crushing the competition scene. Watson sent out Rainbow Belts genetics to about 50 people in 2020 and once it reached the clone-seller market it exploded. It has the fruity Zkittlez terps that people love, combined with a kushy dankness.
“The reason you don’t see too much Zkittlez on the market is it’s such a difficult plant for most people to grow,” Watson explains. “By expanding a line that has that terpene profile really well stabilized within the population, people are able to take advantage of that market that wants that smell and flavor, but get better plants, with better yields and higher [THC] tests making it more marketable to the broader consumer.”
And when an Archive cultivar reaches that stage it can really pop. In 2022, Archive Seeds released Dark Rainbow 2.0. On its website Archive explains the first generation, Dark Rainbow 1.0, used GMO combined with Moonbow and carried the gassy flavors of the GMO alongside the lime candy taste of Moonbow. The second generation is GMO combined with Planet Purple, the offspring of which is generally not sweet, but “raunchy stank breath rotten meat gas tank stank.” Watson says this one is great for hash, which Archive also makes and carries in its Portland, Oregon shop along with house flowers and clones.
“My breeding is less of knowing exactly what I’m trying to make, it’s more of throwing darts at the wall and seeing what sticks,” Watson says. -EH
Sunday Goods (owned by its parent company The Pharm) is based in Arizona and focuses on producing quality cannabis combined with feel-good vibes.
Although Arizona is often associated with brutally hot temperatures, Sunday Goods and The Pharm’s flower is grown in a 7-acre, 300,000-square-foot Dutch glass greenhouse in Willcox, Arizona. The climate in Willcox is mild compared to other parts of the state and often sees more rainfall than Phoenix or Tucson, making it a good place to grow quality cannabis (although many other agricultural goods thrive there as well).
Some of the brand’s most high-demand products include high-potency THC strains, including one called Bangers x Mac.
“That’s a cross between Headbanger and Miracle Alien Cookies (MAC), and it’s a super dank, very diesely, piney strain,” says Matt Daley, vice president of marketing for Sunday Goods.
Not only does Sunday Goods flower take advantage of the mild climate, the location of the grow is also home to a geothermal well that The Pharm uses to reduce heating needs during the colder months, helping to reduce energy consumption.
Alongside its own flower Sunday Goods offers a wide variety of other local cannabis brands, all of which align with the brand’s desire to offer consumers with the best products to help them feel their “Sunday best.”
Sunday Goods is dedicated to the support of the cannabis community, having partnered with the Last Prisoner Project to raise funds and help the organization continue to fight against cannabis injustice. In November 2021, Sunday Goods joined with Arizona NORML to host expungement clinics for those who have low-level cannabis offenses on their records.
“We’re just looking to provide relief, a pathway to creativity, an outstretched hand to an elevated sense of being because I think all of us here at Sunday Goods believe that everyone stands to benefit from what this plant can deliver,” Daley says. -AK
Wyld is one of the most recognizable and popular cannabis edibles brands. Praised for its consistency across multiple markets (it began in Oregon but has since spread to Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Washington), Wyld earned its place as a top brand by producing a line of fruit-forward gummies.
According to Wyld Corporate Communications Specialist Rachael Smith, there are three flavors in particular that consumers have fallen in love with.
“Our top three national bestsellers are elderberry 2:1 THC:CBN indica-enhanced, raspberry sativa-enhanced, and huckleberry hybrid-enhanced gummies,” Smith says. “Most states follow this same trend with elderberry leading the pack. Recent sales data shows Wyld leading the country nationally with the top six edible products in the U.S. and with nine products in the top 20—more than any other single brand.”
The Wyld supply team goes to great lengths to ensure that each product includes the advertised amount of potency.
“We use a three-test process to ensure a high-quality end product,” Smith says. “Test one: cannabis extract is tested before we receive it to ensure quality and potency. Test two: Our cannabis-infused coconut oil is tested again in house to ensure appropriate dosing in our products. Test three: Once made, the edibles are tested again to certify they are consistent with our exacting potency standards. The last test also includes random selection of products for testing by a third-party lab. All of our third-party testing is conducted by state-certified lab partners.”
Wyld is also dedicated to sustainability, going as far as providing an annual social and environmental impact report (data for 2022 is set to be released during the first half of 2023).
“We’ll be launching our new solventless hash rosin gummy brand in select markets in the fourth quarter of this year,” Smith says. “In 2023, in addition to rolling out compostable packaging in the U.S., our plans include expanding further into the Midwest and East Coast and, as always, we look forward to offering new real fruit flavors with innovative cannabinoid content—keep your eyes on Wyld, we’ve got so much more to offer.” -AK
Montana is known for its vast landscapes, pristine natural beauty, and as of Jan. 1, 2022, adult-use cannabis.
High Road Edibles predates this monumental shift from medical to adult-use sales, having established itself in 2019. The brand was founded by Michael Zens and Ben Miller, two college roommates who enjoy spending time outdoors and sought out to develop a cannabis brand exclusive to their home state.
All of High Road Edibles products are made with full-spectrum cannabis extract. Hybrid cannabis strains come from Sacred Sun Farms, and indica- or sativa-leaning strains come from Collective Elevation, both of which are farms based out of Bozeman, Montana, located in the southern part of the state. High Road Edibles is also partnered with a local dispensary, Dancing Goat Gardens.
The brand features an assortment of gummies, chocolate bars, and mints.
“We started with kind of trying to pick flavors that we thought match the mood state and the strain types we were using,” Miller says. “So more kind of bright, energizing flavors for things like sativa, and more kind of deep, rich flavors for the indica. And then for the hybrid, we kind of just tried to hit those quintessential candy flavors that we all really enjoy, you know, peach and green apple on the gummies, cinnamon on the mint, and then that coffee almond on the chocolate bar.”
Zens adds that their sativa-leaning strawberry flavor gummy sells the best in the Bozeman/southern Montana area, where people tend to be more active. However, in the northern part of the state, around Kalispell and Whitefish, there are more older consumers who prefer the indica-leaning blood orange gummies. This summer, High Road Edibles released a huckleberry flavor, in honor of the berry of the same name that populates the northern parts of the U.S. and is a celebrated summertime ingredient (Zens and Miller joke that huckleberries are a prominent food source for wild bears, as well as tourists).
While the state’s medical cannabis program was restrictive, Montana’s adult-use program has helped open things up. According to Zens, it has allowed the local cannabis community to develop and grow.
“It’s been really kind of fun to actually like, get out there and meet everyone,” Zens says. “Because in the restrictive market, everyone was kind of competing against each other a little bit more. We’re in this wholesale recreational market, everyone can kind of specialize in something and support each other and link up, and kind of create a community that wasn’t there before as much.”
Both Miller and Zens enjoy floating in the various rivers in Montana, but agree that cannabis consumption can be an enjoyable companion for numerous other outdoor activities including hiking. The founding duo alluded to new flavors and products coming out in 2023. -AK
Located in the northeast corner of Las Vegas, Nevada, Aether Gardens’ state-of-the-art facility covers 120,000 square feet divided into numerous sections including cultivation, extraction, manufacturing, and distribution. It was recently ranked #10 on a list of MJ Unpacked’s hottest Nevada-based cannabis brands, which is no surprise since it won two placements in the Cannabis Cup Nevada: People’s Choice Edition in 2021: 2nd place for best indica with Slurricane #7, and 1st place for indica concentrates with Banana ice water indica live rosin. Aether Gardens also has a 2019 High Times Cannabis Cup Nevada 1st place win for hybrid concentrates with Zweet Insanity.
According to Aether Gardens Cannabis Officer Justin Hernandez, consumers should keep an eye out for the popular strain MAC that has been thriving in the facility. Strains like Blue Cheese, Banana, and Blue Java are also popular. Online, Aether Gardens recently showcased its ultra-sweet, flavor-packed strains Mimosé (Mimosa x Rosé) and Terple (Tropicana Cookies x Slurricane #7).
Aether Gardens has been producing cannabis out of its facility since 2018, and, over the years, has continued to develop its tissue culture lab, which now houses 400 cannabis varieties. All of the strains are grown in a structure that takes advantage of sunlight through the use of glass panels. The company also formulates its own nutrient line.
Other areas of the facility are dedicated to the creation of numerous extraction products, from concentrates to edibles. Aether Gardens’ production also serves many other brand partners, such as house brand The Fifty Five as well as STIIIZY, Binske, Huni Labs, Pro Canna, and Hervé. -AK
Mountaintop Extracts has been helping patients gain access to clean, effective cannabis medicine since 2012, but now that adult-use sales is legal in New Mexico (effective as of April 1, 2022), the brand continues to offer quality cannabis products to a wider market.
The Mountaintop Extracts logo features a towering mountain inspired by the Sandia Mountains, which overlooks the city of Albuquerque where the brand is based. Mountaintop Extracts is 100% family-owned, and founder Eric Merryman holds his brand to the highest standard when producing cannabis products for consumers.
“At Mountaintop [Extracts] we really focus on clean, consistent safe medicine and are committed to the educational process so much needed in our industry,” Merryman says. “We are extremely passionate about what we do and have been very fortunate to attract like-minded employees who are making a difference in our industry.”
Joel Krukar, director of business development and marketing at Mountaintop Extracts, explains that the brand utilizes proprietary methods and techniques, which it’s been perfecting for years, to ensure that all of its products are of the highest quality.
“That’s what makes our edibles different. Our vape cartridges are live resin true full spectrum…We don’t cut it with anything. Nothing is reintroduced,” Krukar says. “And our diamonds became a huge success, [they were] really big in the beginning because we were one of the first [in the state] to actually really master growing large grade diamonds. I believe the largest diamond, it was like 7 grams, actually. So we have techniques to really grow very rich, large diamonds.”
And Mountaintop Extracts has the accolades to prove it too. At the 2018 Essie Awards hosted by Kurple Magazine, Mountaintop Extracts took home awards for best infused product, best edible, and best concentrate.
A longtime favorite of medical cannabis patients, Krukar says that the brand’s gummies are one of their biggest sellers.
“Our gummies are by far the highest velocity products we have. We are producing more units of gummies per month than anything else,” Krukar says. “But it’s also sometimes a condition of the market. And I personally love our vapes, and people love our vapes as well too, because we’re the only ones providing that live resin, true full-spectrum, full-integrity vape cartridge.”
In the very near future, Mountaintop Extracts has plans to reveal a new logo, new packaging, and a new patent-pending product to add to its current lineup. –AK
There’s a reason behind why Michigan-based 3rd Coast Genetics calls itself “the swank of dank.” As purveyors of some of Michigan’s finest cannabis, 3rd Coast Genetics focuses on the strange and the unique. The team behind 3rd Coast Genetics are the creators of Smorez, Butterfingaz, and many other strains that are sought after in the Midwest. 3rd Coast Genetics cultivar names will grab your attention, and they’ll stand out from the typical strains that you see every day.
“I am the creative force behind 3rd Coast Genetics,” Max Yields tells High Times. “The 3rd Coast is the shore of beautiful Lake Michigan—the place where I call home.”
Yields is the creator of Oreoz, Pure Michigan, Tagalonz, and many other strains, armed with a passion for breeding and love for pushing the boundaries of quality. “3rd Coast” generally refers to the Great Lakes area in the Midwest. It’s too easy to ignore the fire that comes out of Michigan when it’s overshadowed by countless other brands.
Some of these rare finds include crosses like Walfredo (MAC 1 x Peanut Butter Breath) or Thick Strawberry Goo (Red Pop x Pure Michigan) with 10 beans per bag.
Some other strains that caught our attention—with a little help from the creative names—were Spock’s Brain (Grease Monkey x Peanut Butter Breath) and Wolverine (Animal Cookies x Pure Michigan). But don’t get distracted by the names, because 3rd Coast Genetics retains the quality you want, preserving those subtle traits.
“I feel the most important thing that I do, the one thing at the epicenter of all of my hard work, is the practice of selecting unique and amazing traits,” Yields says. “Everything is dependent upon genetics and being able to recognize the component that makes something so special or unique, even if those traits are subtle.” -BA
What makes Pure Options unique? Perhaps it’s the company’s connection to the local community in Michigan. “Our success ultimately is deeply rooted in our community here in Lansing,” says Pure Options Director of Pro Gro, Jacob Nelson.
Pure Options has been in operations since 2011 and has become a staple source of craft cannabis in Michigan. One of the team’s long-term goals has been to make it into the spotlight and operate a craft cannabis business at a larger scale.
“We built our foundation as a very small team operating in the traditional market taking great caution to keep our heads down and stay focused on this mission,” Nelson says. “It was during this time that we built our culture in preparation for our future. So, when people ask us what makes Pure Options unique our answer is always the same, it’s our team and it’s culture.”
Pure Options’ uniqueness isn’t defined by any particular special process or “secret sauce.” The entire team Pure Options are students of cultivation. Small details matter, and cutting corners for profit is never an option, Nelson says. Every day is an opportunity to learn, refine processes, and improve the final product. This mindset is fueled by passion for the plant.
“Thankfully for us our love for the craft and attention to detail hasn’t gone unnoticed,” Nelson says. “Our team’s passion and culture has helped us deliver high quality cannabis to the Michigan market at scale and along the way we’ve been able to secure some amazing partnerships by proxy.”
Some of Pure Options’ partnerships include collaborations with Archive Seed Bank, DEO Farms, Wizard Trees, and Skunk House Genetics. This has given the team the opportunity to raise their platform with exclusive strains from some of the best breeders in the industry.
“The entire Pure Options team is excited for what the future holds,” Nelson says. “We cannot wait to operate on the national stage next and are thankful for everyone who has helped reach our goals along the way. It was all a dream, and teamwork truly does make the dream work.” -BA
Aerīz, pronounced like “arise,” is the producer of aeroponically grown flower, as well as full-spectrum hash oil, sugar, diamonds and sauce, budder, and many other products. They are “the largest aeroponic cannabis cultivator in the world,” according to their website. The company probably focuses on root health more than most typical producers.
Roots are misted in Aerīz’s custom-fitted tables, where cultivators have full control over nutrient uptake. The closed-loop system helps the team to minimize nutrient waste. While it’s a system that would cause a novice grower to most likely fail, the team at Aerīz have perfected the practice.
“We grow aeroponically, for basically two main reasons,” Aerīz Senior Producer Ian Krass tells High Times. “One is the quality of the flower. And the second is the environment. So the easier thing is the environment, which has an aeroponic growing process.”
Krass went on to say that the grow medium is recyclable, and that they’re not using any soil, so there’s a lot less waste. “Our water nutrient solution that the roots get nested with is recycled in a closed-loop system,” he explains. “So, you know, basically, it’s the least waste you could possibly generate growing cannabis. And, you know, being environmentally friendly is definitely at the core of our mission.”
Aerīz’s aeroponically grown flower is sometimes converted into full-spectrum hash oil, distillate, sugar, shatter, budder, and infused honey sticks.
Aerīz is currently partnering with a company called Pachamama, that does carbon offsets. Quality is achieved using a closed loop, computer-controlled nutrient delivery system. The team is very precise in terms of giving the plants exactly “what they need, when they need it.”
Aerīz has expanded beyond Illinois with operations in Arizona as well. Be sure to check out their powerful cuts of Jenny Kush (generally accepted as Amnesia Haze and Rare Dankness #2) and Pink Kush (King Kush x King Kush). -BA
Helios Hash, a solventless hash producer based out of Maine, rocked the hash world in 2021 with a win at the Ego Clash. The winning entry, a mix of Rainbow Belts with a small amount of Ice Cream Cake, represented a major victory for the family-run brand. After all, they won the well-respected hash event with sungrown plants from their first commercial harvest, and 2022 was only their second season growing.
“It’s your classic Zkittlez,” Stav Anagnost says of the Ego Clash-winning entry. “It’s one of the more sought-after type of terps. We hit it at a good time. A lot of people are growing Rainbow Belts.”
Anagnost runs the company alongside two of his brothers, Alex and Demetri, and believes their Rainbow Belts edged out the competition because of their growing style, which he describes as “West Coast.”
“We grow sungrown and our entire operation is based off of sustainable regenerative farming,” he says. “What we do is we are resin farmers so we strictly grow outdoor plants one time a year, seasonally done for resin and our resin is for hash.”
Hash produced from the resin of sungrown flowers is incomparable and is more flavorful than hash made with indoor flowers, Anagnost says. In sunny California, sungrown flower is decidedly more common than in Maine, where the weather is colder and harsher. But Anagnost argues the weather challenges in Maine contribute to the quality of the hash.
“Resin is a defense mechanism to the plant,” he explains. “So the more that the plant gets certain stressors in its environment allow the plant to produce a better quality and more luscious resin.”
The goal at Helios is always full-melt.
“At the end of the day there’s nothing that can compete with the sun,” Anagnost says. “We’re strictly a hash-based company. Everything we do is sungrown and we believe that’s the best representation of the plant and of the resin.”
Looking ahead, Helios is hoping to start a breeding project. Their hash, only produced once a year, mirrors the successful wine industry model of select year limited releases. -EH
When it comes to building a brand built on hype, heart, and heat, Kolektor’s got it down. The only things this Bronx-based underground cultivator says he won’t put out is the stuff that you can find everywhere. Don’t look to Kolektor for Gelato or Runtz; he came up in the era of Platinum Girl Scout Cookies and started growing after getting tired of seeing the same old flowers. “I feel like the market is so oversaturated with those things. You can get them anywhere so there’s no point in me growing those cultivars,” he says over a phone call. “Everybody else is doing it and I’m trying to create my own lane.”
Right now, his lane seems wide open as he looks towards licensing and continues to mingle with California cannabis elite heading across the country to explore the burgeoning New York scene. He’s got West Coast growing experience and, through Instagram marketing, has already met a few major players in California cannabis.
“California knows that New York is a bigger market,” Kolektor says. “California has always been at the top of the game in production, and New York has been just buying. So now you have a bunch of local growers popping up, which is really cool.”
When we speak in early fall, Kolektor has just got through the last of other breeders’ genetics and popped 100 seeds of his own to grow out. The male he’s currently working with is a Black Mamba crossed with four different female cultivars. The results are just unnamed crosses for now, Candy Cane x Black Mamba, a Honey Banana x Black Mamba, a Grape Pie x Black Mamba, and an unrevealed fourth. Kolektor’s also creating his own genetics with Purple Taipan (Grape Pie x Black Mamba) pollen and says the hope is that the brand can create a menu “fully curated, bred, and grown by us.” When we connect, he’s just harvested a Sherb Breath, Sunset Sherbert x Mendo Breath.
“It’s super heavy on the Mendo Breath so you get a lot of that like savory terps, almost like a beef soup, beef stew or something, it’s real weird,” he says.
Kolektor grew up in the South Bronx and never thought he’d be able to grow cannabis. Serving in the Army in Afghanistan he saw acres and acres of weed growing in the desert and it hit him that growing it himself might be a possibility. After he got out of the Army, he took some seeds back with him to New York and started experimenting. He’s making plans in terms of gaining official state cultivation licensing and wants to stay close to the Bronx.
“That’s where we can serve the community the best,” he says. “A lot of investors want us to go upstate, but if we go upstate we’re just going to service a bunch of white folks, like our social equity plan will be shit at that point, you know? I’m from the Bronx apartments in Yonkers so we understand how bad the communities have got due to the War on Drugs and the Stop and Frisk era so we want to be able to offer some good opportunities to people in the city that we love.” -EH
Hella Jelly grown by Solar Cannabis Co. (Courtesy Helios Hash)
Solar Cannabis Co. grows indoors in its main facility in Somerset, Massachusetts within a 67,000-square-foot space. Its solar production allows the company to operate completely energy independent; solar panels cover the entire facility roof as well as an adjacent 4-acre lot. The cultivator also utilizes two high-efficiency CHP (combined heat and power) generators, making natural gas the only utility that Solar Cannabis Co. is hooked up to. It cycles through 10,000 gallons of water a day, but reclaims 90% of that water to be recirculated back into their fertigation watering system (a process which adds fertilizer into an irrigation system).
Solar Cannabis Co.’s Director of Marketing and Communications Derek Gould says the company is constantly striving to reduce its energy footprint.
“A lot of these states where you can only cultivate indoors, at least all year round, it’s definitely important to take a look at the energy footprint and the carbon footprint that we’re leaving, because, it’s huge, it’s massive, and we really just want to do it the right way,” Gould says. “We want to do it upfront, and be a model for other operators, whether current or upcoming, to take a look and identify that, hey, we have a corporate responsibility to operate in a sustainable way.”
Solar Cannabis Co. is a vertically integrated company, but they also grow vertically to fully take advantage of their facility space. Cannabis plants are cared for on a three-tier rack system, allowing Solar Cannabis Co. to house anywhere between 2,200 to 2,400 plants per room.
“The way that we have designed our facility is for constant production, we are harvesting a room every week-and-a-half and we’re pulling down. I would say close to 350 to 400 pounds of dried flower per room every one-and-a-half to two weeks. So, you know, we are constantly in mass production,” Gould explains.
Solar Cannabis Co.’s Vice President of Cultivation Brendan Delaney has a background in cultivation in Trinity County, California and has helped make connections with West Coast cultivators like Compound Genetics and Humboldt Seed Company. A few of their current best sellers are recognizable cultivars like Cherry Punch, Gas Truffle, Hella Jelly, Jelly Runtz, Pink Certz, The Bling, Waffle Cone, and Wedding Cake.
“What we’ve brought from the West Coast here to the East Coast, they’ve been game changers, everything’s been home runs, for the most part,” says Gould.
In Massachusetts, vertically integrated cannabis companies are limited to having three retail licenses, and with Solar Cannabis Co. having two in operation and one coming soon to Dartmouth, the brand is expanding its ethos into other markets and holds a retail-only dispensary license in Rhode Island. -AK
Using cannabis as a way to support Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs is a worthwhile commitment. Good Green (owned by Green Thumb Industries) strives to sell affordable cannabis flower while also providing funds to worthy nonprofit organizations.
Split between sativa, hybrid, and indica offerings, Good Green is in several markets: Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Earlier this year, Green Thumb Industries was one of seven multi-state operators to participate in New Jersey’s first day of recreational sales which began on April 21. As a vertically integrated company, Green Thumb has its own grow facility in New Jersey that supplies an “ever-growing portfolio of strains.” Strains like Banana Cream, Animal Face, L’Orange, Jack Herer, and Rebel Sour are a handful of popular strains in New Jersey.
Good Green isn’t just a flower producer though, it also offers its Good Green grant program to help support worthy nonprofit organizations (hence the brand motto “Green that does Good”). There are currently eight nonprofits that have been chosen to receive the Good Green grant, based in various locations such as Illinois, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
Jai Kensey, director of social impact at Green Thumb Industries, explains why it’s so important that cannabis brands give back to the community.
“It’s an obligation and I always say as multi-state operators, it’s our duty to give back to the communities,” Kensey says. “This industry has been built on the backs of Black and brown people, and who have been the most harmed by it. Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis use. And so it’s definitely something where I say it’s very unique for our industry, where it should be part of every bit of our operation in terms of giving back to the communities that have been impacted by it.”
With an extensive, thorough, and rigorous review process, Kensey, along with Social Impact Program Manager Alyssa Estrada and the Good Green brand team, sift through many applicants and score them based on a number of factors. They closely examine each one, scoring them fairly based on three areas: expungement, employment, and education, as well as geographical location and the organization’s financial records to ensure that their funds go toward various programs.
When High Times spoke with Kensey, she shared that they were currently in the process of reviewing over 70 applications for the third round with the intention of choosing four, which will receive a split of $200,000 which was announced in November 2022. This amount helped the brand meet its goal of granting a total of $1.3 million to nonprofits by the end of the year. -AK
I’ve been tasked by our fearless leader Ellen Holland with writing the High Times State of the Heat address for 2022, a celebration of the flame and all things chronic.
Make no mistake about it, 2022 was a good year for the heat. The perils of the ever-expanding cannabis market have forced legacy producers to put their best foot forward or join others in cannabis history if they haven’t already been ruined by the marketplace or the perils of licensing.
To an extent, the quality of product on the legal marketplace in California was one of the bright spots nationally for cannabis as other places like Michigan, Maine, and Oklahoma held their own more than ever. As you make your way east from the coast of The Emerald Triangle in Northern California the numbers start to creep up from the lowest prices even the best cultivators have ever seen.
There are only so many rappers to go around that can afford those $4,000 pounds. These days, many killers are getting half that if they’re lucky.
But with that West Coast price crash it’s been extra lucrative to move product direct to the East Coast where things are going off at the moment. This has led to a wild shift in the heat per capita making it east. Sure, there have always been elite weed boxes heading in that direction, but there is more of the best of it, now more than ever. Longtime California cultivators are stretched thin as they await the dawning of the new era in weed. What was once head stash quality is now the first thing to sell as folks struggle to make a living.
But from these shifting times, the heat shined through the fog again in 2022. We believe these strains were keystones in the arches that held up the hype this year, each one important in its own right with its place in history.
Since arguably the biggest launch of 2021 last summer, the team at Blueprint has lived up to the hype at every step. Be it the winter Zalympix or Hall of Flowers, wherever you ran into Blueprint their cannabis was sure to be a barometer for the heat in the room. If it wasn’t the most excellent jar you’d see, which it was plenty of the time, it was right there at the top of the pack.
Adding to the fun: a grower wildly respected in the right circles and a dash of secrecy. The Blueprint team is constantly hunting for their next hit with just over 140 new phenos dropping every two months from their dedicated propagation setup, and we know the winners are heat as their trophy shelf has proven. They just don’t tell us much else about these magical strains!
Jordan Aguilar, Blueprint’s co-founder and director of indoor cultivation, sat down to talk about the major successes the company has seen in its initial 14 months of operation. It was easy for onlookers to note a blistering start by any standards.
“I mean, honestly, last year just flew by and we’re just staying focused on what we’re doing,” Aguilar told High Times. “It’s unfortunate for people who are struggling. The market is in its infancy stage and figuring stuff out. But as far as us? We’re just so thankful for the community and the opportunity to show the world our craft.”
We asked Aguilar how much pressure there is to keep the rocket fueled with new elite strains. He laughed, comparing it to the performing arts when someone just expects a musician to drop a new hit song.
“What, I got to come up with another one?” he said with a laugh. “I just don’t feel any pressure. Because we’re in the same boat as anybody. Got to get seeds, you got to make seeds, you got to pop the seeds and you got to work. And at the end of the day, put enough time, effort, and energy towards a focused goal that will yield something beautiful.”
Aguilar went into how the Triple Lindy came to be during its initial selection about four months before Blueprint launched in the summer of 2021.
“It was week three in flower. It was like day two. I was just going around trying to check the nose on the plants and smell that one,” Aguilar said. “I just smiled so big.”
They had a true standout and crossed their fingers it would hold up, it did. The flower checked every box you could ask for when it came to uniqueness, flavor, and impact.
Blueprint plans to build even further in 2023 on the strong base of enthusiasm in the community from its first year in operation. While they focused on growing the best cannabis possible, the brand still had to find its footing in year one.
“We didn’t know who we were when we started,” Aguilar said. “We’ve kind of fallen into these characters and we’re kind of maturing into the brand. So I think we’ve laid a good foundation and now it’s time to keep working on that foundation as well as build upon it.”
Zoap by Deep East and Wizard Trees (Courtesy Wizard Trees)
Over the last two years, few things have mattered more to elite cannabis than the work of Deep East Oakland (DEO) Farms on its Rainbow Sherbert (RS) line and its various famous pheno numbers like RS-11, Studio 54, and the star of the pack, Zoap.
The RS line dates back to 16 packs of OZ Kush seeds DEO bought at the Emerald Cup in the mid-2010s, the last time Dying Breed took part was in 2017. So that’s a testament to years of work in Oakland before the RS line took off. DEO found a bunch of killer phenos. Including a prize Z heavy male.
He F2ed the OZ Kush. It was named Pink Guava and had its own little hype wave in Oakland but nothing compared to its offspring. DEO would conduct an open pollination with the Pink Guava male on six other strains, among them his favorite Sunset Sherbert phenotype he’d ever come across known as the Black Sherb due to its darker than average color.
He would then share the seed stock from the OZ Kush x Pink Guava with Wizard Trees. DEO popped 120 of those seeds and found the #7, #16, #18, and #40. Wizard Trees found the #11 and #54 from the additional 100 he popped. We’re all still riding on the resulting hype wave but some would argue the Rainbow Sherbert #16 F2 #21, now famously known as Zoap, took things to a whole new level.
While those dessert and Z terps have been on the streets for well over a year, it very much invited only as Zoap’s commercial production scaled up to allow its conquest of 2022 full steam. DEO licensed the cut to Wizard Trees in 2021. Eventually, Zoap won the Zalympix Championships in Los Angeles after placing second in the Zalympix prior. It was arguably the most competitive cannabis contest series ever with as big of a feather as there was to go in any cap in 2022.
One cool thing about the build-up to Zoap’s prominence is it gave the DEO team more time to work the line. Zoap ended up serving as the backbone female for the RS F3 line. Much of that was debuted as part of DEO’s Black Box drop this past summer.
Regardless of where it goes from here, it’s hard to point to anyone that had a bigger impact on the exotic cannabis community over the last 24 months than DEO Farms, and Zoap is the flagship of that impact.
Pink Certz by Compound Genetics and Sense (Courtesy Sense)
It’s fair to say Pink Certz was a bit of a dark horse from Compound Genetics going into 2022. Strains like Jokerz, Red Bullz, Apples & Bananas, and Pave were capturing a lot of the spotlight, all deserving heat in their own right. Nevertheless, it may be fair to say Compound’s pairing of Grape Gas and The Menthol had one of the biggest 2022s of the pack.
Why? Pink Certz would break into Compound’s most elite ranks with a victory at The Transbay Challenge III in San Francisco. Our own Jon Cappetta and Ellen Holland were among the judges that day as Pink Certz took down some of the biggest names in California cannabis to come out as the top dog.
When we asked the team at Sense how many seeds they had to dive through to find their magic pheno loaded with grape and fuel notes, CEO Steve Griffith replied with a laugh.
“We got one pack, so it was 13 seeds,” Griffith said. “We were pheno hunting toward the end of 2021. And it’s actually funny because we weren’t initially… it was kind of one of those strains that we weren’t even sure we were going to keep it.”
It was a bit of a finicky grower, but so is a lot of heat. The Sense team wasn’t going to let that stop them from providing the galaxy with new and exotic terps.
“Frankly when we went to go into the Transbay we had such a hard time deciding because we trimmed up what we wanted to enter and then we’re like, ‘Oh, let’s check out some of these Pink Certz and put the jars side by side,’” Griffith said of Pink Certz winning the head-to-head battle with Sense’s other potential entry. “We literally showed up to the event with both jars in hand and in the final minutes were just like fuck it. We’re gonna drop it.”
So why did Griffith go with that phenotype in the first place? He loves grape candy. He thinks their pheno of Pink Certz has heavier grape terps than any version of its Grape Gas parent. But there are certainly still plenty of fuel notes.
One of the things that helped contribute to Pink Certz hype levels in 2022 is there isn’t that much to go around. Sense is a small batch grower and only produces about 100 pounds of it every month. The process of getting your hands on it has only added to the mystique.
Much of the time the cuts people find from Compound gear are measured against what they have in the house from their hunts at Node Labs or with cultivation partners. With most of their biggest hitters they found the best version. I think it’s fair to say in the case of Pink Certz, Sense took top honors.
Permanent Marker by Seed Junky and Doja Pak (Courtesy Doja Pak)
Doja Pak had one of the biggest 2022s of anyone with their much-hyped weekly event series and the weed to match. And don’t get mad Hindenburg fans, but we think calling the Permanent Marker the biggest Doja strain of 2022 is a fair call.
Doja Pak’s founder Ryan Bartholomew said it all started with a run-in with J Beezy from Seed Junky Genetics at the Emerald Cup last year. The pair had chatted prior but hit off on the in-person meeting. Bartholomew was invited to the Seed Junky facility on his next trip to L.A. not long after. Bartholomew was given the opportunity to build out a menu for Doja Pak bred and cultivated by Seed Junky.
Early on Bartholomew would lay eyes in on the Permanent Marker. It would be the first official strain to hit the new Seed Junky-curated part of the Doja Pak menu. Bartholomew would start by teasing the strain in New York for this year’s epic 4/20 festivities. From there he would only add to the hype by kicking off Doja Pak’s Thursday Night Hollywood Strain Premieres with Permanent Marker.
So what’s driving all the enthusiasm? Good genetics. Permanent Marker is (Biscotti S1 x Sherb Bx) x (Gelato #41 x Sherb Bx) F2.
“I was able to go into his facility and pick ones that, for instance, with Permanent Marker,” Bartholomew said. “The first thing I did when I smelled it was say, ‘Wow! This kind of reminds me of Zoap.’”
We knew it was something his following would mess with. He brought it back to the rest of the Doja team and they concurred. At that point it was still called HH 1.5.
“The guys that I’m around every day, I kind of consider their consensus to be probably the most accurate in the world for our marketing, for what we do,” Bartholomew said.
Once the Seed Junky team had an idea of what Doja Pak was looking for they started doing a bunch of work with the Permanent Marker. It’s already been paired with a bunch of Seed Junky’s best gear.
“He has the male brother of the Permanent Marker crossed to the G #41 x Animal Mints. The male brother of the Permanent Marker cross to his Orange Pushpop. So it’s like basically once we started he dialed in what I like in the profiles and now it’s easy for him to select,” Bartholomew said.
In the course of the Hollywood strain premieres, they went through five pounds of sample phenos getting feedback on all of the selections. Keep an eye for more Permanent Marker phenos in the future.
Lemon Cherry Gelato by Backpack Boyz (Courtesy Justin Cannabis)
Lemon Cherry Gelato is the oldest pick on the list. It was a very protected cut for its first few years in existence. Eventually, it got out there a bit more and is now a coveted cut for any nursery to be in possession of. But it all traces to the Backpack Boyz.
“Lemon Cherry Gelato came from a bag seed out of a Gelato #33 Connected pack in 2016,” Backpack Boyz Founder Juan Quesada told High Times. “That was the hottest shit at the time in 2016, 2017, was those black bags.”
It took a couple of years for everything to get pumped up to full production, but by 2018 they were really getting it out there.
“That was when I finally got it underneath about 50 lights and started getting a little something going with it,” Quesada said.
Quesada had found other seeds in other packs. None ever panned out like the Lemon Cherry Gelato.
Quesada emphasized that part of the mystique, regardless of how many lights he had going at that point, was just that it was something new. In a marketplace that’s seeing a lot of its cannabis come from the Gelato family tree, it still stood out in that pack.
Quesada also argues that branding helped. When the Lemon Cherry Gelato first dropped, he didn’t feel like a lot of people were going as loud as the Backpack Boyz were. At that time there was usually a jar involved when you were describing what top-shelf cannabis looked like.
We asked Quesada when he knew he was onto something special with the Lemon Cherry Gelato. He quickly replied that the first drop at Cookies Melrose changed everything.
“It literally was like overnight,” Quesada said. “The next day a bunch of people were hitting me up about it and knew about it that I would have never thought knew about it. Like I was getting tagged by artists. This was still at the time we still had a Backpack Boyz Instagram page.”
From there it just kind of spread like wildfire.
Now six years removed from when the seed was first popped, 2022 was the year Lemon Cherry Gelato entered a new level of folklore. Now it’ll be forever among those strains that had must-grow years like OG Kush, Blue Dream, or Ice Cream Cake. And of course, that’s not a knock on Lemon Cherry Gelato, that’s just a result of the hype so far.
I’ve been tasked by our fearless leader Ellen Holland with writing the High Times State of the Heat address for 2022, a celebration of the flame and all things chronic.
Make no mistake about it, 2022 was a good year for the heat. The perils of the ever-expanding cannabis market have forced legacy producers to put their best foot forward or join others in cannabis history if they haven’t already been ruined by the marketplace or the perils of licensing.
Courtesy High Times
To an extent, the quality of product on the legal marketplace in California was one of the bright spots nationally for cannabis as other places like Michigan, Maine, and Oklahoma held their own more than ever. As you make your way east from the coast of The Emerald Triangle in Northern California the numbers start to creep up from the lowest prices even the best cultivators have ever seen.
There are only so many rappers to go around that can afford those $4,000 pounds. These days, many killers are getting half that if they’re lucky.
But with that West Coast price crash it’s been extra lucrative to move product direct to the East Coast where things are going off at the moment. This has led to a wild shift in the heat per capita making it east. Sure, there have always been elite weed boxes heading in that direction, but there is more of the best of it, now more than ever. Longtime California cultivators are stretched thin as they await the dawning of the new era in weed. What was once head stash quality is now the first thing to sell as folks struggle to make a living.
But from these shifting times, the heat shined through the fog again in 2022. We believe these strains were keystones in the arches that held up the hype this year, each one important in its own right with its place in history.
Since arguably the biggest launch of 2021 last summer, the team at Blueprint has lived up to the hype at every step. Be it the winter Zalympix or Hall of Flowers, wherever you ran into Blueprint their cannabis was sure to be a barometer for the heat in the room. If it wasn’t the most excellent jar you’d see, which it was plenty of the time, it was right there at the top of the pack.
Adding to the fun: a grower wildly respected in the right circles and a dash of secrecy. The Blueprint team is constantly hunting for their next hit with just over 140 new phenos dropping every two months from their dedicated propagation setup, and we know the winners are heat as their trophy shelf has proven. They just don’t tell us much else about these magical strains!
Jordan Aguilar, Blueprint’s co-founder and director of indoor cultivation, sat down to talk about the major successes the company has seen in its initial 14 months of operation. It was easy for onlookers to note a blistering start by any standards.
“I mean, honestly, last year just flew by and we’re just staying focused on what we’re doing,” Aguilar told High Times. “It’s unfortunate for people who are struggling. The market is in its infancy stage and figuring stuff out. But as far as us? We’re just so thankful for the community and the opportunity to show the world our craft.”
We asked Aguilar how much pressure there is to keep the rocket fueled with new elite strains. He laughed, comparing it to the performing arts when someone just expects a musician to drop a new hit song.
“What, I got to come up with another one?” he said with a laugh. “I just don’t feel any pressure. Because we’re in the same boat as anybody. Got to get seeds, you got to make seeds, you got to pop the seeds and you got to work. And at the end of the day, put enough time, effort, and energy towards a focused goal that will yield something beautiful.”
Aguilar went into how the Triple Lindy came to be during its initial selection about four months before Blueprint launched in the summer of 2021.
“It was week three in flower. It was like day two. I was just going around trying to check the nose on the plants and smell that one,” Aguilar said. “I just smiled so big.”
They had a true standout and crossed their fingers it would hold up, it did. The flower checked every box you could ask for when it came to uniqueness, flavor, and impact.
Blueprint plans to build even further in 2023 on the strong base of enthusiasm in the community from its first year in operation. While they focused on growing the best cannabis possible, the brand still had to find its footing in year one.
“We didn’t know who we were when we started,” Aguilar said. “We’ve kind of fallen into these characters and we’re kind of maturing into the brand. So I think we’ve laid a good foundation and now it’s time to keep working on that foundation as well as build upon it.”
Zoap by Deep East and Wizard Trees (Courtesy Wizard Trees)
Over the last two years, few things have mattered more to elite cannabis than the work of Deep East Oakland (DEO) Farms on its Rainbow Sherbert (RS) line and its various famous pheno numbers like RS-11, Studio 54, and the star of the pack, Zoap.
The RS line dates back to 16 packs of OZ Kush seeds DEO bought at the Emerald Cup in the mid-2010s, the last time Dying Breed took part was in 2017. So that’s a testament to years of work in Oakland before the RS line took off. DEO found a bunch of killer phenos. Including a prize Z heavy male.
He F2ed the OZ Kush. It was named Pink Guava and had its own little hype wave in Oakland but nothing compared to its offspring. DEO would conduct an open pollination with the Pink Guava male on six other strains, among them his favorite Sunset Sherbert phenotype he’d ever come across known as the Black Sherb due to its darker than average color.
He would then share the seed stock from the OZ Kush x Pink Guava with Wizard Trees. DEO popped 120 of those seeds and found the #7, #16, #18, and #40. Wizard Trees found the #11 and #54 from the additional 100 he popped. We’re all still riding on the resulting hype wave but some would argue the Rainbow Sherbert #16 F2 #21, now famously known as Zoap, took things to a whole new level.
While those dessert and Z terps have been on the streets for well over a year, it very much invited only as Zoap’s commercial production scaled up to allow its conquest of 2022 full steam. DEO licensed the cut to Wizard Trees in 2021. Eventually, Zoap won the Zalympix Championships in Los Angeles after placing second in the Zalympix prior. It was arguably the most competitive cannabis contest series ever with as big of a feather as there was to go in any cap in 2022.
One cool thing about the build-up to Zoap’s prominence is it gave the DEO team more time to work the line. Zoap ended up serving as the backbone female for the RS F3 line. Much of that was debuted as part of DEO’s Black Box drop this past summer.
Regardless of where it goes from here, it’s hard to point to anyone that had a bigger impact on the exotic cannabis community over the last 24 months than DEO Farms, and Zoap is the flagship of that impact.
Pink Certz by Compound Genetics and Sense (Courtesy Sense)
It’s fair to say Pink Certz was a bit of a dark horse from Compound Genetics going into 2022. Strains like Jokerz, Red Bullz, Apples & Bananas, and Pave were capturing a lot of the spotlight, all deserving heat in their own right. Nevertheless, it may be fair to say Compound’s pairing of Grape Gas and The Menthol had one of the biggest 2022s of the pack.
Why? Pink Certz would break into Compound’s most elite ranks with a victory at The Transbay Challenge III in San Francisco. Our own Jon Cappetta and Ellen Holland were among the judges that day as Pink Certz took down some of the biggest names in California cannabis to come out as the top dog.
When we asked the team at Sense how many seeds they had to dive through to find their magic pheno loaded with grape and fuel notes, CEO Steve Griffith replied with a laugh.
“We got one pack, so it was 13 seeds,” Griffith said. “We were pheno hunting toward the end of 2021. And it’s actually funny because we weren’t initially… it was kind of one of those strains that we weren’t even sure we were going to keep it.”
It was a bit of a finicky grower, but so is a lot of heat. The Sense team wasn’t going to let that stop them from providing the galaxy with new and exotic terps.
“Frankly when we went to go into the Transbay we had such a hard time deciding because we trimmed up what we wanted to enter and then we’re like, ‘Oh, let’s check out some of these Pink Certz and put the jars side by side,’” Griffith said of Pink Certz winning the head-to-head battle with Sense’s other potential entry. “We literally showed up to the event with both jars in hand and in the final minutes were just like fuck it. We’re gonna drop it.”
So why did Griffith go with that phenotype in the first place? He loves grape candy. He thinks their pheno of Pink Certz has heavier grape terps than any version of its Grape Gas parent. But there are certainly still plenty of fuel notes.
One of the things that helped contribute to Pink Certz hype levels in 2022 is there isn’t that much to go around. Sense is a small batch grower and only produces about 100 pounds of it every month. The process of getting your hands on it has only added to the mystique.
Much of the time the cuts people find from Compound gear are measured against what they have in the house from their hunts at Node Labs or with cultivation partners. With most of their biggest hitters they found the best version. I think it’s fair to say in the case of Pink Certz, Sense took top honors.
Permanent Marker by Seed Junky and Doja Pak (Courtesy Doja Pak)
Doja Pak had one of the biggest 2022s of anyone with their much-hyped weekly event series and the weed to match. And don’t get mad Hindenburg fans, but we think calling the Permanent Marker the biggest Doja strain of 2022 is a fair call.
Doja Pak’s founder Ryan Bartholomew said it all started with a run-in with J Beezy from Seed Junky Genetics at the Emerald Cup last year. The pair had chatted prior but hit off on the in-person meeting. Bartholomew was invited to the Seed Junky facility on his next trip to L.A. not long after. Bartholomew was given the opportunity to build out a menu for Doja Pak bred and cultivated by Seed Junky.
Early on Bartholomew would lay eyes in on the Permanent Marker. It would be the first official strain to hit the new Seed Junky-curated part of the Doja Pak menu. Bartholomew would start by teasing the strain in New York for this year’s epic 4/20 festivities. From there he would only add to the hype by kicking off Doja Pak’s Thursday Night Hollywood Strain Premieres with Permanent Marker.
So what’s driving all the enthusiasm? Good genetics. Permanent Marker is (Biscotti S1 x Sherb Bx) x (Gelato #41 x Sherb Bx) F2.
“I was able to go into his facility and pick ones that, for instance, with Permanent Marker,” Bartholomew said. “The first thing I did when I smelled it was say, ‘Wow! This kind of reminds me of Zoap.’”
We knew it was something his following would mess with. He brought it back to the rest of the Doja team and they concurred. At that point it was still called HH 1.5.
“The guys that I’m around every day, I kind of consider their consensus to be probably the most accurate in the world for our marketing, for what we do,” Bartholomew said.
Once the Seed Junky team had an idea of what Doja Pak was looking for they started doing a bunch of work with the Permanent Marker. It’s already been paired with a bunch of Seed Junky’s best gear.
“He has the male brother of the Permanent Marker crossed to the G #41 x Animal Mints. The male brother of the Permanent Marker cross to his Orange Pushpop. So it’s like basically once we started he dialed in what I like in the profiles and now it’s easy for him to select,” Bartholomew said.
In the course of the Hollywood strain premieres, they went through five pounds of sample phenos getting feedback on all of the selections. Keep an eye for more Permanent Marker phenos in the future.
Lemon Cherry Gelato by Backpack Boyz (Courtesy Justin Cannabis)
Lemon Cherry Gelato is the oldest pick on the list. It was a very protected cut for its first few years in existence. Eventually, it got out there a bit more and is now a coveted cut for any nursery to be in possession of. But it all traces to the Backpack Boyz.
“Lemon Cherry Gelato came from a bag seed out of a Gelato #33 Connected pack in 2016,” Backpack Boyz Founder Juan Quesada told High Times. “That was the hottest shit at the time in 2016, 2017, was those black bags.”
It took a couple of years for everything to get pumped up to full production, but by 2018 they were really getting it out there.
“That was when I finally got it underneath about 50 lights and started getting a little something going with it,” Quesada said.
Quesada had found other seeds in other packs. None ever panned out like the Lemon Cherry Gelato.
Quesada emphasized that part of the mystique, regardless of how many lights he had going at that point, was just that it was something new. In a marketplace that’s seeing a lot of its cannabis come from the Gelato family tree, it still stood out in that pack.
Quesada also argues that branding helped. When the Lemon Cherry Gelato first dropped, he didn’t feel like a lot of people were going as loud as the Backpack Boyz were. At that time there was usually a jar involved when you were describing what top-shelf cannabis looked like.
We asked Quesada when he knew he was onto something special with the Lemon Cherry Gelato. He quickly replied that the first drop at Cookies Melrose changed everything.
“It literally was like overnight,” Quesada said. “The next day a bunch of people were hitting me up about it and knew about it that I would have never thought knew about it. Like I was getting tagged by artists. This was still at the time we still had a Backpack Boyz Instagram page.”
From there it just kind of spread like wildfire.
Now six years removed from when the seed was first popped, 2022 was the year Lemon Cherry Gelato entered a new level of folklore. Now it’ll be forever among those strains that had must-grow years like OG Kush, Blue Dream, or Ice Cream Cake. And of course, that’s not a knock on Lemon Cherry Gelato, that’s just a result of the hype so far.
This article can be found in the December 2022 issue of High Times Magazine.
I’m not going to lie, it’s been a really weird month for me. From an uptick of trolls online to winning my first-ever award from Benzinga a few weeks ago, life is in a really surreal spot at the moment. I’m feeling seen. Because of this, I want to start this month’s post off with gratitude – whether it’s your first time here, if you’re coming back to check out the latest edition, or if you’re just looking for something to shit on, I appreciate you being here. Truly. I still can’t believe I get to do this professionally, and even if you’re only popping in for laughs, thank you for making this all possible for me.
Now, it seems summer has come and gone in a flash. While I’m kinda bummed I didn’t get outside as much as I would’ve liked, or swam in quite as many pools as I wanted to, I’m more than ready to welcome back hoodies & joggers. Maybe I’m just still fantasizing about school days and having a real summer vacation – more than a decade and a half later. Time to grow up, sport! Time to talk about fancy weed!
As I’m sure you all know, we’re getting into harvest season now, so these next few weeks are going to be busy. Kicking off with Puffcon on Saturday, Hall of Flowers next week, and a trip to New York for a while following that, I’m going to be on the road again for a minute, and I’ll be searching far and wide for new heat. If there’s something you think I should see along the way, or you’ll be in town for one of the stops, holler at me on Twitter and let’s get high! Otherwise, buckle up for our 28th edition, and check out this new flame:
Last year was the year of 11, this year was the year of Zoap, but next year? Next year might just be the best year of all. Coming in hot with dozens of keeper phenos of what’s sure to be the strain of ’23, Wizard Trees has done it again, and this time the Z means exactly what you think it does. Although I’ll be honest, how he’s going to decide which one to release is a challenge even I feel completely dumbfounded about, I saw at least 4 different variations of his RS11 x Zkittlez that were as close to perfection as I’ve seen in the market lately. And that’s not all. With literal garbage bags full of testers that didn’t make the cut, I’ve seen some impressive hunts before, but few have likely ever had as many winners as these guys have coming. There’s 54 x 11 and 11 x 11 phenos too. And when I call them ‘winners for them’, recognize that 90% of the market could have taken anything from those garbage bags and made the block hot with them. WT isn’t just looking for winners, he’s looking for game changers. This is what separates the leaders from the pack.
I’ve raved about Pixie in this column before, so y’all should already know about this dude’s magic. While there are several people doing it now, this was the first true hash-paper joint I smoked, and none of the knockoffs have come close to comparing. However, today I bring him up not for the wizardry of his rolling, but because his cultivation and selection skills are worth pointing out. You see, there have been a LOT of people coming up to me lately claiming that they have the original Sour Diesel but none have come close to the memory I’ve cherished for years. That is, until I saw Pixie’s cut. With the perfect light green hue and that funky sour nose to match, Pix has managed to reignite that memory from the past, but with today’s modern expertise.
So I’ll admit, this one had me sold on the packaging alone. There’s something about the King of the Hill flip with the Grateful Dead shirts & stealie that just tickles me in a special type of way, and candidly I was excited to get this jar even if only to display it on my shelf. That said, the rosin inside was world class by anyone’s standards, and it wasn’t long before it was emptied and doing just that. It’s worth noting that while it was my first time trying Pie Hoe (an apparent new favorite) so it’s hard to compare these specific results to others, their Moonbow was by far the best I’ve ever seen.
This one was a tall order for me. As someone who not only loves Maraschino cherries, but also Shirley Temples & Roy Rogers, and ice cream sundaes, and the story of the Maraschino cherry grow / suicide, you’re really going to have to deliver if you emblazon a name like that on yourself. Sure I was willing to try, as I’m a long time fan of the Insane brand, but I was not expecting the excellence that was about to be delivered. With a sweet almost tartness, you’ll be excited to smoke this one as soon as you crack the seal. However, once it’s ground up those cherries will really infiltrate, and you’ll taste ‘em on the smoke.
I’ve been a fan of Ball Family Farms since I saw my first of their jars, but man are they getting better with age. They were always terp-y, and their Daniel Laruso has been a regular in my rotation, but their latest cut, the Phonzie, is quite simply an explosion of flavor. While incredibly photogenic to begin with, and just the right hue for the market to really drool over, this is another one that will blow your top off with flavor. While initially presenting sweet out of the jar, this one really morphs in the grinder, mixing out the gas-y, super funk finish. It’s hard to describe exactly what this nose reminds me of, but I got so high after smoking it I stopped trying to figure it out.
If you’re a frequent reader of mine you’ve likely heard me bitch about THC % being misleading, and that Terps are the way, a probably annoying amount at this point. Well friends, I’m going to keep saying it until the market reacts, and I’m pleased to report some movement. My guys over at No Till Kings, the living soil cultivators I told you about last year, are pushing the buck forward. Their new lab sticker not only includes THC & CBD percentages, but also a chart showing the dominant Terpenes present, as well as how they rank against each other. Now, while understanding what specific Terps work best for your body is definitely an individual journey, this is a great first step in helping consumers educate themselves. Even better, I heard this didn’t actually cost them any more money in lab testing, so maybe it’s something we’ll see start catching on across the industry!
At the Benzinga conference I was asked to moderate a panel with some of the most impressive athletes in the world, who now all happen to be getting into the cannabis game. While I’m admittedly not the biggest sports guy, the panel was filled with athletes that even the uninterested stoner I am recognized. I may not have watched basketball religiously growing up, but even I knew to fear the fro. So when I had the opportunity to chat with Ben Wallace, I totally expected something way more disruptive than the kind and gentle man I encountered. In fact, it was Ben’s answer about why athletes seem to be the only ones who could make the celebrity canna model work that made the most sense to me, and his answer was fairly simple: athletes are used to showing up everyday. They’re used to having to be on the court, to practice. While most celebs want a ‘set it and forget it’ model, it seems to be the athletes that care most about not only the quality of their products, but the actual business behind it. While I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed that panel, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Undrafted (Ben’s brand) was without question the best new brand I tried while in Chicago. Sure it’s a Michigan brand, but you know how the fire moves…
This dude was my favorite new friend from the Benzinga conference earlier this month, and while normally I wouldn’t just throw a homie in here, I think what he’s doing is really cool. His company, CannaDevices, distributes basic American-made glass paraphernalia to head shops and dispensaries across the country, and while that’s fine in and of itself, how he does it is what I find so dope. You see, Chris and CannaDevices employ glass artists from around the country, and empower them to follow their dreams while still being able to afford their bills. Let’s say you love making crazy expensive rigs, but you can only make – or sell – one every few months. Chris’s team allows you to monetize your hobby by producing basics for their business. This stops these artists from having to go out and get a 9-5 just to feed themselves, while still pursuing their personal goals and dreams. While I’m not saying this model works for everyone, I want to support anything that empowers creators to do more of what they actually love, and that’s what CannaDevices is doing. If there’s some way you can work together, or work for him, I think they’re worth checking out.
I’ve seen a LOT of accessories in my day, and while most all are capable of getting the job done, very few have been designed past their function. Because of this, most of the dab tools you’ll find in concentrate consumers’ homes remain those dentistry style tools or the very basic paddle & stabber. While I’ve never been mad at those, in fact I bought an actual set of Dentist’s tools off Amazon years ago, this is the first set I’ve found that actually seems like something that should be on display. Not too large, functional, and yet attractive, Apex Ancillary’s magnetic tools & display stand have seriously elevated the vibe of my set up. While sure, stacking used tools on top of Q-tips has worked until now, I’m finally feeling like an adult while I dab without having to spend tens of thousands on fancy rigs & tools.
I swear you find the best snacks in airports, man. Last time it was those Jell-O pudding cup truffles, but this time – oh boy. This time I found sprinkle-covered marshmallows with birthday cake cookie-dough in the middle. WHAT?! You read that right. Now I know this probably sounds like it’s made for children, and it likely is, but let me tell you something – as a single, childless, self-respecting sugar-fiend, sometimes you just gotta accept that the best things in the world aren’t made for us anymore, they’re made for the next generation. That said, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it – y’all are still playing video games, aren’t ya? So while you may see the bag and think ‘I’m too old for that’, let me remind you, you don’t age out of deliciousness.
Judging the High Times Cannabis Cup People’s Choice Edition is a rare opportunity to be directly involved in the outcome of the ultimate quest for the dankest, most flavor-packed flower strains and concentrates.
Each cannabis tournament has its respective perks, and there are many events to choose from. But the High Times Cannabis Cup, launched in Rotterdam, Holland in 1987 by longtime editor Steven Hager, is the OG competition. It was the first major cannabis tournament to take place. Only a handful of seed companies entered the first Cannabis Cup in ’87, and about 30 people attended. Skunk #1 was the original winner, placing first and setting the stage for promoting and celebrating individual cannabis cultivars. It wasn’t until the event’s sixth year that attendance surpassed 800.
Over time, Cannabis Cup events have been held everywhere from Jamaica to Alaska. Nowadays, High Times provides People’s Choice events that are judged using an entirely different structure and scheme. Instead of only allowing a select list of seasoned experts to evaluate the weed, the competition is open to all participants who pay to join in. No person is excluded from the pool of judges, regardless of their level of professional expertise.
Courtesy of Mark Kazinec
Judging the People’s Choice Edition
It was an honor to serve as a judge for the High Times Cannabis Cup People’s Choice Edition: SoCal 2022 this year. Judge Kits in Southern California became available to High Times store loyalty members on May 13 and the general public the next day. Entries were due on July 10, about two months later, and on July 24, the winners were announced. This timeline gives judges about 60 days to review each strain—the perfect amount of time to have a full day to savor each strain’s aroma, taste, and other aspects with a clear flavor palate. Judges can easily smoke or vape each entry on a different day or hours apart to avoid confusing any of the effects with one another.
I headed on over to the High Times San Bernardino store, the nearest location to where I live, to grab a Judge Kit and see for myself how this process works. While I’ve contributed to the magazine for a number of years, I’ve never visited a High Times dispensary before, until now.
Walking into a High Times store alone is enough to induce a sense of awe and wonder, let alone the ultra-dank scent emitting from backpacks stacked up behind the registers. The long legacy of High Times magazine, stretching back to 1974, becomes more pronounced when you see the decor inside. Legendary High Times magazine issue covers from times in the past adorn some of the walls. Everything in the store is aligned with the High Times classic red, white, and black color scheme.
The backpacks were lined up neatly with a label indicating which category they fall under. The categories are the following: Indica Flower, Sativa Flower, Hybrid Flower, Pre-rolls, Infused Pre-rolls, Solventless Concentrates, Vape Pens, Edibles: Gummies, Edibles: Non-Gummies, Edibles: Beverages, and the final category is Topicals, Tinctures and Capsules. Each Judge Kit in the SoCal Cup has a market value of up to $280, pre-tax.
I felt like a child seeing Willy Wonka’s factory for the first time when I opened the backpack. Some strains were purple, others even deeper purples. Others were frosted with white crystals or covered in orange hairs. Some were dense nugs, while others were fluffy buds with wispy sugar leaves still intact. Practically every strain had a set of unique characteristics that became more apparent the more I gazed at them. I didn’t know where to start.
“Each kit comes complete with all of the entries from that category,” High Times Director of Events Mark Kazinec says as he hands me my backpack. “So, for example, Indica Flower has 22 different 1 gram units from different brands, different strains. It’s all wrapped up in a High Times backpack.”
The backpacks have the High Times logo embroidered on the front and the High Times Cannabis Cup People’s Choice Edition: SoCal 2022 logo embroidered on the side pocket. Each backpack is stuffed with cannabis entries and includes a scorecard inside. The scorecard gives judges an access code to the judging portal. The 1 gram size is perfect—enough for up to several bowls each.
The scorecard indicates where to go to rate each strain, how to log in, and so forth. An email is automatically sent to confirm each time a strain review is submitted. The emails also serve as a placement point to know which strains have already been completed. In the event that a judge accidentally turns in two strain ratings, the most recent submission is selected by default. Judges assess how each strain looks, tastes, smells, effects, and burns on a scale of one to 10.
Benjamin M. Adams / Courtesy of Mark Kazinec
Judging Flower for the First Time
The SoCal judging marks not only the first year I’ve judged a Cannabis Cup event, but also the first year I’ve judged any cannabis tournament, for that matter.
In my case, I went to CannabisCup.com, then clicked the red judging portal button, verified my age, and selected Cannabis Cup People’s Choice Edition: SoCal 2022. Then I selected Hybrid Flower, the type of Judge Kit that I signed up to receive. Finally, I picked my first strain to review, Jealousy by LitHouse, a cross between Gelato #41 and Sherbet—two strains most aficionados are well familiar with.
My sample of Jealousy had a lower total THC content compared to the others in my bag at 29%, but it was what I describe as “two notches” stronger than I anticipated. To compare, Feria, aka “The Fetti,” by Green Dragon contained 39% THC and 2.68% terpenes. Feria is believed to be Pie Hole (Cherry Pie x OGKB) crossed with Secret Cake, Secret Cookies, or both. Just about every entry provided lab results showing cannabinoid content and sometimes terpene content.
“I loved breaking apart the bud leaves with my fingers to reveal the plum stripes with lime hints and great spongy nug structure,” I wrote of Jealousy in the judge’s portal. It had an earthy yet funky taste, which I described as pleasant but not bold, with a distinct sweet but piney aroma. I also was prompted to describe burnability, visual appeal, and so on. And this is just the first entry that I sampled! I still had 20 more strains to go through. I felt a little rusty on my first entry, and my descriptions of each aspect of the flower rating scale got longer as I went on.
Inside the portal, I’m prompted to rank the strain 1-10 in the following parameters: aesthetics/texture, aroma/scent, taste, burnability, effects, and terpene profile. The portal asks one question at a time, and when you hit enter, the next question immediately appears. It also asks me to describe several aspects of the strain.
Grandi Guava (Guava x Gelato) by Triple Seven immediately caught my eye with shelf appeal upon my initial visual inspection. The purple-plum sugar leaves were almost completely snowed over in trichomes to the point that you couldn’t see the bud leaf color very well. It looked diabolical. I felt a wave of excitement go through my body. On the other hand, the Vanilla Dice by Claybourne Co., with unknown parentage, was a darker green with trichomes that are much more white in color. It did give off a close to a creamy vanilla whiff, but it was very subtle, almost indiscernible.
Hyped-up strains like Pink Certz by Sense (The Menthol x Grape Gasoline) provided more sativa daytime effects than the indica-dominant hybrids and a complex flavor of bold berries and mint. Pink Certz also has a wicked look and shelf appeal with dark green buds covered in white-beige trichomes.
A person on Twitter asked me if judging cannabis is like judging wine, and I admitted that they are indeed similar. Both come from plants that produce a myriad of flavor and aroma profiles. Selections can vary in bite, body, bouquet, finish, etc. The cannabis industry uses different words, but the general idea is the same. Finished flower can rival the finest French wine in taste, color, aroma, and exquisiteness.
All of the strains are strong contenders, so it’s pertinent to keep in mind that judges compare them one to another, and not all are going to receive 10s, even though just about every entry is impressive.
Kazinec isn’t interested in descriptions by judges who only put in half of the effort. The portal even provided me with an example of a good strain assessment.
“We want people to be detail-oriented; we want them to say, ‘I opened it up, I smelled lemony diesel aromas, bright green fluffy buds, orange hairs, went on a hike with my friend,’ you know this and that,” Kazinec says. “We don’t want people to say, ‘They smell good, got me high.’ That’s not helpful.”
Keep in mind that all of the strains are going to be strong, as farmers and brands will only enter in only the finest flowers that represent their companies best.
“All of these responses go back to the vendors who put their heart and soul into creating these products that are literally picking their best yields or best buds to put in this cup,” Kazinec says. “We want the judges to also do the same thing and put their time and effort into this. They have 60 days to judge all of their products. And yeah, we want people to be very thorough and very detailed.”
Courtesy of Mark Kazinec
Air of Inclusiveness
Not everyone can be a grower who has been in the biz for over 30 years. People’s Cup is about including all.
“People’s Choice is now open to everyone,” Kazinec says. “We want people from all walks of life, whether you’re an OG grower who knows exactly how to describe, you know, limonene and myrcene, terpene profiles, but we also want the new consumers who, you know, are trading out their glass of wine for a joint at the end of the night, people who are very experienced, people [who are] are not very experienced. All of that is part of the wide demographic of cannabis consumers. We want to capture everybody.”
Kazinec explains that the feedback from all these different types of people will help inform these brands to better understand what is working and what’s not working.
“This is now People’s Choice,” Kazinec says. “It’s open to everybody. It’s not reserved for the Snoop Doggs and Willie Nelsons or the High Times homies, you know, from 40 years ago, so it’s the perfect opportunity for those who have been waiting or for those who are just finding out about this judging opportunity to take advantage and see who’s the best.”
In my Hybrid Flower judge kit, Green Dragon, Claybourne Co., Wizard Trees, and Canndescent had stellar contenders that stood out. However, I cannot reveal all of my observations quite yet, as the competition is still in motion as I write this article. My advice is, as always, it’s best not to get too caught up in the packaging, as it has nothing to do with the actual quality of the flower.
Judging a Cannabis Cup was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. I learned about some new strains, I got to compare them to each other, and I feel like I know more about flower now than I did when I started judging. Would I do it again? Most definitely, and I encourage others to do so themselves.
Anyone who is willing is worthy of becoming a High Times Cannabis Cup: People’s Choice Edition judge. Visit cannabiscup.com to learn more and find events closer to your home state.
August has been a whirlwind. From Outsidelands in San Francisco to Jimi’s fourth Transbay Challenge taking place in LA for the first time, my travels have taken me from great grow, to great show, seemingly countless times this month. There’s been a LOT of heat to sort through!
While my cup is certainly overflowing with dank at the moment, it felt important to tie this month’s Cop List to one of the biggest labors of love I undertake at this job, September’s Art Issue. You see, this issue is my baby. I spend all year working on it. In fact, I’ve already begun on 2023’s. The issue is all about showing the larger reach of the cannabis community, past the plant navel gazers like us, and I truly believe it’s an excellent showing of the breadth of our community. If you don’t normally read our print magazine, or haven’t picked one up in years, this is the one I’d really like for you to check out. It’s a lot less plant focused than our normal issues, but we work really hard to make sure there’s something for everyone – and it just looks so fuckin cool. This year’s covers were done by NYCHOS and CES, who are both absolute legends in the graffiti game… I still can’t believe how great it looks.
With that in mind, the below are some of the most beautiful, trippy, or just out of the ordinary things I’ve seen in awhile – from excellent cultivation, to excellent branding, to excellent vibes. Most of ‘em hit on more than one front, but I have no doubt you’ll see that for yourselves.
As always let me know if there’s something I missed, or something you’re looking forward to. The search for the good bush never sleeps!
I’ve been drooling over Snowtill’s IG for awhile now, so when I went up to the bay for Grasslands earlier this month I HAD to tap in to see if the finished product matched the promo shots. Let me just say, it’s not easy to impress me lately, and it’s even harder for the real to stack up to the bud porn most post online, so believe me when I tell you, these nugs are even better in person. In fact, calling them nugs almost feels sacrilegious, as if they were any old weeds. These beauties were nothing short of works of art. Grown as organically as possible indoors, Snowtill combines the best of both worlds to output some truly next level products that frankly are as close to perfection as one gets. I got to take a peek at four of his strains, and while each is a standout in its own right, it was his selection, Electric Sugar, that floored me. From the absolutely shimmering buds to a high that lasts hours, this is how cannabis is supposed to be.
I’m a sucker for good marketing. We all know this by now. I love fancy mylars, good content, and creative launches, but we also all know that when someone’s trying super hard on the promo side, it’s usually because the actual product is lacking. Well friends, I’m pleased to inform you that I might have found the holy grail here. Showcasing the progression of his genetics, Fiya Farmer has released his first ‘Strain Album’, and while the marketing is some of the best I’ve seen, the weed inside is even better. Appropriately designed after a record, as each of these ‘tracks’ are LOUD, the eight piece compilation guides the consumer on the evolution of the farmer’s work. Beginning with C.R.E.A.M. & Zangria, two personal favorites he collabed on with Wizard Trees, and finishing up with Brrberry Gary #12. My personal favorite has to be the Sweet Retreat, which along with Track 7 ‘Midnight Mistress’, are upcoming collabs with Doja Pak. I know these boxes are ultra limited, but if you get your chance don’t miss checking this out – this record’s previewing the biggest hits of next year, for sure.
Speaking of Doja Pak, I wouldn’t be adequately doing my job if I didn’t let you in on the best underground weekly in LA right now. Though I can’t tell you where exactly it is (you’ll have to follow Doja on Telegram for that), what I can say is that every Thursday feels like the 215 days in Hollywood again. You see, each week the Doja gang assembles to debut the latest from their brand, or that of one of their friends, and the whole thing turns into an exotic potluck, as Ryan called it on IG. Taking place in a private space, probably the most special element of this event is the community it attracts. From cultivation legends like Fieldz and Wizard Trees to world class trappers, this unique gathering actually attracts both sides of the market, and I regularly see rec dispensary owners and brand guys in there trying to take a peek at the new. While I have a ton of good things to say about Doja, probably the most important is that this team stays ten down – there are few others who have as good of an understanding of what’s happening on the streets, as what’s happening in the boardrooms. Doja’s it.
The featured image for this month’s column (the first ever in which I’m actually in the picture) was taken at Oakfruitland. As you can see in the image, I was floored by the work these guys put in front of me. From their Oak-lato to their Sugar Coded, each pack was more impressive than the last. In fact, even their V-Power, which has graced this list before, was even brighter than the last cut I’d seen, so let me be clear here: these guys have a LOT of winners. That said, my pick of the day was their Oak-Cano, an RS pheno which is truly something else. With a much more peppery nose than the rest, what’s most refreshing to me about the Cano was the fact that it’s nose was truly unique. It’s not just candy, or gas, though you can smell the hints of those terps that the market responds best to, and it’s much less of a downer than I was expecting. While I wouldn’t call it morning smoke, this is definitely the type you can light up in the afternoon to accentuate your workflow, as opposed to crash from it.
I’ve already told you how good these guys mushies are, but they’re not content with just having the best fungus around – they needed to innovate. Their latest creation, the Magic Carpets, are without question the best way to consume psilocybin I’ve experienced. Basically all natural fruit roll ups, the carpets each contain 2 grams of magic fruit – which is more than enough to get a real experience in – but for those more experienced explorers, they come 2 rolls to a tube, so 4 grams in total. Made using simple ingredients and organic fruit, the Magic Carpets were SF’s “response to an overabundance of chocolates and gummies”, and it’s one the entire community will benefit from.
Y’all know my preferred consumption method is joints, and how hard it is to match the quality of your own hand roll once you get it down, so when I find a preroll that I actually want to smoke, it’s hard not to shout about it from the rooftops – so why try? The latest of these prerolls I’ve experienced actually come from two brands, SF Canna, and Planta, both of which are currently packing 1.8 gram full flower rolls. While I know they also have donut versions, the full flower ones are the perfect cannagar style experience one looks for when they want to get real high, and feel like a boss in the process. Complete with branded biohemp filters, these are a must cop if you see them at your local.
In the past I’ve told you about Your Highness’ indoor work, and the folklore around strains like Shady Apples & Lemon Meringue. Well friends, I am pleased to tell you that those fan-favorite genetics that were once unattainable to most just got a hell of a lot more affordable. Dubbed their new ‘Ecozotics’ line, the YH gang has brought their acclaimed cuts into the greenhouse to make them more accessible to consumers of every tax bracket. On the shelves at ~$30 an eighth, you can find these guys at the Pottery in LA, or any of the Farmacy locations in California.
I don’t know if the Zombies have the same effect on people from everywhere, but as a New Yorker it’s pretty impossible for me to not love these guys. From their swag, to their unique voices, everything about these guys screams not only originality, but that they’re true to themselves – which is arguably the most New York characteristic there is. That’s why when I saw that the Flatbush gang paired with another native Brooklynite, Sackville & Co., to release a custom designed smell-proof stoner travel-kit, I had to tap in. See, this is something they’re undoubtedly all using, and even as a road warrior myself, few are on the go as much as those guys. Complete with three storage containers, a rolling tray, and a custom four-tiered grinder, you certainly don’t have to be a fan to find the function in this kit, but you’ll be hard pressed to get em before their fans do. Dropping next month on Sackville’s website, keep an eye out!
If you happen to find yourself in the Pacific Northwest, and you’re looking for a bit more than a head trip, I highly recommend tapping in with Headfirst Headstash. These guys have all the exploratory goodies you could imagine, and then some. While Sacred Fruits presented the first mushroom fruit roll up I’d seen, these guys brought me the first fun dip (produced by @mushthrax) – which, I know, sounds absolutely bonkers, but totally fuckin rules. Now, I won’t lie and say you don’t sorta taste the fungi – shit doesn’t taste like roses, after all – but the sweetness of the powder does a pretty good job offsetting the gross, and out of all the ways I’ve tried consuming these now, this has got to be one of the best. That said, they’ve got far more than fun dip – from chocolate bars to gummies, so tap in when you’ve gotta defeat your ego boss level.
I do my best to try and keep my eye out for up & comers, and there’s a new brand down in San Diego that’s caught my attention. Dubbed ‘Stuf’, these guys are bringing to market flower and hemp blunts, both of which are of impressive quality for a rookie. The deal is though, while this is the first real legal play for this squad, their cultivator Jake is anything but a new jack. Having been cultivating in his home since before moving to California many years ago, Jake was dialing in his process long before the ideation of this brand. But if you do stuff well for long enough, eventually opportunity knocks. I’m excited to see how these guys grow.
If you’ve paid any attention to what’s happening in the California cannabis scene over the past few years, you’ve likely already heard of Wizard Trees. Hell, you don’t even have to be in California to have heard the good word. Known for growing some of the most popular strains of recent years, like RS-11, notably popularized by the street-savvy Doja Pak, and its latest adaptation, Zoap, both of which were bred by longtime partner DEO Farms, the cultivation skills at Wizard Trees are hard to ignore.
The brainchild of Scott, a true Los Angeles local who has been cultivating high-grade cannabis for around eight years, Wizard Trees is the product of trial and error and putting in the work. While most brands today are focused on volume and scale, for Scott, the bar to wear his logo is constantly elevating. If it’s not beautiful, if it’s not terpy, it’s just not Wizard Trees.
In the year since I’ve started talking to Scott about his business, this elevation has become apparent. When we first spoke, he told me flower was, and I quote, “the main focus, but I’d like to do some like rosin, high-end concentrates, actually.”
This May, he took home second place in the Hydrocarbon Solid category at the highly prestigious Emerald Cup for his work with Doja Pak and FIELD Extracts on their RS-11 live resin. So, as you can imagine, things are going well. With all the acclaim, I had to hear the story of how he scaled arguably the tallest mountain in our industry in such a short time. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was all the other players Scott was about to mention.
Courtesy of Wizard Trees
BECOMING THE WIZARD
Although Scott wholly owns Wizard Trees, he’s well aware that his network is an important key to his success. From humble beginnings running home grows to an opportunity that helped him scale to 100 lights, it was Scott’s passion for high-quality cannabis that started him on his journey.
“I saw people making Instagrams,” Scott told me. “When I first started, I watched the Jungle Boys a lot. I kind of picked pieces from their Instagram, and I was like, ‘These guys are fucking killing it.’ I’d always go to TLC [Toluca Lake Collective] and the other top dispensaries at the time, just trying to learn stuff like that.”
At this point, Scott was finding some success with his 12-light setup, but he fell into an opportunity that forced him to learn how to scale to the next level quickly.
“It definitely wasn’t easy, but I think the biggest part was getting a facility to run those 100 lights,” he said. “Where I started, I didn’t really know a lot of technology. I didn’t know how to irrigate. I was hand-watering. I just wasn’t using my brain on anything, but then I started to figure out, you know, like VPD [vapor pressure deficit], temperature, humidity, irrigation tech. John Slab Lab was the one that started teaching me how to do irrigation and stuff like that. From the second I caught on to how to irrigate and how to read graphs with certain sensors, I was able to scale at a very high level and very quickly because I knew what I was looking for. Back then, it was like, ‘Shit, something looks like it’s wrong here.’ You know, ‘Let’s see what’s going on.’ [Now I] could identify it very quickly.”
About a year into running his 100-light facility, Scott realized the pressure was making a diamond, and his job got easier.
“Now there’s a lot of different technology where you can see what’s going on immediately. You can get alerts on your phone if temperatures go out of whack. If it starts getting too hot, just shut the lights off. Immediate, real-time responsiveness… And then, from there, people saw what we were capable of. I got more opportunities and got more spots, and just continued to grow at a very, very fast pace.”
With the increased attention, it was paramount to Scott that anything hitting the streets that bore his name was of the highest possible caliber.
“What we look for is, you know, similar terpene profiles to what’s hot in the market right now, but we’re trying to recreate something new, where it’s similar to something, but it has its own twist,” he said. “We’re trying to get customers for our brands for life—not just one time and then you go out and talk shit because it wasn’t very good. We want to be like, ‘Yo, have you tried this shit? It’s so fucking fire!’ That’s what makes it fun. I got into this because I love smoking weed. I was on the hunt trying to find the best genetics and grow the best flower on the planet, you know?”
Throughout his own growth, he partnered with friends to develop a nutrient line called NPKaliPro. Today, he considers that part of his secret sauce.
“It’s gotten the product where it is, my pro salts,” Scott said. “I think the way everything smokes, how clean it smokes, that’s a factor. Why it smokes that way, why the ash is so white, why the terps are the way they are…”
Cream / Courtesy of Andrew Parker, @chewberto420
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
Although Wizard Trees is its own brand, Scott is quick to point out the other players that helped him get to where he is today, and that collaboration has elevated his game to levels he didn’t know he could reach. Most notably, he attributes a lot of his success to Deep East, the person behind DEO Farms, who breeds most of the genetics Wizard Trees grows.
“Rob [Deep East] was working with my partner at the time, and there was a falling out between the partners, and I received all of Rob’s genetics,” Scott said. “He had given my partner all these seeds, the Rainbow Sherbet seeds. We popped 100 seeds, and we found the RS #3, our RS-11, and the RS #54, which is Studio 54.”
After Scott connected with Rob directly, it was clear the two were on the same page. Seemingly kismet, Scott pitched an idea to Rob.
“Let’s build something together and just keep working on this.”
As you can likely tell by now, things only picked up speed from there.
“I have always gone after the highest quality strains, you know? Trying to find the best genetics and keep things on an exclusive level to at least the group and infrastructure that I’m a part of,” Scott said. “I think it’s cool what he’s doing, and now what our group is doing on the genetic side. How we can keep it a small, tight-knit group inside the cannabis industry—people that have been in the industry for a minute— and then just elevate each other to the next level. I think the way that we put the group together, I think it just kind of fell in place this way. Rob’s the breeder, I’m the grower, and Ryan’s the distro. He’s the one that gets it out. And I mean, at this point, all three of us have really big names. So whatever we touch, it kind of just… I mean, I don’t like to put out anything that’s not good. So if it’s not good, I just don’t grow it. But the bigger it is, the more people see it, the bigger it takes off.”
And that model seems to work with the partners, as we’re seeing with his latest collaborations with Fiya Farmer, Zangria, and CREAM.
As Scott told me, “[Fiya Farmer] was one of the first people that I actually met through Instagram. We started super small, and we’ve always kept in contact. Our latest, CREAM, is GM3 x Thin Mint Cookies. GM3 is the first female I ever found from seed. It’s a Grease Monkey pheno from Exotic Genetix.”
Another longtime partner, SMKRS LA (aka Captain Save A Grow), is actually the guy who selected Studio 54 and the RS #3, which SMKRS is currently running as Shirazi.
“So everyone that I partner up with, we usually have similar ambitions on trying to find dope new genetics and just hunting for the new thing to keep it exclusive to the group,” Scott said. “If everyone has it, it’s not that cool. There’s a lot of really good genetics out there. But if everyone on the planet has it… It’s worked out pretty well between me, DEO, and Doja and the other partners that have been a part of it along the way.”
Zoap / Courtesy of Andrew Parker, @chewberto420
DOWN THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
With some of the most in-demand genetics in the game right now, it’s easy to assume that Scott would just stick to his lane and keep pumping out primo in California, but that’s not a big enough goal for Wizard Trees.
“I think the goal is to try and be in every high-end state,” he said. “The biggest problem is making sure that everything gets grown properly. You know, the biggest concern of having anyone grow our strains is that it’s not going to be up to our quality, and we don’t want to see the brand get tarnished if it’s not grown correctly because, at this point, everyone knows what’s good and what’s bad. And if you put out some bad flower into your brand, people don’t forget that. Scaling up too quickly is a problem.
“You know, people don’t really understand. This isn’t the easiest thing ever,” Scott said. “I am hoping to be a part of a group that just basically takes what I’ve done here and can scale it from state to state and be a part of that process and make sure that they grow out the same way that I like it to be grown.”
But just growing his own brand isn’t enough for Scott. He’s constantly putting together new projects, like Avantt, a collaboration between himself, Deep East, and Joey Colombo, the artist known as JdotColombo behind Money Trees Cannabis.
“The reason we want to do that is we just want to push one thing,” Scott said. “People have kind of gotten confused in the past on who’s a part of it, or who did what so that just can be all of us. Rob is the breeder behind it, I’m the grower, and Joey, he’s gonna do all the badass art that he does like make bag designs and animations, and we think it’s gonna be a pretty epic concept.
“With Avantt, what we’re doing is all the crosses and dope strains that we’ve made over the years, we’re going to cross them all. We’re popping thousands of seeds, and we’re trying to find some of the dopest genetics and different terpene profiles and have, like, six to eight strains. What me and Rob do is try to find different lines where it’s completely different terp profiles and then keep working those lines. Something we kind of just learned with the RS-11 is when we dropped Zoap, the 11 started to fade a little bit. So now when we find something, and we’ve got so many of them, we can start ramping those up and start phasing the old ones out.”
If there’s one thing we know about the way the industry moves, it’s that you’re only as good as your latest product.
“We’ve got to stay ahead of the game,” Scott said. “Once a strain starts dying out, we already have the new production in heavy flow. With what we’ve got going on with the brand right now, we need to focus on the highest quality there is. Otherwise, it’s work. If you walk into a 50-, or 100-light room, and you see six different badass flavors that are about to come down, and they’re all purpled out, smelling amazing. Just walking through one of those rooms puts a big smile on my face.”
Another superb Cannabis Cup has come and gone, and here are the highly anticipated results of the High Times Cannabis Cup SoCal: People’s Choice Edition 2022! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our digital awards stream on July 24, where we introduced all of the first, second, and third place winners at this year’s SoCal People’s Choice Edition. If you missed the stream, you can catch the video here on our Facebook page, but we’ve also put together an extensive list of all of our amazing SoCal winners for you to enjoy.
This was the second-ever competition that was open to consumer judges in SoCal, and it was also one of the largest pools of judges that we’ve seen so far! The last High Times Cannabis Cup SoCal: People’s Choice Edition was held back in 2020, which highlighted an equally awesome selection of cannabis products to check out. But it’s been long overdue to revisit what kind of new strains and products have been gaining popularity in Southern California—and here we are.
Judges were provided a wide variety of unique products, many of which are exclusive to the Southern California cannabis market. From flower and pre-rolls to concentrates and edibles, we can’t thank you enough for dedicating your time and efforts to not only trying all of these amazing new products, but providing excellent feedback too.
Don’t forget you can check out the most up-to-date news on Cannabiscup.com to see the winners of all of our recent People’s Choice competitions, including Colorado, Illinois, Alaska, and Massachusetts.
Indica Flower
First Place: Top-Shelf Cultivation – Whoa Si Whoa Flower
Courtesy of Top-Shelf Cultivation
Second Place: Team Elite Genetics – Styrofoam Cup Flower
Courtesy of Team Elite Genetics
Third Place: Triple Seven – Pancakes #7
Courtesy of Triple Seven
Sativa Flower
First Place: Team Elite Genetics – Pearadise Flower
Courtesy of Team Elite Genetics
Second Place: Triple Seven – Super Boof
Courtesy of Triple Seven
Third Place: Green Dragon – Tropical Slushie
Courtesy of Green Dragon
Hybrid Flower
First Place: Sense – Pink Certz Flower
Courtesy of Sense
Second Place: LitHouse – Jealousy Flower
Courtesy of LitHouse
Third Place: Wizard Trees – Studio 54
Courtesy of Wizard Trees
Pre-Rolls
First Place: Top-Shelf Cultivation – Whoa Si Whoa Pre-Roll
Courtesy of Top-Shelf Cultivation
Second Place: Green Dragon – Southern Belle Pre-Roll
Courtesy of Green Dragon
Third Place: Pivot – Holy Grail Pre-Roll
Courtesy of Pivot
Infused Pre-Rolls
First Place: Jeeter – Watermelon Zkittlez Infused Pre-Roll
Courtesy of Jeeter
Second Place: Baby Dojah – Watermelon Blast Solventless infused Pre-Roll
Courtesy of Baby Dojah
Third Place: Terp Stix – Blackberry Infused Pre-roll
Courtesy of Terp Stix
Solvent Concentrates
First Place: Bear Labs – Kiwi Thin Mintz Diamonds
Courtesy of Bear Labs
Second Place: Jetty Extracts – Super Lemon Haze Live Resin
Courtesy of Jetty Extracts
Third Place: URSA – Sunset Wave Live Resin
Courtesy of URSA
Vape Pens & Cartridges
First Place: PAX – Live Rosin with Natural Diamonds Blue Dream for PAX Era Vape
Courtesy of PAX
Second Place: High 90’s – Pineapple Disposable Vape
Courtesy of High 90’s
Third Place: Jetty Extracts – Banana Punch Cartridge
Second Place: Marmas – Georgia Peach Marmalade Bite
Courtesy of Marmas
Third Place: Kiva – Camino Sours Watermelon Spritz
Courtesy of Kiva
Edibles: Non-Gummies
First Place: Bhang – Blueberry Dark Chocolate
Courtesy of Bhang
Second Place: Kiva – Lost Farm Chews Strawberry GG4
Courtesy of Kiva
Third Place: Hi-Burst – Sour Raspberry Lemonade Fruit Chew
Courtesy of Hi-Burst
Edibles: Beverages
First Place: Mari y Juana – Piña Soft Drink
Courtesy of Mari y Juana
Second Place: Keef – Mocktail Fruit Punch
Courtesy of Keef
Third Place: Drink LOUD – Pink Lemonade Potion
Courtesy of Drink LOUD
Topicals
First Place: Dr. May – Balance Pro Topical Balm 1:1
Courtesy of Dr. May
Second Place: THC Living – Topical Patch 60mg
Courtesy of THC Living
Third Place: Jetty Extracts – Hand Sanitizer (*Made with Cannabis-Derived Terpenes)
Courtesy of Jetty Extracts
Tincture + Capsules
First Place: Kan+Ade – Extra Strength Watermelon 500mg THC Syrup
Courtesy of Kan+Ade
Second Place: The Root of It All – GO Focused Energy Tincture
Courtesy of The Root of It All
Third Place: Click – GO Spray
Courtesy of Click
A big thank you to our partners and sponsors!
Top-Shelf Cultivation – Presenting Sponsor – A tried and true crew of cultivators who are no stranger to the Cannabis Cup winners podium. After winning Cup after Cup and continually strengthening year after year, these guys are ready to show you who the top dogs are. Shout out to Kevin and the team. AMBER – Silver Sponsor – AMBER is crafted by connoisseurs, for connoisseurs. We’ve tried a handful of their products and definitely give the stamp of approval. ROVE – Bronze Sponsor – If you don’t know who ROVE is, you must be living under a rock. A wonderful team that brings consistently amazing products to the market, with new product lines coming out just as your cartridges go empty. Green Dragon – Our official dispensary partner that had lines of judges waiting outside in San Francisco down to Palm Springs ready to get their judge kits. Big Oil Transport – The judge kits would not have arrived to all dispensaries without the incredible team at Big Oil for being our official transport partner. Huge thank you to Jason and the team! High 90s – General Sponsor – High 90s has made their name in the industry with a popular line of no-frills disposable vape pens for with a color and flavor for everyone in the family. Our favorite? Double Cup. CCELL – Official Battery Partner – Because who doesn’t need some of the best vape pen batteries in the world right in your judge kit? All Vape Pen Judge Kits came with CCELL batteries to ensure your puffs never ran out of juice.
Last but not least, BIG Thank you to Eric, Peter and the whole team at the Honey team in Maywood, we couldn’t have done this without you.
