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THE STRAINS OF SUMMER 2023

We’re deep into summer, and it’s time to celebrate The Strains of Summer we’re most excited to take with us to the beach, ballpark, and beyond.

Los Angeles has no shortage of heaters to be pumped on, but we grabbed some other flavors from around California we’re sure you’ll find up to the task. There are a lot of new flavors on the list and some more established hitters we couldn’t leave out. 

The Strains of Summer 2023

CAM – Biscotti BX1

The Biscotti BX1 coming out of CAM’s Sacramento facilities is easily some of our favorite cannabis we got to sample in recent months. The BX stands for backcross. The terpene profile is a trip down memory road to the Biscotti flavors that made the strain famous, but one might argue the backcross is even louder than the original. 

Alien Labs – Dark Web

The new flavor Alien Labs used to qualify for the Transbay Challenge main event was a super hitter. While the green weed movement recently got some wind in its sails, Alien Labs is here to remind you of the power of purple in a way that brings you to the borderline of function and couch lock. There is no trade-off for flavor and potency either with Dark Web — it certainly checks all the boxes. 

Fiore – Gary Z

Do you like Gary Payton and Zkittelz? Boy, do we have some great news for you. The new pairing of the two from Fiore is simply awesome; we recommend still trying it even if you didn’t like the original. And someone at Fiore absolutely nailed it on the phenotype selection, you can pick out both flavors really specifically. This is a great start to the day without a panic attack weed with a bit of body to it to pair with the relaxed but now slouchy high. 

Green Dawg – D1

D1 – Courtesy of Green Dawg

We love Diesel here at L.A. Weekly. We’re sad to see where things have gone in recent years. Thankfully the Vermont-born leadership team at Green Dawg also missed the famous east coast flavor. Their new strain D1 is a testament to that diesel of years past. It’s not quite as fuely as some of the old cuts, but it certainly smells and tastes right, so we understand the enthusiasm for the new strain. 

Connected – (Forbidden Fruit x Gelato 41) x Atomic Apple

The trophy shelf at Connected has run deep over the years. We certainly think the new (Forbidden Fruit x Gelato 41) x Atomic Apple they found will be added to the collection in the not-to-distant future. I’m not even a Forbidden Fruit guy, but boy does the flavor profile on this one absolutely hit the mark as some weird Forbidden Fruit x Dessert Weed symphony. While it’s still in the brown tester jars around the state, the word is, Connected already moved it into full production.

Cookies Maywood – House Strains

Courtesy of Cookies Maywood

The best bang for the buck on this list is the house strains at Cookies Maywood. I didn’t realize they were a thing until earlier this month when I stopped by to see all the new flavors. I ended up leaving with a quarter of the Sunset Z. Probably my best buy of that weekend for sure since it was heat. I’m looking forward to heading back to try the other flavors. Hit me up and let me know what you think of them. 

The Ten Co – Blue Zushi

Courtesy of Brandon Mayfield

A Strains of Summer list without Blue Zushi on it would be garbage, so we’re certainly not treading into those waters. The two-time Zalympix winner, the second time beating out over 120 competitors to reaffirm their glory, keeps hitting the mark on fantastic flavors and excellent branding. It’s hard to name a company that has been able to hit the mark better on both of those things than The Ten Co. 

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MISSOURI CELEBRATES FIRST ADULT-USE CANNABIS SALE

Missouri’s first weekend of legal cannabis sales is in the books. 

The nearly 200 dispensaries dotting the state netted $12.6 million in sales in the first three days of adult-use sales. There is an argument to be made that number may have been higher had the permit release timing been a little clearer; even operators didn’t realize they would be allowed to commence sales Friday. 

John Mueller is the CEO of Missouri’s largest operator Greenlight, a multi-state operator that has 15 retail permits in Missouri. Mueller, a Missouri native, told L.A. Weekly that Greenlight had its fair share of action over the weekend, with sales doubling overnight once adult-use kicked in. 

Mueller notes the tail end of last week was a bit of a gray zone. 

“Then what happened is, on Thursday, the state said they would start issuing out the licenses and you didn’t have to wait. We thought they would have all licenses at open at whatever time on the sixth,” Mueller explained.

They would get the permit at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning and be open in an hour and a half. But unlike the big lines we’re used to seeing outside dispensaries on opening day, at first it was a quest by consumers to confirm the news on shops opening earlier than expected. Mueller says the phone continues to ring off the hook in that regard. 

Even with the traditional first sale not the spectacle it’s been in other states, dispensaries did great. Mueller noted some places saw up to four times the amount of usual foot traffic depending on where. 

Mueller said there is plenty to be happy about besides the numbers. He feels dispensary operators got a lot to work with in the regulations. 

“Thrilled with the performance, but there is a whole lot of stuff. You know we got drive-through here authorized, express pick-up windows in the lobbies and then also making sure that that patient wasn’t relegated to a bad status.”

Greenlight has separated the adult-use and medical lines at the dispensaries to make sure none of the state’s 200,000 medical cannabis patients feel left behind in the transition over to adult-use sales. 

Mueller doesn’t feel like things have been overly restrictive on operators, apart from the normal childproofing packaging and things like that.

“We carry about 300 products per store, so we’re a pretty wide selection and we’ve got a pretty robust cultivation and manufacturing side of this equation,” Mueller said. 

He noted the dispensaries currently operating are able to acquire flower from 28 different cultivators in the state. He thinks there are about 50 different manufacturers in the state that are all cranking out products too. 

While that number may sound small to Californians, it’s still a decent number of producers on day one. We asked Mueller if it was enough for a real level of competition similar to the fight for shelf space we’re seeing on the west coast. 

He was quick to argue, sure. Currently, Greenlight’s discount eighths are running $25, with the top shelf clocking in at $45. 

There weren’t a lot of surprises for Greenlight during the transition. The company was able to lean on its past experiences transitioning from a medical market to adult-use in Nevada. Greenlight also has operations across the southeast and midwest in Arkansas, West Virginia, Illinois and South Dakota.

EMERALD CUP SOLVENTLESS JUDGING 2023

The Emerald Cup is deep into its judging cycle for 2023 as organizers prepare for May’s Award ceremony and we’re back on the solventless team.

We’ve had great access to the contest since 2018. This is my fifth year judging one of the hash categories. While the state has seen some upstart contests making waves in recent years, the two decades of consistently bringing the heat still had The Emerald Cup firmly cemented as the top dog.  

Currently, the judges are meeting once a week to go over the various categories. Edible and flower judges have to stick to the most vigorous schedule. You can smoke all the hash in a day if you party hard enough, but between the hundreds of flower entries and the pace of your metabolism on edibles, it’s easy to understand why some of the categories are referred to as a full-time job. 

High Time’s Jon Cappetta noted on Twitter this past Sunday, it took him three weeks to finish all the flower samples. He also said it was a gauntlet that he was glad was over. 

For better or worse, the cup tends to prove as a launching point for a lot of ideas within the game. That goes from everything from new flavors to hardware. The ideology there is if you can pull it off out of the gate at the cup, the wind will be in your sails as you enter the market. 

But if you go all in for the cup without consistency in the product that hits the market after, the win isn’t worth much. There are plenty of brands that took the top prize in various categories that were never to be heard from again after the win. Maybe they just couldn’t scale up, maybe they entered white label they couldn’t grow themselves. 

L.A. Weekly is back on the solventless team to help judge some of the best concentrates, or hash, on the planet. The reason The Emerald Cup’s hash categories are home to some of the best terps from around the globe is the quality of material California extractors have access to, this goes for both the solventless and hydrocarbon categories.

Hash is one of the places we see the new ideas we mentioned before. Every year there are experimental consistencies, especially in the personal use category. This is one of the places where the most important lesson of all is terps over tech. If the material you are using to make the hash isn’t that good, you’ll never be able to compete with the top of the food chain, regardless of how pretty you’re able to make it look.

The kit I’m using to judge this year is essentially the same as last year with a few upgrades and additions. Most notable is the new hitman rig, it hits a bit smoother than the mini beaker I was using last year. Also, all the quartz I’m using to judge this year was made in Los Angeles by Alien Flower Monkey Glass. Puffco also released the Proxy since last year. It’s great for water hash, so that will help speed the process up for judging water hashes this year. 

I’ve focused on the rosin and personal use categories so far. I’m currently in The Canary Islands judging flowers at The Canary Islands Champions Cup and couldn’t bring the entries with me, so I wanted to make sure I had solid notes for the meeting I’ll do with the other judges while I’m here. When I get back to America, I’ll bust through the water hash entries in a day or two, since it’s the smallest category with about a dozen entries. On the other hand, Rosin has 42 entries and personal use has 13.

Most of the entries are either fresh-pressed or a cold-cured batter. The fresh-pressed is glorious looking and tastes bomb, but the market is moving more toward the shelf stability of cold-cured rosin. This could definitely be seen this year with the number of fresh-pressed entries way down, but a couple of them are still bangers. 

We’ll share all the winners with you next month when they are announced. 

ZUSHI CONTINUES TO DOMINATE

In a market where truly exceptional cannabis is a rarity, The Ten Co.’s combination of premium quality, remarkable branding and Zushi remains unrivaled.

Our last conversation with The Ten Co. came on the heels of their monumental success in 2021, when they claimed top honors at the inaugural Zalympix event. The competition scene reached new heights after Greenwolf, Los Angeles’ premier heat retailer, stormed out the gates with their top-shelf box contest.

Now, two years later, Zushi has once again emerged victorious. During its initial triumph, some skeptics attributed the win to mere hype. Yet, the myth and allure surrounding Zushi were proven to be well-deserved, evident in the four-hour-long queue that formed at their booth during the recent Zalympix ceremony. However, the mystique surrounding Zushi was even more pronounced two years ago, causing people to fall into various camps of belief. Some staunchly reaffirmed their faith in Zushi after the W, while others criticized the influence of hype. There were also those who may not have personally favored Zushi but acknowledged why it emerged as the winner.

This time, subjectivity was eliminated through blind entries. Zushi had to withstand the scrutiny of over 120 entries just to secure a place in the finals. Once there, it faced fierce competition within the most challenging Zalympix box to date, alongside a plethora of exceptional Z terpenes, as we previously highlighted when reviewing the entries. Undoubtedly, this victory was well-deserved.

We reached out to Staks, the founder of The Ten Co., to inquire if he ever felt concerned about the abundance of exceptional Zkittelz flavors in this year’s competition.

“Absolutely. Z has held the championship title for quite some time now. There were numerous entries that were just as impressive as mine, which was fantastic to witness. It’s about time the industry started emphasizing light green cannabis again,” Staks candidly shared with L.A. Weekly.

Staks acknowledged that the game has significantly evolved since the first Zalympix. He believes that people are actively searching for new and unique offerings that can compete, hence the outstanding quality of this year’s entries. However, until proven otherwise, Zushi remains the reigning king. Staks appreciates the competitive environment within which The Ten Co. operates, considering it beneficial for their business.

Now, the focus is on delivering the hype directly to consumers.

“We are currently directing more attention towards the direct-to-consumer approach,” Staks revealed. “We previously launched but decided to take a step back and now we’re in the process of building up our online delivery capabilities.”

The direct-to-consumer format will enable Zushi to reach consumers as quickly as possible. Given the premium price that people are willing to pay for this product, Staks wants to ensure that the experience is preserved for every individual fortunate enough to acquire one of their bags.

“We have a specified timeframe during which our products can remain on the shelves. If it exceeds this four-week period, or even three weeks, it is promptly removed, making room for a fresh batch. This way, we can maintain stringent quality control,” Staks explained.

While Zushi continues to steal the spotlight, The Ten Co. currently boasts around ten strains in rotation. Additionally, Staks recently cultivated a variety of seeds he acquired from Europe, embarking on a search for the exceptional flavors of his youth, such as Cheese and Sour Diesel. In the coming month, he will undertake a meticulous selection process to identify standout winners worthy of joining their award-winning catalog.

We asked Staks if, when participating in a contest like Zalympix, he meticulously examines every batch or simply puts all his chips down on Zushi.

“I felt compelled to carry on the Zushi legacy for as long as possible. Personally, I believe this strain has so much to offer, and it continues to exceed our expectations,” Staks explained. “We conduct numerous tests with Zushi, and she never fails to impress us. With each batch, we aim for better quality and more pronounced flavors. Our use of live-soil facilities contributes to preserving those unique characteristics. Our plan is to explore different mediums and light spectrums to ascertain what Zushi prefers to express.”

Naturally, we couldn’t overlook the recent Zushi rosin craze. Two-gram jars of their limited release in collaboration with West Coast Alchemy were fetching a staggering $1000 each. This price tag represents the highest ever seen for rosin, yet demand remained strong. The remarkable hype surrounding Zushi flowers seamlessly transferred to their terpene-rich products.

Regarding the price, Staks clarified, “The price point was determined by the market; it had nothing to do with us. The exclusivity and rarity of our collaboration with West Coast Alchemy played a significant role. We never produced these in large quantities; a few batches were exclusively reserved for family and friends.”

Keep a close eye on The Ten Co.’s website for upcoming flower releases and merchandise drops.

DIRTY WEED WORDS: COMMERCIAL VIABILITY

Commercial viability may be the phrase that has changed in cannabis the most over the decades for the industry.

During my chat with First Smoke of The Day, which dropped last week, the subject of commercial viability came up. Basically, I said once you got past the lovely people that got screwed by circumstances of licensing or location, there are a lot of people who got eaten up by the times because they wouldn’t change their ways. This received the most positive feedback of anything I said during the hour-and-a-half talk. While I’ve attempted to articulate the idea of people not being able to keep up with the game, it was never with the ethos of how many of the world’s best growers hit me up or tagged me on Instagram over the last week. 

At its core, the attempt to define commercial viability in cannabis has proven a double-edged sword. On the one side, the meaning represents progress in the game. The bar for commercial viability has risen with the progress of the times across every market. This includes recreational and the still massive underground cannabis economy thought to dwarf California’s legal market at least 2 to 1, given the vast swaths of the state without legal access and people everywhere else wanting our weed. The pot has certainly increased in quality on both sides of the market. 

On the other side, not all ships have risen with the tide due to various circumstances. Be it their own stubbornness to not change their ways as advancements in the game had been made, or never actually knowing what the bar was for commercial viability in the first place whenever they jumped ship from whatever industry expecting to carve a piece of the cannabis industry for themselves.

Let us not forget a mere 20 years ago, brick weed stuffed in a tire was commercially viable for American distributors. So imagine you’re a person operating under the protection of 215 in that era. Ninety-nine percent of the domestic marijuana supply is absolute garbage. It’s fair to say you’re a hot cookie at that moment. 

But, as the years rolled on, the bar went up.

Commercial viability got to the point where it didn’t just mean you were talking about the quality or price of the product, but also accessibility and ease of transport. California has a firm grip on illicit domestic cannabis production as the feds’ annual plant eradication counts firmly show. But it’s not the same. In the past, the worst cannabis California has to offer used to get scooped up faster than Olive Garden breadsticks coming out of the oven. 

Now we’ve reached the point where people don’t have to buy California’s worst product anymore. California cultivators aren’t competing with Mexican brick weed anymore. They’re competing with the Oklahomas and the Maines — hell, there are probably even some decent beaster packs from Canada still making it over the border.

A lot of the lost souls in California on the illicit side are those who couldn’t keep up with people growing decent weed in those places where people could drive to pick it up. The best weed in the world is still grown in NorCal, especially on the illicit side of the market. Not being able to grow commercially viable pot in the rec market is one thing, but if you are having trouble on the other side, maybe it’s time to do some soul-searching on your craft. Do those little things you see your neighbors doing that you didn’t want to because you convinced yourself you knew what you were doing. 

The most important thing you can do to survive in this market is to grow the best cannabis possible. People that worry about pinching pennies first are destined to fail. At that point, the quality of the marijuana is the second most important thing to you, and you’ve already lost.

NORTHERN NIGHTS BRINGS BEATS AND HEAT TO REDWOODS

We headed north to the redwoods for the latest installment of the original cannabis-friendly music festival, Northern Nights.

The festival’s geography plays a significant role in its place in the history of cannabis progress. The venue, Cook’s Campground, sits in the heart of the Emerald Triangle stretching across the county line separating Mendocino and Humboldt. In addition to all the fine local cannabis, attendees spend their weekend enjoying up-and-coming EDM acts across numerous stages, and floating on the river.   

This past weekend we got the chance to sit down with many of Northern Nights’ co-founders as they celebrated the festival’s 10th anniversary, including Andrew Blap, Peter Huson, Matty “Worldfamous” Roberts and Emily Wilson. 

The festival has long been associated with legal cannabis sales after hosting the state’s first at music festival in the wake of Prop 64’s implementation. Following Northern Nights’ lead, major festivals around the country jumped on board with the idea, including EDC Las Vegas and Dirtybird Campout. In past years, those sales were confined to specific areas — last year even featuring two stageside dispensaries and a main cannabis activation area. This year the entire cannabis footprint was integrated into the heart of the festival, a short walk from the mainstage under the shade of the region’s massive trees.

We asked the Northern Nights team what it was like pushing that further integration this year.

“I think the big thing in working in two counties is first and foremost the context of where you are putting things,” Huson told L.A. Weekly. “When it comes to the history of cannabis events here, it’s the local jurisdiction, you have to start there. Mendocino passed their ordinance and we could bring a couple of dispensaries into Mendo.”

Courtesy of @y.s.a

But there was a lot of separation between those dispensaries. 

“And ultimately, I think the premise of boundaries, aka fencing, has been a big thing in terms of limiting the number of sales,” Huson said of the caged-in areas. “I think the different places that we were putting the dispensaries if you wanted to get them, for example, all the way out to the river, it’s a lot of overhead.” 

A big part for the team was making sure those local sponsors from the cannabis industry felt right. Huson notes there have been a few folks in the space doing these events for a while, but the brands taking part fund the progress to prove what can be done.

Courtesy of @anthonysvendsen

Matty Roberts added pushing boundaries is in line with the general ethos of the festival over the years. 

“We’re booking cutting-edge shit, which makes our lineups very eclectic. We pick all this cool music because we’re kind of in a sweet spot. We’re not a big event. We don’t have a ton of money behind us, so we have to get scrappy and find a lot of new stuff.”

Roberts laughed, noting people look at the old posters from over the decade and act like the performers back in the day were bigger, but they didn’t actually know who a lot of those now big-name acts were when Northern Nights booked them. 

“Now you look back, our lineup from eight years ago looks like a $2 million lineup,” Roberts said. 

Roberts spoke of coming from the Midwest where a stem on your shirt would land you in jail. He’s thrilled to help facilitate a good time for a younger generation that never has to know those horrors. 

Emily Wilson went on to speak that filling the void that Reggae on The River left in the hills is an honor.

“But there is a lot of responsibility as well. That means, we have to do the due diligence in finding new and up-and-coming music, working with local cannabis businesses and producers who have been working in the community a long time and supporting it through these transitions.”

@y.s.a

Wilson argued sometimes that means bringing in both the little guys and the big guys. She said that is a responsibility you can see they take seriously across the festival with not just cannabis but local wineries and breweries, too. 

“Every single facet that we can, and where we’re able, we want to support local and present the best that Northern California has to offer. We’ve got Humboldt Bay Oysters fresh from the docks,” Wilson said. 

One of the things Wilson said she enjoys the most is those people that have stuck with them since year one. Through all the trials and tribulations of being a small independent festival and the learning curve that came with it, they kept coming back, and that meant a lot to her.  

The actual cannabis section itself was really well done. As in years past, it provided a shady reprieve from the Northern California sun that hit 94 degrees Saturday in what felt like 1,000% humidity. One of my favorite parts of the festival was the morning sound bath in the cannabis zone. You would see people tiptoeing around all the people laid out, to get to the ATM for their weed money. Everyone was really respectful, but even then, the visual was hilarious. 

This year’s switch to delivery was a good move. While it took five minutes longer, it allowed for the entire Northern Nights cannabis experience to be more streamlined than had there been fences everywhere to facilitate a temporary retail site. 

The actual weed people were buying was no slouch. Some cannabis activations over the past couple of years have gotten a bit midsy. Sometimes you’d see these brands that can’t even get dispensary shelf space taking a lead at festivals — gross. Thankfully, Northern Nights did not have this problem. I would argue that The Lantz from Ridgeline Farms is the nicest weed for the price I’ve ever seen at any festival. Eighths were only $35! I bought seven over the weekend. 

Hopefully, other festivals trying to get into the cannabis game will take note of how well Northern Nights did it.