Back when I was a budtender, the question I got most often was “what’s hot right now? What are you loving?”
Manning the dispensary bar in California meant that my answer to this question could change every day, depending on what I was smoking or consuming after work and what growers and sales reps were bringing in the back. One of my favorite parts of the job was hearing from regulars about how my recommendations made their day.
Budtenders have a unique vantage point in the industry, especially when it comes to what’s truly dank and what’s all hype. They don’t just talk the talk, they also smoke the smoke.
In 2023, 23 states plus the District of Columbia have adult-use cannabis programs, and another 17 have some form of medical marijuana accessible—that’s a lot of weed! Because the US has yet to federally legalize cannabis, states determine laws and access within their jurisdictions. This means that companies need multiple licenses if they want to operate in different states—California shop menus can look very different from what Missouri, Washington, or New Jersey provide.
Plus, different regions have their own breeders and entrepreneurs innovating new crosses, confectioning new formulas, and figuring out how to best serve their communities.
I tapped into my network to find out what products come up again and again with customers and patients, no matter what market they work in. Here are strains, edibles, vapes, and dabs winning coast to coast right now.
Blue Face
As the Academy Awards of cannabis, The Emerald Cup has consistently identified and honored the creme de la crop available in dispensaries, as well as weed artisans who grow for themselves and local communities. The 2023 overall indoor flower winner was Fig Farms’ Blue Face, (which also took third in the same category in 2022) a gorgeous, and indeed blue-tinted phenotype of Animal Face, which comes from crossing Face Off OG x Animal Mints. Blue Face is no catfish—its drool-inducing bag appeal comes through in a cornucopia of terpenes of and astral-levels of euphoria.
Rainbow Belts
We crowned Rainbow Belts, a strain out of Oregon created by Archive Seed Bank and Purple City Genetics, the 2023 October HighLight for many, many reasons. Its heady, decadent genetic cross of Zkittlez and Moonbow #75 mean terps for days and eye-popping appeal—its pedigree and parents’ numerous cup wins speak for themselves. You can also find it just about anywhere in the US right now, from California to Missouri to Oklahoma to Maine.
Jetty Solventless carts
As far as vape brands go, Jetty has come a long way since their founding in 2013. Launched last year, their solventless line of cartridges and dabables is also one of the first cannabis lines to receive an OCal certification, the first state-backed program that vets cannabis with a similar rubric to organic produce.
Infused prerolls (again)
As the saying goes, a good preroll is hard to find. Many consumers have been burned before by old material, trim, or inelegant production that causes uneven or clogged burns. For killer flower, Alien Labs has honed their craft with a stable of strains that taste just as good out of a tube as they do in a jar.
2022 was the year of the hash hole, popularized by the connoisseurs of Fidel’s, a trend that has only gained more steam in 2023. If you’re not in California, you can find similar rosin and hash-infused prerolls such as:
- The 2-gram LUCI hash hole prerolls in New York
- Clout King’s hash holes in Michigan
- VIBE Cannabis’ Tropicana Cookies x Mimosa hash hole in Missouri is blowing up
- Red Roots Rolling Co brought the rosin-log-within-a-joint to Colorado
Kiva Lost Farm gummies
Dare I ask, what can’t Kiva do? From the Bay to Boston, (and many states in between, including Michigan, New Mexico, and Nevada) Kiva Confections has grown into an exemplary edible empire with a diverse menu of chocolates, pastilles, chews, and award-winning gummies. Their blueberry bites and Camino gummies are legendary, but their newer Lost Farm line supersedes them.
These gummies and Starburst-like chews feature intricate fruit flavors and live resin- and rosin-based formulas, many of which partner with smaller cultivators, to bring out the best of the buds.
Solventless Extracts
Where to begin? Puffco hypebeasts and chillum hash smokers have more options than ever before, and the craft of hash has entered a new Golden Age. From elite competitions like Ego Clash and Spannabis to People’s Choice High Times Cup trophies, the people want quality hash. But because it’s so hard to make, rarely do big companies risk expanding across state lines. Here are some of the most succulent solventless globs on the market right now.
- Papa’s Select lives by the solventless creed, and their dabs are no different.
- Grape God stirs up the dab market in Oregon
- The Blue Label line from Green Dots Labs slays Colorado palates
- Moon Jelly Melts in Maine grows their own flower in living soil
- The multi-award winners Blue River Terps now offer their bevy of solventless products in Massachusetts and Florida
