N<\/span>ow that we\u2019ve had a few days to collect ourselves and recover from the 2017 Emerald Cup in Santa Rosa, California, it\u2019s time to highlight the strains and products we felt really shined this year on the eve of legalization in California.<\/p>\n Earlier this week<\/a>, we reported on some of the biggest winners like Molecular Farms and 3rd Gen Fam, and as noted, we\u2019ll tell the full story of the second place flower finisher, Roz\u00e9<\/a>, in our next print issue. But just a few steps down from the mountaintop, there is still tons of fantastic cannabis that plenty of folks would kill to get their hands on just once.<\/p>\n We reached out to Ngaio Bealum \u2014 an Emerald Cup flower judge, event emcee and Cannabis Now contributor<\/a> \u2014 to get his take on this year\u2019s flower spread.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of sweet, Zkittely strains, not so many straight diesels or fire,\u201d Bealum said, adding that he smoked many decent Cookies<\/a>-related strains, and less Tangie<\/a> than the year before.<\/p>\n Bealum pointed to the Tropical Sleigh Ride from Greenshock Farms, which won the SC Labs<\/a> award for the most unique terpene profile, with 27.4 percent total cannabinoids and 4.8 percent total terpene content. Bealum said he also came across a really good Guava Dawg from Giving Tree Genetics.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a really good year for outdoor organic marijuana. Some of the new judges were crazy blown away like, \u2018Are you sure this is outdoor, this looks so indoor-y.\u2019 So I would like to thank all the growers and everyone,\u201d Bealum said. \u201cJust keep smoking weed. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n Here is a rundown of some of our favorite strains from the Emerald Cup 2017:<\/p>\n Dark Crystal was one of the many unique picks available at The Emerald Cup. This vibrant hybrid was one of the stickiest samplings available, and even after just putting a few nugs into a grinder, it felt like my fingers had been epoxied together. Dark Crystal came with a nice body high with an uppity functionality to it, which made it an excellent first smoke of the day. True Humboldt also featured some fantastic pre-rolls, rolled in tobacco leaf imported from Cuba with a hardwood tip. I smoked one each day and didn\u2019t even count it towards my overall blunt total because the experience was so unique.<\/p>\n Unique terps are nothing new for the fellas at Soul Evolution Enterprises. Each year they pop a ton of seeds \u2014 a dying art in itself\u00a0\u2014 in search of new fantastic terpene profiles. This year they scored big with their Fruity Peazy. The fruity nose on this strain suggested a sativa-dominant hybrid less heady than a gassy diesel strain, and after I smoked it, Fruity Peazy provided a fantastic toe-tingling body high \u2014 especially when I smoked it in back-to-back backwoods!<\/p>\n In the quest to have the best terps, one area that felt slightly neglected this year was the real deal gas. Now, I\u2019m not claiming there wasn\u2019t any gas OGs or Sour strains at The Emerald Cup\u00a0\u2014 that would obviously be a foolish claim. But per capita, the number of elite jars that reminded you of sticking your nose in a jug of gasoline was definitely down a pinch this year. As a result, I was delightfully surprised when I ran into Austin of SLOCAL Roots \u2014 the SLO is for San Luis Obispo\u00a0\u2014 who had a delightful cut of Chemdawg, cultivated in the land between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The nugs he tossed me were true jar jumpers, popping up into my nose before I even reached down to smell it.<\/p>\n The folks at The Emerald Cup were kind enough to let the elite indoor cultivators at Alien Labs \u2014 fresh off winning their Cultivation Excellence Award <\/a>from the San Francisco Chronicle \u2014 have a booth at the pot spectacle reserved for outdoor cannabis, alongside the always-popular Str8Organics. While Alien Labs brought the full spread to the show, including their new Watermelon x Zkittlez cross, I decided to stick with the classic Wedding Cake that put them on our radar years ago.<\/p>\n I have now seen Blue Zkittlez twice in the wild, and on both occasions, it was among the nicest strains I saw on the table. I am officially a believer. While the buds are a lot bigger and production-level friendly for sure, the Blue Zkittlez doesn\u2019t lose too much of the original Zkittelz mystique<\/a>. The solid high this strain provides could become the next big hit in the flyover states. It\u2019s the real deal.<\/p>\n TELL US, <\/b>what strains are you most excited about right now?<\/p>\n The post The 5 Best Strains of Emerald Cup 2017<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Cannabis Now sampled (almost) everything the outdoor cannabis bonanza had to offer, and walked away with these five strains. Now that we\u2019ve had a few days to collect ourselves and recover from the 2017 Emerald Cup in Santa Rosa, California, it\u2019s time to highlight the strains and products we feltContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,375,2649,306,107,2734],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22024,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023\/revisions\/22024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}True Humboldt \u2013 Dark Crystal<\/h4>\n
Soul Evolution Enterprises \u2013 Fruity Peazy<\/h4>\n
SLOCAL Roots \u2013 Chemdawg<\/h4>\n
Alien Labs \u2013 Wedding Cake<\/h4>\n
Emerald Queen Farms \u2013 Blue Zkittlez<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: The 5 Best Strains of Emerald Cup 2017<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"