Not a lot of you know this, but for the last year we've been in the kitchen whipping up something special: the Pacific Northwest's first ever anonymous grower's competition, The Evergreen Cup! We teamed up with local dispensary The Evergreen Market, to collect blind samples from 11 of the top producers in the state of Washington, and have judges from the industry test and rate the samples. Not anyone could compete though! In order to be considered for the competition, you first had to be nominated by a dispensary as a brand worthy of competing to see who's the best grower in the state.
The Top Growers in WA Compete To See Who's The Best at Their Craft
There were five individual categories for each blind strain to be tested on: Highest Terpenes, Smoothest Smoke, Best Appearance, Best Flavor, and then, of course, Best Overall. The terpenes were tested by our friends over at Medicine Creek Labs, and the rest of the categories were judged by the following:
- Seth Simpson from Greenside Recreational
- Felicia Kopperdahl from Kush 21
- Jason Sawangwan from NW Homegrown
- Spencer Hancock from Lux Pot Shop
- Melissa Champoux from Hashtag
- Alex Svihus from Mari J's
- Wes Abney from NW Leaf
- Joey Brabo from Respect My Region
The judges' scores were tabulated in-house at Wikileaf, and on Friday, August 3, at Nectar Lounge, we finally got to see the results of everyone's hard work and crowned one grower the best in Washington! Here are the results of the Evergreen Cup.
Highest Terpenes
- Grower: TH Sea
- Strain: OG Kush Breath
Best Appearance
- Grower: Seattle’s Private Reserve
- Strain: Jet fuel x Tangie
Smoothest Smoke
- Grower: 1937 Farms
- Strain: Purple Kool-Aid
Best Flavor
- Grower: Exotikz
- Strain: Mimosa
Best Overall
- Grower: Seattle’s Private Reserve
- Strain: Jet fuel x Tangie
The After Party
After the awards ceremony, we were treated to a performance by two local Seattle groups, Remember Face and Kung Foo Grip, who tore the house down. The energy was so live, and so raw. The crowd for Kung Foo Grip let loose, and you could tell that KFG were feeding off of our energy just as much as we were feeding off of theirs. Everybody was having a good time, dancing and rapping along and meeting new people, all in celebration of cannabis.
I myself had a few people walk up and introduce themselves to me, and were it not for this plant and this community, I probably never would have had the opportunity to meet them. At the heart of it, that's really what this cup was about - fostering a sense of community, passion, and friendly competition, all in the name of cannabis. And at the end of the day, if we can say we did that, then we can call this event a success. Check out some images from The Evergreen Cup below, and we'll see everyone at next year's cup!