Emerald Cup Winners 2016: Zkittles, Berry White and More

There aren’t many industries where having your product described as tasting like “Skittles from the vending machine at a high school football game” is a compliment.

But for the Dookie Brothers, whose marijuana flowers were awarded top honors at this weekend’s Emerald Cup event, it was apropos. Their cannabis strain, called Zkittles, is described as having a sweet, tropical fruit flavor and smell. The Humboldt County grown marijuana was one of dozens of big winners this weekend in what many consider the Oscars of the cannabis industry.

“I knew when I smoked it, that was the winner,” said Pearl, a judge for the category of “flowers”, which had more than 650 entries. She and other judges at the event sampled each of the entries over several weeks for taste and effect, narrowing to several hundred entries, and then the top 20.

“This one, Zkittles, gets you really high,” she said, dressed in a green robe backstage.

Getting tapped as an Emerald Cup winner out of the 1200 total entries this year can bring instant notoriety to farmers and producers who have, for decades, remained hidden in the shadows due to state and federal laws. A winning product can command premium prices at dispensaries, according to organizers, and growers or producers are often sought out for their expertise.

Though Northern California’s growers have long been revered by industry insiders, the recent legalization of recreational cannabis in California, is starting to open the door on this multi-million dollar agricultural industry.

“This was only our second event,” said Jason “Dookie” (who declined to give a last name). “I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I’m just so passionate. It’s all kind of surreal,” he said. “It’s just unbelievable,” he added, standing among photographers and media. “I just wanna get high now,” he said. Zkittles is an indica-dominant strain bred by 3rd Gen Family and Terp Hogz.

Held over two days at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, the Emerald Cup is one of the nation’s largest marijuana competitions. The event began more than a decade ago as a celebration of Northern California’s annual outdoor cannabis crow, held secretly at remote family ranches in Humboldt County.

The event has grown into a festival attracting an estimated 30,000 participants this year for a weekend of music, speakers, and vendors selling everything from pre-rolled joints to state-of-the-art trimming and processing equipment.

“I’ve seen more change in the last two years, than I have in the last twenty or thirty years,” said Tim Blake, the organizer of the event. Currently only adults with medical marijuana recommendations are allowed to legally buy or smoke marijuana at the event. But with the passage of Prop. 64 in November, Blake anticipates even bigger crowds for future events.

“People just don’t understand the size and scope of all this,” said Blake.

Another winner was equally excited to win first prize for his entry.

Under a cloud of purple smoke hanging inside the Pavillion, Todd Franciskovic of Resin Ranch nervously held a glass award for “Best Dry Sieve”, not quite knowing what to say.

“This is such a huge personal accomplishment. I’ve only been out here (in Northern California) a year. And it’s been a rough year,” he said, standing next to Mendocino Farmer Joey Burger, who grew the cannabis Franciskovic distilled into a powerful concentrated form of marijuana. Franciskovic moved from Wisconsin to Northern California this year to pursue concentrate making.

“This is huge for me,” he said. “But unfortunately you have to win one of these,” he said, holding up the award, “to be able to sell at this price point,” he said of the $120 per gram concentrate that is grown organically in Northern Mendocino County.

Other winners of awards for topicals, edible cannabis products and several other categories thanked parents and friends, tearfully making tributes.

“I made this for my mom and grandma,” said a winner, tearfully, in the topical category, waving at her parents in the audience.

The awards weren’t without some challenges. Testing of the cannabis products for a variety of contaminants by Santa Rosa’s SC Labs was one of the promises for this year’s awards after a large number of contestants failed contaminant tests in 2015. Organizers planned to reveal the results of the tests online and disqualify any product that did not meet testing standards for pesticides.

“We had a 50 percent increase in entries, and we extended the deadlines a few extra days. We can say no one failed in the top 20 flowers,” he added.

Blake also said the event may be outgrowing the fairgrounds space after several hundred attendees were turned away from a music performance last night by Fire Department officials.

“Adversity is tough,” he said. “But it makes us grow. I’m proud of what we’ve done,” Blake said.

Full list of winners:

 

Place:	Entrant:	County:	Strain:	Clone/Seed:	Sativa/Indica:
1	Dookie Brothers	Humboldt	Zkittles	Clone	Hybrid
2	Greenshock Farms	Mendocino	Purple CandyCane	Clone	50/50
3	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Mendocino	Strain #8	Clone	Sativa
4	Gold County Cannabis/EFF	Yuba	Jack	Clone	Sativa
5	Silver Dragon Farm	Mendocino	Golden Dragon	Seed	Indica
6	Holistic Farms	El Dorado	Fossil Fuel #7	Seed	Sativa
7	High Mountain Holistic/Emerald Family Farms	Humboldt	Durban Poison	Clone	Sativa
8	Cut Creek Farms	Humboldt	Banana Split #7	Seed	50/50
9	Bay Area Kush Masters/BAKM	Nevada	Gorilla Glu	Clone	50/50
10	Sunnabis	Humboldt	Mango OG	Clone	Indica
11	Happy Day Farms	Mendocino	Great Success	Seed	Hybrid
12	Essenciere	Nevada	Black Lime Reversed #36	Seed	Indica
13	Bon Vivant	Mendocino	Chocolate Hashberry	Clone	Hybrid
14	PUSH Farms/Caviar Puff	USA	High Country Genetics “Candy Apple”	Seed	Sativa
15	Esensia	Mendocino	Lime Juice	Clone	Sativa Dom
17	Humboldt Heirlooms	Humboldt	Zephyr	Seed	60% Sativa
18	Sunnabis	Humboldt	XJ-13	Seed	Indica
19	Dookie Brothers/King Dookie	Humboldt	Zkittles	Clone	Hybrid
20	Derek’s Anderson Valley Organics	Mendocino	In The Pines	Clone	Sativa
21	Freeborn Seletions/Aficionado/Mean Gene from Mendocino	50/50	Lime 51	Seed	50/50
22	Sunboldt Grown	Humboldt	Redwood Summer	Seed	N/A
23	Aficionado Estates	Humboldt Grown/Mendocino Dried & Cured	Mandarin Lime	Clone	Indica
24	RxC San Diego	50/50	Sour OG	Seed	50/50
25	NorCal Cannabis Company	Indica	Blue Dynamite Male created by Next Generations Seeds x Lavender #2	Seed	Indica

 

CBD:	Ranking	Name:	Product:
Flowers:	First	Molecular Farms, LLC	Rainbow Gummeez
	Second	Chalawa Farms	CBD Nordle
	Third	Abatin Wellness Center	Tropical Punch
Extracts:	First	Legion of Bloom	Terra Pen RE:Zen 1:1 Vape Pen
	Second	Camel	The Ringo’s Cure Dry Sift/Ringo’s Gift #1
	Third	PURE CBD from Tea House Collective	Cannatonic CO2 Oil
Tinctures:	First	Treatwell	Treatwell CBD-A Tincture – Ringo 2012
	Second	Treatwell	Treatwell 20:1 Tincture – Ringo 2012
topicals:	First	Molecular Farm	Strawberry Cough (Type 1) x Rainbow CBD (Type 3)
	Second	Humboldt Harvest	Pain Relief Balm 2:1
	Third	Legion of Bloom	Zana: Ayurveda + CBD Transdermal Roll-On
		HighRoad Farms	Fire & Ice Liniment
Edibles:	First	OARA Chocolate	OARA Probiotic Cannabis Chocolate – Dark
	Second	Native Seed	Native Seed Lift Bar 1:1
	Third	La Vida Verde	Mediroon CBD
Topicals:
	First	Newell Taylor	DEEP SKIN – Penetrating Topical Oil
	Second	Whoopi & Maya	Lavender Epsom Salts
	Third	Deborah Caldwell	Topicanna Synergy THC(a)
Tinctures:	First	Russel Honey’s Healing Tincture	Royal Purple High THC Tincture
	Second	Awakened Topicals	Raw Cannabis Sublingual
	Third	HerbaBuena	Rock & Roll Uplifting Elixir
	4	Susan Cleverdon/Gillian Levy	Love Potion #7
	5	Whoopi & Maya	Relax THC Herbal Tincture
Edibles:	First	Utopia Farms	Macaroon
	Second	Derby Bakery	Peanut Butter Cups
	Third	MoonMan’s Mistress	Pumpkin Pecan Mini Space Cake
	4	Beezle’s Creamery	Cherry Garcia Ice Cream Bar
	5	Buena Leaf	Popcorn
	6	Whoopi & Maya	THC Savor Cacao
	7	Fruit Slabs by Munch More Corp.	Organic Grape Fruit Strip(fruit leather)
	8	Lucky Lemon Cookie	Lucky Lemon Cookie
	9	Canapa Brands Cocoa Nuts	Cannabisinfused chocolate covered nuts
	10	Uncle Ronnie’s Inc	Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Concentrates:
Bubble:	First	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Banana
	Second	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Z
	Third	Mr. Bond/Mendo Dope Family Farms	Grease Monkey
	4	No Info
	5	Holistic Farms/Dabiscuits
	6	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed
	7	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Peach Rings
	8	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Strain #7
	9	No Info
	10	Shiloh Massive	Zkittles
Rosin:	First	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	hindu Z
	Second	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Zum
	Third	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Oz #3
	4	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Sap
	5	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Muffinz
	6	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Banana
	7	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Lem
	8	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	Candyland
	9	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	GG4
	10	3rd Gen/Terp Hogz/Dying Breed	OZ #1
Dry Sieve:	First	Dry Sift Jedi Resin Ranch Extraction	Berry White
	Second	Dry Sift Jedi of Resin Ranch Extraction w/ The Humboldt Local of The Mendohideout	Platinum Cookies
	Third	No Info
CO2:	First	Gold Drop Co/Blue River Extracts	Cookies & Cream
	Second	Beezle Honey	Lemon G
	Third	THG/Bamboo	Dawg Waltz
	4	THG/Bamboo	Christmas Breakfast
	5	Sonoma Cannabis Company	Banjo
	6	Gold Drop Co/Blue River Extracts	Lemon Tree
	7	Legion of Bloom/Brandt Collings	Juicy Fruit
	8	Bhang	Dutch Treat
	9	Gold Drop Co/Blue River Extracts	Island Girl
	10	The Humboldt Cure Nectar Stick	Tangie Closin Cart