Hash heads, flavor chasers—your love of sweet-sour candy terps and sky-high-THC have brightened the spotlight on the Rainbow Belts strain this October. This Oregon cultivar’s fumed-out blast of fuel, flowers, and citrus, and its rapid growth to national ubiquity make Rainbow Belts our Leafly HighLight for October.

There’s a reason why elite hashmakers like 710 Labs keep it around, and why Ember Valley just hunted hundreds of crosses of it. Rainbow Belts sweetens up any bowl or dab rig with a vivid, neon trip down a syrupy road of lime and stone fruit. Grab your sunglasses, Rainbow Belts mixes the Leafly Strain of the year 2021 DoSiDos with the winningest strain in current cannabis, Zkittlez—times Z again. 

In the database since 2021, Rainbow Belts has notched 2,662 likes, 65 reviews, and a score of 4.4 out of 5. Folks note its sweet, tropical, treefruit taste and its talkative, euphoric, and giggly effects.

“The taste is incredibly fruity like Trix cereal, both on inhale & exhale,” said one reviewer.

“This is probably in the top five tastiest flower I’ve ever smoked,” said another.

Bred for potency, its dominant terpenes caryophyllene, linalool, and limonene can brighten up the mood and bring on sleep, reviewers report. It’s a great treat for some relaxing self-care.

“This might be my favorite strain of all time!”

Leafly reviewer, Rainbow Belts

Best Rainbow Belts flowers and hash in the US

Rainbow Belts grows coast to coast—from $7 flower grams in Oregon to $60 per gram cartridges on the East Coast.

In the Bay Area, PAX, Lemonnade, Shango, and XZibit’s Napalm brand have pods, joints, flower, and infused joints. 

Los Angeles keeps it high-grade with Ember Valley live rosin RB grams for $39, Real Deal Resin rosin, Dabwoods live rosin carts, and Field live rosin.

In Seattle, 98 RB products await, including FireBros, Constellation Cannabis RB3.0, From the Soil pre-rolls, Fugu Farms rosin, and MFused Live Resin tanks.

Over in Portland, OR, we’d try the Cannassentials Rainbow Belts and the $120 oz from Legacy Farms.

In Denver, Green Dot sells these insane 4-gram rosin buckets and their Blue Label RBV2; plus, 710 Labs’ persy rosin 1-grams, hot dayam.

Freshly legal Baltimore has 63 RB items like flowers, pre-rolls, live resin carts, and dabs. And Boston smokers have 116 RB options, starting with Bountiful Farms’ live hash rosin of RB x Zeclair.

Rainbow Belts seeds

Get the Rainbow Belts 3.0, the 2.0, as well as the Moonbow, Dark Rainbow 2.0, and Zazul direct from Archive Seed Bank of the pot hotbed Portland, Oregon.

Breeder Fletch’s goal with RB? Lock in the Z terps, “with a much-improved growth pattern and most importantly, POTENCY,” Archive states, using all caps. 

Mission accomplished. If you love Z, trade up to Rainbow Belts.

“A special MoonBow #75 F1 female was selected from a population of 200, for her stable sexual orientation, wonderful color, OG-Like potency, bud structure, and a wonderful Zkittlez dominant potpourri purple Zkittlez candied lime sugar-coated OG Kush skunk funk. Really a wonderful improvement while retaining all the desirables.”

Rainbow Belts awards

Leafly named Rainbow Belts a ‘Best seed to grow in 2020,’ and further accolades followed. In 2022, LA Family Farms’ Rainbow Belts live hash rosin won the elite Transbay Challenge IV LA. In 2023, Rainbow Belts took 1st and 2nd in the Spannabis Champions Cup 2023. RB shows up in wins at Ego Clash, as well as High Times Cups. And Rainbow Belts often competes against its own parents Z, and Moonbow. That’s wild.

Rainbow Belts terpenes

Rainbow Belts’ top three aroma molecules—terpenes—average out in lab samples to: gassy caryophyllene; floral linalool; and tart limonene. You can hunt that terp profile in Leafly Strains for similar effects: look up caryophyllene + linalool + limonene. See how similar Rainbow Belts is to Z’s caryophyllene-linalool-humulene combo? Look at how Dosidos matches terps with its grandchild, just in different ratios: limonene, caryophyllene, and linalool. 

(Your RB should not have any terpinolene or myrcene in it, sorry.)

Other highlights this October

No rainbows on your horizon? Let these three more hot strains HighLight your way.

Jealousy

Our Leafly Strain of the Year 2022 stayed busy in 2023 growing coast to coast and powering a new generation of crosses. Jealousy offers smokers Gelato times one thousand—with creamy-berry-fuel flavor and afternoon and evening effects.

Goji OG

Goji OG gives OG Kush fans something more gooey and and sweet and hybrid from the pre-legalization era. It still shows up in a lot of stores because it’s so good. Goji OG presaged more modern OG projects including Zawtz and OZ Kush. Shout-out breeder Bodhi Seeds.

Pancakes

Sweet, pancake batter terps come off the best bags of Pancakes—a piping hot dessert strain made from reportedly a London Pound Cake #75 with Kush Mints #11. Order up!

And that’s the Leafly HighLight for October, see you back in November after Strains of Harvest.

Labor Day or not—summer just keeps simmering along on the West Coast. 

Up in the cannabis heartland of Humboldt County, the summer light dep crop moves out to stores, while the full-sun plants launch their flowers.

This month’s Leafy Buzz comes straight from a major Eureka, CA pot contest—the Transbay Challenge IV. There, we judged 18 flowers over six hours and came away with armfuls of buds to review.

Here are the cheat codes to the best bongloads of August. Here’s another edition of Leafly Buzz.

Data grinder

Moonbow

⬆ 2%

Moonbow brightens this fall—up 2% in traffic on Leafly, thanks to the amazing slew of Moonbow cuts found out west. Archive Seeds’ cross of Z x Dosidos makes for a much more dank, full-bodied, and less finicky Z. Our fresh nugs from Archive Portland had a lot of the prickly grandfather Face Off OG behind the pretty purple buds. This strong indica hybrid worked great with a walk among the towering redwoods, or gaming with the homies.

Headband

⬆ 2.7%

Classic OG Kush x Sour Diesel edges up nearly 3% this month thanks to its must-have diesel and lemon pungence, and its hybrid sativa effects. Despite its age, phenomenal cuts of Headband still circulate and show how the old stuff bangs just as hard as the new flavors. Get your 3,000 steps in, or take a cool river plunge on Headband.

Lamb’s Bread

⬇ 12%

We check in with another classic, iconic strain, sighted again in the Humboldt heartland: Lamb’s Bread. What sativa is it made from? Who exactly bred it? We may never truly know. But since the ’80s this Bob Marley-approved cultivar has powered barbecues, games of soccer, jam sessions, and gardening. 

Purple Urkle

⬆ 24%

What’s going on with Purple Urkle, West Coast? Strain page views are up 24% month over month, amid fresh sightings of Purple Urkle in the wild. Purple Urkle has been in the Leafly database since the beginning, in 2010, and is thought to be a type of Mendo Purps with a grape, berry, plum taste. It’ll leave you sleepy, happy, and so relaxed you don’t care if it’s the real Urkle or a re-name. (The real Urkle is out there, though.)

New in the Leafly strain database

Canna Country’s ‘The 26’

Multiple sources spoke in hushed tones of this must-see new cultivar from the farm Canna Country in the Emerald Triangle. We’re still learning more about it, but ‘The 26’ as it’s called is reportedly Forbidden Fruit x the breeder’s own Cherimoya. The 26 already distinguished itself at The Emerald Cup, and it reportedly scores the highest in the state for the terpene ocimene. It’s purple with notes of citrus, flower blossoms, and candy. Reggie Weedman reportedly bred the #26 with Ted Blair, owner of Canna Country.

Cartel Cut

There’s a new big OG Kush phenotype around Humboldt—the Cartel Cut. Growers So Hum Royal handed us a fistful of it at the Old Town Farmers Market in Eureka on Aug. 26. Meanwhile, bulk grower Xotic Flavorz produces hundreds of pounds of dried bud per week including the Cartel Cut. It’s got OG’s spikey, green look and piney, hashy, OG smell. Everyone knows what to do with OGs—roll them up in fat joints and get blazed on some indica hybrid chillaxation.

Sherb Haze

The modern blockbuster Sunset Sherbert and the 1980s classic Haze—how have these two never hooked up? Moon Made Farms’ Tina Gordon handed us a pouch of this perfect cross, fresh from the curing room for her summer deps. Sherb Haze puts Sherbert’s creamy berry body underneath Haze’s bright, sugary, grassy top note. You can wake and bake with it, and smoke it in the afternoon, or party with it to stay up late. Grab Moon Made for flowers that are Sun+Earth Certified, sungrown, and aligned with Mother Earth.

Mom’s Spaghetti

The hype flower brand Clout King of California and Michigan sells this unique, super-modern cross of GMO Rootbeer x Carbon Fiber. Mom’s Spaghetti looks ample and stunning, and smells of smooth fuel with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Indica hybrids like this work best with a relaxing hobby, like chewing through “The Lord of the Rings” books, or binging “Real Housewives.”

Picks of the dispensaries

New on shelves

Sake Bomb by Bombatta, CA

All the flavors of the moment make Sake Bomb the star it’s born to be: Runtz, Gushers, and Lemon Cherry Gelato combine, and mix with Zkittlez and Kush Mints. Of course, this is flame. The new brand Bombatta uses these dope glass jars with the grinder built into the top. But a grinder is only as good as what goes into it. The Sake Bomb felt like the grand finale in an explosive launch for Bombatta flavors. You get a deep, syrupy, berry, cherry, tropical smell and taste, and this chill hybrid indica effect that melts away the stress of a road trip. Great camping medicine.

Burning up the charts

Z by Alien Labs, CA

Grab one of the last jars while you still can—Alien Labs’ summer batches of Z check all the boxes. Years into the strain’s release, Z continues to gobble up market share, like the omicron variant of weed. Look on the podium of any contest this year and it’s a fair bet that Z, or a child of Z, stands up there. Royal Budline’s Z again bested nearly all comers at the Transbay Challenge IV qualifier in Eureka, CA. Aug. 26. Alien Labs’ Z smells and tastes tart, syrupy, gassy, rich, and ideal. The potent hybrid induces a vivid, neon head change that made “Oppenheimer” on IMAX even more badass.

Best-sellers

Ballin out

MAC Flurry by Lyfted, CA

Breeder Capulator’s MAC1 is so good and multi-faceted, brands can just keep re-releasing it under different names and it’ll sell on the top shelf. Modesto, CA brand Lyfted’s indoor-grown MAC Flurry shows why we keep returning to the MAC. It’s sleeted and complex-smelling with butter, vanilla, and citrus notes that reference gogurt. A MAC took the elite Ego Clash contest in Humboldt last year, and you can bet that you’ll see it win some more.

Ballin’ on a budget

Sherbanger #22 by 530, CA

The Sherbanger #22 strain continues to make noise this month since it broke out last October. Many, many seeds and clones of this cross of Sherbert and Headbanger have spread across the country, and the results are awesome. Large-scale farm ‘530’ on the Central Coast grows a fire cut of Sherbanger 22 that’s less than $40 out the door and good to the last nug. We love when you pour OG Kush’s gassy, lemon and pine on Sherbert’s creamy berry. Roll up a fat hash hole guilt-free with this value-priced flower.

High Note

Peanut Butter Breath rosin syrup, by Arcata Fire, CA

Probably the winningest street in all of hash-making exists in the sleepy little town of Arcata, CA. One of the manufacturers there, Arcata Fire, swept the entire Emerald Cup rosin carts category, winning first, second, and third place. So we got elated to receive a Peanut Butter Breath rosin syrup disposable cart from Arcata Fire themselves over the weekend. They hand-fill each high-grade pen with clarified, cold-cured 100% live rosin, made from fresh-frozen buds and solventless extraction. Bred by Thug Pug in Michigan, PB Breath crosses Dosidos to Mendo Breath, and Arcata Fire’s rosin syrup pen ports that peak flower experience over to a vape. It hits deep, rich, savory, sweet, and nutty, with zero artificial, harsh, or foul notes. Disposables are so handy on road trips, after long plane flights, or when the nosy neighbor kids are hanging around.

And that’s what’s buzzing on my desk for Leafly Buzz this August. Sign up for the newsletter to never miss a Buzz. We got one more fire flower report in September, and then our annual Strains of Harvest. Peace.

Growers, breeders, brands, stores—got buzz for Leafly? We’re all ears. Email us.

Sunday, June 18, is Jack Herer Day, an unofficial remembrance for the profane, bombastic, lovable weed warrior and author of the landmark 1985 hemp legalization polemic “The Emperor Wears No Clothes.”

Herer died in 2010 at age 70, just two years before voters passed weed legalization in Colorado and Washington. Today, 23 states and Washington, DC, have legalized THC, and the federal government has made hemp federally legal, igniting an explosion of CBD oil products and a weed seed golden age. Jack would have loved it, and yet would still have found rights to fight for.

The strain named in honor of Jack Herer is no lightweight, either. Made in the ‘90s by Sensi Seeds in Amsterdam, Jack Herer is a top 15 most menu-available strain in the US this June on Leafly. Jack’s not a most-searched strain anymore, but it’s still simmering in the top 30. Jack is more like The Eagles and other classic rock stalwarts—the glimmering green buds remain a staple of US weed culture.

We shopped, smoked, and scouted the US for the best Jack Herer growers across the land. We also widened the lens to include several strains analogous to Jack Herer in their dominant smell molecule—terpinolene.

Oregon

Jack Herer, Midnight Fruit Co. 

This sample invokes nostalgia for the days we were lucky enough to score a good bag of Jack, with exaggerated bubblegum and nose-tickling tropical fruit notes. A classic haze-forward nose, excellent structure, and soaring high make it easy to see why the crew over at Midnight Fruit Co. has been running this cut for over a decade.

Keith elaborated on keeping this time-honored cultivar in the garden. “Whether it’s more seasoned generations that remember a particular time they had Jack 20 years ago, or a younger person experiencing it for the first time, it’s one of those classic strains that keeps folks coming back for more.” (Ryan Herron)

See also: Cannarado-bred Grape Durban, grown by Dallas Growers Club of Oregon

California

Buddha’s Hand

Few growers carry the torch for Jack terps in Cali like Esensia Gardens, sold at Solful in San Francisco and Sebastopol. Buddha’s Hand and Lime Juice descend from the old-school Chernobyl strain, which is terpinolene-forward. Lime Juice is a top 10 outdoor strain in the state in 2023 The Emerald Cup. Bored by Gelatos? Esensia Gardens and Solful will both cleanse your palate. The top-shelf outdoor comes from a diverse, legacy team up in the hills of Mendocino County. Jack Herer would be proud to wake and bake with these buds.

See also

Washington

Jack Herer and other terpinolene strains are often commodity crops in Washington—they’re affordable in every modality from flower to dab.

On the top shelf

Value buys

Colorado

Coloradoans have deep experience with good Jack Herer, as well as terpinolene strains and sativas, in general. Look out for:

Nevada

Jack Herer by Rythm, Nevada

Rythm’s Jack strain doesn’t mess around. A strong citrus flavor on both the in and out provides an incredibly smooth smoke that hits hard. At 25% THC and 4.9 mg/g caryophyllene, it’s stronger than your average Jack, which means a consistently uplifting, euphoric, and energizing high. Rythm’s trichome-loaded and pungent strain produces one of Nevada’s most beautiful and sticky buds. Careful, though; even a little bit too much of this Jack can leave users feeling heavy behind the eyes. It’s available in 45 Las Vegas dispensaries, including Reef, Las Vegas ReLeaf, Essence, Jardín, The Source, Nevada Wellness Center, Beyond Hello, Exhale NV, Curaleaf, Zen Leaf, Jade, Rise, and Sahara Wellness. (Chris Kudialis)

Illinois

Illinois’ fledgling market offers Jack any number of ways. Check out:

• Jack Herer by Rythm
• Jack Herer mini joints by Dogwalkers

Massachusetts

Pine Grande, Bountiful Farms

Massachusetts’ award-winning Bountiful Farms grows terpinolene-dominant strains analogous to Jack Herer. Check the prized Pina Grande, their in-house staple landrace cross Durban Walker or Zweet Inzanity. Bountiful’s latest in Jacks+Haze is Dripz (Pineapple Chunk x Skywalker Og).

OK—that’s enough top Jack to get you started. Hit that terpinolene wake and bake, ride the rocket of productivity, and show the courage of Jack Herer. Hell, they might name a strain after you one day.

Shout out your favorite Jack Herer or terpinolene growers and brands in the comments below. 

Freelancers Ryan Herron and Chris Kudialis contributed to this report.