Crazy, exotic candy flavors. Dramatic, blingy looks. Knockout effects.

The next hot cannabis strains of the culture stand ready for your taste buds.

Every January, the Leafly Buzz flower column widens its lens from the West Coast to predict the next winners across the US for the new year.

Leafly Buzz’s 12 hot strains to smoke in 2025 collects the all-stars of the garden and the bag. They’re refinements and remixes of our favorite hit strain families like Z, Sherbert, OG Kush, Cookies, Runtz, and more.

Candy gas? Of course. Smells of Jello? Yes, please. Hints of newly upholstered vinyl? We’re game. So let’s get to it.

Zoap

Zoap keeps winning with smokers and budtenders alike thanks to its (OG Kush x Z) x Sherbert roots. First reviewed in 2021, people get giggly, relaxed, and hungry with this indica hybrid bred by Deo Farms. The best bags add that chemical lye note to rainbow sherbert flavors including apricot and apple. Growers like Doja, Lumpy’s, and Alien Labs sell it in the California market. Zoap seems to have escaped into the wild and made its way as far as the Mississippi medical market. Will 2025 see the Zoap wave fully crest? Only the sales and awards will tell.

Cap Junky

Guaranteed to flatten you, Cap Junky keeps charging into 2025 thanks to the powerhouse breeders behind it: Capulator and Seed Junky Genetics. Cap Junky marries each breeder’s champion: Alien Cookies x Kush Mints #11. Completely sleeted with resin, its effects hit hybrid, and strong, “right between the eyes, deep in the head,” reviews say. The smell defies expectations—with some reporting mango yogurt and others tasting apricot, apple, and mint.

Gello Shotz

As we enter deeper into 2025 on our eternal quest for the heat, Gello Shotz from Seed Junky Genetics must appear on the radar of anyone who loves terps. The wild pedigree pairs a cross of Z and Animal Cookies Bx2 with the same strain crossed to Leafly Strain of the Year 2023 Permanent Marker. Across the lineage, you see a trio of strains that have left their mark on history. Original Z is arguably the most legendary hash strain of all time. Animal Cookies was the highest-impact dessert weed at the peak of the wave. And Permanent Marker is here to stay! The best-case expression for Gello Shotz offers a bit of the Z terp with the impact of Permanent Marker. —Jimi Devine

Blue Nerds

Lemon Cherry Gelato stays undefeated, but an update comes in the form of the surging strain Blue Nerds. The breeder Global Genetics mixed LCG with the Original Z for this hit hybrid, which emits apple, blueberry and apricot notes. Different growers at different times seemed to have settled on this name, but whatever the cross, a Blue Nerds wave keeps building.

Candy Fumez

Bloom Seed Co’s Candy Fumez sizzles in the genetic hype zone of Z x Sherbanger. New in the database since 2023, this berry, blueberry, chemical-smelling hybrid indica leaves folks focused, creative, and happy. Grown to elite levels by Green Dawg in California. See also: Sherbanger.

Dante’s Inferno

Embrace your dank side. Super-dramatic, dark icy weed wins in this hard charger—Dante’s Inferno, a cross of Oreoz x Devil Driver. Step out of the candy aisle, this hybrid indica offers ammonia, pepper, and tea notes. Reviewers first scored Dante’s Inferno in 2022, and it comes from Clearwater Genetics and Tiki Madman.

Cadillac Rainbow

Michigan throttles into the pole position with this cross of Pure Michigan x Runtz. Cadillac Rainbow from 3rd Coast Genetics offers a counterpoint to the “candy-gas” craze with weed that smells like re-stored vinyl upholstery (diesel, ammonia, and earthy.) Cadillac Rainbow hits like an indica hybrid Escalade.

Glitter Bomb

Compound Genetics’ 2022 cross of Grape Gas #10 x OGKB Blueberry Headband keeps surging to new heights nationally. It grows great indoors, in greenhouses, and outside, with crazy size and bling. Nothing can stop Grape Gas on its own, or in other strains including GastroPop and Blueberry Caviar (below). The indica hybrid offers notes of pear, plum, and blueberry and will leave you tingly, giggly, and relaxed.

Pink Lemonade

Over on the East Coast and in Canada, Pink Lemonade by 34 Street Seed Co follows the trend of more sativa-leaning hash strains. The genetics: Pink Kush x Lemon Skunk, and while those seem old hat in the world of high yields and modern flavors, the dense and resinous nugs keep up with the times. The flavor dances on the palate and waxes nostalgic for pink lemonade Crystal Light powder, and the mouth-coating taste hits no matter how you smoke it. These highly stimulating, cerebral variety flowers in only 8 weeks, and grows well indoors and outdoors, and we think Alberta has positioned growers for fruitful harvests. —Max Blick

Moroccan Peaches

A peach ring candy wave arrives! Created by California’s Purple City Genetics for a hash collection, Moroccan Peaches expresses big, jammy peach preserves with secondary notes of orange and fuel. Moroccan Peaches marries the original peach that blasted off in Spain, Barbara Bud, with some Lemon Tree Skorange (combining old-school California classics, Lemon Tree, Cali-O, and OG Kush.) The hash masters at Arcata Fire took home multiple awards for Moroccan Peaches rosin at the 2024 Emerald Cup. Purple City Genetics crossed two versions of its Barbara Bud—Spanish Barbara and Peaches—to create a bunch of other fruity bangers to hunt in 2025, including Peach Panther and Marrakech. —Ellen Holland

John Connor

Light it up if you want to live. John Connor from Team Elite Genetics in California offers an outstanding smoke—worthy of these strange times. The new flavor first hit California shelves in January 2025. It’s an underdog, a dark horse if you will. And it’s the perfect cultivar to accompany 2025’s other horsemen of the apocalypse. If your world is aflame, you might as well smoke the best weed possible. Its seductively layered flavor profile showcases sour, petrol, with hints of coffee and sweet cream. As a potent indica, John Connor’s effects tranquilize and comfort. It encapsulates the best of its parent cultivars: Team Elite’s award-winning Styrofoam Cup #2 and Sh3rb3t. Its purple, light green, and white trichome-covered nugs smell respectably loud. You’ll need John Connor to survive this year. —Lindsey Bartlett

Blueberry Caviar

Rounding out our dozen: Blueberry Caviar bred by California’s winningest grower Ridgeline Farms for weed mogul Berner’s Cookies brand. Blueberry Caviar satisfies the toughest critics. It’s extremely purple, large, glittering, and roaring loud—which is how you get to the winner’s circle in today’s flavor chase. The dank blueberry aroma lunges out of the bag and translates to a lovely, indelible taste, with chill indica hybrid effects that never agitate. Ridgeline’s Jason calls it “my new favorite,” and if you can find a bag this year—it may become yours as well.

We must stop at 12, but we know even more greatness will surprise us amid ganja’s golden age.

Here are a few more strains to watch in 2025. Plus—submit your own below:

Holy shinobi, Batman! Leafly HighLight has entered Year Three of celebrating all-star strains of American dispensaries. The Leafly HighLight Hall of Flame now boasts 24 entries!

So, where we do take it from here? Well, we run it back, and find another Top 200 strain on dispensary shelves you have to know about. Just in time to begin anew, we start with the undisputed champion of sales that’s also perfect for easing back into the work year: Blue Dream.

First timers—explore Blue Dream’s balanced hybrid effects that won’t make you loopy. Experienced smokers—don’t even hate. Respect the scoreboard. It’s the No. 1 most-ordered strain on Leafly in December for a reason. A population larger than the island of Guam has favorited Blue Dream on Leafly.

This classic ‘90s cross of DJ Short’s Blueberry x Haze mellows anxiety without sapping your energy or focus. Coming out of Santa Cruz, CA, Blue Dream offers the Cali Sober solution to Dry January’s stressors.

Leafly reviewers report getting creative, uplifted, and energetic on the Haze cross. Exemplars of the strain smell like an actual blueberry when you grind them—which is the damnedest thing.

One reviewer writes: “All of a sudden, I felt as if I was briskly cruising on a warm cloud, which was followed by an amazing burst of energy. Folks let me tell you, if you’d ever like to find out how an eagle feels when it spreads its majestic wings and takes to the air at 80 mph., this strain is a kickass tool to take you there.”

Who’s got Blue Dreams? Best Blue Dreams in the US

Blue Dream’s an undisputed beast in the garden and blankets the country in soft, grassy blueberry smells. But quality varies—which explains why Blue Dream sports an average score of 4.3 out of 5 after more than 14,500 ratings. 

You see Blue Dream a lot in vape cartridges and commodity crops that don’t always showcase the classic. Growing top-shelf Blue Dream is a labor of love at California brands like Ember Valley and Korova. 

In December, we bought superb Blue Dream in California grown by Seven Leaves at Moe Greens in San Francisco. Defying critics, the brand Dream exhibited at The Ego Clash 2023 with phenomenal jars of Blue Dream sitting right alongside hype cultivars Uva and Cherry Gas.

Pax sells it in a live rosin pod, while Raw Garden sells it in live resin. 

Portlanders in Oregon have 353 Blue Dream options with grams hitting $3. In Seattle, there are 656 options, and Have a Heart alone sells 34 Blue Dream SKUs. 
Denverites in Colorado have 313 options, including joints starting at $5 and edible aphrodisiac Love Beans. Chicagoans have 249 Blue Dream choices—nearly all carts. Detroiters have 126 options—mostly carts. Even newly legal New Yorkers have 103 Blue Dream options, including the gold standard Pax Live Rosin pod.

Blue Dream seeds

The Blue Dream seed game is a global free-for-all, and gardeners have their pick from outlets all across the reputability spectrum. 

We’d look into DJ Short’s Blueberry work on SeedsHereNow, or Humboldt Seed Company’s feminized or auto Blue Dream. We grew Equilibrium Genetics’ Blue Dream Bx and it threw down!

See also: Blue Dream seeds from North Atlantic, Blimburn, and Fast Buds. For crosses, look at this Lemon Trance, and this Andorian.

Blue Dream awards

Like a weed Lebron James, King Blue Dream keeps putting up wins in the roaring 2020s. A Blue Dream took bronze in Maryland in 2023. A Blue Dream live rosin pod with diamonds from PAX took home a gold in 2022. A Blue Dream HHC pen from 3CHI took a first in 2022. Blue Dream live resin gummies from Kiva/Camino/Lost Farm took gold in 2020, and silver in 2021. The wins stretch back for decades: 2014, 2017 and on.

Blue Dream terpenes

Where does the smell of Blue Dream come from? The average results from lab samples labeled ‘Blue Dream’ indicate a lot of myrcene plus pinene and caryophyllene. We see the same top three terps in Blueberry and its cousins and vape juice formulations.

Other highlights this January

Bored of Blue Dream already? Here are three more go-to flavors for sticking to fitness goals in 2024.

Lemon Thai

Kick it even more old school and energetic with some Lemon Thai—a citrusy sativa with a similarly mild taste as Blue Dream. A cross of Thai and Hawaiian.

Mimosa

Keep it Cali Sober with the balanced Sunday morning strain Mimosa—the perfect mix of orangey and effervescent. A cross of Clementine and Purple Punch.

Animal Face

Attention all gas lovers—smoke this before you crush a strength training workout. So goodbye to boredom when you put on your minty, diesely, potent Animal Face. A cross of Face-off OG and Animal Mints.

And that’s the January 2024 Leafly HighLight. We’re stoked for a huge year of celebrating the all-stars of the cannabis cosmos, so download the app, and put the weed in the basket.

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