By now the shock has likely worn off—Seed Junky didn’t go three for three in Strain of the Year wins?!?! It feels unnecessary to say that Seed Junky and his strain empire will be just fine (and he makes plenty of appearances here.) The crown goes to lowkey California-based breeder Blockhead’s Blockberry aka Superboof, a playful strain that broke the gassy cream and candy profile streak of past SOTY winners for something more tangy, more rooted in fruit than fuel.
As editor David Downs reports in our 2024 Strain of the Year announcement, Super Boof descends from two strains that weed snobs have long underestimated: Tangie and Purple Punch. Looks like some apologies are in order! Or, if you’d still rather laugh at the Boof bandwagon, we deduced these six alternatives provide similar effects and flavor experiences.
7th runner-up—Sherbanger
If Gelato is the muse of rap songs, Sherbanger better suits a house beat. The electro-house duo Havoc on World created their song, Sherbanger, in perfect harmony with what the strain offers. It has Sherbet’s sweet notes, but it also blooms with Headbanger’s kushy, sour aroma. This is a great strain before a night on the dance floor, one that keeps your nerves at bay but gives you the guts to bust out all your best moves. Sherbanger is in nearly 1,000 stores on Leafly, but that is only half of Super Boof.
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6th runner-up—Gastropop
Another Compound Genetics winner evokes sweetness over savory terps. Gastro Pop descends from strains Apples & Bananas x Grape Gas, making it a cousin to Superboof with a crazy extended family. Apples & Bananas itself comes from braiding in old legacy strains like GDP with newer hitters like Gelatti and Blue Power; paired with Grape Gas, it runs the flavor spectrum of sweet berry, diesel fumes, and creamy.
5th runner-up—Cap Junky
Has anyone seen Gladiator II? If so, imagine if Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal got to team up and breed weed strains fit for an emperor instead of killing each other. That’s Cap Junky—a cross of Alien Cookies x Kush Mints #11, but also a cross of the talents of Capulator and Seed Junky, two canna-coliseum champions. Cap Junky evokes that same Super Boof playfulness, with a palate that favors a more menthol and earthy experience. Cap Junky is in nearly as many stores as Super Boof, but the experience is less versatile and more aggressive.
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4th runner-up—Zoap
When you need a palate cleanse, wash your mouth out with Zoap. The Bay Area’s Deo Farms crafted Zoap from many disparate parts, including OZ Kush and the Rainbow Sherbet, aka RS line of strain. Zoap captures the kind of soap you’d buy at a farmer’s market—floral, earthy, and sweet. It has also carved out a place at cups, nabbing spots in multiple Zalympix and Hash Bashes. Your brain needs Zoap like your body needs soap. Zoap had a great run this year, but it’s still not as prevalent as Super Boof, nor as well-liked by budtenders.
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3rd runner-up—Lemon Cherry Gelato
Oh, LCG. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art as loud, and as sweet. This Backpackboyz creation takes a familiar cross, Sunset Sherbet x Thin Mint, but their spin on it reveals a visually-popping strain with strong tart citrus terps, plus Gelato’s signature euphoria. It has a trophy case full of reasons to try, including two High Times Cup wins, a handful of Farmer’s Cup wins, and placements on multiple best-of lists. It’s made its round across the country, appearing on dispensary menus from California to New York. We love LCG, but it was just not new enough to be Leafly Strain of the Year.
2nd runner-up—Tropical Slushie
Slushie, more specifically Tropical Slushie, comes from the not-very-tropical state of Colorado and its breeding don, Cannarado. Blending Snowman’s blizzard of trichomes with Papaya’s enigmatic fruitiness creates a strain sweet enough to sip on.
It’s new to our database, but it already has a reputation for complex terps and, surprisingly, an arousing effect. Slushie is in half as many clubs as Super Boof, and it hasn’t caught on with budtenders or the awards circuit—yet!
1st runner-up—Glitter Bomb
A glitter bomb requires vibrancy and surprise, so any strain named for it must also wow its audience. Compound Genetics’s complex breeding of OGKB Blueberry Headband x Grape Gas #10 creates both a prismatic plant, but also prismatic terps. Glitter Bomb catches the eye with its thick, opaque trichomes, and the nose with its sharp, petrol berry aromas. Still, Glitter Bomb is on 400 fewer menus than Super Boof, and lacked budtender or contest excitement.
How do we choose Leafly Strain of the Year each year?
Leafly Strain of the Year aims to bottle the essence of the connoisseur cannabis conversation unfolding across the country and online globally over the last year.
We fuse two approaches to land on Leafly Strain of the Year each year: 1) a qualitative approach informed by 2) data from unparalleled quantitative insight into national strain trends.
The qualitative: Leafly has nearly full access to the qualitative aspects of weed. We smoke hundreds of new cultivars per year and travel the world interviewing breeders, growers, buyers, budtenders, smokers, and influencers to get a tactile sense of what’s smoking. We got literal file cabinets full of new weed.
… there’s no ChatGPT prompt that’ll ever hallucinate anything close to Leafly Strain of the Year.
The quantitative: We take all those smoking notes and insights and go back to our analytics looking for new strains that had a break-out year in terms of national menu penetration, sessions to the Strain Detail Page, and other data factors—similar to the NFL picking its Most Valuable Player each year. With nearly 6,000 strains in the database, thousands of store menus listed, and millions of monthly active users—only Leafly has this level of insight into both the data of modern cultivars and the sensory attributes of smoking them.
As long as computers can’t walk the US weed beat, smelling, tasting, and getting high, there’s no ChatGPT prompt that’ll ever hallucinate anything close to Leafly Strain of the Year. So thanks for rocking with us.