The West Coast is awash in za-za whether you’re into indoor or outs. As Croptober dries in barns and rooms, the indoor growers keep pumping out near-flawless gas, candy, cake, and classic strains.

The last 30 days of reporting took us from Hall of Flowers seshes with Wiz Khalifa, to hash hookahs deep in Mendocino County, CA, to road-testing the new Puffco Pivot high up in the fall trees of Montana.

Here’s your monthly cheat codes for the best bong loads of October. Here’s October’s Leafly Buzz.

Data grinder

We broke out our calculators, plugged into the Leafly strain database, and ran a scan for zaza. Here’s what the stats tell us.

Connie Chung

This rare strain jumped from No. 3,769 to No. 120 after the iconic female anchor mentioned her namesake strain in an interview to promote her new book. Connie Chung is a DNA Genetics LA Flavor x G13.

Moroccan Peaches

Watch out for Purple City Genetics’ Moroccan Peaches—it’s up from #983 to #287 in just a single month. So much good Moroccan Peaches is being made into hash right now. It’s a cross of Spanish Barbara x Lemon Tree Skorange.

Street Tarts

Here comes the next new thing. Street Tarts is a cross of cross of Guava Tart x Street Guru by Purple City Genetics. It’s up more than 200 places in a month to No. 521.

Amnesia Haze

A 20 year-old classic stays strong this October. Amnesia Haze jumps up 25 spots to No. 108 in our 9,000-strain databse.

New in the Leafly strain database

Dark Web

Zoap bagseed is out there in the wild seeding whole new adventures. Among them, Alien Labs Dark Web—everything we’d want in an OGZ x Sherbert.

Gotti Beltz

Gotti and Rainbow Beltz makes for a more aggressive candy strain in Gotti Beltz, which is taking off from Phinest/Dubplatez. Gotti Beltz held court amid a table of zaza at the Phinest booth at Hall of Flowers.

Ridgeline Throbber

One of California’s top growers—Ridgeline Farms is working on new crosses of its hit LANTZ. We got our hands on Ridgeline LANTZ x Gushmints, known as Ridgeline Throbber. If you like your LANTZ even bigger and more minty—this is it.

Gary Satan

Tiki Madman’s Gary Payton x Jealousy project Gary Satan enter the database this month. Look for it among the pack of hype, new-new.

Picks of the dispensaries

New on shelves

Headbanger by Wood Wide Farms

Burning up the charts

Permanent Marker by MOCA Humboldt

Best-sellers

Ballin out

Scotty’s Cake by CAM in Cali

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Scotties Cake—CAM, California, fall 2024

Ballin’ on a budget

Golden Pineapple by Phat Panda

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Golden Pineapple—Phat Panda, California, fall 2024

High Note

Puffco Pivot with Alien Labs Z-squared rosin

The world’s leader in electronic dabbing tech, Puffco, returns to refresh thei dab pen for 2024. You load a glob of top-notch rosin into the silicone, flip-top chamber, then stash that thang in your jacket pocket until it’s time to really get zooted. Just double-click the sleek black button on the unit to unleash a huge heat cycle inside the micro-sized ‘360 chamber.’ When the Pivot buzzes, it’s time to sip fresh, bright, maximally flavorful vapor until you tap out.

The $130 device comes with little cotton swabs you use between dabs to keep the chamber clean and tidy. Be prepared—the black silicone tip gets a little gunky as you rip all those resinous dabs. But we’re not mad at it. The Pivot proved easy to master and a delight to experienced dabbers and novices alike. It’s perfect for one-and-done dabbers who value traveling light. Stick some brand new Alien Labs Z2 rosin in there to hit a new peak for a dab pen. Available on Puffco.

OK, we’re turning and burning into Croptober and Green Wednesday. Keep your notifications on.

Growers, breeders, brands, stores—got buzz for Leafly? We’re all ears. Email us at david.downs@leafly.com

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Vaping hash keeps getting cooler—now with the Puffco brand “Pivot.” This ‘dab pen’ is about the size of a magic marker, but delivers massive hash vapor clouds. Read on as writer Jimi Devine digs in.

The Puffco Peak hash vape bubbler gets the credit for taking us out of the Dark Ages of digital dabs. But Puffco had already taken over the dab pen market in the years prior.

When its first offering—the Puffco Pro—hit the market in 2013, the wind was instantly in Puffco’s sails. The Puffco Pro was a vape pen designed for concentrates and featured advanced technology that delivered a cleaner, more flavorful experience than anything the marketplace had ever seen. Its ease of use and quality took Puffco to the mountaintop seemingly overnight.

You would have been hard-pressed to find someone who owned a hash company without a personal collection of Puffco products by 2014. They were a must for dabbing discretely virtually anywhere. A few years later, the electronic hash bubbler dubbed the Peak dropped and made its mark on history, taking Puffco into over 30 countries in the time since.

But while the Peak and Peak Pro are awesome, the new Pivot feels a lot more like an homage to Puffco’s original products with its sleek and discreet design paired with its function.

“It has always been a goal of ours at Puffco to normalize concentrates in a way that removes the fear that new consumers may have,” said Roger Volodarsky, CEO and Founder of Puffco. “I can confidently say that our devices have led to an increased curiosity around dabs, allowing new consumers an avenue to explore new forms of cannabis consumption in a user-friendly way. The Pivot will only expand on that.”

Puffco’s ‘3D Chamber’ is key

The Pivot is built around the workhorse of Puffco’s lineup, the 3D Chamber. Since its inception, the 3D chamber has been considered the height of atomizer quality and durability. Since it was first created, Puffco has built every new device around the tech. It’s paid off, few companies have been able to scrape out any market share in recent years.

The argument is that since it is the same tech that is in the larger offerings from Puffco, the quality of the experience will be identical, just a little bit smaller.

The Pivot is also the most affordable product with a 3D Chamber to date—with a MSRP of $130.

The Pivot is arguably the biggest dab pen launch in the eight years since Puffco released the Puffco Plus. The retractable scooper underneath the the mouthpiece—the Dab Dart—were all the rage with that one in addition to some other hardware upgrades from the original Puffco Pro launch three years prior.

Now eleven years since that first pen, the Pivot has a variety of features that live up to Puffco’s standards of innovation. In addition to the miniature 3D Chamber, the pivot sports an angled mouthpiece. This allows the hash to pool more easily on the bottom of the chamber where the real magic happens while maximizing air and vapor flow.

The battery is pretty solid too. Puffco says you should be able to get about 15 rips on a charge. The Pivot also simplifies USB charging compared to back in the day when you needed an adapter for the original Puffco pens.

The quick snap-on 3D chambers are also available in two-packs for $60. You can load them up like ammo, so your dabs are pre-packed for easy swapping on on the go.

And you know Puffco isn’t sending a new product out without accessories. You can hit the Pivot on your dab rig with a $60 adapter. Puffco also debuts a Travel Case available to keep your dabs and pivot organized on the go.

The Pivot goes on sale to the general public on Friday.