Hollandse Hoogtes received seven awards at the 2026 Highlife Cup, five of them in first place, using batches it was already sending to cafes in Holland, rather than material saved for the competition. The works were presented together with coffeeshop Club69 and John&co.

© Hollandse Hoogtes

The difference between LP and equity income
The Highlife Cup is run in lots selected by cafes from months of sales, which leaves room for an entrant to submit their strongest lot. Rick Bakker, CEO of Hollandse Hoogtes, didn’t have much to choose from. “We built our facility to have a harvest every week, so the cycle goes on and on,” says Rick. The company’s production is allocated as quickly as it comes off the line, so what went into the mug was the final version, the same flower that a customer would buy that week. Wins include Crumbled Lime’s first sativa, Zizi’s first indica, Rainbow Zizi’s house favorite, Fruit Punch’s hash and Karma Stardawg third place at WPFF, along with two edible awards.

This is the first year that licensed producers can enter the cup, in their categories, after being excluded the previous year. The jury conducts terpene tests on the entries, and scores put the regulated category above the illegal cafe entries in three of the five flower categories, with both illegal entries scoring higher than the regulated entries. Basic growers had months to select their best material to send, while Hollandse Hoogtes produced a standard weekly production.

Rick spends time in the cafeteria telling the employees where the company is going. “Being number one is a standard, not a trophy,” he says. “What I’m proud of is our people, from farming to hand cutting to logistics, they keep that motivation to be the best and produce week after week.”

© Hollandse Hoogtes

Cafes sold cannabis for decades without lab testing or stable genetics. “Everything we produce has to be tested, and we can consistently deliver consistent quality,” says Rick. “We have mother plants, all the plants come from those selected mother plants. That was unthinkable in the illegal market.” Cultivating all harvests with selected mothers allows the company to put regular production into a glass without worrying about which batch it is.

Genetics and inheritance
Hollandse Hoogtes works with two genetic houses, Karma Genetics and Amsterdam Genetics, both of which have long histories in the Dutch scene, and all of Karma’s breed and selection top positions come from this relationship. “We are very pleased that Karma has supported the start of Hollandse Hoogtes and continues to consult and support us.”

At the start of the experiment, growers got a short window to import cuttings of the developed genetics, which Rick describes as a day or two, when the rules briefly allowed, after which the path was closed. “The selection process now works from seed,” says Rick. When the company sees a gap in the market it selects seeds and conducts a full pheno-hunt of approximately 2,000 plants to judge how ten to fifty expressions of a single genetic grow together with others and the capabilities of the facility. Some basic genetics never worked well indoors, so selection continues.

© Hollandse Hoogtes

Dutch experimental cannabis market
Edibles come out of a kitchen run by a chef, Nicolas Vanderslyen, who spent ten to fifteen years in Michelin-starred kitchens before fully delving into cooking with cannabis compounds. Hollandse Hoogtes combines the flavor of rosin with the flavor of chocolate or gummy, combines its tiramisu praline with Super Silver Sweets rosin for the look of the cake, and the chocolate comes from a luxury chocolate house. Tiramisu Pralines took the first place and Cherry Cola Gummies came third. “We see it as an important category that helps people who don’t want to smoke but want to get the experience,” says Rick.

Hollandse Hoogtes prices in the premium segment. “If you look for the same quality products from coffee shops, you pay 25 to 35 euros per gram for a good type of Gelato, like our Rainbow Bacio (Karma’s favorite for roasting) and we sell that for 12 to 15 euros,” says Rick. In the middle of the market is an average of eight to eleven euros per gram of flower, and at the bottom are greenhouse crops that have not done well indoors, and stock that a grower needs to move, where Rick has seen similar offers for five grams of strain for €22.50.

Demand already exceeds what the company can grow. “Winning awards doesn’t help because the demand will grow,” laughs Rick. The facility opened with ten flowering cells and sixteen are under construction, an increase of close to fifty percent, with flowers from the new cells expected to be on the market in the second quarter of next year. Current cells run on Fluence VYPR LEDs, and in expansion the company plans to test HPS and under-lighting with its own nutrient recipes. In canopy size Rick ranks alongside Hollandse Hoogtes Village Farms after counting the new build, behind CanAdelaar (Cronos), which remains the largest among experimental growers in greenhouse production, while Hollandse Hoogtes is grown entirely indoors, a setup best suited to the Dutch climate.