A New Era of Cannabis Cups Begins in Vermont…

The idea of a cannabis competition is to showcase the efforts of cannabis cultivators and theoretically, to identify and spotlight the “best” cannabis. But frankly, it kind of comes down to who the fuck are you and I to judge the bud better than a master grower him/her/they/them/x – self/ves…

So starting September, Vermontijuana is putting a new spin on the format of the standard cannabis competition to put the judging power exclusively in the hands of the growers.

I’m not new to this, and spent a week with the judges and organizers of the first, last, and only High Times Cup in Jamaica in 2015 and then led the organizing of the first cannabis cup in Vermont in 2019. I hear that’s going pretty good these days and I’m excited to innovate and enter the next phase of cannabis competitions.

I don’t know if this is “the best” way to do a cannabis cup, but I’ve seen and known many of the conventional cannabis cup flaws and I think that it’s worth trying it with a few new twists.

So if it’s mid-April and you’re asking ‘why is this cup different from the others’, the short answer is that we’re simplifying the judging format to what I call,  ‘Constitutional’…judged by a jury of your peers.

• Instead of trying to mix together all disciplines of cannabis cultivation together at once, we’ll feature both an indoor and a concentrate cup this September, followed by a separate sungrown cup at SkiCANN in late January.
• In addition to the clout, winners will each receive cash — and more importantly to some — shelf space with select retail partners. We won’t ONLY feature licensed cultivators, but we’ll have a retail contract for the winners.
• In year one, we’re also not going to feature the usual ‘indica’ and ‘sativa’ categories, instead, we’ll differentiate by size with tier one and tier two.
• The final twelve competitors will be nominated and selected by a diverse and experienced advisory committee that Those cultivators will face off against each other.

Now, the really fun part is letting everyone check out the entries and throwing an awards party to celebrate the competitors and we’ll do that during the week of the Pipe Classic on Thursday, September 15. Credit and thanks to High Times pre and post-corporate, the original employees judges, and sponsors of the Headies, and the Pipe Classic crew, all of whom helped inform and inspire this new format and to the design talents of @CannameliaVT

In the coming weeks, we’ll roll out the details for the concentrate component (solvent-less only obviously) and much more. In the meantime, the nomination form is open,

ELEVATE THE STATE!