7 trends coming to your cannabis from Spannabis
Listen up, Leafly Nation – you 147 million people around the world who smoke for the good good.
Get ready for more fresh Zkittlez hybrids, more killer Cali weed, more US-made seeds, and more live rosin hitting your local smoking scene in the weeks and months to come.
Leafly has just returned the details of Europe’s premier cannabis festival, Spannabis, which has just wrapped up in Barcelona, Spain.
The three-day show broke all records for the 19-year-old event, with more than 25,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors from over 50 countries. The massive smokeout led to two weeks of pot contests like Ego Clash Barcelona and parties like Fidel’s Hash Holes and Donuts. Global stoners packed more than 100 private cannabis clubs in Barcelona, matching the US cannabis industry’s mix of South by Southwest and Spring Break.
Here are seven trends coming to your cannabis from Spannabis.
More Zkittlez strains in more corners of the world
Let’s start at the beginning – with the weed. The 8-year-old hybrid Zkittlez had a great year at the Spannabis Champions Cup, taking first and second place in the show’s official competition. In addition, Bask Triangle Farms’ Zkittlez project Zortzi took first place in the 2023 Barcelona Ego Clash competition for flowers. Zortzi consists of Z x Ortzadar (the Basque word for rainbow). Ortzadar itself is a Bask Triangle Farms cross of Z x Cookies and Cream.
Aside from the undeniable trophies, the lines spoke for themselves. The 3rd Gen Family Farm booth all but sold out with their Z-focused seed packs at €350 (euros) per seed pack or two packs at €500. 3rd Generation Z-work resulted in seven victories in the Spannabis Champions Cup, said Brandon, owner of 3rd Generation Fam. Another leading Z-seed seller, Terphogz, also served throngs of customers at Spannabis.
What makes Z so dominant? It’s the terpenes, dummy. Z exudes a kaleidoscopically juicy rainbow of tropical fruit flavor. Z’s heavy yet happy high has found fans around the world.
Cali Weed is in charge
Head into the private Barcelona Strain Hunters Club and check out the menu: California Flavors Rule. Californian strains Baby Yoda and Red Velvet top the menu at €30 per gram.
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Many clubs, including Dank of England, have an entire top shelf called Cali Weed. It featured three Los Angeles heavyweights: Permanent Marker strain from Seed Junky Genetics, as well as Super Dope branded Eights, Backpack Boyz’s Lemon Cherry Gelato, and Cookies’ Cereal A La Mode. Eighths of an ounce ran the equivalent of $100.
Breeders from Barcelona and Morocco showcased Californian genetics like La Bomba (Jet Fuel Gelato x Wedding Cake). We saw local Apples & Bananas x Red Pop. Or the Gary Payton strain of Cookies crossed with Leafly Strain of the Year 2022 Jealousy, or Gary Payton x Jokerz (both by Hidden Group Genetics). Node Labs, a tissue culture company in Santa Rosa, California, said white runtz is now growing in Colombia.
Many California industry players bought one-way tickets to Barcelona. They planned to continue traveling to potential business deals in Israel, Portugal, Switzerland and beyond.
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DNA Genetics has sold out their Holy Grail Kush x Kosher Kush strain #23 ‘Michael Jordan’.
Lior Pisso, co-owner of a mega greenhouse cultivation in Israel, said the company switched from Canadian seeds to Compound Genetics in San Francisco.
“California genetics are amazing,” she said.
Israeli medical cannabis patients require maximum potency Cali flower due to a ceiling of 50 grams per month, she said. “We need every move to be a killer.”
The US seed scene has eclipsed that of Europe
Since the 1970’s, European hemp laws protected a robust weed seed industry that decided what US growers planted. The US is now the captain.
Michigan Crops Director Erin Najebi of Tang Farms said, “The European seed that’s free for all is now the US seed that’s free for all.”
What has changed? Congress legalized hemp in 2018. In 2022, the US Drug Enforcement Administration ruled that seeds were hemp, not marijuana, and therefore legal to possess, sell, and distribute.
Rezwan Khan, CEO of DNA Genetics said: “For ten years Spannabis was seed, seed, seed. The seed revolution is happening in the US now and it’s totally wild.”
“All that American shit hits hard.”
‘Gil’, a local breeder from Barcelona
DNA Genetics co-founder Don Morris added that “we build the rocket and then we ride on it.”
One UK grower, Adrian (not his real name), said full legalization would allow US growers to innovate further and faster “than anything Europe could do under the ban”.
A Barcelona greenhouse grower, “Gil,” said he ran Artificial Red (GMO x Red Pop) and hashy Lemon Tree strain Romie from Swamp Boys Seeds this year. Why?
“All this American shit hits hard,” he said.
Rosin and live rosin are conquering the globe
A solvent-free revolution is sweeping the globe, ya’ll. We’re talking bubble hash, heat pressed and filtered into pure, potent and tasty dabs. Bobby West, founder of the Uncle Stoner’s Squash Off competition, told Leafly, “The world is going solvent free. I think it’s the future – from edibles to everything. The cleaner it is, the better it is.”
Mauricio Santa Cruz of Colombian hash brand Colombia Exotics said, “Oh yeah, it’s taking over the globe.”
Colombia received the live rosin technology about two years ago, he said. This year growers across Latin America are buying seeds for plants that produce great hash and rosin presses to make the product.
DNA Genetics’ Khan said Europe has a longstanding specialty in trichome extraction using bubble hash. Europe is now skipping the butane hash oil wave and going straight to rosin. Rosin and live rosin accurately reproduce the flower’s flavor and high, experts said.
More wild legal dichotomies
Medical cannabis law reform and decriminalization have given cannabis “semi-legalized” status in more places than ever before. That leads to some wild legal dichotomies.
In Barcelona, private clubs sell 2023 Cali weed, but if you hit the streets, the police can stop and search you just for the smell, like it’s 90’s. They can confiscate your stash, or worse, a night in jail and fines of hundreds of euros.
Barcelona grows better weed and maintains a more robust scene than Amsterdam, but marijuana remains illegal in Spain. We heard from several tourists who stopped and some stayed the night.
Amsterdam-based Raavi Spaarenberg – head of Sensi Seeds – said: “Laws go back and forth. Barcelona goes left and right. People still go to jail.”
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Grove Bags Chief Marketing Officer Lance Lambert compared Barcelona to Oklahoma’s medical condition mixed with California’s Proposition 215 days. “That’s crazy.”
From India to Australia, niches of cannabis culture thrive in non-weed-free countries. These are places where society tolerates private smoking, while breeders and sellers face fines and jail.
A new level of cooperation begins
More dope collaborations are coming to your weed than ever before.
At the top of the list, two European and American seed titans join forces in ‘Breeding Grounds’ – the new deal between Humboldt Seed Co and 35-year-old Amsterdam-based brand Sensi Seeds.
The pair has four new strains – two new automatic strains and two new feminized strains – that combine the best of the old world and the new. “We grow together and play out each other’s styles,” said Spaarenberg of Sensi, whose father is Sensi Seed’s famous Ben Dronkers.
Famed cultivation author Ed Rosenthal helped broker the deal, saying, “It’s a combination of legacies. They have an unbeatable combination.”
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Europe has plenty of Hazes and Cheeses to work with, said Spaarenberg. Humboldt Seed Co plans to sift through 2,000 authentic Skunk phenotypes from decades past and bring back the true Skunk.
Spaarenberg said that grass brands used to do everything themselves. But the explosion of international cannabis requires collaboration.
Other successful collaborations included: Spanish brand Black Tuna x Colombia Exotics and their strain Milk Runtz – which won the Dabadoo competition. The 3rd Gen Fam also showed off two Emerald Triangle collabs – the Zunkist line and the Ill Eagle line of OZ Kush male crosses for just €50. Terphogz Fields x DNA Genetics collaboration on Z x Strawberry Banana – Ztrawberriez.
And a hyper-charged international cannabis culture
Cheap flights, Instagram and global weed rights reform have combined to make cannabis culture more international than ever.
By 2026, 7.5 billion people will own smartphones. The cannabis community has never been so connected.
“You can find it all over the world in real time. Any US trend within 30 days is now global,” said Khan of DNA Genetics.
Remote places like the Canary Islands are now holding pot contests. Germany has gone medical, Switzerland is next. The Czech Republic is opening up and Thailand is smoking with over 1,000 open pharmacies in Bangkok.
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Israeli mega-greenhouse owner Lior Pisso said: “It’s crazy to see how globalization is progressing. Just look around Spannabis and all the colourful, amazing, beautiful people here.”
Raavi from Sensi said: “Here we go. The industry is changing everywhere. It’s a global thing now.”
And that’s seven trends, so we’ll save the cultivation and the Living Soil Wave or accessories like the Puffco Proxy for another day.
Go renew your passport, book a flight and get out, Leafly Nation. A whole world of weed awaits you.
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