To start off the Gassiest of 2023 Awards, I wanted to highlight strains that seemed to dominate 2023.

Every year a few strains seem to lead the pack in terms of flavor.

This year was no expection. We had a resurgence of some classics as well as newcomers breaking new ground.

Leafly beat me to the punch!

They compiled a stellar writeup of their strain of the year as well as their runners-up.

Luckily for me (great minds think alike!), all of my picks are also on their lists.

Drumroll please 🥁

Strain of the Year

Honorable Mention: Captain Junky

Captain Junky seemed to take Michigan by Storm. Uplyfted, Ghostbudsters Farm, Tip Top Crop, & Tango Jack all ran flower cuts of Captain Junky this year.

With a unique flavor profile and lanky, bright green nugs, she’s a terp lover’s wet dream.

Also known as Miracle Mints, this strain is a breath of fresh air in the flower space.

More about Captain Junky from Leafly:

Now we are getting into some heavy stuff. For experts only, Cap Junky unites work by two titans of breeding—Seed Junky Genetics and Capulator. Together the two fused each of their royalty strains—Kush Mints and Alien Cookies—and birthed a monster. Cap Junky is probably too strong for most mortals—it’s completely sleeted with trichomes and the jars we’ve smelled have this complex sour, bitter, gassy vibe that Sour Diesel lovers should worship. Cap Junky approaches 1,000 US menus, even as regular folks have yet to hear of it. Smoke some Cap Junky late at night alone and hold on for the rocket ride. Congrats, Capulator, we love your work. Make sure to get your Cap Junky direct from his affiliate store Peace of Green in downtown LA.

3rd Place: White Truffle

Hailing from Michigan, White Truffle is a strain I want to see more of in 2024.

Take the flavors that we all love with Gorilla Glue #4, kiss it with some Peanut Butter Breath, and you get this phenotype of Gorilla Butter which is a sweet, earthy treat.

Society C has some tasty White Truffle Flower. The Fifth Age & Ice Kream Hash Co. squished this in to impressive light yellow rosin, that kept customers foraging for more!

White Truffle looks the part, smells the part, and delivers in potency.

She shines in flower form and arguably moreso in rosin form.

White Truffle was one of my favorite new flavor profiles of the year.

More about White Truffle from Leafly:

If you love Sour Diesel, and thus, Original Glue—it’s time to sniff out some White Truffle. Breeder Fresh Coast Seed Co of Michigan crossed some GG#4 with the strain Peanut Butter Breath to make what is called Gorilla Butter. The breeder hit on something gorgeous, funky, buttery, skunky, nutty, and strong with an indica hybrid effect that relaxes, uplifts, and tingles the body. A quarter of smokers report it calms them down, improves mood, and can melt away pain.

“Insanely clear-headed, yet hard-hitting high. This is one of the greats. Guaranteed to take your worries away,” said one reviewer.

White Truffle nearly doubled its menu presence to 1,600 in the US in a year, and plenty of folks have caught White Truffle’s scent. We’ve seen badass versions from elite growers like MOCA Humboldt, Snowtill, and Wood Wide. The White Truffle wave keeps spreading, too. Portlanders in Oregon have 273 White Truffle options a tap away on the Leafly App, while Seattle has 163, Denver has 64, Detroit has 79, and Tulsa, OK has 95. It’s so awesome to see Michigan emerge on the national stage as the crucible of cannabis innovation that it is. Congrats, Fresh Coast Seed Co on 2nd runner-up—and give us a call to talk about 2024!

2nd Place: Superboof

Boof it!

Superboof is a phenotype of Blockhead’s Blockberry.

It has tantilizing citrus fragrences that are love at first puff.

Glacier, Redeye, & Peninsula Gardens ran this in flower form. While Ice Kream Hash Co. & Peachy had killer presses of this in rosin.

I’ve also been seeing lots of Superboof crosses like Ultraboof cropping up.

I’m sure we’ll see more of the boof family tree in 2024.

More about Superboof from Leafly:

The name is silly, but Super Boof’s performance in 2023 is no joke. We saw it jump like 6x to almost 800 menus across the US in a single year, as well as triple in sessions to the strain page. Breeder Blockhead Buds could win a Best New Breeder Award—if we handed those out. (Maybe next year.) This cross of Trop Cookies and Black Cherry Punch bears striking similarities to the 6th runner-up Trop Cherry—both speak to high smoker demand for both citrus and cherry, with a lot of flavor, and gorgeous, enormous bud structure. Consumers report Super Boof is chilling them out, but I think it works as a great wake-and-bake and all-day smoke. This is the second year Super Boof has made the runner-up list, and we love the counterpoint it provides to some of the dominant trends in weed. When you give Blockhead his kudos, remember that he prefers you call it Block Berry.

1st Place: Permanent Marker

Before I knew Leafly made a list, Permanent Marker was my strain of 2023!

I’m not saying they jocked my style but…

It all started with Uplyfted back in March. From there, I was able to try Pressure Pack’s prototype of the strain.

Doja, original selectors of the strain even dropped their version in Michigan.

Both Eastside Alchemy & Ice Kream Hash Co. squished Perm Marker into some of the season’s best rosin.

Lastly, Hytek released special half ounce jars of, in my opinion, the best Permanent Marker cut in the state to end the year!

I’m a huge fan of Sherb and Permanent Marker is like Sherb 2.0!

The strain name is on point. The smell brings you back to grade school and the flavor almost makes itself at home in your tastebuds.

Everyone in Michigan attempted to grow this one, which is an ode to the strain itself.

Seed Junky took notice and is planning on crossing Permanent Marker with EVERYTHING in 2024. So if you’re a fan, lookout for that.

More about Permanent Marker from Leafly:

Go ahead and have a sniff—the hype new cannabis strain Permanent Marker has earned Leafly Strain of the Year 2023.

Tingly, chatty, and arousing, with sweet, deep marker fumes of grape candy, creamy berry, and solvent—Permanent Marker became the fastest-growing new strain on US menus this year according to Leafly, which hosts 8,003 dispensary menus.

Permanent Marker went from 10 store menus in August 2022 to 587 stores in November 2023—an increase of 59x.

Permanent Marker doesn’t look backward like Lemon Cherry Gelato from 2016, either. It’s a refinement of Jealousy, Leafly’s Strain of the Year 2022. Los Angeles breeder/growers Seed Junky Genetics mixed Jealousy, Biscotti, and Sherbert—selecting for even more big, dark, icy buds with grape candy-gas smell and taste that smokers would embrace. Global weed marketing juggernaut Doja Pak picked the name and in 2022, a series of released cuttings retailed for $1,000 each. The genetic went global.

In July 2023, Michiganders picked Permanent Marker as the state’s best pre-roll—a North Coast x Pressure Pack 2-gram cannon. Pre-rolls notoriously kill the smell and taste of weed. Permanent Marker joints, however, hold up to rough treatment.

Permanent Marker makes an indelible impression. From the first rip of the bag seal, it leaks and reeks to perfume your pocket and then the room. This strain will get you caught.

A proper example will stain the palate with authentic, sickly-sweet marker fumes. This is that gas—but refined beyond crude petrol. This weed mimics petrosolvents like xylene, toluene, and urethane resin.

As for effects—everything Seeds Junky releases hits like an ether rag. Prepare for profound indica-hybrid effects. Leafly Reviewers give it 4.8 out of 5 stars after 32 reviews. Sorry, but this blows LCG and Runtz out of the water. It’s like an Acura Integra versus a Space X Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Permanent Marker comes from the LA breeder/growers Seed Junky Genetics. Founded in 2007, they’re on a mission to chart new, hype flavors of dank-ass weed, and boldly go where no breeder has gone before. Makers of Wedding Cake and Ice Cream Cake, they’re a fountainhead of modern exotics, especially on the GSC line.

After making the “Gelato times 1,000” strain, Jealousy, Seed Junky kept pushing even more pungent, next-level herb, assessing 50 to 60 new strains per week in their massive, former rocket factory.

Seed Junky worked on Permanent Marker from 2019 to 2021. Co-founder and breeder JBeezy mated a Biscotti S1 and his backcrossed Sherbert, Sherb Bx1 male, and selected a keeper female. He hit that with his Jealousy F2 male, and then hunted through those and selected the marker. The cross reads: (Biscott1 S1 x Sherb Bx1) x Jealousy F2.

Released before as Adios MF, and Gunnpowwder, marketing juggernaut Doja Pak Ryan found the winning name for the strain, and ran a global marketing campaign.

They released $1,000 clones of it in Jan. 2022. And in the spring and summer of 2022, Doja drove a huge global marketing wave for it—essential to any strain gaining mega-traction. More $1,000 clones dropped on Dec. 15 2022 in Hollywood.