Today I get to hit you guys off with something special.

We get to review literally THE hottest strain of 2023: Permanent Marker.

Produced from the guys over at Hytek.

Hytek recognized the drop as 🔥, and released Permanent Marker (as well as Zoap) in limited edition, 1/2 oz, miron baller jars.

In addition to the review, Hytek invited me out to their grow in Detroit for an interview about their journey as a brand in Michigan.

You guys are in for a treat!

Hytek

Hytek’s tagline is “Endless Fire”. And with their current flower lineup, they seem to have taken this literally.

Hytek should be on anyone’s shortlist of best flower brands in Michigan.

They are known for their classic strains such as: Headstash, Los Muertos, & Lemon Cherry Gelato.

Hytek understands flavor and show that off with each release they drop.

You can find their flower in pre-pack form as well as deli-style.

Below is more information about them from their website:

The pursuit of endless fire..

Hytek is a collective of cultivators originating from the prohibition-era of cannabis. Our story begins long before cannabis was an accepted, legal industry. Small groups of us worked in the shadows learning this plant and perfecting our craft. From the basements, barns and warehouses across Michigan, the collective formed to create a common goal: to produce endless fire at all costs. In 2016, our founders came across a unique opportunity in West Detroit to acquire property in dire need of rehab. This 5-year project was one that posed many challenges, but Hytek’s owners pushed through the dark times because they believed in the city and wanted to be a part of Detroit’s revitalization. Fast forward to today, our facility has revived an entire street block and proudly employs over 20 people whose passion is to produce the highest quality cannabis to share with the world.

We care about what goes in every bud…

We start each cycle by making sure only the highest quality exclusive genetics get a spot on our tables. At Hytek, our research and development efforts never stop to ensure our customers are getting only the best in breed, and we are always looking for ways to improve our methods to always offer top shelf products. No corners cut and no expense spared is our standard. All of our flower is hand trimmed, and each bag contains buds which are hand selected to guarantee that our customers are getting a product that we would expect to receive. Ready to taste the Hytek difference? Visit our flagship store, The Refinery Detroit, located right next door to our grow facility. Not located in Metro Detroit? Visit our West Michigan location, The Refinery Kalamazoo, or look us up on Weedmaps to see which of your favorite local retailers carry our products.

Interview

Hytek logo on a wall at their Detroit grow facility.

Hytek and I linked up on Instagram and they invited me out to their grow out in Detroit for an interview. If you didn’t know, Hytek’s grow is located directly outside of the Refinery in the Motor City.

Like most grows, I was welcomed to a big, nondescript, warehouse with chain-linked gates at the entrance.

Inside though, is full of color and character(s).

T-shirt of Hytek’s owner: Chocolate as a young buck.

I got to talk with a Chocolate, the owner of Hytek. Pictured above (though notably older now).

Questions were asked, bullshit was talked. Here is what went down:

(NOTE: This interview was transcribed from an audio recording that took place on Dec 14th 2023:)

Gas & Middies: All right, so let’s just start with telling a little bit about the brand, Hytek.
Hytek: When I was creating the brand, I wanted a name that was kind of ambiguous but still playful. Wasn’t the Green Bros or some strange weird weed name that you see people come up with. I’m just not a big fan of anything Boyz or anything that’s like Green Cross. I’ve always just felt I’m high H-Y. And then one day I was just like, oh, Hytek, I was just like, that’s it. This was like 5-6 years ago, and I got the name copyrighted. Got everything done with the state. Kind of came out with the brand. The look of the brand, I’m an 80’s baby. I like the bright colors. Everything that we do is authentic. It wasn’t like, oh, we’re gonna try to be that little bit. We have a relaunch. We have new packaging coming. But Hytek, I wanted a two syllable name. I didn’t want like, da, da, da, da, da, like a set name. Hytek, is Hytek. Just quick, it’s easy.

Gas & Middies: Did you know about the other HI TECH in California?
Hytek: I looked on Instagram at the time. I didn’t even know the Cali one was out there. They weren’t really on Instagram ‘cause I checked. And then I don’t even know what they really are. It’s a Don Merfos derivative. It’s like a sub-brand of the trappers out there. The Merfos family guys, they seem cool. But you don’t even really see it doing anything. It’s just like a sub-brand of Don Merfos. Yeah, so it’s just one of those subjective, weird, white label, confusing, street hype things there. But whatever.

Gas & Middies: What makes you guys different in the weed scene?
Hytek: Different, I think it’s just care. I think it’s the team we’ve built, to try to reach the goals we want. We don’t have a lot of layers here. Everyone generally is pushing in the same direction. Pushing the wheel forward. You don’t get that in a lot of places. Everyone’s bought in for the common goal. And, we get a very direct response in our product and in our marketing, and what we change today, goes to our consumer. We get the weed out there fresh. We want people to get it in their hands as quick as possible. So I’d say with what’s making us different, it’s just our attention to detail and understanding everything about the plant, the market, the timing. Try to get it to the consumer in the best possible way. And everyone says they want to be the best, but it’s very hard to execute day in and day out like that. We’re still learning every day. Developing new SOPs, new drying, new curing. The companies are all the same. We’re all the homies. But at the end of the day, it’s just how obsessive are you about it. How much time are you putting in? And it shows. Are you QC-ing? How is your pre-packackaging doing? How is your shipping? What are your retail partners doing with it? It all matters. So a lot of people just think, oh, once it’s harvested, we harvest the weed, and then dry, and we’re good. No, that’s just the beginning. And then you’ve got drying, curing, trimming, packaging, shipping, and then retail partners. Yeah, so there’s a lot, but I mean, I think that’s the difference. Just attention to detail.

Gas & Middies: Since I’m here. Any details you want to share on the grow?
Hytek: We’re pretty standard, man. We grow right here in Detroit proper. We run double-ended bulbs. We’re not really LED. We do veg in some LEDs. They’re running some under canopy LEDs. We like the look of DE weed. There’s definitely a different look to it. Whether it’s structure, color, terpenes. We prefer the DE. We stay true to our caregiver roots. We knew how to run under those and that’s what we’re doing. We got the grows. It’s not as simple, but it’s effective. And we just keep it clean. Anyone that works here will tell you, we’re just a nut about keeping everything as clean as possible.

Gas & Middies: So how many plants?
Hytek: We have about 4,500 plants here.

Gas & Middies: Do you target taste when you’re picking strains?
Hytek: It’s a loaded question. We definitely target taste, as in overall, but we understand that there’s buyers who can want an array of different things. Some people smoke with their eyes. Some people actually smoke with their palate. Some smoke for effect. We try to do a good mixture of strains that do all of those things. But at the end of the day, a lot of the best tasting strains test low, and those unfortunately, get scooted to the side. And, we have to work with what our retail partners are demanding, and they’re just demanding what the customer’s demanding, unfortunately. Why that’s happening? You know, maybe it’ll change, maybe it won’t. But either way, we have to run things. Everyone wants to say they’re gonna be different, until it’s time to pay the bills. To be the company that can run low test results, and get people to buy low test results, you have to prove to them your weed’s worth it. You can’t just expect someone to go in and drop $40 on an eighth, or $35 on an eighth, if they don’t know who the fuck you are.

Gas & Middies: What are your guys’ top selling strains?
Hytek: I mean, our top selling is for sure our Lemon Cherry and our Headstash. Ironically, that’s just what the market knows us for. We’ve had a lot of strains rotate through that were more “flash in the pans”. With that, people obviously want the flavor. I mean, that answered your question. Yeah, they want flavor, but they also want power. We do get really good results from our Gelonades, our Sherb Pies. And to be real, we’re just relaunching our bags. So, we don’t really know what people are gonna gravitate toward, too. Unfortunately, we’ve been doing a lot of bulk. With that, it’s hard for us to track what people are really enjoying. But we do see people on Instagram reposting things, I think a lot of our weed’s stepped up in the last six months. The Perm Markers, the Zoaps. But for us, the Headstash is unique to our brand, and it is a nice cut from Karma. That was pheno hunted, by actually the homies in Arizona, at TruMed. As you know, it’s a Cherry Pie x Karmarado OG cross, so it’s different. But there’s guys that don’t fuck with our Headstash, that only want the fucking candies and the fucking Sherbs. And you’re like: “yo, smoke the Headstash”. They’re like: “no”. And I’m like: “you’re crazy, but okay”. But that’s just the flavor I like. Everyone is different. Like Zach in the Pack, fucking will not smoke our Headstash.

Gas & Middies: So, you might have answered it, but would you say Headstash is your trademark strain?
Hytek: We have Headstash merch. So, yeah. We’re gonna start pheno hunting all the time. Next year, we’re gonna try to hit the market with like 6-7 unique fucking flavors that no one’s ever seen that were found. Then of course, we’re gonna run the crowd favorites, the stuff that’s running through the fucking country. The perms, the Seed Junky crosses, the fucking DEO Farms. Anyone who’s pushing the limit. If we get our hands on those cuts, we’ll run them just to give our followers our spin on what we can do with that genetic.

Gas & Middies: What makes a strain gas for you?
Hytek: Gas? When you smell gas, it’s not like you’re smelling candy, or sherb, or any of the other terps. It’s straight, I mean, nose-burning gas. I think a lot of times in this flavor game, people don’t exactly know what gas is or isn’t, and to me, it’s more stuff that’s like more chem-leaning, or like Chem #4s, obviously the Motor Breath is a Chem #4 x SFV OG cross. So I mean, gas is undeniable, but what it is to me, it just makes your eyes water almost. So I don’t know, I guess it’s different for everyone, but for me, I would say, when you say gas, do you mean like the gas terp profile? Or like when you say gas, do you mean like fire?

Gas & Middies: Kind of both. But on that, when I think of gas, I think of Los Muertos. Would you consider gas?
Hytek: Oh yeah, for sure. That’s the 4516 x Motor Breath. We pheno hunted that. The 4516 is giving it that color, but the Motor Breath’s giving it that punch and terp. So it’s just that skunky, just Motor Breath.

Gas & Middies: What is top quality weed for you?
Hytek: Top quality? What’s fucking translating the flavor and smoking. There’s no denying good smoke, but when you get guys out there that, oh, it’s not my terp, it’s not this, that’s not the one. I’ll smoke anything as long as it’s smoking. I love all weed, but I mean, I think our Headstash for me, I’d smoke it for the rest of my life. Not just that, but like I’d put it in a nice rotation.

Gas & Middies: Do you guys have anything in the concentrate space?
Hytek: We’ve collabed with Fifth Age, Eastside Alchemy on some rosin. This room we’re sitting in right here, this is going to become a wash lab probably in about a month. So this is not going to be in office anymore. This will be just hand rolls, wash labs and infused pre-rolls. So we’re going to start making our rosin in-house. Taking our bubble, pairing it with our flower, doing a true infused high-end pre-roll, at a good price. And, doing some 2-gram hand rolls. We’re going to be doing it vertically. I think just like a lot of our SKUs, giving it to all of our followers at a really good price.

Gas & Middies: Have you done any washing yet?
Hytek: As far as that, a lot of our strains we haven’t washed. We are pheno hunting constantly. And what I think having a wash lab in a house is going to do, it’s going to allow us to pheno hunt for flower and washing. So we definitely understand the rosin market demands a lot. We don’t want to drop things that have already been dropped for years and years and years. So, we may pheno hunt to find our first few flavors and just slowly start building a washing catalog. But to me, okay, we can wash Sherbanger. We can wash the Perm Marker. It’s already been done. Like, yeah, we may do it, you know, whatever. But rosin for us is going to be like an extra cherry on top, that we do. And it might take us 6 months to come out with a flavor or a SKU. But we’re in no hurry. Just do it the right way.

Gas & Middies: Yeah, and some things that smoke well don’t necessarily wash well.
Hytek: I think we’re seeing the evolution of flower right now. Everyone’s understanding the translation in the flavors. I think rosin’s next up. There’s a lot of smokers out there that want rosin to translate. A lot of what’s being hunted is for just straight wash numbers. Like percentage to yield. And I think we’re going to start seeing guys just washing for flavor. And they already are, a lot of them. But a lot of rosin in the Metrc market is dominated by yield. And if we did that with flower, we would have probably very little to pick from, flavor-wise. So I think you’re going to start seeing that scrutiny move over to the rosin market a lot, too. Right now, rosin’s just kind of viewed as like, oh, it’s rosin. It must be good. That’s true. But like, it’s not all the same.

Gas & Middies: So what’s your link to The Refinery?
Hytek: The Refinery it’s Tom Farrow and myself now. Definitely old school homies in the caregiver market. We do a lot of business together. My store was launched in 96 West. We definitely want to work together in the future and open more Refineries if we can. I like the look of the store. It has a good following. And we converted my store to a Refinery. Obviously Detroit held me up in Rec(creational) and didn’t let me flip over right away. Whatever. Now we’re here. We’re just going to build The Refinery brand on quality. Just being a good store. So it was really just more about teaming up. Those guys over there at Paw Paw, run a lot of Hytek strains. They obviously do the Growing Pains. Just good homies who grow good weed with like minded views. They were producing Hytek too for a while.

Gas & Middies: Is the Refinery going rec soon? Or is it already?
Hytek: The store should be rec probably right around the 1st of the year.

Gas & Middies: You guys seem to be close with Growing Pains. What’s your story?
Hytek: That’s Tom. The Growing Pains is the other owner of the Refinery. That’s his Instagram handle. Just kind of launched a sub-brand based on quality as well. And, they’ve been building that over the last year or so. And, it’s in the same family as Hytek, which is the sub-brand, under through The Refinery.

Gas & Middies: Yeah, I kind of wondered because Growing Pains is harder to find. Hytek has more branding. If you Google: “Growing Pains” you’re finding the sitcom.
Hytek: Yeah, we’ve been around for like 3 years. They just started, and they just started rolling out their bags. And their production’s only about 50-60 pounds a month. So if you get your hands on it. They are they’re releasing some marketing. I think there are some T-shirts and shit going around today. They’re dropping them at stores. You’re going to start seeing them more and more and more. But they’re really just a brand born out of those guys want to do their own take on the Michigan Metrc market. And it’s just been more of not a hobby, but just not something they’re dying to push. It’s just if you know, you know.

Gas & Middies: What made you choose Los Muertos for your Zalympics entry?
Hytek: Yeah, it’s a cool event, right? It’s gets the community together. All the brands, all the smokers, all the people who support, all the teams behind these brands. It’s a cool event, right? You know, shout out to Exotic Matter and those boys who brought that here. We picked Los Muertos because at the end of the day, I believe if you’re entering your company into a competition, you should do a unique strain that you do, you do well and that you think other people are going to enjoy. Now, I can’t speak on the results of Zalympics any of these years. Do I agree with them? Maybe, maybe not. Has our weed got a lot better in the last couple of years? Should we have won? Probably not. But there was a lot of entries in there that were very good. And we just got to trust the judging. But to say the terp profiles that people are looking for in those boxes and who’s judging it? I have no clue what they’re high on. But not to knock any of the companies who won or flavor profiles. But I think if you ask the true smokers who represent the Michigan market, whether it’s the Roller Boys, whether it’s the leading brands. I think everyone was kind of scratching their head with the results. And now why that happened? I don’t know. I think there’s some assumptions out there. Like I said, I’m happy with the event. I think it’s a great thing for the community. But we picked Los Muertos, it’s unique to our brand. We believe we had a really nice batch of it, that was smoking for that event. And we went with it. You know, it’s definitely a hard thing to always pick what you want to be represented on. I think going forward next year, we may enter Purple Punch. You know, take home the gold. I don’t know, we’ll see.

Gas & Middies: How did you come up with the concept for the 1/2 oz baller jars of Permanent Marker (& Zoap)?
Hytek: The miron purple glass jars. It’s always been synonymous with quality, whether it’s a California batch. Miron, they’re known. They’re no stranger to the cannabis industry. They’re a quality jar. We were like: “yo, how can we get it to our followers?” Like a half ounce, still affordable, but like small drops. Get it to the right stores. We smoked those two batches and we were like: “these are smoking!” So we were like: “yo, we’ve got to do something with this.” It’s more just let’s see what people like. We were like: “fuck it, let’s buy it!” Ordered a bunch of mirons, created the labels. Did it all in-house. Served them up, got them out there. I was like: “cool, people enjoy the weed.” But they were small drops. So it was just like: “yo, let’s do something different. Let’s post it on IG. Let’s let people know, like all the hard work we’ve been doing in the garden.” I think it showed, that’s pretty much our level of quality that we’re at now, throughout this year. We want people to buy our brand with confidence, whether it’s balls, pre-packs, jars, rosin in the future, whatever you’re buying from us, we want you to know it’s smoking. Obviously nothing original about putting weed in miron glass. But we were like: “yo, let me show you what we got!” And, we did it and it went well. We are doing an anti-tamper sticker on the next one. So you can’t open them.

Gas & Middies: So I know you sold some of the Permanent Marker as deli style. Is the plan to do that again to let people get it, without commiting to a half?
Hytek: We’d like to try to put our foot down and tell our retail partners what they can and can’t do. Unfortunately, in Michigan, you got a lot of stores that only want to push bulk. They’re definitely on board with these jars. And I think getting them out there and showing these guys the power of the jars was big. But certain consumers only want prepack and certain consumers only want bulk. So, yeah, does make it hard on the brands and the business? Sure, but you got to serve up both markets, and unfortunately, does it kind of take away the exclusiveness of it? Possibly, but there will never be enough to be able to. Like we’ve never given a ton of bulk out of that. Like a pound to two pounds.

Gas & Middies: So to add on to that, with Permanent Marker being a big drop this year, with Seed Junky & Pressure Pack’s releases. What sets your batch apart?
Hytek: I think every every company does well with certain strains. That plant for us was something that ran well in our garden these first couple of runs. A lot of people don’t want to touch that plant because of its yields or its finicky. It’s very, very difficult to grow. We knocked out the second batch, the first batch, and like we loved it. We cured it up and put it in jars. So for us, is it predominantly a Seed Junky’s strain? Sure. We just want to give our smokers, our fans, our take on what we did with this strain. These dudes did a good job breeding. And we’re like let’s run it. And we ran it and we’re like: “damn, this is the strain is tight!” I think a lot of people haven’t smoked good versions of a lot of these strains. I think certain things get bad reputations like Sherbanger, unfortunately. I think in Michigan, get’s a bad reputation for being boof. But it’s just because it’s a very difficult strain to run. And for us, we do a good job with it. But a lot of people’s Sherbanger is just not it. And it ruins the strain to the consumer because they get it two or three times. And it’s not what it should be. Why would they ever buy mine? And they should.

Gas & Middies: What’s the biggest misconception in the industry?
Hytek: I think a lot of people don’t think for themselves. And when I say that, they let hype talk them into something is better than it is. And they won’t let something that is non-brand name. Like you pick up some flower from someone and it was smoking, they would just automatically assume the brand name stuff is better, even if it’s not and there’s no talking about it. Yeah and I don’t even know that’s a misconception or like just a like your belief or something.

Gas & Middies: I think a misconception is basically just when people think something, that is proven wrong. I always think of chasing THC as the big one. I would say black ash vs. white ash is another.
Hytek: There’s a lot of weed with white ash that doesn’t translate flavor. So, that’s another thing that people are looking at. Black ash. There’s a lot of weed that might have a darker gray ash or speckled ash that still smokes tight. But at the end of the day, it’s a good indication, that if the ash is nice and fluffy and strong, the weed should smoke good. It’s a good indication. You’ll rarely see dark ash smoke good, but it does happen. Not a lot. The people are always right. I mean it’s either good or it’s not. Like genuinely you don’t really see people get behind something that’s not good. Unless it’s Jeeters.

Gas & Middies: Any strains or products to look out for in the future?
Hytek: Yeah like I said, rosin is definitely in our pipeline. Who knows when, where, or why. Probably do an infused pre-roll line. Infused pre-rolls are getting big. It’d be cool to mix some different flavored bubble hash with some different flower. But do premium inputs and see how it smokes versus the traditional: “who knows what’s in this infused pre-roll. Like oh my god, oh my god, it tastes crazy. Like yeah you know it burns black or I don’t know what’s going on.” We’re definitely gonna be pheno hunting a ton of new gear/strains this Spring. Winter is the start of it. Some Bean Fiends gear definitely going to be looking for our own unique flavors just to keep people entertained. You can’t just be running the shit everyone else runs.

Hytek - Permanent Marker

Stats

• THC: 25.70%
• CBD: 0.049%
• Total Cannabinoids: 30.16%
• Produced By: Hytek Cultivation (AU-G-C-000944)
• Harvest Date: 09/27/23
• Tested by: Virids
• Test Date: 10/20/23

Terps

• Total: %

Review

👁️ Look

• Big, fluffy, machine-trimmed nugs.
• Breaks down into angel feathers.

👃 Smell

• Pungent, sweet chemicals.

👅 Taste

• Spicy, gassy inhale. Almost metallic.
• Exhale dank, gassy, chemicals.
• Flavor overload.
• Coats your palate.
• Aftertaste is true to name.

Rating

When I first purchased this, I was hesistant to buy a 1/2 oz of a product I hadn’t tried before. It was a big commitment.

Looking back… I should have bought two!

This dropped at the end of 2023, when Permanent Marker had already made a big name for itself in the Michigan market.

EVERYBODY had their version of it (or will in 2024!). Seed Junky, Doja, Pressure Pack, Uplyfted, Rkive, & more.

There were a lot of markers to sniff, and I sniffed them all!

But these limited edition, 1/2 oz, miron baller jars from Hytek take it to the next level.

Starting with the presentation, the miron jars are beautiful with simple, yet eye-catching art.

Each of the nugs inside were massive, dark green, Instagram-worthy buds.

The aroma was like cracking a fresh Sharpie and huffing it, until your nose hairs burned.

The breakdown was near perfection. Sticky, with proper squish. Kief glistening like diamonds on a chain.

Flavor wise, I’m convinced Hytek just dips their bud in Sharpie juice…

All of the sweet, gassy, chemicals are there. And want to live rent-free in your mouth!

Chemicals coat your palate, making you smack your lips together, like Craig’s dad on the Friday movies.

Honestly, I treasured this half. Finishing the final nug to write this review.

To me Hytek took the strain of 2023, put their spin on it, and ended the year with a bang!

This one is 100%:

Gas ⛽

Outro

This review was a long time coming.

I’ve already awarded Hytek - Permanent Marker Best Flower, as well as Hytek Best Flower Brand in the Gassiest of 2023 Awards.

Overall, Hytek’s Permanent Marker drop was an amazing end to 2023.

I want to thank Chocholate and the team over at Hytek for having me out to their facility in Detroit. As well as putting on a stellar interview with me.

Hytek has since re-released their Permanent Marker in normal mylar pre-packs.

Be sure to pick these up if you see them!

Did you get down on the Permanent Marker or Zoap baller jars?

What do you guys think?

Stay 😶‍🌫️