The 2013 High Times Cannabis Cup captured Amsterdam cannabis culture at a pivotal moment. Held November 24–28, 2013, the 26th annual Cup returned to Amsterdam Roest for its daytime expo and seminars, while concerts and the awards ceremony took place at the Melkweg. The Roest exhibition space was reportedly expanded from the previous year, electronic tablet voting returned, and judges moved between the expo and participating coffeeshops across the city. The format was still recognizably the classic Amsterdam Cannabis Cup, but the larger cannabis world was changing rapidly around it. Earlier in 2013, High Times had transformed its Denver event into what it described as its first U.S. Cannabis Cup, another sign that Amsterdam was no longer the competition’s only center of gravity.
On the competition side, The Green Place won the overall Coffeeshop Cannabis Cup with Rollex OG Kush, defeating defending champion Flowerbomb Kush from Green House and Tangie from The Bushdoctor. Gold Coast Extracts’ Whitewalker OG captured Indica, Reserva Privada’s Tangie won Sativa, and Soma’s Sacred Seeds took Hybrid with Somari. The results also documented a major shift in concentrates: Lemon Cleaner OG Nectar won the Seed Company Hash category, Shoreline Solventless reached the Neder Hash podium, and Tangie Wax finished third in the same division. CBD was now important enough to receive separate flower and concentrate honors.
Amsterdam Roest Expands for the 26th Cup
The Amsterdam Roest complex again served as the daytime base of operations, but contemporary coverage noted that its exhibition area had roughly doubled compared with the smaller 25th-anniversary setup. Despite that expansion, the expo remained compact enough that judges could move relatively easily between booths and seminars. Voting was handled electronically on tablets, while the familiar judge-pass system encouraged visitors to spend much of their time outside the expo evaluating coffeeshop entries around Amsterdam.
The Cup ran from November 24 through Thanksgiving Day, November 28. Its schedule mixed cultivation and extraction education with music and cannabis-business programming. The opening day included Mila Jansen’s “Hash 101” seminar with extraction specialists, while later sessions featured botanist Robert Connell Clarke, High Times cultivation editors Danny Danko and Nico Escondido, Bubbleman, Soma, Wernard Bruining, Rare Dankness, DNA Genetics, Green House and author Doug Fine. The lineup illustrates how broad the Cup had become: attendees could learn ethnobotany, ice-water extraction, breeding, cannabis cuisine, cultivation and the rapidly evolving American regulatory market within the same five-day festival.
The Cannabis Cup Was Becoming an International Competition in a New Way
Amsterdam had always been international because its seed companies worked with genetics originating across the world, but 2013 represented something different. American breeders, extractors and cannabis companies were no longer merely supplying genetics to Dutch businesses; they were arriving under their own names and winning major trophies. Gold Coast Extracts, Elemental Seeds, Tahoe Wellness Cooperative, TC Labs, TerpX, EmoTek and Essential Extracts appeared alongside long-established Amsterdam names such as Green House, Soma’s Sacred Seeds and Sensi Seeds.
That trend was accelerated by developments in the United States. In April 2013, High Times staged its Denver Cup after Colorado voters had approved adult-use legalization the previous year. High Times’ historical archive describes that Denver gathering as the first U.S. High Times Cannabis Cup, drawing more than 10,000 attendees. By November, many of the same North American genetic and concentrate trends were visible in Amsterdam. The old relationship—American genetics refined by Dutch breeders—was becoming a two-way exchange between mature Amsterdam institutions and rapidly developing U.S. cannabis markets.
2013 High Times Cannabis Cup Winners in All Documented Categories
The principal historical results preserve 12 competitive divisions for the 2013 Amsterdam Cup when the CBD flower and CBD concentrate awards are counted separately. The coffeeshop, seed-company flower and CBD flower results are independently corroborated by SeedFinder, while contemporary Cup coverage agrees on the hash, glass, product and booth podiums.
| 2013 Category | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffeeshop Cannabis Cup / Overall | Rollex OG Kush — The Green Place | Flowerbomb Kush — Green House | Tangie — The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop |
| Seed Company Indica | Whitewalker OG — Gold Coast Extracts | The True OG — Elemental Seeds | KnightsBridge OG — Lady Sativa Genetics |
| Seed Company Sativa | Tangie — Reserva Privada | Sour Power — HortiLab | Headbanger — Karma Genetics |
| Seed Company Hybrid | Somari — Soma’s Sacred Seeds | Girl Scout Cookies — Tahoe Wellness Cooperative | Dieseltonic — Resin Seeds |
| Seed Company Hash | Lemon Cleaner OG Nectar — TC Labs / TerpX / EmoTek | Whitewalker OG — Gold Coast Extracts | Chemblend Solventless Wax — Elemental Seeds / Essential Extracts / Johnny Trill |
| Import Hash | Twizzla — The Green Place | Chemdog Cream — Green House | Maroc Lemon Haze — The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop |
| Neder Hash | Lemon Crystal — Green House | Shoreline Solventless — The Green Place | Tangie Wax — The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop |
| CBD Flowers | Cannatonic — Elemental Seeds | — | — |
| CBD Concentrate | CBD Simple — PhytoSPHERE Systems / associated hemp company | — | — |
| Best Product | Buddha Giftbag — Big Buddha Seeds | Cloud V — Cloud V | Sublimator — Sublimator |
| Best Glass | Honey Collabs Collection — Master Yoda / Big Buddha Seeds | Silika/Silka Glass collaboration — Loud Seeds | Ray Pack — ROOR |
| Best Booth | Big Buddha Seeds | The Devil’s Harvest | Sensi Seeds |
| Counterculture Hall of Fame* | Ben Dronkers | — | — |
*The Hall of Fame induction was a cultural honor, not a judged competition category. Surviving sources vary slightly in the naming of the CBD concentrate producer and the spelling of Silika/Silka Glass, but the winning products themselves are consistent.
Unlike 2012, the principal surviving 2013 result lists do not identify a separate Freedom Fighter of the Year or Dutch Master Award associated with this Amsterdam Cup. Rather than retroactively assigning those honors from incomplete secondary lists, the table includes only awards that can be reliably tied to the 2013 event. Ben Dronkers’ Counterculture Hall of Fame induction, however, is independently confirmed by both historical Cup records and Sensi Seeds.
Rollex OG Kush Gives The Green Place Its Biggest Victory
The headline result was Rollex OG Kush from The Green Place taking first place in the Coffeeshop Cannabis Cup. Green Place had been a persistent podium presence during the previous several years—Headband Kush finished third in 2009, L.A. Cheese third in 2010, Buddha Tahoe third in 2011 and Shoreline second in 2012. Rollex OG Kush finally converted that consistency into an overall championship. Soft Secrets described the 2013 Cup as a breakthrough for Green Place, which also won Import Hash with Twizzla.
The podium also summarized the genetic direction of the era. Rollex OG Kush led the field, while Flowerbomb Kush, Green House’s 2012 champion, finished second. The third-place entry, Tangie, pointed toward a different but equally important flavor-driven future. Compared with the Haze-dominated overall Cups of the previous decade, 2013 reflected a market increasingly driven by OG/Kush genetics and highly recognizable terpene profiles.
Flowerbomb Kush Nearly Defends Its Championship
Green House’s Flowerbomb Kush finished second, one year after winning the 2012 Cannabis Cup outright. The result demonstrated that the previous championship had not been an isolated batch or favorable judging year. Flowerbomb remained capable of challenging for the top coffeeshop trophy while Green House simultaneously won Neder Hash with Lemon Crystal and placed second in Import Hash with Chemdog Cream.
The repeat podium also continued Green House’s extraordinary long-term competitive record. By 2013 the operation had accumulated overall victories associated with White Widow, Super Silver Haze, Hawaiian Snow, Arjan’s Ultra Haze #1, Super Lemon Haze and Flowerbomb Kush. Yet Rollex OG Kush’s win showed that the Amsterdam hierarchy remained competitive: even the Cup’s most decorated companies could be displaced by a coffeeshop that had spent years climbing the podium.
Tangie Has Its Breakthrough Year
The most historically consequential cultivar at the 2013 Cup may have been Tangie. Reserva Privada’s version won the Seed Company Sativa Cup, while flower presented by The Bushdoctor finished third overall in the coffeeshop competition. Tangie-derived concentrate also reached the Neder Hash podium through The Bushdoctor’s Tangie Wax. High Times’ later history of the Cannabis Cup specifically identifies Tangie in 2013 among the competition’s future classics.
The strain’s repeated appearance across flower and concentrate categories signaled the increasing importance of aroma as a market identity. Tangie’s intense citrus profile was immediately recognizable, and its success helped establish orange and tangerine-forward genetics as a major breeding direction. Its 2013 Sativa victory was followed by even more Tangie success in subsequent competitions, making Amsterdam 2013 a useful starting point for understanding how quickly the family spread through modern cannabis breeding.
Whitewalker OG Wins an Extremely OG-Heavy Indica Cup
Gold Coast Extracts won Indica with Whitewalker OG, followed by Elemental Seeds’ The True OG and Lady Sativa Genetics’ KnightsBridge OG. Every entry on the podium carried an explicit OG identity, an almost perfect illustration of how completely OG Kush-related branding had conquered the Indica category by this stage.
Whitewalker OG also placed second in the Seed Company Hash competition, giving Gold Coast Extracts recognition in both flower and concentrate form. The overlap illustrates a major change from earlier Cups: successful genetics were increasingly expected to perform not only as dried flower but also as raw material for high-grade extracts. The breeding and concentrate worlds were becoming inseparable.
Somari Gives Soma Another Major Cannabis Cup
The Hybrid Cup went to Somari from Soma’s Sacred Seeds, ahead of Girl Scout Cookies from Tahoe Wellness Cooperative and Resin Seeds’ Dieseltonic. Soma was no newcomer; his work had been intertwined with Cup history for years through varieties such as NYC Diesel, Lavender and Amnesia Haze. Winning Hybrid in 2013 showed that one of Amsterdam’s established breeders remained competitive while younger American operations were rapidly entering the field.
Second place proved more prophetic. Girl Scout Cookies was already becoming one of the defining American cultivars of the early 2010s, and its appearance on an Amsterdam High Times podium demonstrated how quickly California genetics were crossing the Atlantic. Where earlier Amsterdam competitions had helped popularize Dutch-developed seed lines around the world, genetics such as Girl Scout Cookies were now reversing that flow and influencing European growers and breeders.
Sour Power and Headbanger Make the Sativa Podium Especially Strong
Behind Tangie in Sativa, HortiLab’s Sour Power finished second and Karma Genetics’ Headbanger placed third. HortiLab’s own awards archive independently confirms its second-place result at the 26th High Times Cannabis Cup. Sour Power had already accumulated European competition recognition and continued to win awards after 2013.
Headbanger combined another increasingly important flavor direction: the Sour Diesel and Kush-influenced world that was spreading alongside OG genetics. The entire Sativa podium therefore looked very different from the traditional Haze lineups of earlier Amsterdam Cups. Tangie, Sour Power and Headbanger were all emblematic of a market moving toward strong, named aroma profiles rather than relying primarily on broad families such as Haze or Skunk.
Lemon Cleaner OG Nectar Shows How Fast Concentrates Were Evolving
The Seed Company Hash Cup went to Lemon Cleaner OG Nectar, a collaboration involving TC Labs, TerpX and EmoTek. Whitewalker OG finished second, while Chemblend Solventless Wax from Elemental Seeds, Essential Extracts and Johnny Trill took third. A later interview with EmoTek founder Jayson Emo recalls the 2013 Amsterdam win as a career-changing moment and describes the collaboration as combining California and Colorado material with extraction technology he had developed.
The product names themselves reveal how rapidly concentrate culture was changing. “Nectar,” “wax” and advanced extraction collaborations would have sounded foreign during the traditional hash competitions of the 1990s. By 2013, extract makers were arriving as sophisticated competitors in their own right. At the same time, the third-place Chemblend Solventless Wax showed that solventless processing was already competing alongside more technologically intensive extraction methods—a distinction that would eventually generate entirely separate competition categories.
Amsterdam’s Traditional and Modern Hash Worlds Coexist
The coffeeshop hash divisions preserved the event’s older structure. The Green Place won Import Hash with Twizzla, beating Green House’s Chemdog Cream and The Bushdoctor’s Maroc Lemon Haze. Imported hash had been part of Amsterdam cannabis culture since long before the Cannabis Cup, reflecting the city’s historical connection to resin from Morocco and other established hash-producing regions.
The Neder Hash category looked considerably more modern. Green House won with Lemon Crystal, followed by Shoreline Solventless from Green Place and Tangie Wax from The Bushdoctor. The terminology tells the story: locally produced concentrates were increasingly identified by extraction style, cultivar and texture rather than simply being called Dutch hash. The Cannabis Cup was effectively documenting the transition from a generalized hash category toward the specialized concentrate competitions that would become standard in later legal markets.
Cannatonic Wins CBD Flower as CBD Becomes a Permanent Competition Category
Cannatonic from Elemental Seeds won the CBD Flower honor, while CBD Simple received the CBD concentrate award. Cannatonic’s appearance was especially meaningful because the cultivar had already placed third in the 2008 Sativa Cup and subsequently became closely associated with the movement toward CBD-rich breeding. By 2013, High Times was no longer treating CBD as an unusual characteristic inside ordinary flower competition; it was maintaining dedicated awards for cannabinoid-focused products.
CBD Simple also demonstrated that hemp-derived and high-CBD concentrates were beginning to enter mainstream cannabis competition. A 2014 company announcement looking back at Amsterdam identifies the CBD Simple product represented there as a PhytoSPHERE Systems product that received the 2013 highest-CBD concentrate honor. The award reflected a market beginning to measure cannabis by chemical composition and potential use cases, not only potency in the traditional THC-centered sense.
Big Buddha Sweeps Best Booth and Best Product
Big Buddha Seeds won both Best Booth and Best Product, the latter for its Buddha Giftbag. The Devil’s Harvest and Sensi Seeds completed the booth podium, while Cloud V and the Sublimator finished second and third in Product. The results demonstrate how far the Cup had moved beyond strain competition: branding, merchandising, vapor technology and expo design had become legitimate award fields of their own.
Big Buddha’s double win was especially notable because the company had built much of its reputation around Cheese genetics after Big Buddha Cheese won the 2006 Indica Cup. Seven years later, it was also being recognized for how effectively it presented itself as a cannabis brand. The shift from seed breeder to full lifestyle identity was becoming common throughout the industry.
Master Yoda and Big Buddha Win the Glass Cup
The Glass Cup went to the Honey Collabs Collection from Master Yoda and Big Buddha Seeds, ahead of a Loud Seeds/Silika Glass collaboration and ROOR’s Ray Pack. Functional glass had become an established international art form by this stage, and collaborations between glassblowers and cannabis brands increasingly resembled artist-brand projects rather than conventional smoking accessories.
ROOR’s continued podium presence connected 2013 with earlier eras of the Glass Cup, while the first two entries represented the increasingly collaborative culture of modern glassmaking. The competition was no longer simply about who manufactured the most functional pipe; design, identity and artistic collaboration had become central to the category.
Ben Dronkers Enters the Counterculture Hall of Fame
The major cultural honor of the 26th Cup went to Ben Dronkers, founder of Sensi Seeds, HempFlax and Amsterdam’s Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum, who was inducted into the High Times Counterculture Hall of Fame. Historical Cup records identify Dronkers as the 2013 inductee, and Sensi Seeds independently confirms the honor. Soft Secrets described him as the first Dutch inductee into the Hall.
His induction was appropriate for an event whose history was inseparable from the Dutch seed-bank era. Dronkers and Sensi Seeds had played major roles in preserving, combining and distributing genetics during the period when Amsterdam became the world center of commercial cannabis breeding. Sensi-associated varieties such as Northern Lights and Jack Herer had already accumulated legendary Cannabis Cup histories before Dronkers himself was formally recognized.
The Dronkers Seminar Becomes One of the Week’s Most Unusual Moments
Dronkers’ induction came after an unexpectedly contentious moment at the expo. Contemporary accounts from Sensi Seeds and Soft Secrets describe High Times security interrupting his seminar when cannabis samples were being distributed to audience members. High Times personnel said the distribution violated the rules under which the event was operating and emphasized that organizers had to comply with Dutch law. Dronkers objected publicly before the seminar eventually concluded.
Only hours later, High Times editor Dan Skye introduced Dronkers at the Melkweg for his Hall of Fame ceremony. Contemporary reporting says the earlier dispute had largely dissipated by then, with Dronkers receiving an enthusiastic reception. The episode neatly captured Amsterdam’s changing cannabis environment: one of the founders of the Dutch seed industry could be celebrated as a counterculture pioneer while the event hosting him was simultaneously becoming more careful about possession and distribution rules.
Killer Mike, EL-P, Cam’ron and The Wailers Give the Cup a Wide Musical Range
Nighttime entertainment remained a major component of the 2013 festival. The official schedule included Black the Ripper, Killer Mike and EL-P, Cam’ron, Smif-N-Wessun and The Wailers at the Melkweg, followed by the awards show and an after-party featuring Berner. Contemporary attendees also documented the broader lineup and described free Melkweg admission as one of the major benefits of the judge pass.
Elsewhere during Cup week, John Sinclair and His Vipers staged the Viper Madness party, celebrating early jazz musicians and cannabis culture. The event honored figures such as Louis Armstrong, Mezz Mezzrow and Cab Calloway and reflected Sinclair’s longstanding interest in the historical relationship between jazz and marijuana. The coexistence of jazz history, hip-hop, reggae and modern cannabis business gave the 2013 Cup the eclectic cultural mix that had defined Amsterdam gatherings for decades.
The Final Years of the Continuous Amsterdam Era
In retrospect, the 2013 Cup occupies a particularly important position in the event’s chronology. High Times’ later history notes that Dutch enforcement pressure had already become apparent with the 2011 police raid, and the situation would worsen dramatically in 2014, when authorities prevented the planned expo from opening. The continuous annual Amsterdam era effectively ended after that 27th edition, although special Amsterdam Cups later returned.
That makes 2013 one of the final examples of the classic five-day Amsterdam format operating more or less intact: judges traveled the city, a dedicated expo ran throughout the week, extensive seminars took place at Roest, major concerts filled the Melkweg and the awards ceremony concluded the competition on Thanksgiving. At the same time, the first U.S. Cannabis Cup had already taken place in Denver earlier that year. The future of High Times competition was clearly moving toward legalized American markets.
Legacy of the 2013 High Times Cannabis Cup
The 2013 High Times Cannabis Cup documented cannabis culture in the middle of a profound shift. Rollex OG Kush finally gave The Green Place an overall championship; Flowerbomb Kush nearly defended its 2012 crown; Tangie emerged as one of the defining cultivars of the next generation; Whitewalker OG led an entirely OG-named Indica podium; Girl Scout Cookies appeared near the top of Hybrid; and advanced concentrates such as Lemon Cleaner OG Nectar demonstrated how rapidly extraction technology was evolving. Cannatonic and CBD Simple meanwhile confirmed that cannabinoid-focused competition had become a permanent part of the Cup.
The surrounding history was equally important. Ben Dronkers entered the Counterculture Hall of Fame, Robert Connell Clarke and Mila Jansen represented older cannabis scholarship and hash culture, Killer Mike, EL-P, Cam’ron and The Wailers filled the nighttime program, and Amsterdam remained the center of the international cannabis pilgrimage even as High Times expanded its competitions into the United States. The 26th Cup therefore stands as one of the clearest transition points between two Cannabis Cup eras: the old Amsterdam-centered world that had defined the event since 1988 and the international, concentrate-heavy, terpene-focused legal industry that was rapidly taking its place.
