The 2021 High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona: People’s Choice Edition marked a major milestone for the state’s rapidly developing cannabis market. Although Arizona had operated a medical marijuana program for years, the 2021 competition was the first High Times Cannabis Cup opened to Arizona consumers as judges, arriving just months after voters approved adult-use legalization and recreational sales began across the state. Instead of a conventional festival built around celebrity judges, live concerts and a central awards venue, High Times used the People’s Choice model developed during the COVID-19 pandemic: consumers purchased judging kits, evaluated the same products available in Arizona dispensaries and submitted their scores remotely.
The results produced several dominant stories. Alien Labs won both Indica and Sativa Flower and also captured the Pre-Roll championship, while sister company Connected Cannabis Co. won Hybrid Flower with Gushers. Shango and True Harvest reached the podium across all three flower divisions and then won Concentrates outright with Alien Cookies Live Rosin. Item 9 Labs topped the Vape Pens category, Arizona-based Baked Bros won Gummies, and Ediquette Edibles took Non-Gummy Edibles. More than 1,400 judges evaluated approximately 120 entries from 45 brands, turning Arizona’s first High Times competition into one of the clearest consumer snapshots of the state’s early legal-market cannabis industry.
The Cannabis Cup Comes to Arizona
High Times first announced plans for an Arizona People’s Choice Cup in October 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic was still preventing the large public gatherings that had traditionally surrounded Cannabis Cup events. The People’s Choice concept had been developed earlier that year as an alternative to the older judging system, in which a relatively small group of invited experts and cannabis personalities evaluated the entries. Under the new format, hundreds of consumers could participate in each category by purchasing official judging kits.
Arizona was particularly well suited for the experiment. The state already had a substantial medical cannabis industry, and voters were simultaneously considering Proposition 207, the Smart and Safe Arizona Act. Proposition 207 passed in November 2020, allowing adults 21 and older to possess and purchase limited quantities of marijuana and authorizing a regulated recreational market. Adult-use retail sales began in early 2021, meaning the Cannabis Cup arrived at the exact moment Arizona was transitioning from a medical-only cannabis industry into one of the newest adult-use markets in the United States.
From Celebrity Judges to Arizona Consumers
The judging model represented one of the biggest changes in Cannabis Cup history. Traditional High Times Cups often featured a small group of judges drawn from breeders, cannabis writers, activists, musicians and celebrities. Over the decades, people such as Tommy Chong, Snoop Dogg, Damian Marley, B-Real, Method Man, Redman, Wiz Khalifa and Joe Rogan had been associated with Cannabis Cup judging or appearances.
The Arizona competition worked differently. There was no single celebrity judging panel deciding the winners. Ordinary qualified consumers became the judges, dramatically expanding participation. High Times had designed the People’s Choice format around approximately 228 judging samples per competition category, allowing a much broader pool of participants than the 28 to 35 expert judges common at earlier events.
That distinction is important when discussing notable guests at the 2021 Arizona Cup. Unlike classic Cups in Amsterdam, Denver or Southern California, there was no traditional festival lineup of headline musicians and celebrity guests tied to the competition itself. The awards were announced through a digital presentation on August 22, 2021. In this edition, the notable participants were the Arizona patients and consumers judging the products, alongside the cultivators and brands competing for the trophies.
How the 2021 Arizona Cannabis Cup Worked
Competitors submitted products in Phoenix during the first days of June, and official judging kits became available on June 12 through participating dispensaries around Arizona. Locations stretched from Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale to Tucson, Cottonwood, Lake Havasu City and Casa Grande, giving the competition a genuinely statewide judging base rather than concentrating participation in one city.
Products remained in their normal branding and packaging rather than being entered into a completely blind competition. This was intentional. High Times wanted judges to experience products closer to the way ordinary dispensary customers would encounter them. Judges scored their assigned products over the following weeks, and the final results were announced digitally on August 22.
Although early promotional plans discussed as many as ten categories—including sun-grown flower and separate solvent and non-solvent concentrate classes—the final published Arizona results consisted of eight judged divisions: Indica Flower, Sativa Flower, Hybrid Flower, Pre-Rolls, Concentrates, Vape Pens, Gummies and Non-Gummy Edibles.
2021 High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona Winners in All Categories
The final results below represent the official podium winners from the 2021 Arizona People’s Choice Edition.
| Category | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indica Flower | Kryptochronic — Alien Labs | Modified Banana — Shango × True Harvest | Ice Cream Cake — Aeriz |
| Sativa Flower | Melonade — Alien Labs | Anslinger’s Demise — Shango × True Harvest | Jenny Kush — Aeriz |
| Hybrid Flower | Gushers — Connected Cannabis Co. | Alien Cookies — Shango × True Harvest | MAC 1 — Aeriz |
| Pre-Rolls | Gelato 41 Pre-Roll — Alien Labs | Kush Mints × Dark Knight Diamond-Roll — MPX | Dosido Pre-Roll — Item 9 Labs |
| Concentrates | Alien Cookies Live Rosin — Shango × True Harvest | Strawberry Banana Live Resin Diamonds — HOLOH Extracts | Platinum Kush Breath Badder — Earth Extracts |
| Vape Pens | Black and Blue Kush Vape — Item 9 Labs | Rocket Pop Vape Pen — K.I.N.D. / Sweet Karts | Maui Wowie Vape — Bloom |
| Edibles – Gummies | Prickly Pear Lemonade OG Kush Stoney Gummies — Baked Bros | 100mg Watermelon Indica Gummies — Pure | Midnight Blueberry / Camino Gummies — Kiva |
| Edibles – Non-Gummies | Hazelnut Truffles — Ediquette Edibles | French Chocolate Brownie Bites — Good Things Coming | Tangerine Mints — Wana |
High Times’ official archive and contemporaneous Arizona reporting agree on these eight podiums, although a few historical listings vary slightly in the naming of individual edible products.
Alien Labs Dominates Indica With Kryptochronic
Alien Labs won the Indica Flower championship with Kryptochronic, immediately establishing the California-born brand as a major competitor in Arizona. Shango × True Harvest’s Modified Banana placed second, while Aeriz took third with Ice Cream Cake.
Kryptochronic belonged squarely to the modern exotic-cannabis era. Instead of the Northern Lights, Afghan and Skunk names that had dominated early Cannabis Cups, the 2021 Arizona podium reflected the contemporary preference for dense, highly aromatic hybrid genetics with strong dessert, fruit and fuel characteristics.
Alien Labs’ victory was particularly notable because it was not an isolated result. The company would also win Sativa and Pre-Rolls, while its closely connected partner brand Connected Cannabis took Hybrid. Together, Alien Labs and Connected effectively controlled the top of Arizona’s flower competition.
Melonade Gives Alien Labs the Sativa Championship
Alien Labs’ second major flower trophy came from Melonade, the first-place Sativa winner. Shango × True Harvest finished second with the provocatively named Anslinger’s Demise, while Aeriz placed third with Jenny Kush.
The Melonade victory reflected how dramatically the meaning of “Sativa” had evolved in modern Cannabis Cup competition. Earlier Amsterdam winners were frequently dominated by Haze-family genetics and cultivars selected partly for long flowering times and strongly cerebral effects. By 2021, competition classifications were increasingly populated by complex hybrids bred around terpene expression, visual quality and market appeal.
The result also demonstrated Alien Labs’ ability to succeed across different judging classifications. Winning both Indica and Sativa through the same People’s Choice competition meant Arizona consumers were responding positively to the company’s products across very different strain experiences.
Connected Wins Hybrid Flower With Gushers
Connected Cannabis Co. won Hybrid Flower with Gushers, giving the broader Connected-Alien Labs family control of every flower championship in the Cup. Shango × True Harvest’s Alien Cookies finished second and Aeriz’s MAC 1 took third.
Gushers belonged to the wave of sweet, dessert-oriented California genetics that reshaped premium cannabis during the late 2010s. Its championship continued a trend already visible in the final Amsterdam Cups, where strains such as Cookies Kush, Gelato 41, Biscotti and Wedding Cake had become major winners.
The significance of Gushers winning in Arizona went beyond the cultivar itself. The result demonstrated how quickly successful California genetics and brands could enter a newly recreational state and compete at the highest level with established Arizona operators.
Shango and True Harvest Become the Most Consistent Challenger
If Alien Labs and Connected dominated first place in flower, Shango × True Harvest provided the strongest challenge across the three divisions. Modified Banana finished second in Indica, Anslinger’s Demise finished second in Sativa, and Alien Cookies finished second in Hybrid.
That gave the partnership a remarkable sweep of all three silver medals before it went on to win Concentrates outright. Later corporate material from True Harvest’s ownership specifically highlighted the company’s Arizona Cannabis Cup performance as evidence of its high-end cultivation position in the state.
The results also demonstrate why the 2021 Cup is useful as an historical snapshot. Arizona was not merely importing successful brands from California; local cultivation operations were developing products capable of competing directly with them.
Aeriz Finishes Third in Every Flower Division
Another remarkable pattern came from Aeriz, which finished third in all three flower categories: Ice Cream Cake in Indica, Jenny Kush in Sativa and MAC 1 in Hybrid. While no Aeriz flower won a gold medal, three simultaneous podium appearances demonstrated impressive consistency.
In competition terms, placing across every flower classification can be almost as revealing as winning a single category because it suggests cultivation quality was not limited to one exceptional cultivar. Aeriz also placed further down the concentrate field with Runtz Live Resin Sugar, adding another indication that the brand was competitive across multiple product types.
Gelato 41 Wins the Pre-Roll Championship
Alien Labs’ third first-place award came from the Gelato 41 Pre-Roll. MPX finished second with a Kush Mints × Dark Knight Diamond-Roll, while Item 9 Labs’ Dosido Pre-Roll took third. Gelato 41 was already a major name in High Times competition history.
Connected had placed Gelato 41 on the Amsterdam podium in 2018, while Field Extracts × Connected won the 2018 Amsterdam Seed Company Hash category using the same cultivar. Its appearance at the top of Arizona’s Pre-Roll competition three years later illustrates how genetics once associated with elite California markets had become part of mainstream multi-state cannabis retail.
Alien Cookies Live Rosin Wins Concentrates
Shango × True Harvest won the Concentrates category with Alien Cookies Live Rosin, finally converting its repeated flower podium appearances into a first-place trophy. HOLOH Extracts took second with Strawberry Banana Live Resin Diamonds, and Earth Extracts placed third with Platinum Kush Breath Badder.
The podium also captured the diversity of the modern concentrate market. Live rosin relies on solventless processing, while live resin diamonds and badder represent different approaches to extracting and presenting cannabis resin. Earlier High Times Cups often divided concentrate competition simply between imported hash and locally produced hash. By 2021, extraction terminology had become considerably more technical.
The Alien Cookies victory was particularly meaningful because Shango × True Harvest had already placed the cultivar second in Hybrid Flower. Winning with the same genetic family in concentrated form demonstrated how successfully the material translated from flower into resin.
Item 9 Labs Wins Vape Pens
Arizona-based Item 9 Labs won Vape Pens with Black and Blue Kush. K.I.N.D. / Sweet Karts finished second with Rocket Pop, while Bloom’s Maui Wowie Vape placed third. Item 9 had already reached the Pre-Roll podium with Dosido, making the vape victory part of a broader performance rather than a standalone award.
Vape cartridges had become one of the major retail categories in legal cannabis markets by 2021, and their inclusion as a distinct Cannabis Cup division reflected the growing importance of convenience, hardware quality and extract formulation. The category also demonstrated how different the Arizona People’s Choice Cup was from early competitions. A Cannabis Cup in the 1990s might have been almost entirely about flower and hash. In 2021, hardware-based cannabis products had become important enough to receive their own trophy.
Baked Bros Wins With an Arizona-Inspired Gummy
The most distinctly Arizona-branded winner may have been Baked Bros’ Prickly Pear Lemonade OG Kush Stoney Gummies, which won the Gummies category. Pure’s 100mg Watermelon Indica Gummies took second, while Kiva’s Camino blueberry product finished third.
Baked Bros was founded in Arizona and had been selling products in the state since the medical-market era. Company co-founder Nadeem Al-Hasan described the Cup victory as especially meaningful because it came during Arizona’s first High Times Cannabis Cup. The Prickly Pear Lemonade product also used a flavor closely associated with the desert Southwest, giving the category a stronger regional identity than many of the flower divisions.
Ediquette Edibles Wins the Non-Gummy Category
Ediquette Edibles won Non-Gummy Edibles with Hazelnut Truffles, followed by French Chocolate Brownie Bites from Good Things Coming and Tangerine Mints from Wana. Separating gummies from other edibles was increasingly common at Cannabis Cup events because gummies had become such a dominant retail category. A chocolate truffle, brownie and mint are difficult to judge against fruit chews if everything is placed into a single division. The Arizona Cup therefore created a more meaningful competition by distinguishing between the rapidly expanding gummy market and other infused foods.
No Traditional Celebrity Guest List — and That Was the Point
Earlier Cannabis Cups often generated as much attention for their guests as for their winners. Musicians, activists and cannabis figures such as Tommy Chong, Snoop Dogg, Redman, Method Man, B-Real and Damian Marley became deeply associated with the Cup over the decades.
Arizona 2021 deliberately represented something different. Because the People’s Choice format grew out of pandemic restrictions, there was no conventional festival stage filled with celebrity judges or headlining performers. The notable “guests” were effectively the more than 1,400 Arizona consumers who participated as judges.
That transformation was historically important. High Times had moved decision-making away from a relatively small group of insiders and toward the consumers actually buying legal cannabis in the state. The Arizona Cup was therefore less of a celebrity spectacle and more of a large-scale consumer test.
Why the 2021 Arizona Cannabis Cup Matters
The timing makes this Cup unusually valuable as a historical record. Arizona voters approved adult-use legalization in November 2020, and recreational retail sales began only months later. The Cannabis Cup judging kits reached dispensaries in June 2021, meaning the competition effectively documented Arizona cannabis during the first year of its transition into a full adult-use market.
The results showed both local strength and national influence. Arizona-grown products from Shango × True Harvest, Baked Bros, Item 9 Labs and other established operators competed successfully against brands with major California reputations. Alien Labs and Connected brought premium genetics and brand recognition into the state, but Arizona companies were hardly pushed aside.
The People’s Choice format was equally important. Rather than relying on one weekend and a few dozen judges, High Times distributed judging across Arizona over several weeks. That made the competition a statewide snapshot of consumer preference rather than the opinion of a small group gathered at one festival.
Legacy of the 2021 High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona
The 2021 High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona represented three transitions happening simultaneously. Arizona itself was moving from medical marijuana into adult-use legalization. High Times was shifting from celebrity-heavy festival judging toward large-scale People’s Choice competition. And cannabis genetics were moving deeper into the Cookies, Gelato, MAC, Kush and dessert-family era that had emerged during the previous decade.
Alien Labs won Kryptochronic in Indica, Melonade in Sativa and Gelato 41 in Pre-Rolls. Connected took Hybrid with Gushers. Shango × True Harvest placed second in every flower division before winning Concentrates with Alien Cookies Live Rosin. Item 9 Labs captured Vapes, Baked Bros won Gummies and Ediquette Edibles topped Non-Gummy Edibles. More than 1,400 judges evaluated roughly 120 products from 45 brands, giving Arizona consumers direct control over the results.
Unlike the classic Amsterdam Cups, there was no massive expo hall, no Thanksgiving awards ceremony and no celebrity panel seated around a table deciding the champion. That absence is precisely what made Arizona 2021 significant. The Cannabis Cup had evolved from an exclusive gathering of cannabis insiders into a statewide consumer competition, and Arizona became one of the clearest early demonstrations that the People’s Choice model could work.
