Tales From The Cannabis Cup: Finale – Voting On The Winners

We’d like to thank Roger Norville for his daily reports from this year’s Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Today, we present Roger’s last dispatch along with a list of the winners…

Spending the week caught somewhere between a haze and a whirlwind it’s no surprise that the closing day of Cannabis Cup came so quickly. Having spent the last four days hustling the coffeeshop crawl and getting the skinny on the competing strains I was ready to cast my vote.

And so, it seemed, was everyone else.

[Photo via @instant_follow_back]

At the expo the ballot lineup stretched outside of the building. Patrons spent the wait time discussing potential winners and puffing last-minute samples. After about forty minutes I found myself at the polling station and how fitting, it was 4:20 on the button.

While certain categories can only be voted on by a hand-selected group of individuals, the 2,500 regular judges were able to vote for the year’s best best coffeeshop strain, best import hash, best Nederhash, best expo booth, best glass and best new product. The votes were cast via touchscreen iPads, a first for the Cup this year, and with an ever-increasing number of judges it’s probably the most efficient way of getting everything tallied up.

The mood was a bit more subdued than usual on the shuttle back to central station, a week at the Cup can really take the spring out of your step. The bus was still thick of smoke, but even the smoking seems to have caught up with people; the ride was starting to sound like it was coming from a bronchitis convention.

The closing ceremonies are a popular event, Melkweg was jammed soon after the doors opened at 9pm. Welcoming the crowd was the Jimmy Buffett-esque Temple Dragon Band, an eclectic group led by this year’s Hall Of Fame inductee Steven Hagar.

The awards ceremony officially began with a ceremonial candle lighting, and the first order of business was to present a gift bag containing samples of every weed entry to all of the participating coffeeshop owners.

[Greenhouse Seeds Team and Jason Mraz – Photo by @greenhouseseeds]

The rest of the evening was spent announcing the winners in a variety of categories; First, second and third place winners were called by a series of celebrity presenters including Ghostface Killah and Danny Danko, with DJ Scram Jones punctuating the affair on the crowded stage.

While some winners left the stage after a quick wave and thanks, others had more elaborate acceptance speeches prepared. Accepting his award for Best Sativa, local legend Soma stayed on message with his signature ten-foot dreadlocks splayed about the stage: “Cannabis is a great thing. Cannabis is never going to go away, it is just going to blossom and blossom and blossom…”

Mason Tvert summed up his seminar from earlier in the week in accepting his award for Freedom Fighter Of The Year, telling the crowd that the key to success is dialog, while Nol van Schaik explained how the now-defunct Weed Pass started out as a misdirected solution to a parking problem.

In all dozens of marijuana businessmen, growers, activists and inventors crossed the stage to pick up an award. It was a ceremony of well-deserved back-patting within the industry and marked the end of a week-long celebration of all things cannabis. It’s an interesting time for this much-maligned plant, as the legalization movement spreads with unprecedented force buoyed by actual, bona fide success.

Who knows, maybe next year we can do the whole thing in Denver?

The winners:

Best Expo Booth:
1 – Big Buddha Coffeeshop
2 – Cali Connection
3 – ROOR

Best Product:
1 – Big Buddha goodie bag
2 – Puffit Inhalers
3 – Tiny Sister, ROOR

Best Glass:
1 – Drill Bill, ROOR
2 – The Puk
3 – MF Doom Borch, DNA Genetics

Dutch Masters Award:
Wernard Bruining
Nol van Schaik

Best CBD Strain:
Lions Tabernacle, Cali Connection

Best Nederhash:
1 – Lemon Crystal, Green House
2 – Grey Crystal, Grey Area
3 – MOG Ice, Green Place

Best Import Hash:
1 – Sharkberry Cream, Green House
2 – Twizzler, Green Place
3 – Moroccan Lemon Haze, The Bush Doctor

Outstanding Seed Company Hash:
1 – The Weezy, Reserva Privada
2 – Tangerine Compound, Rare Dankness Seeds
3 – Tangie, DNA Genetics

Freedom Fighter Of The Year:
Mason Tvert

Best Sativa:
1 – Amnesia Haze, Soma Sacred Seeds
2 – Sour Amnesia, Hortilab
3 – Green Shack, Strain Hunters

Best Hybrid:
1 – Loud Scout, Loud Seeds
2 – Rockstar, Bonguru Seeds
3 – Rugburn OG, Rare Dankness Seeds

Best Indica:
1 – Kosher Kush, Reserva Privada
2 – True OG, Elemental Seeds
3 – SFV OG Kush, Cali Connection

Counter-Culture Hall Of Fame inductee:
Steven Hagar

And here it is folks, according to an international panel of judges collected here in Amsterdam for the 25th annual Cannabis Cup, the best marijuana in the world for 2012 is:
1 – Flower Bomb Kush, Green House
2 – Shoreline, Green Place
3 – Evergrey, Grey Area

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