Pairing #1
Terpenes and tannins combine like rarely before in this mix of Orange Tree Live Resin Badder from Greenline and Blood Orange Dark Chocolate from Ghirardelli. Once a perk reserved only for the aristocracy, this decadent chocolate, combined with a fragrant live resin, fits right in your fanny pack.
Embrace new levels of orange terps.
Tannins
We needed a pairing uniquely qualified to represent California’s glowing orange reputation. It couldn’t be just a navel orange from Orange County, and Orange Julius is barely a thing anymore. We found the answer at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, where Ghirardelli Chocolate has been the destination for locals and tourists since 1852.
The gift shop contained Ghirardelli’s Intense Dark Blood Orange Dark Chocolate, which is not some brutally bitter dark chocolate at all. Its main ingredient is cane sugar, along with citric acid, bits of blood orange and orange peel, which complement and contrast, adding tangy acid and a crunchy texture to the experience.
Terpenes
Monterey’s Greenline is making some of the tangiest butane hash oil we’ve seen in 2026. It smells of oranges, tangerines, mandarins, pomelo and Pine-Sol, with a back of OG dank and bitter pith.
Greenline’s Orange Tree strain (24K Gold x Orange Valley OG) has a shelf of trophies to its name. EnviroClean certified, it’s grown indoors in a hydroponic medium. Harvesting and blasting everything in-house, they produce a lurid, bright orange badder that smells so good, I want to clean my house with it.
The vapor smell and taste exactly match the aroma from the jar. It’s stiff, tacky and grainy, and if your hot knife dies, you can hand-pinch dabs into a Puffco Proxy. Just one puff and you know you’ve just hit the orangest orange in the Golden State.
The Pairing
Sure, the heady boys insist on all things rosin, preferably with Z terps, but why follow the pack?
This pairing is a revelation. The Orange Tree puts a bass boost on the tanginess of the Blood Orange Dark Chocolate. Plus, bringing in Ghirardelli adds an impossible facet to the hash vapor. In a world of elusive, evanescent strains promising chocolate terps, real deal cacao is the ultimate hack.
The high amps up your vision of the vista. Faint fog shadows play across the bay. Ripples of texture trace the path of the breeze across the water. If you do happen to take the trip down to Ghirardelli Square, the hybrid high makes for a great exploration mindset. San Francisco’s local tourist spot bursts with quirky new details: the historical plaques, the people-watching, the waft of deep-fried crab cakes.
This, my friends, is the fabled land of Califia, indeed. –by David Downs (@daviddowns)
gogreenline.com | ghirardelli.com | @gogreenline | @greenlineextracts | @ghirardelli
Pairing #2
Budularo The Pearls paired with Russian River Brewing Company Pliny the Elder.
California’s newest hash rarity and one of the most acclaimed craft beers combine into the most maximal forest therapy you can buy this side of the moon of Endor.
Tannins
When it’s time to get crunk while impressing your friends, you bust out some bottles of Pliny the Elder. The famous double-strength India pale ale is 8% alcohol and heralded the arrival of craft beer in California in the year 2000. Pliny used to be as rare as a Sasquatch, but the people have spoken: production ramped up, and now plebeians statewide can source this majestic gold brew from finer taprooms and liquor stores. Pliny the Elder reeks of syrupy, sweet-and-sour hoppy pine, citrus and stone fruit. It’s thick and full-bodied, yet bright and clear. Swig it from the bottle, or in a frosty mug, but always drink it fresh and cold.
Terpenes
Equally impressive to hash aesthetes, Budularo’s rare pressed hash is made from a truly unique strain called The Pearls.
This piney, vintage, magic carpet ride of a high comes from a source strain that’s a hybrid of three types of sativas — Thai, Colombian and Mexican.
The hash is bright, loud, herbal and spicy. It’s a light brownish mix of static sift and bubble hash that’s dry and malleable like clay — neither hard nor sticky. It’s sort of that sweet spot between the consistencies enjoyed by modern and old-school fans of traditional hash. Made and washed in-house by Heritage Hash Co., the notes of incense, sage and cedar smell like a library full of vintage books.
The Pearls takes forever to flower, and it takes a lot to yield enough to make this hash. In fact, Budularo’s David Perkins is the singular madman willing to grow it. According to his Instagram, the plants took 20 weeks to finish up, which is why only 165 grams have gone out to the recreational market.
The opposite of a cash crop — The Pearls is done for the love of the game.
The Pairing
Combining Pliny the Elder and The Pearls hash is one of those only-in-California experiences that makes the state so mythical.
One is lighting up all your taste buds with Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra, Tangier, Nectaron and CTZ hops while sedating you with ethanol.
The other is firing up your synapses with 57% THC, 4% alpha- and beta-Pinene plus other terps, showing you a whole new world.
Like Aladdin said to Jasmine, this is “Shining, shimmering, splendid.” –by David Downs
budularo.org | russianriverbrewing.com | @headgrower | @russianriverbrewingofficial
Pairing #3
Dompen/Sonoma Hills Farm Pink Jesus Vape paired with Blue Bottle Hayes Valley Espresso Tonic.
This month, we wanted to pair two items that represent what California residents can’t live without: cold espresso and Pink Jesus.
Tannins
Blue Bottle Coffee has grown from a small cafe in San Francisco to a worldwide chain with locations all over the U.S. and in Tokyo.
This year, they claim to have cracked the code on iced espresso drinks by using a Kyoto-style, cold-extracted espresso. This big advancement from dropping a hot espresso shot into a cup of ice means you don’t get that layer of melted ice water between you and the flavor.
Kevin Thaxton, Blue Bottle’s director of global development, said using the tonic creates a clean balance that lets all the flavors cut through.
The espresso tonic is a classy summertime way to enjoy your coffee in the sun. Blue Bottle’s Kyoto-style espresso is paired with a homemade tonic syrup and poured over sparkling tonic water.
Terpenes
Pink Jesus is a combination of Pink 2.0, Starfighter and Heirloom OG. On the Sonoma Hills Farm website, this strain is described as “a fully enveloping body high paired with a lifted cerebral experience.”
Bred in San Francisco by Sam Magruder, the name came about when everyone at Sonoma Hills Farm who saw this strain exclaimed the same thing: “Jesus, it’s pink.” Since then, it’s been used to create fan-favorite flower, hash, ice cream, honey and even a fragrance. Now, it’s served up as a bright, flavorful live resin pen.
Dompen’s slim, silver all-in-one hardware has a total “Blade Runner” vibe. What I liked about it was that even when I pulled a handful of times, the unit never got hot, and the flavor stayed true with each puff. Bright, sweet, floral and a little citrus, it’s hard not to rip on this pen all day just for the flavor.
The Pairing
This is actually the second collaborative line between Sonoma Hills Farm and Dompen.
Stefan Rehr, the chief financial officer of Gardenhouse, which manages Dompen, said, “We couldn’t be more excited to bring these genetics to both Dompen and Sonoma Hills Farm fans in vape form.”
Rehr said the shared commitment to exceptional quality made partnering on a second line an easy decision.
With such a clean, undiluted coffee experience, you get a lot of espresso notes commanding the drink. Then, the Pink Jesus pen and tonic syrup link up, cut in with a bright, clean flavor and land on a smooth, balanced finish.
Plus, watching the tendrils of espresso reach into the tonic water is super fun to watch while you’re high. –by Matt Jackson (@actionmattjackson)
sonomahillsfarm.com | dompen.co | bluebottlecoffee.com | @sonomahillsfarm | @dompen.co | @bluebottle
Pairing #4
When we heard about a collaborative release between San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe, Los Angeles brand Pure Beauty and Rose Los Angeles — all meant to pay homage to the cafe’s signature margarita — we knew it was a perfect match for this issue.
Zuni’s website documents how, for over a year, chef Gilbert Pilgrim had spoken with Rose about wanting their signature margarita to become an edible. When the team at Rose was working with Pure Beauty on a flower release, they saw the opportunity and, “What started as a conversation between friends quickly became a three-way project.”
Tannins
Rose Delights are Turkish delight-style edibles made using sun-grown flower rosin and specialty recipes developed by some of the world’s most inventive chefs.
To recreate the cocktail, Rose worked with Stepladder Creamery in Cambria to source orange-hybrid Rangpur limes, sweet Bearss limes, Eureka lemons and fresh calamansi (picture an orange and a kumquat had a baby). The Pink Lady flower from the preroll pack was used in the rosin in each 5-milligram piece.
Finished off with Maldon sea salt and fresh zest, they really do taste like a classy margarita. The way the sweet and salty flavors bounce off each other while the acidity clings to the back of your teeth — take a minute to take in the range of flavors here.
Terpenes
Pure Beauty’s collaboration featuring their Lady Pink Pre-Rolls helped launch this whole, beautifully packaged set.
The delivery on the 10-pack of 0.35-gram prerolls, which Pure Beauty’s website says are “Grown in nutrient-rich moss and soil with beneficial insects and positive energy,” is amazing.
For this batch, Pure Beauty looked for what is described as “a margarita rolled into a Baby” (the term the brand uses for these mini joints). Pink Lady is described on the website as dry with spice and a lime-peel sharpness; we also found a full-bodied smokiness that came on very heavy from the first exhale.
The Pairing
The way the smokiness of the Pink Lady plays with the sweet-and-salty taste of the edible, I can see why they were designed as a matching set.
There was never a moment when they tried to cancel each other out, but instead mellowed into one complex, layered flavor. You’d catch a big, bold spice at the beginning that naturally gave way to sweet citrus and salt, which would pull back to give space to the flavor of the former.
What I loved most about putting these two together, though, was the timing for each. In the time it took to take the dog around the block, I’d already finished two joints plus a handful of edibles, and the three of us were ready to head in to watch some trash TV. –by Matt Jackson
purebeautypurebeauty.co | roselosangeles.com | zunicafe.com | @purebeautypurebeauty | @rose_losangeles | @zunicafe
Parinig #5
Wavvy Supply Co. Hash Plant Live Resin All-In-One paired with Jettywave California Botanical Gin and Tonic.
It’s only September; there’s still time to sit on a beach somewhere and take in the crashing waves, sipping on something satisfying, saying sayonara to summer. Can’t think of a better recommendation than this combo.
Tannins
Ah, gin. Perhaps the most expressively spirited of all spirits. Each producer creates their own flavor fingerprint as they imbue the distilled dram with aromatic notes from a wide range of botanicals. It’s reminiscent of the rich spectrum of Cannabis cultivars — some lean into lemon, others jump into juniper or cucumber character.
Distilled in picturesque Half Moon Bay, Jettywave’s California Botanical Gin nods to its origin, with notes of evergreen, citrus and light florals. It’s gorgeously deep like the Pacific Ocean, and it deserves a sip or two straight before mixing into a refreshing gin and tonic, martini, Negroni or Vesper.
We also had the chance to try a few of JettyWave’s wide array of other offerings, each with its own textured label art to highlight the spirit inside. The Maritime Single Malt was reminiscent of seaside sipping off the coast of Scotland, and the bourbon-style whiskey made for a perfect old-fashioned. For something heavily heady, try their absinthe.
Terpenes
Blasting out of San Diego’s kaleidoscopic Cannabis scene, Wavvy Supply Co. merges quality with artistic originality. It’s a project headed by Nathan Williams of indie power-punk icons Wavves, along with co-owner Christian Ardel, with an ethos that matches Williams’ DIY musical mythos.
In a world of AI-generated marketing slop, Wavvy commissions real-life artists to collaborate on merchandise and packaging. With visuals designed by Wavvy collaborator Killer Acid, their Hash Plant Live Resin All-In-One brings heady vibes and smooth draws. With notes of earthy pine and funk, each sip soothes the soul, casting you adrift in the surf.
The Pairing
We mixed Jettywave California Botanical Gin with some Fever Tree Tonic, chasing down each sip with a pull from Wavvy’s Hash Plant Live Resin All-In-One. The two complemented each other perfectly, with pine, floral and citrus notes washing like waves over the palate. It’s the perfect nightcap for an epic summer season. –by Tom Bowers (@megabombtom2.0)
wavvysupply.com | @wavvysupplyco | jettywave.com | @jettywavehmb
