Work + Money: What criteria are considered when judges are looking at a product?
Tim Blake: We started out in a very basic way. We had a 50-point scoring system, so you got a one to 10 for smell, taste and look, and a double score on one to 10 for effect. Judging is weighted toward the effect, but all those characteristics come into play.
It hasn’t changed that much really, but with legalization, everything started coming in packaging and with branding. Now these also come into play, along with sustainability.
We don’t like to see the end results being settled because of packaging, but it definitely plays a part because we encourage people to create sustainable, quality packaging and include all the information on it very clearly. Also, different categories have different qualifications.
But in the end, it’s still pretty much all the same. We have a good scoring system, but we’ve evolved to where we realized that, in the past, it was just everything against everything.
In wine, it would be like a merlot going up against cabernet or chardonnay. That doesn’t really make sense. So, Alec Dixon, my good friend from SC labs, encouraged me to break everything down into terpene profiles. All of a sudden, everything was being judged against itself, so an OG was going up against an OG rather than a blue dream or a sativa.
We made our own classification system based upon these terpenes, so each of the terpene profiles gets first place, then we put it all together for a top 20 result. In that, it’s about educating people because most people in California come into dispensaries looking for the highest THC for the lowest price. We try to teach them that you wouldn’t start out with alcohol by drinking 151 rum. You start off with beer or wine, you’d get used to it, then you can start taking shots.
Most people don’t need that really high THC, as it can make them anxiety-ridden and a little paranoid. They really should start off with something more balanced. Also, the highest THC has never won the Emerald Cup.
I had a friend come to me with a 28.5 THC flower who said, “I’m gonna win the Emerald Cup.” And I said, “I’ll bet you 100 bucks you don’t.” The highest THC flowers never won the Emerald Cup because our judges are very sophisticated. They’re looking for something that has a balanced cannabinoid profile, so that they’re getting a very unique effect and high.
Maybe an older person has trouble sleeping and should be smoking purple, which helps them sleep at night, not an OG that’s going to keep them up for three hours. It’s really important to identify what’s good for you. At the end of the day, it’s all about education.