Jimi DevineWe just wrapped up judging the preliminary round of the biggest Zalympix competition yet.
The 2023 installment of Greenwolf’s massive contest is bigger than ever in terms of entries this year, not just hype. Greenwolf opened up the competition to over 100 farmers for the next installment.
That’s a huge jump from the 16 we’d seen in the previous boxes to 109. Obviously, there was going to be a need to switch the format up a pinch given the scale of how big the contest is this year. Greenwolf’s solution? A preliminary round.
The Greenwolf team assembled a reputable squad to go whittle down the pack. It included past winners, famous growers, and other journalists. Everyone they selected was based on their faith in their palette and opinion on cannabis.
Getting the kit in two boxes.
I received my box on Feb. 8 and had through the 21st to finish the samples. I went into the last day with four left. That worked out to trying just over nine samples a day. I smoked every single entry in a backwood because they are kind of like a cheat code when you’re grading marijuana. If you can taste it through the woods, you know it’s the goods.
One thing about this contest was the fact it was refreshing to not have to pick a winner. We had to pick 27 things we thought had a shot in the final round. That’s a ton. If I knew something had to be in the box I just gave it all fives. Even if it wasn’t my favorite terps, I just couldn’t deny it a shot at the big show.
I ended up with 18 out of the 109 in that must-go-in-the-box category. These were fantastic representations of lots of different kinds of weed. There were certainly a ton of dessert terps across the field of entries, but dotted between the Gelatos and Lemon Cherries were both new and old flavors. 
There were a ton of OGs. To be expected from a Los Angeles-based contest? Sure. But they were of varying qualities; some leaned on the pure fuel smell while others smelled more like Skywalker or Tahoe cut with a bit more pinene in them.
Most of the things I scored the highest were rockstar-level gas, which is weed that literally smells like there was some kind of accident at a gas station that needs to be reported. I wasn’t worried about color either when I was scoring. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted the stuff I was picking to be aesthetically pleasing, but a wild nose went a hundred times further in my opinion building than a couple of hints of purple.
A lot of people entered new gear they thought might be their golden ticket. I’ve regularly checked out the Compound lineup over the last few years as they were testing out new gear. I smelled a lot of notes from last year’s seed drops like Gastropop and Pave.
Jon Cappetta from High Times was among the others selected to make their way through the entries in search of the 27 he thought worthy.
“Sorting through almost 120 samples in two weeks is a feat for even the most seasoned veterans, but The Zalympix preliminaries were a great preview of the gear we can expect to see making headlines this year. It seems like ‘23 is going to be another year of candy gas, but I’m holding out hope for more unique flavor profiles,” Cappetta told L.A. Weekly.
We’re going to go deep into Zalympix for 4/20 this year. Keep an eye out.
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