Strains & products

Stay high in Dry January on Blue Dream—2024’s first Leafly HighLight strain

Published on January 3, 2024 · Last updated January 10, 2024
massive chunky nug in light and dark shades of green with dull orange hairs sitting in, and filling, the black lid of a jar
(David Downs/Leafly)

Holy shinobi, Batman! Leafly HighLight has entered Year Three of celebrating all-star strains of American dispensaries. The Leafly HighLight Hall of Flame now boasts 24 entries!

So, where we do take it from here? Well, we run it back, and find another Top 200 strain on dispensary shelves you have to know about. Just in time to begin anew, we start with the undisputed champion of sales that’s also perfect for easing back into the work year: Blue Dream.

First timers—explore Blue Dream’s balanced hybrid effects that won’t make you loopy. Experienced smokers—don’t even hate. Respect the scoreboard. It’s the No. 1 most-ordered strain on Leafly in December for a reason. A population larger than the island of Guam has favorited Blue Dream on Leafly.

This classic ‘90s cross of DJ Short’s Blueberry x Haze mellows anxiety without sapping your energy or focus. Coming out of Santa Cruz, CA, Blue Dream offers the Cali Sober solution to Dry January’s stressors.

Leafly reviewers report getting creative, uplifted, and energetic on the Haze cross. Exemplars of the strain smell like an actual blueberry when you grind them—which is the damnedest thing.

One reviewer writes: “All of a sudden, I felt as if I was briskly cruising on a warm cloud, which was followed by an amazing burst of energy. Folks let me tell you, if you’d ever like to find out how an eagle feels when it spreads its majestic wings and takes to the air at 80 mph., this strain is a kickass tool to take you there.”

Who’s got Blue Dreams? Best Blue Dreams in the US

(David Downs/Leafly)
(David Downs/Leafly)

Blue Dream’s an undisputed beast in the garden and blankets the country in soft, grassy blueberry smells. But quality varies—which explains why Blue Dream sports an average score of 4.3 out of 5 after more than 14,500 ratings. 

You see Blue Dream a lot in vape cartridges and commodity crops that don’t always showcase the classic. Growing top-shelf Blue Dream is a labor of love at California brands like Ember Valley and Korova. 

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In December, we bought superb Blue Dream in California grown by Seven Leaves at Moe Greens in San Francisco. Defying critics, the brand Dream exhibited at The Ego Clash 2023 with phenomenal jars of Blue Dream sitting right alongside hype cultivars Uva and Cherry Gas.

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Pax sells it in a live rosin pod, while Raw Garden sells it in live resin. 

Portlanders in Oregon have 353 Blue Dream options with grams hitting $3. In Seattle, there are 656 options, and Have a Heart alone sells 34 Blue Dream SKUs. 
Denverites in Colorado have 313 options, including joints starting at $5 and edible aphrodisiac Love Beans. Chicagoans have 249 Blue Dream choices—nearly all carts. Detroiters have 126 options—mostly carts. Even newly legal New Yorkers have 103 Blue Dream options, including the gold standard Pax Live Rosin pod.

Blue Dream seeds

Blue Dream Bx on Oct. 4 finishing late in Sebastopol, CA. (David Downs/Leafly)
Blue Dream Bx on Oct. 4 finishing late in Sebastopol, CA. (David Downs/Leafly)

The Blue Dream seed game is a global free-for-all, and gardeners have their pick from outlets all across the reputability spectrum. 

We’d look into DJ Short’s Blueberry work on SeedsHereNow, or Humboldt Seed Company’s feminized or auto Blue Dream. We grew Equilibrium Genetics’ Blue Dream Bx and it threw down!

Save this poster of notable Haze strain family members and friends. (Leafly, 2021)
Save this poster of notable Haze strain family members and friends. (Leafly, 2021)

See also: Blue Dream seeds from North Atlantic, Blimburn, and Fast Buds. For crosses, look at this Lemon Trance, and this Andorian.

Blue Dream awards

Strain-specific edibles
Image courtesy of Lost Farm.

Like a weed Lebron James, King Blue Dream keeps putting up wins in the roaring 2020s. A Blue Dream took bronze in Maryland in 2023. A Blue Dream live rosin pod with diamonds from PAX took home a gold in 2022. A Blue Dream HHC pen from 3CHI took a first in 2022. Blue Dream live resin gummies from Kiva/Camino/Lost Farm took gold in 2020, and silver in 2021. The wins stretch back for decades: 2014, 2017 and on.

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Blue Dream terpenes

Where does the smell of Blue Dream come from? The average results from lab samples labeled ‘Blue Dream’ indicate a lot of myrcene plus pinene and caryophyllene. We see the same top three terps in Blueberry and its cousins and vape juice formulations.

Other highlights this January

Bored of Blue Dream already? Here are three more go-to flavors for sticking to fitness goals in 2024.

Lemon Thai

Lemon Thai from UpNorth. (David Downs/Leafly)
Lemon Thai from UpNorth. (David Downs/Leafly)

Kick it even more old school and energetic with some Lemon Thai—a citrusy sativa with a similarly mild taste as Blue Dream. A cross of Thai and Hawaiian.

Mimosa

A photo of Mimosa (David Downs/Leafly)
Mimosa. Hybrid. (David Downs/Leafly)

Keep it Cali Sober with the balanced Sunday morning strain Mimosa—the perfect mix of orangey and effervescent. A cross of Clementine and Purple Punch.

Animal Face

Fig Farms Animal Face. Hybrid. (David Downs/Leafly)
Fig Farms Animal Face. Hybrid. (David Downs/Leafly)

Attention all gas lovers—smoke this before you crush a strength training workout. Say goodbye to boredom when you put on your minty, diesely, potent Animal Face. A cross of Face-off OG and Animal Mints.


And that’s the January 2024 Leafly HighLight. We’re stoked for a huge year of celebrating the all-stars of the cannabis cosmos, so download the app, and put the weed in the basket.

So hey, what’s ‘Leafly HighLight’?

Cannabis dispensaries can sell more than 200 types of flower. It’s overwhelming. Leafly HighLight cures choice paralysis with a monthly deep dive into a popular, national cannabis strain you should know. We combine:

  • Leafly Strain Database search data
  • dispensary menu data
  • dispensary visits
  • and smoke sessions

Then we select one cultivar that pairs with the season and mood. That’s Leafly HighLight.

Read past Leafly HighLight columns.

We’re copywritten, so don’t copy us.

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David Downs
David Downs
Leafly Senior Editor David Downs is the former Cannabis Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. He's appeared on The Today Show, and written for Scientific American, The New York Times, WIRED, Rolling Stone, The Onion A/V Club, High Times, and many more outlets. He is a 2023 judge for The Emerald Cup, and has covered weed since 2009.
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