NuWu Cannabis Cup (NuWu Cup)
A blind, consumer-judged cannabis competition from a Las Vegas marketplace, told entirely through the organiser's own posts.
- 23results on record
- 2025years in our data
- 1editions
- 10matched to strains
- NuWu Courtyardlatest location
01How it began
The NuWu Cannabis Cup, shortened to the NuWu Cup, is a blind, consumer-judged competition run by NuWu Cannabis Marketplace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Everything on this page comes from the organiser's own news posts, so it is self-reported, and no independent coverage was found. A post dated December 1, 2021 introduced the event as the marketplace's first celebration of its kind, billed as the inaugural NuWu Cup1. The organiser later said the cup was created in December 2021, with prominent cannabis influencers hand-picking top products across categories, followed by a two-day festival and awards ceremony2.
The first edition was a two-day open-air festival in downtown Las Vegas, a few minutes from Fremont Street, running from noon to 5 pm daily, December 31 into January 1. The post gives no year for those dates, only its December 1, 2021 publication, and bills the event as the only open-air consumption festival in Nevada's history1. A two-day pass was listed at $25 and sold in store only, with the organiser citing circumstances outside its control for the lack of online sales1. A later post adds a pandemic-era backstory: after COVID-19 closed Las Vegas casinos, NuWu wanted an event that gathered Nevada enthusiasts and celebrated the industry that helped the community recover2.
02How the cup grew
The 2022 edition, called the 2nd annual, changed shape. The organiser says building work on a new facility left too little room to repeat the previous year's festival, so it ran as a hybrid physical and virtual contest, with judges tasting at home and in an in-store Vegas Tasting Room2. It also introduced the Consumer's Choice Awards, opening the judging panel to any consumer, and was billed as the largest consumer-led cannabis contest in Las Vegas2. Judge Bags went on sale October 17 for $250. The post states a December 7 submission deadline, while its FAQ later gives December 10 as the last voting day2.
The 2022 contests covered five categories: Flower, Extract, Preroll, Edible and Vape. The organiser says it sponsored judges not affiliated with cultivators, and results were slated for a New Year's Eve livestream2. By the 3rd annual edition in 2023 there were two awards, Consumer's Choice and Influencer's Choice, alongside a two-day celebration with live music, food trucks, vendors and an infused dinner. Judge Bags rose to $4203. That post describes pickup, framed as regulatory compliance, as either bringing four friends or visiting four times. Its dates wobble: a sale window starting October 25, yet text inviting people to join on October 173.
By 2025 the Judge Kit was a boxed backpack holding more than 80 products and accessories, with sample counts per category, still priced at $420, and including ceremony entry for the judge and a guest plus a dinner4. A June 30, 2025 post said kits are limited and sell out every year, with sales planned for July 10, 2025 at two Las Vegas locations, NuWu Cannabis Marketplace and NuWu North4. Numbering is untidy: the 2022 post says 2nd, the 2023 post says 3rd and the 2025 posts say 5th, so a 2024 edition is implied. It has no post of its own in the sources, though 2025 posts mention photos of a 2024 trophy and ceremony4.
03Culture and character
The 2021 festival leaned local, with DJ sets, food trucks and cultivators sharing their knowledge. Named acts and trucks included DJ Romeo, DJ E. Rock, Backporch BBQ, Birrieria Dimas and Milkshake Wasted2. The organiser calls the cup Nevada's only blind cannabis competition, where real consumers judge products without brand names or packaging so that scoring rests on quality alone4; that is a self-description, not an outside verdict. Judges are encouraged to create content and share their experiences on social media, and the organiser pitches judging as part of a movement for equity, transparency and quality4.
Each judging kit has included a NuWu Sessions journal for noting each product's pros and cons, and the cup ties into a NuWu Sessions brand. Its hosts, Tom Nieves and Jenn from Japan, are credited as being of NuWu Sessions4. The 2025 ceremony plan read like a small festival: joint-rolling contests, raffles, a hibachi dinner, food trucks, a vendor village and an adult arcade with Skeeball and retro games. It was set in the NuWu Courtyard, which the organiser describes as Nevada's only open-air cannabis consumption lounge4.
Local artists got room too. Puff & Paint ran a guided painting lounge, and an Asteroid M Records spotlight featured Mojo Reggae, Stouper and Desert Island Boys. Performers also included Dizzy Wright, Pennwood Dough, Princess Calavera and Raquel Reed5. The night ended with a Championship Belt Ceremony5. Alongside the earlier music-and-food-truck mix, the cup reads as part awards show, part neighbourhood party, though that impression rests on the organiser's own telling.
04The most recent edition
The 5th Annual NuWu Cannabis Cup took place on Saturday, October 18, 2025 at the NuWu Courtyard in Las Vegas. The organiser's winners post, which carries no publication date, says it marked five years of NuWu's leadership as Nevada's largest tribally owned cannabis celebration5. Winners were announced in two tracks, Influencer's Choice and Consumer's Choice, across flower, extract, edible, vape, pre-roll and infused categories5. That post also lists second-place entries and an official entry list5.
A pre-event post dated June 30, 2025 said more than 60 brands were participating, naming among others Matrix NV, Rove, Redwood Cultivation, Neon Moon, STIIIZY, Tsunami, Fleur, CAMP and WYLD4. The same post calls 2025 the cup's fifth year and ties it to eight years of NuWu Cannabis serving its community4. All of these claims come from the organiser; the sources contained no independent coverage to cross-check them.
05What comes next
No plans for a 2026 edition are documented in the sources. The newest material covers the October 18, 2025 event, and no later date, format or announcement for a next cup appears. The organiser's 2025 post points readers to NuWuCup.com for more details4, which may be the place to look, but we have not seen what it says. Until the organiser publishes something we can verify, anything about a sixth edition would be guesswork, so this page leaves it blank.
The results, in our data
CannaLib holds 23 results from this cup across 1 years (2025 to 2025), 10 of them matched to a strain in the catalogue.
Recent first-place strains
| Year | Strain | Category | Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dante S Inferno | Best Flower | Neon Moon |
| 2025 | L Orange | Best Pre-Roll | RYTHM |
| 2025 | L Orange | Best Flower | RYTHM |
| 2025 | Bushido Og | Best Pre-Roll | Fleur |
Editions on record
- 2025 · NuWu Courtyard
Sources
- The Inaugural NuWu Cup — NuWu Cannabis
- Presenting the 2nd Annual NuWu Cup — NuWu Cannabis
- 3rd Annual NuWu Cup: An Immersive Cannabis Experience in Las Vegas — NuWu Cannabis
- The 2025 NuWu Cannabis Cup Is Live: How to Become a Judge and Celebrate in Downtown Las Vegas — NuWu Cannabis
- NuWu Cup 2025 Winners | Nevada's Top Cannabis Brands & Event Highlights — NuWu Cannabis
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.