The Emerald Cup
A cannabis competition and festival built around organic, sun-grown harvests, founded by Tim Blake and named for Northern California's Emerald Triangle. It started as a quiet gathering of farmers and grew into a large public event.
- 1,212results on record
- 2003–2026years in our data
- 24editions
- 546matched to strains
- Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, Oakland, CAlatest location
01Beginnings
The Emerald Cup is named after the Emerald Triangle, the Northern California growing region made up of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties1. Tim Blake is named as its founder1. The sources do not give a founding year. Organizers called the December 2019 event the 16th annual competition, which points to the early 2000s, but that is an inference, not a documented date1.
It started as a way for Emerald Triangle farmers to share their yearly outdoor harvests and meet other growers2. Back then many growers were still working under prohibition and did not want to make their identities public2.
One MG Retailer photo story says the Cup began on small family farms and debuted on the down-low in Humboldt County3. The 2019 press release also mentions a throwback to the location of the very first Cup, but the quoted text does not name that place1.
02The Story
By Blake's 2019 account, the event grew from a flowers-only contest into more than 27 separate competitions over 16 years1. The MG Retailer photo story calls the event of its day a far cry from its family-farm beginnings more than a decade earlier3.
One notable edition was the first Cup held after California passed Prop. 64. It drew a record crowd of more than 30,000 farmers, industry people and consumers3. Best flower that year went to The Dookie Brothers, Jason and Greg, for their Zkittles strain3.
Meadow's blog notes that, as legalization moved forward, producers came to brand their farms, flower and products openly2. In 2019 Blake said California's industry had begun to stabilize, and he presented that year's event as a chance for the community to celebrate1.
03Culture and Community
Blake describes the core of the contest as the tradition of competition among personal-use farmers1. A Regenerative Cannabis Farm Award honors farms for their ecological and community work1. In 2019 entertainer and entrepreneur Tommy Chong received the Cup's Willie Nelson Award1.
In each category, a group of judges takes entries through several rounds of competition2.
A festival surrounds the contest. In 2019 the Emerald Talks program of panels and keynotes listed more than 80 speakers from cannabis advocacy, business and culture1. That year's Marketplace had more than 300 brands and was described as one of the event's biggest draws1. The organizers describe the Cup as a community celebration that grew into a global movement honoring the year's best organic, sun-grown harvest1.
04Where Things Stand
The sources run from about 2016 to 2023, so this is not a confirmed current status. The newest dated source is a Meadow post from early 2023. It said entries for the 2023 Emerald Cup were still open through six intake partners, with the deadline week underway2.
The latest edition the sources describe is Emerald Cup 2022. Meadow took from it that cultivators and manufacturers still cared about the medical market2. The sources give no details of any later edition.
05What's Next
The sources include no announced future plans. The only forward-looking items are the 2019 programming announcement, for an event held December 14 and 15, 2019, and the 2023 entry window12. Nothing later is documented.
The results, in our data
CannaLib holds 1,212 results from this cup across 24 years (2003 to 2026), 546 of them matched to a strain in the catalogue.
Recent first-place strains
| Year | Strain | Category | Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Butterberry | Alternative Cannabinoid – Hemp Flower | Flow Gardens |
| 2024 | Pennywise | Alternative Cannabinoid – Flower | Esensia |
| 2024 | Lemon Pave | Live Resin Cartridge | Holy Water x Happy Dreams Farms |
| 2024 | Wedding Cake | Pre-Roll – Infused Solvent Extract | Selfies |
| 2024 | Roswell 47 | Indoor Flower | Decibel Gardens |
| 2024 | Bubble Bath | Sungrown Greenhouse Flower | Chameleon Craft – Bubble Bath |
| 2024 | Orange Creamsicle | 3rd Party Certified Sungrown Flower | Esensia |
| 2024 | Double Og Sour | Sungrown Flower | Farmer & the Felon x Rebel Grown |
| 2023 | Double Og Chem | Sungrown Flower | Rebel Grown |
| 2023 | Lantz | Mixed Light Flower | Ridgeline Farms |
| 2023 | Blue Face | Indoor Flower | Fig Farms |
| 2023 | Bubble Bath | Sungrown Greenhouse Flower | Chameleon Craft |
| 2023 | Element | 3rd Party Certified Sungrown Flower | Sol Spirit Farms |
| 2023 | Purple Magic | Personal Use Solventless | Brett Byrd |
Editions on record
- 2003 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2004 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2006 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2007 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2008 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2009 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2010 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2011 · Area 101, Laytonville, CA
- 2012 · Mateel Community Center, Redway, CA
- 2013 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2014 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2015 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2016 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2017 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2018 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2019 · Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
- 2021 · Virtual (ECTV stream)
- 2022 · Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, Hollywood, CA (May 14, 2022)
- 2023 · Craneway Pavilion, Richmond, CA (May 13, 2023)
- 2024 · Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, Oakland, CA (Aug 17–18, 2024)
Sources
- The Emerald Cup Announces Programming for Its 16th Annual Competition (MG Retailer)
- 3 Reasons to Love The Emerald Cup (Meadow Blog)
- See the Winners and All the Pics From the Emerald Cup (MG Retailer)
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.